Archive for April, 2009

Watch Those Coffee Calories

It occurred to  me, when I started dieting about three months ago to take off about ten to fifteen excess pounds that had been haunting me after the loooong holiday season I’d indulged in for 2008, that my morning coffee may be packing more calories than I thought, or at least that my morning coffee, which only consisted of one cup, may be setting me up for a day of diet sabotage right from the beginning, not just because of any additional sugars or carbs I was taking in that had no nutritional or “burn off” value, but also because of a little know fact about coffee and caffeinated products that may sabotage a lot of people’s weight loss efforts, especially if you drink a lot of it.

My initial concern though, was that the extra sugar and calorie intake may b ehurting my diet and weight loss endeavors.  I thought that even though they say coffee is a natural appetite suppressant for some, even though it may slightly suppress the appetite WHILE you’re drinking it, it may actually increase you appetite immediately afterwards, even more so than if you hadn’t drank it at all, making you want bad foods, and lots of calories all day long.  Turns out I’m sort of right about that, but it really depends on the person .

And  by the way,  I still have my one cup many times in the morning, but I do skip it a few days a week, in interest of saving my skin which doesn’t react well to lots of caffeine, and I’ve still lost ten pounds, although I do wonder if I may have lost more if I hadn’t indulged in that cup several times a week, it seems petty to worry about every single little life pleasure if it isn’t impacting you too terribly.

Coffee, and other caffeinated products, it turns out, actually raise the levels of cortisol in the blood stream.  Actually, most stimulant type products do this.  This raising level of cortisol is counterproductive to weight loss, since cortisol is a major reason behind fat storage and additional calorie intake, since this stress hormone actually makes us more hungry believe it or not.  So, the sugar and extra calories really have less bearing on your weight than the cortisol content and the effects on the stress hormones that coffee may have.

However, if you’re one of those people who loves to load up your morning coffee with sweet syrups, lots of sugar, or full fat heavy creams that contain a lot of fat content as well as calorie density due their richness and thickness.  Also beware those “lattes” and foofoo coffee drinks.  Many of those machiatoes and other sugary drinks that you see that taste fantastic and like a dessert at Starbucks or your other local coffee shop can pack up to 500 calories and lots of fat and sugar.  I can think of a lot of actual food items I’d rather eat than drinking 500 calories, I know that!

Low Cal, Fat Free Ranch Dressing Recipe

Well, I was very pleased with myself for coming up with a brilliant idea of making my own ranch salad dressing that was virtually fat free and low in calories.  I was tired of trying the different prebottled dressings that are low in fat, and since I like different kinds of ranch dressings, but often the low fat versions aren’t very flavorful, and you can just forget about the fat free versions having any good flavor whatsoever, I figured why not try to make my own.

It’s really easy to have a base, because Hidden Valley (who makes a great ranch dressing), makes a powdered version of their ranch dressing that you just have to mix with a few basic ingredients and you have your own “home made” ranch.  The cost is a little over a dollar for a packet, and you get a whole bottle of dressing.  I also bought the cruet for the Good Seasons Italian dressing mix, along with two packages of the Good Seasons zesty italian dressing powder, since I like to use those once in a while too, so I had the perfect bottle for my ranch dressing when I was done  mixing it a in a bowl. It’s much nicer to dispense out of, and holds the perfect amount for future use.  Plus it looks nice.

Here’s how I modified the recipe.  The recipe for the Hidden Valley ranch dressing mix calls for you to add 1 cup of mayonnaise and one cup of milk.  Instead of using regular, full fat versions, I used low fat mayonnaise, which contains very little fat – I use the Hellmans low fat mayo which only has like 1 gram of fat per serving or something like that.  I used skim milk, although I probably would have used 1% instead but we accidentally bought skim the last time we went shopping, but that makes it even more low fat.

I also added t cloves of crushed garlic and two tablespoons of parmesan cheese, which added about 40 calories and barely any fat at all.  So, all the ingredients in this low fat ranch dressing were virtually fat free, making this a very low fat, but much more tasty dressing than what you can buy in bottles.  Plus I feel like it tastes more natural.  I don’t taste all those preservatives and funny sort of chemical tastes that you often get in bottled dressings.

