If losing weight is a neglected item on your to-do list (or New Year’s resolution), you’re not alone. This month we hope to shed light on the other side of the energy balance equation: eating to lose weight.
Hubbub aside, when all is said and done, your body weight is determined by the balance between the calories you consume and the calories you burn. If you want to lose weight, you have to expend more calories than you take in on a consistent basis until you reach your weight loss goal. It sounds simple enough, but does it really work? Absolutely!
With two out of every three people battling the bulge in the United States, many people are under the impression that nothing really works to shed those pounds. The truth is there are people who lose weight, and lots of it, AND they keep their weight off. In an effort to learn more about these individuals and what works for them, a group of researchers decided to a keep a registry of successful dieters – the National Weight Control Registry. On average members have lost 72 pounds and maintained the loss for more than five years. That is successful weight loss!
You may only have 15 to 20 pounds to lose or maybe lots more, but regardless, we can all learn from what these successful dieters did to lose weight. What are some of these lessons?
It’s not just about cutting back on calories or getting some exercise, you need to do both. Are you frustrated because you’re working out but the pounds keep hanging around? No wonder, a piddly 1% of registry members reported losing weight through exercise alone while only 10% lost weight by cutting calories alone. In contrast, 89% lost their weight by a combination of cutting calories and burning extra calories through exercise. The energy balance equation is a function of calories consumed and calories burned and successful dieters address both. Studies show that individuals who expend 500-1,000 more calories than they consume on a daily basis, consistently and safely lose about 1-2 pounds per week. It makes sense that the best way to create that type of calorie deficit is through a combination of cutting calories coming in and expending extra calories through physical activity.
A common dieting mistake is to skip meals, usually breakfast. The problem with skipping meals is that we humans are pretty good at adapting to a shortage of food. If your body senses that food is in short supply because of hours of fasting, it readily adapts by reducing your metabolic rate. So, you’re thinking that you are melting the fat away by going hungry when in fact your body is trying to protect you by slowing down the rate it burns calories. So, don’t skip breakfast or any other meals for that matter. What do the successful dieters do? Seventy-eight percent of registry members reported eating breakfast every day, usually cereal and fruit, and only 4% regularly went without.
Seventy-five percent of successful dieters weigh themselves on a weekly basis. The idea is not to obsess, but to monitor your weight reasonably frequently so you can catch small weight gains and initiate course corrections.
Roughly half of successful dieters reported losing weight entirely on their own, while the other half used commercial programs, a nutritionist or their physician for guidance. This underscores the idea that losing weight is about regularly burning more calories than you consume. It’s not about what diet you are on. This point was made in a study recently published in the Journal of American Medical Association, that compared four different popular diets – Weight Watchers (restricting portion sizes and calories), Atkins (minimizing carbohydrate intake without fat restriction), the Zone (modulating macronutrient balance and glycemic load), and the Ornish diet (restricting fat intake). These diets represent four very different approaches to creating a calorie deficit, and yet over the course of a year, each one worked similarly to reduce body weight and heart disease risk factors. Lesson learned: weight loss is something you can do on your own or with some sound guidance – it’s all about creating a calorie deficit. There is no magic diet or magic potion.
The best way to cut back on calories is not necessarily to eat less food, it’s to eat smarter. And no, this isn’t just another way of saying go hungry. Read on.
- Forgo Full-Fat Dairy Foods: We all agree that those creamy full-fat dairy products taste good, but if you have pounds to lose, you can’t afford this fat extravagance. Choose low-fat or nonfat dairy varieties instead of full-fat versions. This applies to milk, yogurt, ice cream, cottage cheese and sour cream. Why pick on fat? Because it has over twice as many calories as an equal amount of carbs or protein. Case in point, an 8 fl oz. glass of whole milk has about 150 calories and 9 grams of fat. The same serving of 1% low-fat milk has only about 100 calories and about 2.5 grams of fat. Nonfat milk in turn only has about 80 calories. When it comes to dairy snacks and desserts like yogurt and ice cream, lower fat and light versions today are virtually just as tasty and save you mega calories.
Fat calories can quickly add up, so be mindful of sauces, gravies, and dressings that are fat-based. Ask for these additions on-the-side so that you have a choice about how much to consume.
