Best Diet Ever: Eat Smaller, More Frequent Meals

photo by hawaii

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Every time I mention this as a tip, people think I'm some sort of food "nut job". Apparently eating meals more frequently qualifies me for some kind of 12-step program. The rumors are NOT true. I DO NOT set an alarm to remind me to eat every 3 hours. *But I have thought about it.*

Eating six small meals, spaced out every 3 hours is a better way to eat for maintaining or losing weight. Here are some benefits of eating this way:

• By eating more often you don't get as hungry, so when you do have a meal, you are less likely to overeat.
• It is also much easier to eat fewer calories for the same reason; when you sit down to eat you are not as hungry.
• Your body uses energy to digest food and more meals per day means a few more calories required to process those meals.
• "Dieters" traditionally eat very little during the day, and end up gorging at night. By consuming calories throughout the day, your metabolism remains stable and you minimize cravings.

This is one of the tougher tips to actually implement because it requires a bit of planning. You will need to bring enough healthy food to eat throughout the day. The strategy that I use is to cook enough food for dinner that I have enough to freeze for a few days. I package the leftovers in small 1-cup sized reusable containers and freeze them. Each day I bring 3 of the containers and some fruit, maybe some yogurt, or cottage cheese. A "meal" typically consists of frozen leftovers and a piece of fruit, a handful of nuts, or a yogurt.

Lean Cuisines are a good pre-packaged option, but they are very low in calories. I know people who bring a Lean Cuisine for lunch and don't eat anything else throughout the day. If that's you, you need to eat more. You can't expect to eat 250 calories during the day and not be starving by the time you get home. Bring 2 or 3 to work and eat them throughout the day.

Now, I always like to use the word "meals", as opposed to 3 meals and 3 snacks. If I say you should have 3 snacks between meals, most people visualize junk from a vending machine. Again those six meals should consist of "real food", not junk food.

Of the Best Diet Ever tips, I think that this tip is the most effective. Monitoring when and how often you eat is essential to controlling your eating. If you don't allow yourself to get hungry, you simply won't eat as much.

Have you ever tried eating smaller, more frequent meals throughout the day? How did that work for you?

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Best Diet Ever: 1/3 of Calories Should Come from Fat

photo by A.Ddiction

Fat is unfairly demonized because people think that the fat they eat ends up as body fat. That simply isn't true. Excess calories end up stored as body fat, but fat is no more likely to end up as stored fat than any other type of food. Fat is a necessary nutrient, and while our diets are typically high in bad fats, they tend to be low in the healthiest types of fat. Aim to consume more foods high in monounsaturated fats like avocados, olive oil, and canola oil. Other good choices for healthy fats, especially the Omega-3 polyunsaturated fats, are salmon, flax seeds and oil, and nuts.

Low fat diets have been popular for a long time but no research has ever shown that low fat diets are superior to any other diets in reducing body fat. In fact, new research is suggesting that a low fat, high carbohydrate diet may increase the likelihood that you will become obese, but regular exercise can mute this effect. If you do not engage in regular exercise, you should definitely minimize the processed carbohydrates in your diet, but that post is for another day.

Another benefit of consuming fat is that is has a hunger-curbing effect. It is true that fat has more than twice the calories per gram as protein or carbs, but foods high in fat are satisfying for a longer period of time than foods high in carbohydrates or protein. I don't recommend you do things like add half and half to everything to increase the fat in each meal (you listening, Atkins dieters), but do eat more healthy fats by switching to olive oil, or canola oil, and eat more nuts throughout the day.

As an experiment, for about two weeks, I tried to keep the fat content in my diet to below 10%. I was able to hang on for the two weeks, but I can tell you, I've never felt more hungry in my life. I was logging my food so I was eating the same number of calories, mostly carbohydrates, but I could hardly concentrate on anything else because all I could think about was food. If your goal is to lose weight, a very low fat diet is definitely not recommended.

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Best Diet Ever: Don't multi-task while eating

photo by sculpture_grrrl

Of all the tips and tricks mentioned in the Best Diet Ever series, this is as easy and pain-free as it gets: When you are eating, don't do anything else that may distract you. What I mean by this is don't eat while you are busy doing work, or while sitting in front of the TV, or driving, etc. Anything that distracts you from eating tends to distract you from feeling when you've had enough to eat. How many times have you sat down in front of the boob tube with a bag of potato chips, planning to "eat a few", only to reach down 30 minutes later into an empty bag?

Now I'm not saying to ignore your family and lock yourself in a closet when you eat, either. Having a conversation while eating may distract you a bit but it also causes you to eat slower, giving your body time to signal that you've had enough food. Eating slowly and mindfully allows your body time to process what you've eaten and enjoy the taste of your food.

