Countdown to Summer: Fat Fighting Foods

Among my many subscriptions to health and fitness e-newsletters is a subscription to WebMD.  Last week's message included a link to a slide show that caught my attention.

The headline "Fat Fighting Foods" had me at the click of my mouse.  Despite a brain full of knowledge about what it takes to truly burn fat, it's amazing how a tempting headline can still catch my attention.

The slide show encourages high fiber, high protein, and high water food choices to keep you satisfied.  Despite what you may have heard about grapefruit and other foods on the list, none of them will magically burn away fat just by eating them; however, replacing a higher calorie food in your diet every day with one of their recommendations may just cut enough calories to lead to weight [fat] loss afterall!

Try these 6 tips using the "Fat Fighting Foods":

1.  Replace your regular 8 ounce fruit on the bottom style yogurt with a container of 6 ounce Greek yogurt.  My personal fave is Fage but there are many great brands on the market now.  Look for one with no more than 150 calories and 10-15 grams of protein per serving.

2.  Replace white rice or couscous with quinoa.  If you are looking for ideas on ways to cook with quinoa, visit my other blog, Weekly Wellness Digest (scroll down to the March 14th article).

3.  Replace your morning 12 ounce OJ with half of a grapefruit for more fiber and less calories. 

4.  Replace your afternoon sweet treat with sweet fruit instead.  Watermelon, berries, pears, grapes or apples make great fiber-filled choices.

5.  Replace your loaded baked potato with a baked mashed sweet potato.  If sweet potatoes are not naturally sweet enough for you, try mixing one baked sweet potato, a splash of vanilla extract, splash of skim milk, and 1 teaspoon of brown sugar or honey until smooth.  You get the flavor of sweet potato casserole without all the added calories.

6.  Replace your carb-heavy breakfast with eggs a few times per week.  Recent research has shown eating 30 grams of protein in the first hour post workout aids in muscle repair and may fuel fat burning.  My favorite way to get 30 grams of protein post workout?  An omelet made with 2 eggs, 1/4 cup shredded low-fat cheese, 1/4 cup skim milk, and diced onions, red bell pepper, and zucchini with a slice of high fiber bread topped with 1 Tbsp of natural peanut butter and 1/2 banana.  (This meal is about 500 calories.)

Countdown to Summer: Weight No More

Today kicks off a new session of boot camp.  Have you set any goals?  Lose five pounds?  Fit into your 'skinny jeans'?  Lose two inches off your waist for that upcoming reunion?

No matter what your goals are, eating well is just as important as moving more.  You can work your hardest at boot camp, but at the end of the day, if you've eaten more to compensate for the calories burned, you are not going to achieve the results you want.

Mathematically speaking, it takes a 3500 calorie deficit to lose one pound of body fat.  That means burning extra energy in the form of exercise and /or calorie restriction.  In theory, if you create a 500 calorie deficit each day, you should lose about one pound per week.  Sound simple enough?

Think about what you eat and drink on a daily basis.  Boot camp alone burns about 300-500 calories per session, depending on your age, height, weight and sex.  Now multiply that times five days per week.  You are burning about 1500-2500 calories per week.  With that change alone,  you could lose two pounds of fat over the course of three weeks.

To complicate matters, your body will be building muscle.  This is a very good change; however, because of this fact, you may not see the scale change much unless you truly put effort into eating less and eating healthier.

Where to begin?

• Start by using the food diary on our members only page every day to record every single bite of food and beverage that goes into your mouth.  Yes, alcohol and foods with friends count too.
• Do this every day of camp, including weekends.
• If you want to take it a step further, record the calories of everything you eat.
• After one week, review what you've eaten.  Look for excess calories (i.e. high sugar foods and alcohol).  Is there something you can change?
• If you have no idea where to start, consider a Nutrition Consult to put together an individualized plan based on your lifestyle and goals.

Portion Distortion: The Dietitian Faces Her Own Challenges

This week kicks off the month of May and the countdown to beach season.  How are those New Year's Resolutions coming along?  Are you even still in the game?

My resolution this year was to complete my second half marathon.  I accomplished that goal this past weekend in a personal best of 2:21.  For those of you out there who have finished an endurance event of any type (triathlon, marathon, half-marathon), perhaps you can relate to my experience.

For some reason, training for an endurance event gives me the free pass to eat whatever I like, and more of it than usual, especially the week before the race.  I tell myself I need to carb-load for the race and reward myself for my hard work over the past four mouths of training.  "I deserve this," I think to myself.  Ironically, I have counseled clients for years on finding other rewards for good behavior outside of food.  Perhaps I should take my own advice more often.

The day before my race, my team of girlfriends and I hit Starbucks followed by Cracker Barrel.  I often wonder each time I pass a Cracker Barrel if they placed the rocking chairs out front in an effort for patrons to "rock off" some calories they are about to consume inside.  Hmmm...

For the sake of full disclosure, I ate the following in the first two hours of our road trip. Yes, this meal was followed by four hours of sitting in a car.  Note the approximate (calories).

• 1 banana (100)
• tall skinny vanilla latte (100)
• 3 out of 4 slices of sourdough French toast (225)
• 2 scrambled eggs (160)
• 2 turkey sausage patties (150)
• 24 ounce glass of orange juice  (360)
• 1 Tbsp of butter (100)
• one individual syrup bottle  (200)



My Cracker Barrel Breakfast



Total calorie intake before noon:  1395. 

Total calorie burn during half marathon:  Approximately 1300-1400 calories.

Yes, I managed to eat every calorie I was about to burn 24 hours later in one sitting. 

If this scenario was presented by a client, I may have suggested:

• Drop the OJ.  Use half the syrup.  Order a side of fresh fruit to top the French toast. 
• Limit the French toast to two slices.  Leave off the butter (as it's probably already grilled in butter).

These changes alone would have saved about 600 calories, or about half the meal, and I still would have enjoyed most of the food!  Ahhh, the clarity of hindsight.

Well, since my goal is fitness and weight maintenance, doing this on this one occasion probably caused little harm.   But ... if you are trying to shed some pounds and wonder why all this hard work isn't giving you the results you want, perhaps portion distortion is the problem?

Consider the following tips if your serving sizes are off the charts:

1.  Eat on a smaller plate.  No seconds.

2.  Eat one-third to one-half of your normal portion.  AT... EACH... MEAL.

3.  Find out how many calories are in the foods you eat.  Ignorance is bliss until you miss out on reaching your goals.