- Don’t Drink Your Calories: Every 12 oz. can of soda weighs in at about 150 calories. The 20 oz. size equates to 250 calories. The 36 oz. version you buy at a movie theater measures out at 450 calories. Think about it this way, 450 calories daily from soda pop requires that daily you spend two hours walking at a brisk pace. If you need soda pop to get through the day, drink a diet soda. Your taste buds will quickly adapt.
Fruit juice may have a few more vitamins, but it’s just as caloric as soda pop. Limit yourself to no more than a single glass of juice daily.
Don’t think you’re doing yourself any favors drinking a blended coffee beverage from the corner coffee shop. These tasty concoctions are nothing more than up-scale milkshakes. But, if they are a must for you, think serving size and light. The largest serving size option is typically on the order of 24 oz., and made with whole milk, it packs a 530 calorie punch! Cut out the whipped cream, request the light version made with nonfat milk, and downsize to the plenty-adequate 16 fl oz. medium-size option instead. You’ll still get plenty of yummy, and all for just 180 calories. And if you select the 12 fl oz. serving, your payload is just 140 calories. That’s a savings of 380 calories right there!
If you enjoy a glass of wine, a cold beer or a cocktail, you need to account for these calories too. An 8 fl oz. glass of white wine has about 170 calories and red about 210 calories. A 12 fl oz. beer has about 156 calories and a 12 fl oz. light beer has about 108 calories. A 6 fl oz. margarita weighs in at about 265 calories.
- Eat Foods That Fill You Up But Don’t Fill You Out: Long-term, depriving yourself of food will not help you lose weight and keep it off. It’s like holding your breath – you can only do it for so long. The trick is to eat those foods that fill you up without a lot of calories. It almost sounds too good to be true, but researchers have now identified foods that help you eat less. Soup and salad are two such examples. Starting a meal with a cup of soup, a salad or a small plate of steamed or fresh vegetables helps take the edge off of your hunger pangs. Scientists have found that people who follow this type of dietary pattern feel satisfied at the end of a meal while eating fewer total calories. Adding vegetables like broccoli, carrots and tomatoes or beans to mixed food dishes like stews, pasta dishes and chili is also effective. People tend to dish out a set portion size, and the fact that the portion includes lower-calorie foods like vegetables or beans translates to fewer overall calories consumed.
- Navigating the Fast Food Lane: Face it, if we weren’t so busy with life, we probably wouldn’t have pounds to lose. Being perpetually busy is probably here to stay, and sometimes that means you get into a fast food fix. The hamburger joints do offer some healthy salad options, but sometimes a salad just isn’t enough. Your solution: find the nearest deli or sandwich shop and try a sandwich instead. Believe it or not, three slices of turkey breast, a slice of jack cheese along with lettuce, tomato, sliced olives, bell peppers and a hefty spread of yellow mustard on a 6-inch whole-wheat roll adds up to just 325 calories, and is quite filling. In contrast, that small burger and small order of fries at the corner hamburger joint nails you for 510 calories and that fried fish sandwich with small fries will do you worse at 650 calories.
- Eat Until You’re Satisfied, Not Stuffed: We don’t just eat because we are hungry. We eat for all kinds of reasons including the fact that there is more food at the table. If you have weight to lose, you need to be more mindful of eating when you are hungry and stopping when you are satisfied. Avoid the mindless munching. Feelings of hunger run the gamut from jitteriness and feeling famished, to irritability and inability to concentrate, to rumblings in the stomach and to a vague but growing sense that some food will be needed soon. These are all good cues to eat. Remember that going hours without eating works against you because it tends to slow your metabolize. So eat when you are hungry! The key is to stop soon thereafter. Absolutely avoid the extremes at the other end of the hunger continuum where you feel stuffed, bloated, uncomfortable or like you can’t eat another bite. Instead, stop when the hunger cues dissipate and you feel satisfied. You’re done when you could eat more, but you don’t really need to. Find that comfort point and try not to go past it because this is the point where you are eating fewer calories than you are burning – just where you need to be to lose weight.
- Plan for Your Weak Spot: Many people on a diet have a time of day that is particularly torturous to get through without binging on calories (like in the late afternoon or maybe after dinner). For others, food cravings can be overwhelming. Long-term denial and sheer discipline won’t work. Don’t necessarily disown the foods you have weaknesses for. Instead, own less of those foods. If chocolate covered peanuts are your weakness of choice, by all means don’t buy them in the bulk sizes available at the local warehouse store. Instead, pay the extra few pennies and buy the single-serving pack that has a fixed serving size. Hold yourself to no more than a single bag. A 1.74 oz. package of chocolate-covered peanuts has 250 calories. Not necessarily a deal breaker in terms of calories, but what does break the calorie bank is two or three handfuls of the tasty morsels that weigh in at 500-750 calories!
