Showing posts with label calories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label calories. Show all posts

Monday, 8 May 2017

Renaming Your 'Cheat Day' Could Help Achieve Weight Loss Success

Here's Why Rethinking Your 'Cheat Day' Could Help You Shed More Pounds.

Call It This Instead.

Every week, you look forward to your cheat day—a day to cave to a few of your cravings after sticking to a well-balanced diet (and workout regimen) all week long. But Men’s Health senior editor Paul Kita takes issue with the concept.

“When you say ‘I’m cheating,’ that makes it sound like it’s some kind of indiscretion that shouldn’t be forgiven for, or even admitted to,” says Kita.


Instead, Kita prefers the term rest day. “Think of [your cheat day] as your rest day for your diet,” Kita says. “Every now and then you just need a rest. And what happens the day after a rest day? You go in and you hit it harder because you’re replenished.”

Science backs him up. Last year, researchers put study participants on a diet that was limited to only 10,500 calories per week, or about 1,500 calories a day.

But half of the dieters were allowed to eat anything they wanted on Sundays.

After two weeks, the two groups both reduced their average body mass indexes and there was no significant difference in the amount of weight the two groups lost, however those who took Sundays off were happier and more motivated to continue working toward their weight-loss goals. In other words, taking a break once a week didn't slow dieters' progress, it only motivated to keep up their healthy habits for longer.

Researchers say that the reason behind this is that occasional indulgence makes dieting more sustainable.


To hear more of Kita’s nutrition strategies, along with tons of fitness and weight-loss tips from Men’s Health Fitness Director BJ Gaddour, check out the latest two-part episode of the Men’s Health Podcast.

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Source:  This article was written by Joelle Smith and provided by Men's Health. 

Friday, 14 April 2017

Is Your Metabolism Keeping You From Losing Weight?

Secrets of Metabolism

If you’re trying to manage your weight, you’ll need to mind your metabolism.

Metabolism, specifically resting metabolism, is the body’s engine. It’s the energy you burn just to keep your heart beating, your lungs breathing, and your other organs running.

Unless you’re an elite athlete, resting metabolism accounts for 60% to 75% of all the calories you burn each day, and it varies a lot from person to person.

Metabolism Myths

Will eating more frequently boost your metabolism? An expert takes on three common beliefs.

People who have a naturally high metabolic rate can eat more, without gaining weight, than people who burn calories at a slower pace.

Sounds great, right? You’ve got this awesome internal combustion engine that burns hundreds of calories a day without you having to do a single sit-up.
Now for the bad news: It’s hard to boost your resting metabolism much beyond its natural set point, though it is possible to slow it down.
Here’s what science has shown can put a dent in your ability to lose weight and keep if off.

Sleep

Researchers have known that short sleep leads to weight gain. People who don’t get at least 6 hours of sleep at night are prone to overeating, and they usually crave starchy, sugary foods.

It turns out that overeating isn’t the only issue when you’re cheating sleep; not getting enough shut-eye also slows metabolism.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania recently brought 36 healthy adults into their sleep lab. Over 5 days, half the group was only allowed to sleep 4 hours a night; the other half got to sleep up to 10 hours at a time.

Even though the sleep-restricted group was active and awake for more hours of the day, their resting metabolisms slowed by about 50-60 calories a day, says senior study author Namni Goel, PhD. Goel studies sleep medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

It’s not a huge amount, but “that can add up across multiple nights of sleep restriction,” she says.

Even more concerning, Goel says, is that metabolism sputters just as appetite goes up. Her sleep-restricted volunteers were eating about 500 more calories each day, so the total calorie imbalance just from not getting enough sleep was substantial -- around 550 calories a day, enough to lead to about a pound of weight gain each week.


Protein

Kevin Hall, PhD, a senior investigator at the National Institutes of Health, has been doing experiments to test the idea that all calories are equal, no matter where they come from. With fats and carbohydrates, that seems to be true. But Hall says protein seems to be a different story.

“It looks like there might be some benefit to increasing the amount of protein that you eat,” he says, though more research is needed before he can say for sure. And he’s not sure why protein might boost metabolism, but he has some theories.

The body spends more energy trying to digest and absorb proteins than it does fats and carbohydrates.

“It also might increase metabolic rate, but very slightly. We’re not talking about huge increases here,” Hall says.

Diets that switch the body’s calorie primary fuel source from sugar or carbohydrates to fats also may help with your metabolism. Diets that do this are called ketogenic diets. They tend to be higher in fats or proteins and lower in carbohydrates.

In a recent study, Hall had 17 overweight or obese men follow two different low-calorie diets. The first was a diet that was higher in carbohydrates and lower in fats. The second was a ketogenic diet that was lower in carbohydrates and higher in fats. Protein was kept the same between the two diets. The men lost weight on both diets, but their metabolisms were slightly higher on the ketogenic diet.

