weight loss Posts

21Aug
3

Olympic Swimmer Inspires Returns To Fitness

Five-time Olympic competitor and the oldest woman to have ever been on the U.S. Swim Team, silver medalist Dara Torres is an inspiration to men and women of all ages. But considering that she had retired eight years ago, and gave birth a mere two years ago, she’s certainly inspiring women over 40 with her “age is just a number” mindset.

After one glance at her muscled, powerful body even I found myself thinking, “Hey, I might not get that cut but I could certainly try!” Apparently, I’m not the only one. Torres is inspiring a return to exercise among women and men alike.

Of course, Torres isn’t alone. Plenty of folks have been watching the athletes and admiring the skill, stamina and prowess. Fitness chains are reporting a boom in gym membership in the States. But even in Britain, which will host the 2012 games, there’s a call to use the upcoming events to motivate people to shed pounds (and not just the monetary kind).

But as I stand here on my treadmill huffing and puffing away while blogging I just don’t find NBC’s daytime lineup of soap operas and legal shows to be very inspiring.

Those nice, shiny gold medals may only be worth $215 in dollars but as morale boosters they’re priceless. Somehow, though, I think I might look a bit silly were I to start awarding myself trophies for every 100 miles walked.

So, how do you reward yourself for sticking with your fitness routine?

Posted by Chubby Mommy in Exercise and tagged with , , , , ,
26Jul
4

Calculating Your BMR: How Many Calories Do You Need?

After looking over one of my food and exercise logs, Donna B. wondered what BRM was. Well, it’s a typo. I meant to type BMR, which stands for basic metabolic rate. That’s the number of calories your body needs just to live and maintain minimum functions, assuming you didn’t move a muscle all day (e.g., you slept).

Although I’d answered Donna in the comments, she pointed out that this is useful information for those of us trying to diet rationally. So, at her suggestion, I’m sharing that here with you, too.

When it comes to dieting, your individual BMR is the single most important number to determining how many calories you should be getting (or not) per day. Many of us have a tendency to cut calories back too far in the hope of speeding up weight loss. But when you understand your BMR is what’s needed just to keep your lungs and heart working, well, you can see why your body’s metabolism will slow down if you aren’t eating enough calories for those functions along with your other activities.

Ultimately, calculating BMR is a complicated mathematical equation that’s well beyond me:

Calculating basal metabolic rate

Yeah. Er, I just use a BMR calculator.

Once you know your BMR it’s easy to figure out how many calories you need to maintain your current weight at your current level of activity:

  • Sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
  • Lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
  • Moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
  • Very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
  • Extremely active (rigorous hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9

So, if you’re trying to lose weight you take your BMR x (whatever your number is) and subtract 15-20% to get the number of calories you should eat in a day. Cut back beyond that and you’ll stall your metabolism, along with putting your health at risk. Eat too much more than that and, well, you just aren’t going to lose weight no matter how much you try to convince yourself otherwise.

Just keep in mind it’s not safe to go below 1200 calories per day for women, or 1800 calories per day for men. If that’s where your BMR x (whatever your number) – 15-20% takes you then it’s time to give serious thought to upping your activity level.

Posted by Chubby Mommy in Weight Loss Matters and tagged with , , , , , ,
24Jun
Off

Spice Your Food To Speed Up Weight Loss

For the overwhelming majority of my life I despised hot, spicy foods. Oh, I love layered flavors: a dash of cinnamon in a bowlful of chili, a few drops of pure vanilla in my French toast, even chocolate flavored with a hint of cayenne. (Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.) But truly hot foods? No thanks.

Part of the problem, I think, is that when it comes to cooking most people mistake heat with burn: they pour Tabasco into a sauce and call it “Cajun-style” or toss chopped jalapeños into a dish — seeds and all — and call it “Southwestern”. No thanks. I value my tongue and my palate sufficiently to protect them from such tortures.

