Posts by pol_spock

tgegogeine,

I belong to the YMCA, and I use it to work out. But I also have a wife and kids who benefit from the numerous programs they offer. If I was just needing a place to work out I would join a gym as I think a gym is more focused on the type of customer that I am. The Y is foucsed on being a lot of different things to a lot of different people, which if you're concerned about "eyes" being on you, that might be what you get from some people at the Y as many people are there for a completely different reasons than working out or losing weight. There's a good chance to run into a group of insensitve teenagers there just to play basketball. Granted, the chances of being the victim of someone's insensitiveness is probably only slightly greater at the Y than at a gym, but all it takes is one instance to completely destroy your moral, so unless you have other reasons to join the Y, I'd say join a gym.

convertible,

I've been counting my calories since Oct 15th, and have been using Healthy Choice meals as a tool. I eat about 4 or 5 a week. Outside of the 500-600 mg of sodium each meal has as a preservative, I think they're great. I like the convenience of them, they help me learn what a normal portion size is, and they taste pretty decent as well. I've lost 19 pounds so far, so even if they haven't really helped, they haven't seemed to hurt.

sherrie_lc,

Did you even read the article you linked to? It's not negative towards the fructose found in fruits. It's negative towards the fructose found in processed foods. They are two completely different types of fructose. For instance, corn is put through an enzymatic process to produce fructose which is then used in a lot of processed foods. There is much debate as to whether or not this type of enzymaticly produced fructose can even be called "natural". Regardless of the "natural" debate though is the fact that this type of fructose is not the same type of fructose found in fruit. And as the article you linked to points out, these other types of fructoses really aren't as good for you as the fructose found in fruit is.

Just a quick google search for "average American" and "sodium" will produce a wide range of results. Seems like it's all over the board. As for my source, it came from here: http://strengthplanet.com/other/are-you-just- an-average-joe.htm 

And it says: "The average American consumes thirty times (9500 milligrams) more sodium than the body requires."

It also has interesting tidbits like these:

The average American consumes more calories (4236 calories daily) per person than any other group of people in the world.

The average American has 30 billion fat cells. The average obese American has 80 billion fat cells.

The average American male’s fat consumption is approximately 37 percent of his total caloric intake. The average American female’s fat consumption is approximately 32 percent of her caloric intake. The recommended fat intake of total calories is 25 percent or lower. Did I mention that the average American looks like a jar of bean dip?

Canned soup has a lot of sodium as it's used as a preservative. Same with lunch meat. Without all the sodium those foods would spoil between the packaging plant and your kitchen. Then of course bagged pretzels not only contain sodium for the same reason, but a lot of salt is also added for flavor.  

If you want to cut back on sodium, you need to eat less processed foods as to avoid foods where sodium has been added to preserve the food. This is also true of most food you get at restaurants (especially fast food), as most restaurants used preserved food as well, and then load it up with salt to make it taste better.

But honestly, the average American consumes close to 10,000 grams of sodium a day because they eat so much fast food and processed food. It doesn't shock me at all to hear you ate over 5,000. You're actually in the good percentile (assuming you're an American).

Instead of bread, I get my sub as a wrap. The bread is 200 calories. The wrap is 120 calories. So my favorite sub, the Sweet Onion Chicken Teryaki which is 370 calories with bread is only 290 calories as a wrap. A savings of 22% in calories. And it fills me up just as a much as the bread version does.

 Ticks me off that they charge an additional 50 cents to replace the bread with a wrap though!

Original Post by strikez:

I totally agree with finding what works for you and sharing with others.  Spreading out calories is not a bad thing, but it is not a better thing.  If it helps you control cravings that is one thing, but it does not enhance metabolism, especially the thermic effect of food (TEF).  It is still a matter of calories in vs calories out.  I am 47 so I understand a slowing metabolism, but activity dictates burn, not the consumption of food.

I think you are harping on the reference to TEF in her original post. While it's true that eating once or six times a day has zero effect on TEF, it's not a change in TEF that makes eating more often result in more weightloss.

The biggest reason eating more often produces more weigh loss is because as the sugar level of the blood gets higher, the body naturally produces insulin to bring the level back down. The higher the blood sugar level is the, more insulin the body produces. A meal of 700-800 calories will produce a higher blood sugar level which naturally results in a higher production of insulin. Insulin's job is to reduce the blood sugar level by pulling the energy from the sugar in the blood and storing it as fat. The more insulin there is, the faster this is accomplished. The result is that two to three hours after you've eaten, insulin has done it's job. The blood sugar level is back to normal. Regardless of whether you've eaten 300 calories or 800 calories, two to three hours later insulin is done doing it's job.

But the person who has eaten the 700-800 caloris is in a different position than the person who ate the 300-400 calories. Both have been brought back down to the same energy level, which is the moment where the body begins realizing it needs more energy. The person who only eats 2-3 times a day won't be eating for at least a few more hours. So until that person eats again the body has to get all of the calories it needs from fat storage, which is the same location insulin just stored the energy it took from the blood just minutes earlier. Mathmatically, this is a wash. A calorie is a calorie, and TEF hasn't changed. In fact it might as well be a calorie that you just ate three hours ago in lieu of a calorie that's been stored as fat for a long time. But since the body is now getting all of its energy from fat for the next few hours thanks to insulin regulating the blood sugar level, the body begins to slow its metabolism down. Not exactly a full starvation mode, but the beginning stages pretty much.

The 300-400 calorie eater however, is ready to eat another 300-400 calories. Eating 300-400 calories every few hours works because that's pretty much how long insulin takes to work. No matter how many calories you eat your body will produce enough insulin to break it down in about 2 to 3 hours. At that point if the body has to go to its fat storage to get all its energy, metabolism will slow down, but the 6 times a day eater can keep the metabolism going at peak rate the whole day long. The person can still burn a good 1000 calories from their storage of fat, but the body is never in a position where all it's energy is coming from fat storage.