And don’t make this harder than it needs to be. Staring at the box of cookies or holiday fudge on the kitchen counter qualifies as cruel and unusual punishment. If others in the family have the green light for that stuff, ask that it be kept out of your line of sight whenever possible.
Thirty minutes daily, five days a week doesn’t cut it any more. That’s old news. The latest recommendations call for gradually ramping up your physical activity to 60 or more minutes five days a week. Women in the registry averaged expending 2,545 calories per week in physical activity and men averaged 3,293 calories per week. That equates to about 60 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise daily. You don’t even need to be a triathlete to lose weight – three-fourths of registry members reported walking as their activity of choice. Cycling, aerobics and weight lifting were also common.
Just like there is no diet book or elixir that will effortlessly melt the pounds away, there is no sports nutrition product that will perform that trick either. But athletes often do wonder how to effectively use POWERBAR® products when weight loss is one of their goals. The answer is that you have to strike a balance. Don’t consume calories needlessly, but don’t forgo hydrating and fueling when that’s what is needed to train or compete at your best. Here are some tips:
- If you’re working out in mild conditions for an hour or less, water will suffice. If your day involves an endurance event or the conditions are hot and humid, POWERBAR® Endurance Sports Drink (170 calories in 20 fl oz.) is a better choice to keep you hydrated and fueled.
- If you are on a long ride or run, letting your muscle glycogen reserves go dry will impair your endurance. Hydrate and fuel appropriately for the task. That means a carb-rich pre-event meal and/or snack such as a POWERBAR® PERFORMANCE bar, along with POWERBAR® Endurance Sports Drink on the course. For an energy boost, use POWERBAR® PERFORMANCE bars (230 to 250 calories per bar) and POWERBAR® GEL (110 calories per packet) as needed during the event.
- Sports bars not only help you spare muscle glycogen stores during endurance exercise, but they can also help you manage your total calorie intake as a portion-controlled snack. Don’t go hungry. Tear open and enjoy a POWERBAR® PERFORMANCE bar instead. Use them strategically as a controlled-calorie snack or light meal when you are on-the-go.
- POWERBAR® PROTEINPLUS™ bars contain 290 to 300 calories per bar, along with 23 grams of protein. POWERBAR® PROTEINPLUS™ Reduced Sugar contains 260 to 270 calories per bar along with 20-22 grams of protein. These bars are appropriate before or after a strength-training workout. Also, if you’re having trouble feeling satisfied, try one of these protein-rich bars as protein can be more satiating than carbs.
- POWERBAR® Performance Recovery Drink can help boost recovery after a lengthy workout. Each 8 fl oz. serving provides 180 calories and 6 grams of protein.
In summary, you can use POWERBAR® products when you’re trying to lose weight, just use them sensibly and account for their calories.
The goal for a safe weight loss of one to two pounds per week is to expend 500-1,000 more calories than you consume on a daily basis. The best way to create that calorie deficit is through a combination of burning more calories from physical activity and cutting back on calories consumed.
Gradually progress your workouts to at least 60 minutes daily, five days a week with two rest days per week. It’s fine to accumulate 60 minutes or more of exercise in sessions that last 10-15 minutes at a time. This is especially helpful for individuals who are just getting started on a training regimen.
While you’re gradually ramping up the calories burned, strategically fill up on fewer calories. Here’s how:
- Don’t skip meals.
- Replace the full-fat dairy with low-fat or non-fat varieties.
- Start your main meal with a brothy soup, salad or a small plate of steamed or fresh vegetables.
- Add veggies or beans to your mixed dishes.
- Don’t drink sugared sodas and no more than one glass of juice daily.
- Buyer beware of blended coffee drinks, go light and smaller in portion size.
- Go for sandwiches or salads when the food needs to be fast.
- Eat until you no longer feel hungry, not until you feel stuffed.
- Go ahead and eat that to-die-for treat, but fix the portion size.
- Weigh yourself weekly.
Put these strategies into practice over the next 30 days and the pounds will start to drop off. As you lose body fat and become more fit you will find that your energy level is higher. Pretty soon, this new way of living - eating in balance, and being physically active at every opportunity - will become second nature.
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