The good news is that once it sits a few days in the fridge, the garlic, ranch and parmesan cheese flavors really come out, and it’s much tastier than it was when you first made it!  You don’t need much either, it’s very thick and the flavor quickly covers each lettuce leaf individually – very savory!

Why is Belly Fat So Bad?

We all know that it is dangerous to our health to become overweight to the point of being obese.   It is not only what our scale says that is important to our health, but it is becoming increasingly apparent that where we carry our weight is very related to health issues.

Belly fat which is also called visceral fat is held right up against our internal organs and is the most dangerous kind if fat to carry.   There is a guideline for what is called a “metabolic syndrome” that puts you at a higher risk for diabetes and heart disease.  To see if you’re at risk, stand up and don’t suck in your stomach and measure with a tape measure.

For a woman, a measurement of 35″ or more indicates a higher risk from belly fat.  When men measure, they can’t just say their waist size is their pants size since they often wear their pants on their hips.  Men need to measure their actual waist.   A measurement of  40″ or more for men puts them at risk.

Scientific studies have found that abdominal or visceral fat is metabolically more active than fat elsewhere in the body.  The belly fat secretes fatty acids and 55 different hormones.  Three times the bad chemicals are produced by the visceral fat.

Many people think that abdominal fat is the last place they can lose through exercise and calorie reduction.  This is not the case.  Visceral fat is very sensitive to both of these factors. Through exercise, even something as simple as brisk walking, belly fat can be the first to go.  Sometimes, just a small weight loss of 5 to 10 lbs. can have a very signifigant benefit to your health.

Often, people look at the ideal weight charts and get discouraged thinking they’ll never reach their goals.  Keep in mind that even a little loss can shut down dangerous signals from abdominal fat.

Drinking Alcohol and Losing Weight

One thing I’ve learned with my last round of dieting is that drinking alcohol can be a real diet killer.  I’ve lost ten pounds from January til now, and I want to lose five more pounds, but found, like so many others, that since I lost the initial ten, I’m slowing down now and have started to revert to old habits here and there which I’m sure don’t help the fact that my weight loss has stalled.

You always have what are called plateaus in weight loss, and that’s what I’ve hit, but I know I just have to power through and really sort of deprive myself of the little pleasures, like a caloric coffee drink here and there or an alcoholic beverage, so I can beat the plateau and continue with my weight loss streak again.

Alcohol really can sabotage your diet.  I was just talking about this with a friend at the bar we went to last night, where I consumed three beers, which I almost never drink, and she said that her weight loss was going along great and then she and her man starting going out to the bars again on the weekends and she didn’t put any back on, but stalled the progress in her weight loss goals.

The problem with drinking alcohol is that, while it tastes great and can certainly take the edge off a bad day, is metabolized by your body as sugar.  This means that your body burns this off before burning off any other type of calorie, or any other type of fat, so basically you are setting yourself back with these “empty calories” since your body metabolizes them inefficiently for dieting.

If you must have a drink, rum is probably one of the sugariest alcohols you can buy, followed by the flavored vodkas and sugary tasting alcohols.  The mixers are the worst too, some of them have more sugar in them than a sugary soda, and those calories really add up.  Margaritas are a big offender too, they can be as much as 400 calories each, especially if they’re one of these jumbo super sized margaritas that you see at mexican restaurants these days.

Brown Fat Helps Fight Fat

There have been several articles in major news outlets about this lately.  It’s the fact that a more darkly colored body fat, or adipose as it is called medically, may help to burn off the kind of fat that’s on your thighs and belly – in other words, the excess flab that you can never seem to get off.  The problem is that most of us, as adults, have very little brown fat left on our bodies.

We have more in our youth, which may explain partly why kids have a much easier time maintaining their weight and seem to burn off every excess calorie that goes into their little bodies. Hence, what is considered simply a faster metabolism of our youth may actually just be the fact that we have much more of this beneficial brown fat in our bodies that burns fat at a much quicker pace, leaving our bodies slimmer and trimmer, and more “fat free”.