The take-home message for people who are looking to lose weight is that if you’re going to cut calories, don’t cut your protein intake.

Eating more protein may help keep your resting metabolism high, which can help you both lose weight and keep it off after.

Weight Loss

When we lose weight, our bodies fight hard to regain it.

Eric Ravussin, PhD, director of the Nutrition Obesity Research Center at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, likens this resistance to weight loss to what happens when you pull on a spring.

“The more you pull your weight away from your natural settling point, the more your body is going to resist,” he says.   One way the body resists weight loss is to slow down its resting metabolism. The more rapid and extreme the weight loss, the more metabolism appears to slow.  A recent series of studies has shown exactly how dramatic the metabolic slowdown after weight loss can be.

Hall spent 6 years following contestants from season eight of "The Biggest Loser" reality show. The show takes obese people and pairs them with trainers who push them through extreme exercise -- up to 4 1/2 hours each day -- and strict diets so they quickly lose weight.

At the end of the competition, which lasts for 7 months, some people had lost as much as half their starting weight.  The trouble is that their metabolisms slowed even as the pounds flew off.

By the end of the show, when they were at their lowest weight, their resting metabolisms had dropped by more than 600 calories a day, on average.

Researchers had expected some slowing in their daily calorie burn, but the metabolic plunge was even more than scientists had predicted. And contrary to what experts had expected, their metabolisms never adjusted after their extreme weight loss. In some cases, they slowed even more.

Thirteen of the 14 contestants regained some of the weight they lost. Four contestants are heavier now than before they joined the show. Some have said their junk food cravings are still there, though their capacity to burn them off isn’t.

“We took a look at this extreme case of very huge lifestyle changes, huge amounts of weight loss because we wanted to see how strongly the body responds when you intervene to such a large degree. The answer is pretty darn strongly,” Hall says.

Hall thinks that hormones -- particularly the hormone leptin, which banishes hunger -- may play a role.

In a different study, "Biggest Loser" contestants had 80% less leptin at the end of their weight loss than a similar group of people who’d lost weight after bariatric surgery.

Scientists are currently testing whether giving leptin injections after weight loss might preserve metabolism and prevent weight regain.

Until there’s a drug to prevent weight regain, the take-home message here, says Ravussin, is that slow and steady is a better way to lose weight if you want to have a better chance of keeping it of

Even better, Hall says, is to try to change the way you think of weight loss. Instead of going on a diet -- dramatically cutting calories and killing yourself at the gym -- to get to a certain weight, he says it’s better to focus on adopting habits you’ll be able to stick with over the long run.

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Wednesday, 15 March 2017

What’s Really in Your Fast Food?

I've never been a fan of fast-food or burger bars 👎....here's some of the reasons why.  If this doesn't put you off, I don't know what will!  ðŸ˜±

French Fries 
The humble potato, fried in a vat of simmering oil, and finished with a sprinkling of salt. What could be simpler? Apparently, quite a lot. Fast-food fries often have more than 15 ingredients, including sugar and artificial coloring. They also have preservatives like sodium acid pyrophosphate and tert-butylhydroquinone, which in high doses has been linked to vision problems.


Hamburgers 
Ground beef, right? Sure -- but there also may be growth hormones and antibiotics, which can end up in your system. And in one study, some burgers had over 100 calories more per serving than the fast-food places said they did.

Soda
It’s the same soda you buy at the grocery store. But when you get it at a fast-food chain, you get more calories because the drink sizes are so large. And we’re not talking “supersize.” A medium soda at a typical fast-food place is about 30 ounces and has about 300 calories. And studies show that if you order it, you’ll drink it.

Breakfast Sandwich
Some of the ingredients listed for what one national outlet calls a “fried egg” include modified corn starch, soybean oil, medium chain triglycerides, propylene glycol, artificial flavor, citric acid, xanthan gum, and -- oh yeah -- egg whites and yolks (listed separately). If you didn’t bargain for all of that, ask for the propylene glycol (also used in fog machines and to make polyester) on the side.

Hot Dog
What’s in them? Let’s just say they make full use of the animals that supply the meat. They’re also loaded with salt and saturated fat (which most Americans get too much of) and with nitrates, a preservative linked to diabetes and cancer.

Chicken Nuggets
A piece of chicken breast battered and fried to golden perfection? Not exactly. There’s meat in there, but there are also bones, blood vessels, nerves, connective tissue, and skin. And they have loads of salt and fat, which are linked to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

Strawberry Milkshake
Besides milk and sugar, one leading fast-food outlet also adds high-fructose corn syrup, preservatives like sodium benzoate, and artificial flavors and colors to this drinkable dessert. One thing that appears to be missing: actual strawberries.

