Shave Calories to Shave Pounds -- Painlessly
"Lose those pounds gained during the holidays early in the year or they may forever be a part of you," cautions researcher Jack A. Yanovski, head of the unit on growth and obesity at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Yanovski conducted a year-long study among 200 adults to observe weight-change patterns. He found that half the people gained weight over the holidays. Of these 100 people, only 28 returned to their pre-holiday season weight one year later. The others did not shed the pounds. In addition, more than two-thirds of the 28 people who lost the weight, lost it in the first quarter of the year. Bottom line: if you gained weight over the holidays, take it off as soon after gaining it as you can. The longer that it stays attached, the less likely you are to lose it.
But rather than attempting and perhaps again failing a rigid, time limited "diet," try a new approach to weight control and healthier eating-one that can last a lifetime. This approach may actually help you ward off those unwanted holiday pounds next year and for years in the future. It is a sensible approach that helps you make painless changes in your eating habits to shave calories and, shave pounds.
Calories: A Basic Fact
Thirty-five hundred calories equal a pound of body weight. Therefore, to lose a pound you can take one of three approaches
- eat 3500 fewer calories than you need to maintain your weight;
- burn 3500 calories without eating more than you need to maintain your current weight; or
- achieve a 3500 calorie deficit with a combined approach of eating less and exercising more.
If you divide 3500 by 7, you realize that a 500 calorie per day deficit will result in the loss of one pound a week. Though this math is a bit over simplified and various caveats prevent its applicability to everyone at all times, it helps you understand your challenge when weight loss is your goal.
Select Easy-to-Make Realistic Changes
Don't try to turn your eating habits and your lifestyle upside down to shed pounds. That plan is doomed to failure. Instead, set goals to make healthy behavior changes one step at a time. This way you'll set yourself up to practice these healthy changes and control your weight for the long term.
Behaviour Change: A Two-Step Process.
Step one: Reflect on your past. Think about your current eating habits. Make notes. What foods do you choose to eat day-in day-out? Do you start off with a healthy bowl of high-fibre cereal and then, due to time constraints you find your food choices go downhill fast? What foods lead you astray? Fried foods, chocolate, cookies, or sugar-sweetened soft drinks? What habits get you off track? Do you set no time aside for shopping or cooking so the cupboards are bare? Do you end up with lots of restaurant, take-out and delivered-to-your-door meals? Don't use these findings to beat yourself up. Use them to learn about you - - what do you do well and where is there room to improve.
Step two: Set your goals for change. Next, check out your trends. Identify a few habits that you need to change, are willing to change and think will be easy to change. A word to the wise-choose ones that are easiest to change first. This way you are more likely to be successful. And success breeds success. Next design a realistic, easy-to-achieve, and specific goal for each of the behaviours you want to work on-make it do-able for you. A couple of examples...
Current behaviour: Breakfast on workdays is a mega muffin from your work cafeteria or biscuit, egg, sausage and cheese sandwich from a nearby fast food restaurant.
Goal to change behaviour: Three days a week you will prepare/choose one of these healthier breakfasts: At home: a bowl of high fibre cereal, topped with fresh fruit and skim milk. On the run: a fast food egg and cheese sandwich on English muffin. Hold the sausage. At the cafeteria: a bagel with thinly spread light cream cheese.
Current behaviour: Nearly every day you buy two 675 mL jars of sugar-sweetened iced tea, fruit drink or carbonated soft drink on your way to work to drink during the day and with lunch.
Goal to change behaviour: You will choose lower calorie and/or calorie-free beverage options to decrease your sugar and calorie consumption, fruit drink, flavoured water, or soft drink sweetened with SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener, mineral water, or water.
To Shave Calories-Focus on Sugars and Fats
Two great places to start shaving calories painlessly are to lighten up on sugars and fats. And calories aren't the only reason to focus on sugars and fat, health is another. Choose beverages and foods to moderate your intake of sugars and choose a diet that is low in saturated fat and cholesterol and moderate in total fat.
Pour and sprinkle less sugars: Sugars (table sugar, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup solids, honey and the like) contribute lots of calories with little nutritional value. Consider that a 625 mL bottle of fruit drink or sugar-sweetened soda contains about 250 calories and a hand full (½ cup) of gum drops or jelly beans is about 350 calories. A few tips to shave calories from sugars:
- Spread thin when it comes to butter, margarine, cream cheese, or mayonnaise.
- Explore and taste the many fat-free, low-fat and reduced fat alternatives-milk, cheese, salad dressing, cream cheese, sour cream, mayonnaise, margarine, etc. Find ones that please your palate.
- Eat fried foods once in a blue moon only.
- Pour less salad dressing. Dilute the salad dressing you use with lemon juice or vinegar.
- When you buy red meat, buy lean cuts, trim off the excess fat and prepare lean.
Lighten up on sweets: Sweets are mainly a combination of sugars and fats. Consider a few typical sweets, chocolate bars, cheesecake, and chocolate cake. All are relatively high in calories per serving and offer little nutritionally. For instance, a chocolate bar has about 225 calories, a piece of cheesecake has about 250 calories, and a piece of chocolate cake with icing has 235 calories. A few tips to shave calories from sweets:
- Eat half the portion you usually eat.
- Share dessert in a restaurant. One dessert; two or more forks.
- Use a No Calorie Sweetener instead of regular sugar and take advantage of ingredients that are lower in saturated fat and cholesterol, such as margarine, egg substitute, canola oil, etc., and lower in total fat, for example, skim milk or low fat buttermilk.
- Take advantage of smaller portions at restaurants and ice cream stands. Choose kiddie, small or regular
A Day at a Glance
This shows how easy it can be to shave calories from sugars, fats, and sweets in one day. Notice that the meals on the left have the food choices with greater quantities of sugars, fats, and sweets. The meals on the right have been changed to include foods that are lower in sugars, fats, and sweets. Several of the simple tips suggested above have been integrated into the meals on the right. These changes minimize the sugars, fats and sweets. The calories, carbohydrate and fat count are lower. All these changes can be simple and painless. Make them one day at a time, one step at a time...to result in slow and steady weight loss and BIG health benefits.
Shave Sugars, Fats and Sweets to Shave Calories: A-Day-at-a-Glance
