Expectation Letdown Fatigue

Lose 10 pounds in 10 days!

8 minutes a Day to a Slimmer, Sexier You!

Fab Abs by Wiggling Your Toes for 2 Minutes a Day...Not Vigorously, Of Course!

Magazines with headlines like these really irk me. False promises like these are a main cause of what I like to call, expectation letdown fatigue.

Jane Wannabefit makes a decision that swimsuit season is just around the corner. She's put on a few pounds since last year, and it's got to go. The problem is, it's July and she's got to act quickly. Standing in the checkout line at the local Grab 'n Go, lo and behold, like an angelic gift from the heavens, out from the magazine rack jumps the headline, "Lindsay Lohan loses 10 pounds in 10 days! Find out how she did it!" What good fortune, it just so happens Jane's got 10 pounds to lose and only 10 days to do it in. Three point nine five smack-a-roos later, Jane has taken her first steps into fitness nirvana. Now the article, more often than not, is pure drivel, but this time Jane is lucky...the article actually contains a good plan for eating and exercise. She follows the plan perfectly for 10 days. Finally, she gets on the scale for the moment of truth. TWO POUNDS! She's only lost two pounds in ten days and she couldn't be more disappointed. What did she do wrong? It must be bad genetics.

The problem with this scenario is that is happens all the time. Even if the article contains good information, the results never meet expectations because all of the magazine articles exaggerate what is possible. Two pounds in a ten day time frame is a great result! It is a healthy, sustainable rate of weight loss. There is so much misinformation out there about weight loss that folks who make good progress give up because they are led to believe that they are making unacceptable progress. A few cycles of failed crash dieting with unrealistic expectations and Jane simply throws in the towel and begins to accept the (wrong) belief that she just wasn't born to be fit. The result...expectation letdown fatigue.

What is considered a healthy rate of weight loss?

As a guideline, you should not be losing more that 1.5 pounds per week. If you are losing weight at a rate greater than this, you are losing lots of muscle and not much fat. If you do manage to starve yourself down to your goal weight, the result won't be a "toned" you, but a smaller version of you still with too much fat.

So what do you think? Do you buy those magazines in the hopes that they will contain the magic formula for weight loss, some newly rediscovered, ancient secret that kept the Mayans thin? Or while waiting in line at the checkout counter do you skip over the gossip rags because you're too busy telling your kid for the 10th time, no, he cannot have a candy bar?!

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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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Chocolate, the Hipcat Health Food

Now this is a health trend we can all jump on.

Researchers in Switzerland, go figure, have discovered that eating dark chocolate (74% cocoa, Nestlé Noir Intense) significantly improved arterial function for up to 8 hours. A group of male smokers, known for having a high risk factor of artery dysfunction, were given 40g of dark chocolate. That is an amount equal to about 1 bar of chocolate. Their artery function was tested and showed a statistically significant improvement for up to 8 hours after eating the chocolate.

So should you go out and stock up on chocolate bars, you know, for health purposes?

I hope this study doesn't get too much attention because whatever small benefit could be derived from eating chocolate is certainly offset by the amount of saturated fat and sugar in a candy bar. Well, it looks like it's too late for that. I've seen an article on several high profile sites mentioning it.

This is a perfect example of why people are so confused about what they should be eating to be healthy. Headline-ready studies come out every day with information that people take and run with until it spreads far and wide. Geez, ya think Nestle had anything to do with funding this study. Of course not. Now every Tom, Dick, and Harry can tell you that he's eating a chocolate bar a day to improve his endothelial artery function. What does that mean, you ask? Who gives a crap, it sounds good and I get to eat a chocolate bar every day! Woo Hoo!

If that is your plan, at least maximize the benefits and minimize the downside of eating chocolate by choosing a bar high in cocoa content and only have one occasionally as a treat. Dark chocolate bars tend to have fewer calories, less saturated fat, and a lower sugar content. Due to their lower cocoa content, milk chocolate, baking chocolate, and white chocolate were not shown to have the same health benefits.

Take home message:

If you are really looking for healthier food choices, there are much better options than chocolate. Continue to eat it as an occasional treat, but don't eat more now that it has been shown to have a few small health benefits.

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Fat, a necessary nutrient, Part II

As mentioned in last weeks post, fat is the most maligned of all macro nutrients, carbohydrates being a recent and very close second. The common misconception is that dietary fat leads to more body fat. That is not directly the case. Excess calories, whether from carbohydrates, protein, or fat lead to excess body fat. Since, we need fat in our diets, we should make an effort to consume mostly "good" fats.

Good Fats

Good fats fall into the category of unsaturated fats. Chemically they are more complex than saturated fats and tend to have a "bent" molecular structure. This type of structure causes unsaturated fats to be liquid at room temperature. The two types of unsaturated fats are monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fats. The difference lies in the number and location of double bonds between carbon atoms, but honestly, who really cares about all of that. Both polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats may help lower your blood cholesterol level when you use them to replace saturated and trans fats in your diet.