If you must eat while on the run, or while doing something else, try to eat a measured amount. Don't grab the family size bag of chips, look for something that is packaged in an individual serving like a granola bar. Even a small bag of chips is better than grazing for an hour in a large bag.

Do you often eat while watching TV, browsing the internet, sitting in front of the computer, etc?

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Best Diet Ever: Plan "cheat" meals

photo to jainnie_c

As I mentioned in a previous Best Diet Ever post, cheat meals are a great tool to help keep people eating healthier. But there's more to it than just eating a cheat meal whenever you feel like it. That's called, "Johnny used to be on a diet, now he eats enough to feed a small country."

Don't just fall victim to temptation, polish off an entire cheesecake and call it a cheat meal. Plan them for times you know that you won't be able to make better choices. If you and you significant other go to a nice restaurant on most Friday evenings, then plan for that meal by eating a little less during the day on Friday. If your family always has Sunday dinner at Grandma's house, enjoy yourself...just don't use up your "cheat" meals before Sunday evening. Save your cheat meals for the times that you know you will need them...birthday parties, social gatherings, etc.

The concept behind the cheat meal is that you don't have to "give up" any food, so you're less likely to binge on your favorite treats that may not be so healthy. Cheat meals are a fancy term for what is otherwise known as living. You don't have to live on bean sprouts, spinach, and grilled chicken breasts to eat healthy, but you should make healthier choices most of the time.

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Best Diet Ever: Listen to your mom. Eat your fruits and vegetables.

Photo by marmalade mel

Mom was right. Not only do you need vegetables and fruits for the nutrients they contain, but most are low calorie, high fiber, and have a high water content. That means they have a low calorie density and are filling. Besides, it's really tough to over eat fruits and vegetables. You don't have to search very long to find someone who claims that too much fruit is bad because of a high sugar content. The theory is that the sugar in fruits, causes blood levels of insulin to increase triggering fat storage. Well, most fruits also are high in fiber which slows the digestion process down and mutes the body's insulin response. Seriously, how many people out there have gotten fat by eating too many apples? I've yet to meet one.

According to the USDA, you need to eat 5 to 7 servings of fruits and vegetables each day. Most people don't eat half of that amount. Don't be one of those people...it will make you sick, weak, and the rest of us will point and laugh. Beware of high calorie vegetables like avocados, though, and honestly, I can't think of any others that you need to limit. If there are other obvious high calorie fruits and vegetables, I'm sure that someone out there will let me know.

For the greatest health benefits, try to eat a colorful variety of fruits and vegetables. The chemical compounds that make fruits and vegetables colorful are called phytochemicals and act as antioxidants in the body. A greater variety of colors equals a greater variety of antioxidant benefits. Frozen vegetables are as good as fresh vegetables, but be careful when buying canned vegetables. Canned vegetables tend to leach out water soluble vitamins while sitting on the shelf. If you pour out the water, you are losing a lot of nutritional value. Also, people with hypertension, or high blood pressure, should know that many canned vegetables contain high levels of sodium. Stick with frozen or fresh and you will be better off.

Do you get 5 to 7 servings of fruits and vegetables a day? If not, what are your reasons for not eating more?

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Best Diet Ever: Follow the 90% rule

Photo by akirsa

If you follow the recommendations and eat 6 smaller meals throughout the day, that's 42 meals per week. If you can make good choices and eat healthy foods for 90% of those meals, you will succeed. That leaves 4 meals per week that you can break the rules and have whatever you want. Try to be reasonable and don't sit down and demolish an entire bag of potato chips, but have a few...and then have a few more. It's OK. There is no need to shovel them in with abandon as though no crunchy, fried, potato goodness will ever cross your lips again. No food is off limits for cheat meals, but you only get 4 cheat meals per week.

An important psychological benefit of the cheat meal is that it makes it OK to "slip". Wanting foods because they taste good is a natural part of being human. The problems start when a "slip" mentally transmogrifies into "I'm a failure!" Once you've started down that slippery slope, it's easy to give up. By making cheat meals part of the "rules" of the diet, the natural tendency to satisfy cravings isn't a hallmark of failure, but part of your plan...an indicator of successful compliance.

I will say that you need to consider your personality here. Some people will do better being very strict and not using the cheat days. Others will be better able to fight cravings knowing that they don't have to completely give up their favorite foods. If you need the cheat days, don't sweat it. If you don't, you are a freak of nature! :)

What works better for you, cheat meals or being very strict? What are some of your favorite cheat foods?

