An Unofficial Calorie Count Guide to a Fad-Free 2009

An Unofficial Calorie Count Guide to a Fad-Free 2009

Has your Christmas lunch left you feeling more stuffed than the turkey? Did “just one mince pie” turn into a whole box? New Year’s Eve nothing but a blur of rum, coke, and Auld Lang Syne? Whatever the season has left you thinking you need to do for your body, CC has tips and advice for avoiding the associated dangers of Christmas aftermath. So put down the lemons, the maple syrup and the cayenne pepper. All of 2009 should be about building a better lifestyle and a new you - rather than just a January of commitment before that shiny new gym membership and New Year’s resolution goes down the pan.

Fad diets. There’s too many to list in full. Think Atkins, think Cabbage Soup. Think unrealistic promises. Think before-and-after photos that don’t match up. Whatever you think, think again. Fad diets are dangerous, often a meal plan that severely restricts calories and vital nutrients to a point of harming your body. Weight loss may be rapid, but piles back on when you begin to eat normally again - thus the secondary term “crash diet”.

Dangers of undereating and depriving yourself of vital nutrition can include - and are not limited to - osteoporosis, of loss of fertility if you lose your period in women or a loss of libido in men, hair loss, electrolyte problems, a weakening of the immune system, low blood pressure, blood disorders such as anemia, heart problems, and even death. The mental woes that come alongside can be just as devastating. Depression is common in undereaters, as well as distorted perceptions and problems like Body Dysmorphic Disorder.

Furthermore, the aforementioned piling back on of the pounds that makes most fad diets as pointless as they are dangerous is down to something called “starvation mode”. This is a result of eating too low a calorie intake, or having a deficit from your BMR greater than 1000 results in something called "survival mode", where your body holds every last thing it can get in expectance of a famine. Water, food, calories. Explained:

• Dieting & Metabolism - This article explains starvation mode and why undereating is counter productive.
• The Body Neglected - This is what happens when you undereat for an extended period of time.

The below is taken from http://www.healthcastle.com/faddiets.shtml - a list of ten signs of a fad diet:

Ten Signs of a Fad Diet

• Promises a large or fast weight loss (more than one to two pounds per week)
• Does not include suggestions to consult with your doctor or a registered dietitian
• Encourages you to eliminate food groups (such as grains) or eat from a limited selection of foods
• Offers rigid menus that don't consider your likes, dislikes and lifestyles
• Neglects active living or lifestyle changes
• Provides far fewer calories than what is needed for an energized, healthy lifestyle
• Contradicts what most trusted health professionals say
• Depends on special products, supplements or treatments
• Has miraculous claims
• Relies on testimonials and anecdotes rather than scientific evidence.

Part 1: Before you Begin

So how to best combat the poor advice of a fad diet? Do everything they do not.

First and foremost, before you undertake any sort of dietary change, consult your doctor, or a dietician.

Then, make sure you’re going into this with a healthy mentality: ask yourself - why are you looking to lose weight? Why are you considering a weight loss diet? Is it a matter of vanity or is it for someone else? Are you of a healthy weight already? Do you really need to lose, or do you just want to tone up and put on some muscle - to lose inches, not pounds? Or is this for you, for your health and yourself?

If it’s either of the first two, reconsider your reasons and see if this is worth it. You need to be getting healthy for yourself else you may find your motivation goes out of the window. The majority of people that join a gym do it in the January and February months, but then stop going after that first month because they’re only doing it to fit that one dress or lose a few pounds for a party, for the views of others, and not because they want to get fitter.

If you’re of a healthy weight but you see a big person in the mirror, or just want to lose a few inches and firm up, work on working out using resistance and weight lifting instead of losing weight. Also consider sorting out your own mentality if you think you’re big when you’re really not.

But if this is for you, if you have weight to lose and health to gain, then by all means, read on.

Part 2: Working out your Burn, and Weighing In

So if you know you want to lose weight for you and your health and your doctor gives you the all-clear then the next step is to work out your daily burn. If you are 21 or older use CC's tools to work out your BMR: http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/calories-bur ned.php

If you are under 21, CC's tools are inaccurate and you should use this calculator instead: http://www.bcm.edu/cnrc/bodycomp/bmiz2.html as you are still growing. Yes, even in the later years - there's more going on inside of you that you simply can't see.