Of course, since scientists have discovered that this brown fat has fat burning properties that help us to metabolize normally fattening foods more easily and efficiently, thereby not storing as much bad fat as usual, they are trying to look for ways to again restore the balance between lightly colored fat and darkly colored fat in the human adult so that there is less obesity in the world and problems with weight control.  Babies had a lot of this fat to keep them warm, so they are thinking there may be some mechanism they can manipulate to again get adults to grow this sort of fat.

It seems like there are so many factors lately, ranging from genes, and now this new discovery that brown fat helps to burn fat off the body, that we can’t really peg one true reason why adults become obese or why obesity has become such an epidemic as of late.  I can think of a thousand reasons why people are overweight, the major one being too much calories consumption and an epidemic of inactivity, but there are admittedly other factors that add to that fact, it’s just that I don’t think there’s ever going to be one factor that we can turn on or off that will forever address obesity without good old fashioned self control and exercise.

Grapefruit : Too Much of a Good Thing?

Remember back in the eighties and the early nineties, when grapefruit diets were all the rage, and grapefruit was thought to be some sort of a super weight loss facilitator, much like the acai berry is now (which by the way, I don’t think helps a lick in weight loss, it’s a super antioxidant which is great, but weight loss supplement – no).  I enjoy the occasional grapefruit, and although I love the flavor and texture and I think it’s a super healthy fruit to eat, I don’t think that you are going to lose a lot more weight if you eat grapefruit every day.  That’s just my personal opinion.

Well, recently in the news, a woman almost died from eating too much of this citrus fruit that’s commonly eaten for breakfast.  Grapefruit was supposedly a good addition to a diet because of it’s supposed fat burning properties, however I suspect that it’s just a healthy food and the other items eaten on a sensible diet and caloric intake are still to take credit for any resultant weight loss.  There are also crazy grapefruit only diets that I believe can be dangerous in some situations, as they did for one women who almost lost a limb because she was on a grapefruit only diet for three days and was also on the birth control pill.

The problem was that the grapefruit, especially since it was the only thing this woman was consuming for three days, blocks an enzyme when consumed in large quantities, which blocks the enzyme that breaks down drugs in the human body.  Because of this, her birth control pills were not being broken down in her body.  Not only that, but the hormone estrogen cannot be broken down and since birth control pills contain estrogen, she was in danger of forming serious blood clots,and hence that is why she almost lost her legs.

So, I guess it’s useful to know this about grapefruit!

Kathy Ireland Latest Star to Shed Weight

In what seems to be another trend in hollywood weight gains and weight losses, Kathy Ireland, the former supermodel and now head of billion dollar empires and numerous other philanthropic and charitable forays, quickly put on about 25 pounds only to show up in a photograph where she appeared to be pregnant.  It was very odd though, because the model must bear all of her weight in one area, it really did look like she was pregnant but didn’t really  put the weight on anywhere else.

To boot, her son was the one who broke the news to her that she had dramatically changed, she said she was unaware of how much weight she had put on until she really looked at herself in the mirror – and saw the picture that the proof was in the pudding.  She quickly took the weight off with what she says was the help of a friend who is a nutritionist and fitness specialist and was quickly on her way to her tall, slender figure again. It’s kind of nice to know that even the rich and famous can succumb to the pressures of life and the ease of eating bad, although it’s a wake up call of how easy it is to fall into bad habits.

I often wonder why it is that some people never have a weight problem their whole life while others may yoyo up and down all the time.  I know I’m one that does tend to go back and forth between weights, although I have never been what is considered as overweight, I still have my comfort zone I like to stick to.  Another celeb that has recently wowed us with her weight loss is Valerie Bertinelli, who posed in a bikini after age fifty and showed off her gorgeous bod.  Hope I look that good at her age!

Recession Helping or Hurting Your Waistline?

It seems like opinions differ on the question of how the embattled economy has affected various people’s waistlines – meaning their weight.  For me personally, the dead economy has been a boon for both my waist and my boyfriend’s (we cohabitate by the way, so our weights seems to fluctuate together since we tend to eat the same meals).

The reason you ask?  Well, we have reacted to the recession ans subsequent drying up of my sales which is my side job, by not going out to eat – hardly ever.  When times were good and money was coming in like crazy, we would “treat” ourselves to carry out food and also to going and sitting down at sit down restaurants all the time.  Not only was it easier, but it of course was very tasty.  It also happens to be one of the worst ways to eat since fast food and restaurant foods are notoriously high in fat, sodium, sugar and calories so they get you coming back for more.

