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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – This week, The New England Journal of Medicine published a study about the top foods in our diet that are causing us to get fat. In fact, hardly a day goes by when I am not confronted by the latest reason for America’s obesity problem, or the different popular diets too numerous to list. These days every where I turn I hear TV commercials, read food ads, and see as I walk down supermarket isles, signs about no sugar, low sugar, low carbs, no carbs, net carbs, low fat, no fat and well, I must admit that I’m going a bit crazy! This week, the food that took the hit was potato chips. Eat just one small bag a day, and gain significant weight over time. Is it the potato, or is it the fried aspect, which makes the chip, or is it a dietary lifestyle of low volume, high calorie foods in general? Am I against eating carbohydrates? Am I against eating some fat, or some treats like potato chips? Absolutely not! In fact, let me say unconditionally, I’m personally against all the craziness! But let me now also say that, “Calories Count First!”
Yes, what I am saying is calories, calories, calories, count first regardless of the foods or diet we choose to lose! What does this mean? If we eat less calories than we burn over a period of time we will lose weight. It’s that simple. Research backs this up. All diets in some manner restrict our caloric intake (some just disguise it better) leading to weight loss. So, just for argument sake, if we eat a small bag of potato chips every day (a high fat, high calorie food) such as a popular brand that comes in a 1.5 ounce single serving for 240 calories, and we eat this every day, we are consuming over 85,000 chip calories per year. This would add up to 20 extra pounds on our body if we don’t trade-off somewhere else by taking in 240 calories less by giving up something else. In addition, on the average women’s weight loss program of 1800 calories per day, our small bag equals almost 15% of the total day’s calories in a just few bites. Okay, I will say one more thing about chip calories, they are high in fat, with the same popular brand serving up 15 grams of fat in one tiny bag. Am I getting too complicated? Well, calories count first, and then fat calories come next!
All foods including protein will be turned into stored body fat when our total calories exceed our total need. Fat and alcohol are the easiest type of calories for our body to store as fat. This is why we need to watch our fat and alcohol intake for weight loss (I’m excluding health reasons). Fat and alcohol are also more calorically dense, which means we get less food for a whole lot of calories. Cutting out fat and alcohol without adding lots of food can result in a large decrease in total calories.
We lose weight quickly on high protein diets without carbohydrates in our diet , because we lose lots of water weight. This can translate into a 3-7LB loss in one week depending upon our body weight. Another reason research has shown that high protein diets result in weight loss, is boredom. Yes, after weeks and months of eating just meats and high protein foods (most of us don’t realize it), we start to reduce portions because we desire less and less of the very limited foods we are eating. This, combined with the fact that we are not eating the foods that we tend to overeat (bread or potatoes?) leads to an overall reduced amount of food. Reduced food, reduced portions, means you guessed it, less calories hence weight loss. But how long will YOU go without carbs or picking out foods based on net carbs? Even a new fast food diet outlines how to stay within 1500 calories (no big Macs for us on this!) to lose!
So, we’re back to less calories eaten than burned equals weight loss, regardless of the diet. However, research does show that these popular diets do NOT lead to long weight loss maintenance. What does work? Here’s what the study I mentioned has to say.
“On the basis of increased daily servings of individual dietary components, a 4-year weight change was most strongly associated with the intake of potato chips, potatoes, sugar-sweetened beverages, unprocessed red meat , and processed meats”; “Other lifestyle factors were also independently associated with weight change including less physical activity, alcohol use, smoking (new quitters added) sleep (more weight gain with <6 or >8 hours of sleep), and television watching (0.31 lb per hour per day). N Engl J Med 2011; 364:2392-2404June 23, 2011
So, perhaps we need to think of a specific way to save a few calories everyday because a few saved here and there, and a few more burned does add up to weight loss so remember, “Calories Count First”!
Follow me Junefit every Sunday on Twitter for a new tool taken my book featuring “A Salad a Day” (www.amazon.com/Its-Not-Diet-Creative-Eating/dp/1432743597/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259605985&sr=1-1)
Here’s to our Health!
June M Lay M.S.
JuneFit
It’s “Summertime Salads and the Eating is Easy” series posted now this week with “Junefit’s Mex Salad” posted at http://www.junefit.com/tips_recipehp.htm)
Junefit is included in Google’s top ranked women’s health resources scroll midway!http://directory.google.com/Top/Health/Women’s_Health/Resources/
June is Lifestyle Columnist at www.healthnewsdigest.com/
copyright 2011, junefit. All rights reserved.
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