Never go below 1200 calories as an adult woman, never under 1500 if you’re a girl under 21 or an adult man 1500 per day bare minimum, and never under 1800 if you’re a guy under 21. And believe it or not, that’s only the minimum. Unless you are very, very short and small it is very likely you will need even more calories than those minimum guidelines. Thus, the importance of a calculator to work out what you need. Adjust the calculators to your activity level requirements, too.

A quote that sums up my personal experience with the scale is, “In the Middle Ages, they had guillotines, stretch racks, whips and chains. Nowadays, we have a much more effective torture device called the bathroom scale.” - Stephen Phillips.

The scale can either play your master or just a way to monitor your health. If you find that you are basing your days and your happiness around a number on a scale you should probably start basing your weight loss through measurements, how you look in the mirror and how your clothes fit. In turn, the scale is inaccurate on a day to day basis. It is normal for a person to fluctuate up to and sometimes greater than 5lbs in a day for any reason. Sodium, food weight, excess caffeine, whether or not you’ve had a bowel movement… so many silly and small things make your weight fluctuate day to day that it is better to take a trend of weight loss from a week to week weigh in with the same conditions each time.

It takes 3500 calories in EXCESS of your burn to gain just one. Thus, it's much smarter to weigh in once a week under the same conditions and take your progress based on that, instead of every morning.

Why The Scale Lies - by Renee Cloe, ACE Certified Personal Trainer

Part 3: Nutrition

You may have noticed many fad diets encourage and rule that you should cut food groups out. This is often a very big warning sign of a diet that is bad for you. Cutting any food group out or restricting it without a viable reason is just that - without reason. A good reason would be a diabetic keeping an eye on their sugar, a lactose intolerant person and lactose containing foods, or someone with a food or food-related allergy not consuming that that would affect them. Beyond this? There are no bad foods, only bad diets. Everything in moderation.

Obviously, moderation does not mean “a Happy Meal a day instead of a Big Mac meal”, but you get my drift, right? Enjoy a bit of everything you can. This is the beauty of calorie counting; if you keep to your BMR and the calorie guidelines as told about at the start of this post, you can really just eat what you want to. The key then is to get balance. If your maintenance BMR is 1500, for example, you will not gain weight if you eat 1500 calories worth of junk food as much as you wouldn’t gain weight eating 1500 calories worth of broccoli, as much you wouldn’t gain weight eating 1500 calories worth of balanced meals and snacks. Common sense does play a role, obviously, in that you need to think about nutritional balance as well as calories: which of those three choices would leave you without possible complications of malnutrition? Again, everything in moderation.

So, make sure you get food from ALL the food groups. Aim for carbs, proteins, fruit or veg, healthy fats and dairy or dairy alternatives in all your meals over the day, get enough fibre, and if you feel the need take a full multivitamin as a buffer. However, if you get your carbs, fats, proteins, and fruit and vegetables you should easily cover fibre and dairy. A good breakdown of carbs, fat, protein ratios is carbs 60%, fats 25%, protein 15%.

For your carbohydrates, aim for complex carbohydrate from sources like wholegrains, potatoes sweet and white, fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, beans and naturally occurring sugars. Aim to have about a quarter of your plate filled with carbohydrates at your main meal.

For your protein sources, look for a healthy mix of lean proteins and otherwise. Lean protein consists of things like white meat like poultry, lean red meat cuts and lean mince, low-fat dairy products, soya, tofu, and TVP or texturised vegetable protein, and beans. Less lean but equally viable and good sources of protein are red meats with a higher fat content, nuts, seeds, and higher fat dairy. But just because they contain a little more fat does not make these proteins bad, as fat is as much a vital part of the diet as any other food group. Aim to have about a quarter of your plate filled with proteins at your main meal.