A few years ago I started getting serious about home cooking. (Subscribers to my Home Helper Newsletter, which provides weekly dinner menus, new recipes and grocery lists along with lots of other goodness, know that I clearly love to try new and interesting foods.) One of the first things I learned was how to make my own spice blends for soups, dry rubs and other dishes. After mixing them together, I began storing them in magnetic spice jars stuck to the side of my fridge where they’re out of direct sunlight and away from heat. (Here are my favorites, by the way.)

Turns out maybe I shouldn’t just use those blends while cooking, because research has shown that the addition of certain spices or flavors can lead to weight loss by increasing an eater’s satisfaction.

The study of “tastants” — substances that can stimulate the sense of taste — included 2,436 overweight or obese people who were asked to sprinkle a variety of savory or sweet crystals on their food before eating their meals. They used the salt-free savory crystals on salty foods and used the sugar-free sweet crystals on sweet or neutral-tasting foods. The participants didn’t know what the flavors of the crystals were, other than salty or sweet. The hidden flavors of the savory tastants were cheddar cheese, onion, horseradish, ranch dressing, taco, and parmesan. The flavors of the sweet tastants were cocoa, spearmint, banana, strawberry, raspberry and malt.

A control group of 100 people didn’t use tastants. Both groups continued their normal diet and exercise habits during the study.

At the start of the study, the treatment group had an average weight of 208 pounds and an average body mass index (BMI) of 34, which is considered obese. After six months of using the tastants, the 1,436 people in the treatment group who completed the study lost an average of 30.5 pounds, and their BMI decreased by an average of five points.

In the control group, the average weight loss was two pounds, and the average BMI decrease was 0.3.

Thirty pounds lost by simply adding a few flavors isn’t something to sneeze at (unless you’re allergic to onion or strawberry, I suppose). In my own experience I’ve noticed myself eating less when a food delivers a big taste in the first few bites, but I’d never really thought about the connection.

Could it be that many of us eat more than we should simply because we’re searching for something more flavorful than, say, the benign squishiness of a Big Mac or the bland waxiness of most chocolate bars?

Posted by Chubby Mommy in Health News and tagged with , , , , , ,
14May
1

Calorie Counting On The Go

Despite my best-laid plans to keep healthy snacks in my purse, I often find myself tempted by fast-food restaurants while running errands. No doubt my failure to restock the granola bars in my bag has less to do with this than my love of burgers. So when I first read about NYC’s city ordinance requiring food sellers to display calorie counts next to the prices on all menus, including fast food signs, I thought it was a brilliant idea.

Now, ordinarily I’m not much of one for such governmental interference, but let’s face it: keeping track of the calories in various foods could challenge even a math whiz’s memory. And, sure, even if you don’t live in NYC you can still ask for a restaurant’s nutritional information, but that’s no help when you’re sitting in your mini-van with a cranky kid who’s demanding French fries now. That’s when I tend to just order and hope I’m guesstimating the correct calorie count.

Apparently, I’m not the only one who’s run into such problems, because the folks at Coheso have developed a brilliant little food calorie counter that lets you carry nutritional information for over 35,000 foods in a portable calorie calculator which features a full QWERTY keyboard and number pad. That includes over 500 brand-name items you’d find in the grocery store as well as 250 menu items from restaurants and fast-food places.

As if that’s not already helpful enough, the device not only tracks your calories in, but it serves double-duty as a calorie counter tracking those you burn through exercise, too. With the ability to store up to 12 months of a food diary and enter 1,000 of your own food items’ nutritional info, it’s a powerful aid to weight loss and fitness. And, for you techno-geeks, you can even export your data to your PC to report and chart dieting progress.

Now that’s a brilliant solution to a lazy dieter’s problem!

Posted by Chubby Mommy in Food Log and tagged with , , , , , ,
01Apr
10

My Theory On Why America Is Fat

I’m not a doctor. I don’t even play one on TV. I’m also not a nutritionist, a dietitian, a weight loss consultant, or whatever they’re now calling people who tell you what to eat. I am, however, fat. And I’m constantly amazed by that fact.