Sauces 

The first ingredient listed for almost any sauce served at a fast-food restaurant is sugar. It may be called sucrose, dextrose, maltose, rice syrup, barley malt, high-fructose corn syrup, or any number of other things, but the end result is the same: quick delivery of lots of calories with almost zero nutritional value.




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Thursday, 12 January 2017

Why We Crave Junk Food

Read on if you find yourself not able to resist junk food, here's why...

Steven Witherly is a food scientist who has spent the last 20 years studying what makes certain foods more addictive than others. Much of the science that follows is from his excellent report, Why Humans Like Junk Food.  


According to Witherly, when you eat tasty food, there are two factors that make the experience pleasurable. 

First, there is the sensation of eating the food. This includes what it tastes like (salty, sweet, umami, etc.), what it smells like, and how it feels in your mouth. This last quality — known as “orosensation” — can be particularly important. Food companies will spend millions of dollars to discover the most satisfying level of crunch in a potato chip. Food scientists will test for the perfect amount of fizzle in a soda. These elements all combine to create the sensation that your brain associates with a particular food or drink.

The second factor is the actual macronutrient makeup of the food — the blend of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates that it contains. In the case of junk food, food manufacturers are looking for a perfect combination of salt, sugar, and fat that excites your brain and gets you coming back for more.

Here’s how they do it…

How Food Scientists Create Cravings


There is a range of factors that scientists and food manufacturers use to make food more addictive.

Dynamic contrast. Dynamic contrast refers to a combination of different sensations in the same food. In the words of Witherly, foods with dynamic contrast have “an edible shell that goes crunch followed by something soft or creamy and full of taste-active compounds. This rule applies to a variety of our favorite food structures — the caramelized top of a creme brulee, a slice of pizza, or an Oreo cookie — the brain finds crunching through something like this very novel and thrilling.”


Salivary response. Salivation is part of the experience of eating food, and the more a food causes you to salivate, the more it will swim throughout your mouth and cover your taste buds. For example, emulsified foods like butter, chocolate, salad dressing, ice cream, and mayonnaise promote a salivary response that helps to lather your taste buds with goodness. This is one reason why many people enjoy foods that have sauces or glazes on them. The result is that foods that promote salivation do a happy little tap dance on your brain and taste better than ones that don’t.


Rapid food meltdown and vanishing caloric density. Foods that rapidly vanish or “melt in your mouth” signal to your brain that you’re not eating as much as you actually are. In other words, these foods literally tell your brain that you’re not full, even though you’re eating a lot of calories.

In his best-selling book, Salt Sugar Fat (audiobook), author Michael Moss describes a conversation with Witherly that explains vanishing caloric density perfectly…

"I brought him two shopping bags filled with a variety of chips to taste. He zeroed right in on the Cheetos. “This,” Witherly said, “is one of the most marvelously constructed foods on the planet, in terms of pure pleasure.” He ticked off a dozen attributes of the Cheetos that make the brain say more. But the one he focused on most was the puff’s uncanny ability to melt in the mouth. “It’s called vanishing caloric density,” Witherly said. “If something melts down quickly, your brain thinks that there’s no calories in it … you can just keep eating it forever.”


Sensory-specific response. Your brain likes variety. When it comes to food, if you experience the same taste over and over again, then you start to get less pleasure from it. In other words, the sensitivity of that specific sensor will decrease over time. This can happen in just minutes.

Junk foods, however, are designed to avoid this sensory specific response. They provide enough taste to be interesting (your brain doesn’t get tired of eating them), but it’s not so stimulating that your sensory response is dulled. This is why you can swallow an entire bag of potato chips and still be ready to eat another. To your brain, the crunch and sensation of eating Doritos is novel and interesting every time.


Calorie density. Junk foods are designed to convince your brain that it is getting nutrition, but to not fill you up. Receptors in your mouth and stomach tell your brain about the mixture of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates in a particular food, and how filling that food is for your body. Junk food provides just enough calories that your brain says, “Yes, this will give you some energy” but not so many calories that you think “That’s enough, I’m full.” The result is that you crave the food to begin with, but it takes quite some time to feel full from it.


Memories of past eating experiences. This is where the psychobiology of junk food really works against you. When you eat something tasty (say, a bag of potato chips), your brain registers that feeling. The next time you see that food, smell that food, or even read about that food, your brain starts to trigger the memories and responses that came when you ate it. These memories can actually cause physical responses like salivation and create the “mouth-watering” craving that you get when thinking about your favorite foods.


These factors all combine to make processed food tasty and desirable to our human brains. When you combine the science behind these foods with the incredible prevalence of food (cheap fast food everywhere), eating healthy becomes very hard to do.

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For the full article from James Clear click here