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Best Diet Ever: Only no calorie drinks allowed

Photo by Asif Ali A

Bye, bye, venti, mocha, chocolate, triple, whip, soy, vanilla macchiato! As far as your body is concerned, liquid calories are "ghost" calories. You might drink them, but they don't fill you up like solid food. So not only do you get the extra calories, but you get no satiety for it. Double whammy! The best choice is water. Don't think you've got to drink bottled water unless you've got a few bucks burning a hole in you pocket and if that's the case, why not send it to me instead of wasting it on tap water from Cleveland.

Tap water is a fine choice, but if you like the taste of filtered water, buy a home water filter. I've never used those Brita pitchers, but I have owned the Pur brand that fits your kitchen sink and I give it two enthusiastic thumbs up. Sugary soft drinks are pure candy. I know lots of people have switched to these Vitamin Water drinks. They have fewer calories, but are still not calorie-free. If you use them to kick your soft drink habit, that's great, but try to wean yourself off of them as well.

What about caffeinated drinks?

Four out of five people on the planet consume caffeine in some for every single day. 5.3 billion people can't be wrong. If you do drink caffeinated beverages, they are a reasonable choice hydration-wise. If you don't, we'll just point and laugh, but we don't mean anything by it. In the past, caffeine was considered a hydration no-no because it is a diuretic. Studies have shown that it is a rather mild diuretic and the amount of water that stays with you vastly exceed the amount that you lose via urination. Obviously, if you've popping No Doze like Pez...that's not the case. Coffee and tea are good choices, as long as you don't load them up with sugar and cream.

What about alcoholic drinks?

Alcohol is a very powerful diuretic and results in a net loss of hydration and alcoholic drinks are definitely not calorie free. Stay away from high-calorie mixed drinks and only drink occasionally. Not only will the calories get you, but alcohol has been shown to inhibit fat burning while it's in your system. If you are really serious about losing fat, seriously consider cutting your alcohol consumption.

What about "diet" drinks?

You don't have to search on the Internet very long to discover that even being in the same room as a diet drink is enough to kill you. People who are against diet drinks are nothing if not passionate in their hatred. I take a slightly less extreme stance...I don't think a diet drink now and again is going to hurt you. There will not doubt be comments left linking to studies showing that aspartame produces methanol, a toxic alcohol, when metabolized by the body. I've read the study...I can't dispute it. It is a very small amount though, and we can't forget that when talking about poisons, we must consider dosage. Even water in too high of a "dose" can kill you, but no one is walking around screaming that water is killing humanity. Personally, I drink, maybe one diet drink every 3 days or so. If I thought I was going to give myself cancer as a result of that, I wouldn't do it. Everyone knows someone who drinks 6+ of these drinks every single day. I don't think I would be comfortable drinking that many. Should you drink them? Only you can decide that for yourself.

Where do you stand on the diet drink debate? Do you drink them or not?

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Best Diet Ever: Minimize processed carbohydrates

Oh no, I can see the forces of carb-loving and carb-hating evil gathering in the distance. Do carbs make you fat or are they the body's most important energy source? Well, which is it!? I've always been a proponent of the theory that a calorie is a calorie and that all weight loss is dependent on calories in vs. calories out. That opinion is based on my personal experience of losing 60 pounds and maintaining that loss by doing lots of exercise and maintaining a calorie deficit with no regard to changing the foods that I eat, only eating less of them.

Having said that, studies done by Harvard Medical School, and more recently The University of Pennsylvania, have found that a certain percentage of people respond better to a low carb approach to eating. The high responders to the low carb diets are people who have metabolic syndrome, Type II diabetes, and hyperinsulinemia. I'll have a post with more information on this topic in the near future. What I can say is that from a nutrition perspective, highly processed, refined carbohydrates like sugar, high fructose corn syrup, white flour, and white rice are all empty calories. Save your allotment of daily calories for more nutritious fare by getting your carbs from fruits, vegetables, and a small amount of whole grains.

If you are a potato eater, try sweet potatoes, as they are a more nutrient dense choice than a regular potato, and in my not so humble opinion, much tastier, plus they have the added benefit of being an antioxidant-rich food. My family eats rice several nights a week and we love short, sweet, brown rice. That's what it's called. It has a slightly nutty texture that really adds to a meal. If you cook with white flour, try mixing it 50:50 with whole wheat flour until you become accustomed to the whole wheat taste, with the goal of eventually going to all whole wheat.

Have you ever tried cutting down on carbs? If so, how difficult was it and how long have you stuck with it?

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Best Diet Ever: Drink one gallon of water a day

Yes, an entire gallon! Only oxygen is more urgently needed than water. Don't skimp on your water intake. Dehydration wreaks havoc on bodily processes and causes people to feel lethargic throughout the day. Dehydration can cause severe cramps during exercise, so ensure that you drink 16 oz. of water before any exercise and continue drinking during any strenuous exercise, especially if it's an outdoor activity and/or hot outside.