You see, I do most of the things we’re all told to do.

I move around quite a bit daily, most of which involves chasing my 8-year-old homeschooled son around the house and doing an hour or so of cleaning chores per day, both of which take me up and down 3 flights of stairs. Repeatedly.

Sometimes I add yoga to that mix or rebound on my mini-tramp. Other times I spin for a while on my exercise bike. Sure, there are days — whole weeks, even — when I don’t do additional exercise, but my trusty pedometer tells me that I’m walking at least 10,000 steps per day.

I also eat fruits, vegetables and whole grains regularly. Oh, some days I might slack off on one or two servings, but for the most part I eat what I’m supposed to… and then some. Enough, in fact, that I refused to even look at my life insurance agent’s recommended weight chart to see just how above average I am.

But therein lies what’s led to my theory on why America is fat: we’re constantly being told more foods we ought to be eating. One day it’s “add grains“, the next it’s “eat more fruits and vegetables“, then it’s “eat more protein” and “eat more fish” and drink more tea and consume more dairy products.

Then there’s the flax seeds, coconut oil and the ever-growing list of disease-fighting foods.

In short, by the time a person has followed all the so-called “experts” advice on what to eat for optimum health they’ve polished off as much food as a defensive lineman.

But is it helping? No, or we wouldn’t continue to be plagued equally as often by health bulletins warning about the risks of obesity and diabetes.

You know, after putting so much effort into losing weight — and learning how I’m supposed to lose it — I’m sorely tempted to just shrug my shoulders (hey, that burns calories, right?) and eat more junk food. At least then I’d be conscious of how many calories I’m consuming, and I’d enjoy the taste, too.

Posted by Chubby Mommy in Dieting Humor and tagged with
18Mar
11

Good News From My Scale

I lost weight this week I’m really not sure what I did right over the past seven days, but I’ve managed to lose five — yes, five! — pounds. Oh, I know most of it’s probably water weight, but if I was carrying around that much excess water I can’t say I’ll shed a tear to see it go.

A couple of things I know I’ve been doing differently (and, apparently, right):

1. Eating breakfast every morning. Specifically, I’ve been eating All-Bran cereal. Yes it feels like chewing on bull bars and sticks until that split-second when the stuff turns to mush. But it’s most definitely filling and seems to keep things going smoothly, if you know what I mean.

2. Eating 5 servings of fruits/veggies daily without fail. Having a cup of sliced strawberries and banana on my All-Bran makes it go down easier and gets a fruit serving out of the way first-thing. I love celery sticks stuffed with Laughing Cow cheese, so my mid-morning snack knocks out a veggie serving. A salad at lunch, some chunks of cantaloupe around mid-afternoon, and whatever veg I’m serving at dinner takes care of the rest. Meanwhile, I’m too stuffed to think of snacking.

3. Safely satisfying my desire to chew. Sometimes I think I eat simply because I feel like chewing. I bought some Haribo gummy bears, which are fat free and high on the chewosity list. Ten of those suckers can keep my mouth busy for a good 20 minutes, after which my jaws are too worn out to think about eating again for a while.

4. Eating dinner earlier. I’ve lately wanted to get dinner and dishes out of the way so I can have some uninterrupted evening time to myself. As a result, we’re eating two hours earlier than we used to, which has cut out my pre-dinner snacks.

5. Early to bed, early to rise. I’m very bad about nighttime snacking, but going to bed earlier completely cuts out those snacks. It makes it easier to get up early in the morning, a time when I rarely feel hungry and find that All-Bran and fruit to be more than ample. Meanwhile, I’m getting my recommended hours of sleep, and since sleep may be more important to weight loss than diet, that’s got to be helping, too.

Who’d have thought that five simple steps would’ve made five pounds difference in such a short time?