Yes, restaurant food is not short on taste, but it is short in the diet handbook, that’s for sure!  However, not everyone is singing the praises of a bummer economy as being a great dieting tool.  Some say they’ve been forced to forgo their regular shopping trips to nicer, healthier stores that offer organic and nutritious foods like Whole Foods, Wild Oats and even upscale family owned grocers.  They say that they’ve had to resort to cheaper, more processed, salty and fatty offerings just to get by.

Foods like PB&J, macaroni and cheese, chefboyardee products, canned goods and other highly processed and fattening foods may not be good for you and actually make your hunger switch turn on even more, but they sure are CHEAP.  That’s why these types of foods are the most common foods that you find in food pantries – they stay well and they’re easy to come by.

However, they are not so friendly to your body in the end.  Mostly carbohydrates that are not filling nor do they stabilize the blood sugar for very long like their higher quality counterparts, also are incredibly cheap to manufacture.  However, there are some nutritious foods that can be purchased reasonably, you just have to know where to shop locally to get them at the best prices.

Potential New Obesity Fighter?

In a study done at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital at American Lake in Lakewood, Washington, experiments found a way to yield mice that, in spite of overeating, stayed lean.  The difference in the mice that remained lean was higher levels of interleukin-15, also known as IL-15.  IL-15 is a protein molecule that naturally occurs in humans and in mice and it is secreted into the bloodstream in small amounts by the muscles.

The study done on the mice used artificial genes created by the laboratory team that were specifically crafted to secrete larger amounts of IL-15.  The results of the study are promising with the male IL-15 mice staying leaner but not adding muscle and the female IL-15 mice actually adding muscle but not staying as lean.

Commercially, the Agriculture Department is interested in IL-15 ‘s possible use to decrease fat in cattle and pigs to yield leaner meat cuts for our food supply.  The potential benefits for the human population’s health are even more promising.  Il-15′s discovery in this study could have great health benefits in controlling obesity which contributes to a host of other problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke.

For senior citizens, IL-15 shows promise for it’s ability to restore muscle mass and strength.  The body building industry would be extremely interested in Il-15 when it becomes available in pill form for decreasing fat and increasing lean muscle.

After an injury or fall, especially for senior citizens, IL-15 has the potential to speed recovery time.  Usually, after an injury or broken hip, the muscles atrophy which slows recovery time.  With IL-15, the muscles regain strength faster and recovery time is shortened and enhanced.

Is Popcorn Good for You?

It really depends on who you ask, whether popcorn is “good” for you or not.  There are some that think that any corn-derived food product is the devil, citing corn as the reason for digestive problems, and even linking it to certain kinds of cancer (heck, what ISN’T linked to cancer these days really?).  Of course any no-carb zealot will also tell you that popcorn is a huge no no because of it’s relatively high carb count.

As with any other controversial food, there are also others who point to research that corn derived products have a resistant property that makes them more slowly digested, and therefore supposedly not as likely turned to fat.  What to believe, what to believe?

At any rate, let’s take a look at the facts about one of America’s favorite snack foods, and one that is also used popularly as a diet snack food, as long as it’s not drowned in butter and other fattening flavorings.  For example, movie popcorn and caramel corn are obviously defeating the purpose of having any kind of health food snack in popcorn because of the high fat content of butter (or synthetic butter flavored soybean oil).

Popcorn’s great though because it can be a low fat, high fiber snack that is reasonably filling.  For a whole cup of popcorn, the calories are minimal and if you are buying a brand like Smart Pop or Weight Watchers, you are getting a lot of food that is filling and expands in the stomach because of the fiber content, for low calorie counts.

There are some great low fat butter flavored popcorns that are preportioned so you don’t eat too much, and can be easily popped in the microwave if you look in your snack aisle.  It’s a nice way to change up the boring same old snacks that tend to be associated with dieting and weight watching.  Curves, named after the woman’s gym, also has a great preportioned 100 calorie bag of popcorn that you can throw in the microwave for a quick, low fat and healthy snack that won’t leave you feeling guilty, or still hungry.