Monounsaturated Fat

Monounsaturated fats are healthy oils, such as olive oil, that have been linked with a low incidence on cardiovascular disease in people who consume a Mediterranean diet. These types of fats have a tendency to lower LDL cholesterol, without effecting HDL cholesterol blood levels.

Polyunsaturated Fat

Polyunsaturated fats are oils that have a tendency to lower both LDL and HDL cholesterol blood levels. They are healty oils, but some research suggests that our modern diets contain too high a ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 polyunsaturated fats. The focus of good fat consumption should be on monunsaturated fats and omega-3 polyunsaturated fats. As a side note, some polyunsaturated fats are more likely to create trans fats when used with high heat cooking methods. Avoid the use of corn oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, and soybean oil. Better choices are canola oil or olive oil.

Omega-3 Fats

Omega-3 fats are a subtype of polyunsaturated fat distinguished from Omega-6 polyunsaturated fats by the location of the double bonds in the molecule. Again who really cares. What you should care about is the research that suggests that these fats can significantly lower the risk of cardiovascular heart disease and offer many other health benefits.

Which foods contain good fats?

No food only contains a single type of fat, so these foods actually contain a high percentage of the respective type of fat with other assorted fatty acids making up the difference. Here are some good sources of each type of fat:

Monounsatured:

• Olive oil
• Canola oil
• Peanut oil
• Avocados

Polyunsaturated:

• Safflower oil
• Sesame oil
• Soybean oil
• Corn oil
• Sunflower oil
• Nuts
• Seeds

Omega-3:

• Fish (the greatest health benefits come from the omega-3 fats found in fish)
• Nuts
• Flax seeds

Do your best to include as many sources of good fat in your diet, but remember that just because they are healthier doesn't mean you can discount the number of calories contained in fat. You still need to make sure that you aren't consuming more that the recommended 25-35% of your daily calories from fat sources and, if weight loss is a goal, you must continue to consume fewer calories than you burn each day.

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Fat, a necessary nutrient, Part I

Fat usually gets a bad rap in the diet world, but without fat in our diets we would die. Yes, the typical diet contains too much fat, but some fat is needed for our survival. Dietary fat intake supplies our bodies with essential fatty acids, regulates hormone and cholesterol production, and supplies our bodies with fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K). Fat is also the most dense form of food energy containing over twice the amount of energy per gram as carbohydrates and protein (9 calories per gram vs. 4 calories per gram).

Cholesterol

Cholesterol is a fat-like substance that is found in cell walls in the body. Too much of the wrong type of cholesterol causes deposits on arterial walls and can lead to blocked arteries and heart disease. Contrary to popular belief, dietary cholesterol is not a major source of cholesterol in the bloodstream. Most cholesterol is produced by the body as a result of heredity and diet. Saturated fat and trans fatty acids are the major dietary culprits in the body's production of cholesterol. If your cholesterol is high, reduce your intake of saturated fats and trans fats.

Bad Dietary Fats

Bad fats are fats that are said to be saturated. Saturated fats are very orderly at the molecular level and can be tightly packed together. Being tightly packed together makes all saturated fats share a common property...they are all solid at room temperature. Trans fats are fats that were originally unsaturated which undergo an artificial chemical process called hydrogenation. In this process, a liquid oil, usually soybean oil, becomes more shelf-stable and solid at room temperature.

From a health perspective, trans fats are the worst types of fats. They increase LDL cholesterol (the bad stuff) and decrease HDL (the good stuff). On the scale of "unhealthyness" naturally saturated fats come in a close second...they only increase LDL, without decreasing HDL. Here are a few examples of both types of fats:

Trans fats

• Any Hydrogenated Oil

• Any Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil

• Shortening

Saturated Fats

• Butter

• Cream

• Lard

• Coconut Oil

• Palm Oil

• Palm Kernel Oil

Where are most bad fats lurking?

Baked goods make extensive use of trans fats because they require fats that are solid at room temperature to avoid feeling and tasting greasy and fats that are shelf stable for long periods of time. In the past, butter was used, but with the advent of the hydrogenation process, the products can be made cheaper and longer lasting using hydrogenated oils. Many companies are advertising the removal of trans fats from their products (notice how many are baked goods), but they are replacing them with saturated tropical oils, i.e. coconut and palm oil. Jumping from trans fat to a saturated fat is only a very small improvement, so don't think those trans fat free doughnuts are now health foods. Commercially fried foods are also very high in trans and saturated fats. Animal fats are mostly saturated fats, so you should use lower fat cuts of meat and lower fat dairy products, where possible.

Q: Product X claims to have no trans fat, shows 0 grams of trans fat on the Nutrition Facts panel, but contains "Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil" in the list of ingredients. Is it really trans fat free or not?

The FDA allow companies to claim that a product does not contain a substance if said substance is found in amounts smaller than 0.5 g per serving of the product. In the example given, Product X does contain trans fats but less than 0.5 g per serving. Over the course of a day, eating several servings of products that claim to be trans fat free, but contain hydrogented oils, can result in a person consuming several grams of unhealthy trans fats. If you have a history of cholesterol issues, my advice is to avoid products containing hydrogenated oils, even if they claim to be trans fat free.

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