Posted by Chubby Mommy in Weight Loss Matters and tagged with , ,
11Mar
6

Revving The Ol’ Metabolism

Dr. Sarah Heller reported on this morning’s Today Show that B-vitamins and magnesium are play a role in weight-loss, and that too little of either or both can dramatically slow metabolism. And, of course, she insisted that everyone interested in losing weight absolutely must eat breakfast.

Problem is, I’m not a breakfast person. Or, more accurately, I’m not a cereal person. I also don’t like cooking first-thing in the morning, but if someone else does the cooking I’m happy to scarf down Eggs Benedict or an old-fashioned British fry-up. Those, unfortunately, don’t help the battle of the bulge at all and, besides, hiring someone to whip them up for me is a bit cost-prohibitive.

So mostly I skip breakfast and try to drown out the nagging little voice (which sounds much like my mother’s) that tells me it’s “the most important meal of the day”. See, I already know that voice is lying: the most important is the one I’m eating next.

But I do get the point: breakfast is a good way to get the metabolism going, and making it high in whole grains may reduce belly fat, my biggest body bugaboo.

Still, is it asking too much for a study finding that martinis are good at reducing an ass that’s soon going to need led tail lights?

Posted by Chubby Mommy in Health News and tagged with , ,
20Feb
5

Good Fats And The Flat Belly Diet

Oh, sure, it’s only 6°F outside my window right now, but I can sense that Spring is in the air.

How can I be so sure? All I need to do is glance at the huge amount of diet-related email hitting my InBox that promise things like: “Eat all you want and lose 10 lbs. in 5 days !” (which, it turns out, is possible if you eat nothing but air) or “Lose weight while you sleep” (the first requirement for which involves consuming nothing but celery and water when you’re awake).

Prevention
So naturally I’m a bit skeptical of the email I received from Prevention magazine promising that I can eat chocolate and still lose weight.

How? The diet essentially seeks to affect cortisol production.

Chronic stress produces cortisol which, in turn, interferes with dopamine and serotonin levels. These are known as the “feel-good” neurotransmitters, but since chronic stress keeps people from processing them correctly their brains demand something else to help them feel good. Some people turn to illicit drugs, others to alcohol and still others to food, especially sugary or fatty foods.

So, according to the article, regularly consuming foods rich in mono-unsaturated fatty acids (MUFAS) and stress relief can speed fat loss because the MUFAs deliver pleasure-producing fats, thereby shutting down cycle of cortisol production and pleasure-seeking that leads to overeating.

Sounds great, right? Who wouldn’t like a diet that encourages you to eat oils, nuts and seeds, avocados, olives and chocolate?

Of course, it’s not just about adding these foods to what you’re already eating. The program involves eating four times a day, 400 calories per meal, with each meal containing a specific amount of one of the MUFAs. There’s also a 4-day “jumpstart” during which you drink what they call “Sassy Water” (water with lemon and ginger) and smoothies four times a day. After that, it’s a 1,600 calorie a day plan.

But does it work? The Rachel Ray show recently aired an episode featuring women who dropped significant amounts of weight in as little as 30 days, simply by following the program. Mary Anne Sheshock followed the diet and told ABC’s Good Morning America that she lost 47 pounds in 5 months.

That all sounds good to me, but I know darned well I fall off of diets rather quickly if they don’t produce results. I need motivation, and ordinarily I look to my scale for that. But then I tried the flat belly virtual belly flattener to see what I’d look like after losing 5, 10, 15 or even 20 pounds.

No, I won’t share the photo with you but I will say that I’m giving serious thought to buying their book which comes with a free 3-month online program, too.

Yeah, I looked that good.

Posted by Chubby Mommy in Diet Books, Diets and tagged with , , , , ,
18Feb
6

Eat Mindfully and Never Diet Again?