Staying properly hydrated will also help you not overeat when meal or snack times roll around. I've read that if you are dehydrated, your body misinterprets the thirst signal as hunger causing you to eat when you are really thirsty. I don't know that I buy that reasoning, but studies have shown that drinking water throughout the day, especially before meals, causes you to eat less because your stomach is full. Your brain gets the "I'm full. I can stop eating now" signal with less food.

Can you drink too much water?

It is possible to drink too much water, but it is very difficult. Within the past few months, a woman participating in a radio station's water drinking contest died after consuming large amounts of water in a short period of time. The actual cause of death in instances of water intoxication is an electrolyte imbalance, called hyponatremia, which draws water out of the cells in the body. Long distance endurance athletes, who do not supplement with electrolyte tablets, are especially susceptible to hyponatremia because excessive sweating for long periods of time deplete the body of both water and electrolytes, but drinking water alone is insufficient to replace lost electrolytes.

In summary, drinking a gallon of water a day is a good goal to achieve optimal hydration. If you are going to exercise for less than an hour, plain water is the best choice for hydration. If you are exercising in hot temperatures or for longer than an hour, a drink containing electrolytes, like Gatorade, is a better choice. If you are participating in an extremely long distance endurance event like running a marathon, ultra running, doing a century bike ride, or participating in an Ironman-distance triathlon, consider taking electrolyte tablets to maintain your electrolyte balance in addition to drinking frequently.

Do you think you drink enough during the day? Do you routinely take water with you when you exercise outdoors?

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Best Diet Ever: Eat lean protein with every meal and snack

Protein contains essential amino acids that your body needs to build and repair itself. It has the secondary benefit of requiring more energy than carbohydrates or fat to digest. If you consume 100 calories of protein, your body will burn up to 30 of those calories during the digestion process. Foods high in protein also tend to create a sense of satiety, or feeling of being full.

Some good sources of lean protein besides the oft mentioned chicken breasts, fish, and lower fat cuts of beef and pork are:

• cottage cheese
• yogurt
• eggs
• soy products

If your diet tends to be higher in fat, choose low fat or non fat dairy products, as a large portion of their fat is of the saturated, unhealthy variety. Also, yogurt is a good choice, but watch out for highly sweetened versions with lots of added sugar. Try plain yogurt mixed with honey and berries. Eggs are another fantastic source of protein. If you enjoy eggs, but don't enjoy the additional calories, I would suggest using a 50:50 mix of whole eggs to egg whites.

What about peanut butter and protein bars?

In my opinion, most protein bars are just glorified candy bars. Sure they are convienient, but my preference is for real food. If you do find yourself in a situation where you need to eat something and you don't have any other options, then go on ahead and have one. The chocolate coating is usually high in palm, coconut, or palm kernel oil which means they are pretty high in saturated fat. Try to find one that contains 3g of saturated fat or lower.

Peanut butter is a healthy option, but it only contains about one half of the protein density as the above listed foods. It is also a very calorie dense food at approximately 200 calories per two tablespoon serving. And honestly how many people only eat two tablespoons. I do eat it in moderation, but I consider it primarily a fat as opposed to a protein. I buy a product called Naturally More that is peanut butter mixed with flax oil, flax seeds, wheat germ, egg whites to boost protein content, and a little honey for sweetness. It rocks and it has 167 calories/Tbsp. and 10 grams of protein. I've seen it at health food stores, but it is half the cost at Wally World.

Do you try to eat some protein with every meal? Which is your favorite lean protein source?

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Best Diet Ever!

Portion control and calorie counting are the keys to losing weight and keeping it off. That's still true, but it's so darn, oh, I don't know...not sexy. People want magical, fat-melting foods or one simple rule to follow that guarantees fat losing success. What is The Secret?! Well, I can tell you it is not sitting on your butt, meditating over a box of Ho-Ho's hoping that the universe will deliver you from your flabby self. Crazy, fad diets are the rule of the day. "Lose weight? Son, what you need is a lemonade, cayenne pepper, and ground up rhino testicle cocktail." Or it's some new miracle drug taking the country by storm, like alli. Oh, yeah, and that diaper you've got to wear to protect you from the, ahem, treatment effects, "You are WORKING IT, BABE!"

In the upcoming days and weeks, I'll be writing posts that contain the most time-tested, effective techniques for eating healthier and losing weight. Don't expect flashy headlines, or celebrity endorsed magical thinking, but you can expect simple rules that will lead to a sustainable weight loss.

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