Some of you may have experienced what I found myself doing just the other night: I plunked down in front of my computer with a bag of potato chips to eat while reading email. Twenty minutes later I reached for another chip and… they were all gone. Where did they go? I didn’t remember eating it that much. In fact, I couldn’t have because I was still hungry

I hate to admit it, but that very same thing happens to me far more often than I’d like. Does it sound familiar to you, too?

The solution, according to one woman, doesn’t involve taking diet pills. It doesn’t even involve dieting at all. Instead, we need to put our brains to work to lose weight. That is: we need to eat “mindfully”, as Harvard Medical School instructor Jean Fain explains in her YouTube video, “Why a Twinkie?”.

Now, ordinarily there’s not much exciting about watching a grown woman eating a Twinkie while emoting happiness and pleasure, and between the shoddy video quality and Fain’s patronizing over-enunciation I felt like I was back in 8th grade trying not to snicker at a health class video.

But I kept watching, contemptuously, in part to find out just how long she was going to sit there silently eating that Twinkie. A full minute later, and only halfway through the Twinkie, she stopped. Did you get that? She didn’t even finish the thing. In my household that’s almost unheard of. Fain’s point, however, was that we can eat the foods we love and still lose weight if we’ll just eat mindfully.

So what’s mindful eating? Susan Albers’ book, Eating Mindfully: How to End Mindless Eating and Enjoy a Balanced Relationship with Food , describes it as consciously savoring your food:

…feeling the saltiness of each potato chip on your fingers when you pick it up. The taste of salt when you put the chip on your tongue. It’s listening to the loud crunch of each bite, and the noise that chewing makes in your head….”

Their other tips: make a celebration of it: if you’re going to eat, do nothing but eat. Eat slowly, free from mental distractions like the TV or computer. Wash your hands first like Mom told you to do. Sit down. Take small bites. Chew slowly. Give yourself permission to satisfy your hunger or cravings and to enjoy the taste while you do so.

Then eat every bite like it’s your first taste of that food… and might be your last.

You know, I think I may just give this a try. How about you?

Posted by Chubby Mommy in Diets and tagged with , , , , ,
17Feb
1

Chubby See, Chubby Do

Some time ago, I read that Courtney Love installed a lock on her refrigerator to keep herself from snacking. At the time I thought, “Gee, woman, just get some willpower!” But now?

Now I’m a lot more sympathetic. I’m also of the mind that locking my fridge wouldn’t simply prevent me from snacking and thereby ruining my diet. It would prevent my husband and son from snacking, too, and thereby ruining my diet.

What, you think that sounds like I’m blaming them for my eating habits? Well, yes, I suppose I am. But I’m not completely off-base here. Turns out, watching someone snack can lead you to snack, too. And not just any snack, either, mind you.

A study at Duke University observed how undergraduates reacted when someone was talking to them while dipping into one of two bowls of snack items. One bowl contained goldfish crackers (yum!) while the other contained animal crackers (okay, also yum). Both the speaker and the observer had access to the same two things, but the speaker only dipped into one of the two.

So what happened?

The observer dipped into the same bowl as the speaker most of the time even if they’d previously stated they preferred the other kind of snack.

“A person who views someone else’s snacking behavior will come to exhibit a similar snack selection pattern,” the researchers from Duke University, University of Maryland and the University of Amsterdam said in a statement.

“This suggests that preferences may shift as a result of unintentionally mimicking another person’s consumption behavior.”

I pointed this study out to my husband this morning as he stood in the kitchen frying bacon. Fortunately, I’d just filled up on All Bran (not so “yum”) and couldn’t think of eating another bite. But, oh, that bacon smelled goooood.

“You know what this means,” I asked him.

“Yeah,” he responded. “It means that you’re going to blame me if you suddenly decide you just have to eat a piece of bacon.”

“No, silly,” I assured him. “It means that when you drop dead of heart disease from all of that fried food I’m going to have to marry me a vegetarian.”

Oddly enough, he didn’t think it was nearly as funny as I did.

Posted by Chubby Mommy in Health News and tagged with , ,
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