For your fat sources, aim for healthier fats over less healthy. Healthy fats can be found in oils, such as olive or vegetable oils including dressings and margarines made from these oils as well as the oil itself, avocados, soya, nuts, seeds, and fatty fish, such as salmon, sardines, and mackerel. Slightly less healthy, but still absolutely edible and fine to have as part of a diet sources of saturated fats are higher fat cuts of red meat, full-fat dairy, butter, and some processed foods such as cookies, pastries, and doughnuts. While these unhealthier saturated fat sources should be monitored they needn’t be removed. Aim to have a serving of fat at every meal, whether you have a fillet of salmon to get it or dress your vegetables in olive oil.

For fruit and vegetable sources, get as many colours into your diet as you can. A rainbow of fruit and vegetables over the day means the greater a variety of nutrients you will be consuming. Look to get at least five servings of fruit and vegetables a day. And that’s “at least”! Aim to have about half your plate filled with fruit or vegetables at your main meal. One small note, however: starchier vegetables will rack up more calories compared to more water based vegetables (parsnips vs. broccoli) and a potato is technically not classed as a serving of vegetables at all, but rather under carbohydrates.

For fibre, the minimum RDA for women is 25g and for men the minimum is 30g. Some people can tolerate a lot more fibre than this, but it’s usually a bad idea to exceed more than 70g to 80g of fibre. You need to make sure you drink plenty of water along with your fibre intake so it doesn’t just become bulk in your gut, which would obviously lead to constipation. But fibre is very important, and is a little more complicated than “the stuff that makes you poo”! It keeps your gut healthy and comes in two types. There's insoluble fibre, or the fibre that forms bulk and regulates acidity and PH in the gut, and soluble fibre, or the fibre that helps regulate blood sugar and cholesterol. For a list of fibre sources, take a look here. But if you’re eating as suggested above with lots of fruit, vegetables, and complex carbohydrates you shouldn’t have any trouble with your fibre intake.

Fibre is also something to look to if you're one of those people reeled in by the idea of "detox". Your body is actually fully capable of flushing out toxins all by its little old self largely thanks to your liver and kidneys. If you want to keep your digestive system healthy then look less to magic pills and formulas that are likely hocus pocus placebos and instead to things like herbal remedies - ginger, peppermint, fennel, liquorice root and nettle all being good for your gut - and pro/prebiotics, found in both multivitamin form and in live cultures in yoghurts and some dairy. For some information on the dangers of detox and colon cleansing, have a look at this article from the UK Times newspaper: "Detoxing can be bad for your health" - by Peta Bee

And don't forget, we have our very own nutritionist in the form of Mary Hartley, RD. Her FAQ and "Ask Mary" page can be found here and covers a variety of topics including faddy diets. Ask Mary

Part 4: Exercise

Weight loss should not just be about eating, but about a healthy lifestyle, too. So, try to take up some exercise if the doctor permits it. If you’re new to it, try starting off walking thirty minutes a day and building it up, or trying a program like Couch to 5k: http://www.c25k.com/

If you think exercise is boring, do something fun - a dance-based exercise class or video, jumping rope, hula hooping, mini-trampolining - or by taking up an exercise you enjoyed when you were younger.

If you’re unmotivated alone, try joining a community class at a local gym or get a friend who’d be happy to go along with you. If you’re the opposite, and you’re someone who gets embarrassed or weary of working out with others, try getting yourself an exercise bike, stepper or mini-trampoline to set up in front of the TV, or buy some credible exercise videos. I say credible because some of those videos can be as bogus or difficult as a fad diet, so do a little reviewing and researching before you invest your money.

And don’t forget it’s not all cardio, cardio, cardio. Weights and resistance exercise is just as important as cardiovascular exercise and builds healthy muscle for an equally healthy metabolism. If you’re a novice to those kinds of exercises, and for more advice on exercising during dieting in general, check out our Fitness forum. http://caloriecount.about.com/fitness-forum-f c3  

Just remember your body needs to heal from exercising, so make certain you have rest days amidst any exercise you do.

Part 5: Nutritional Labels, Packaging and Food

One of the big gimmicks of fad diets and diet plans can be too much emphasis on “diet” products, meal plans and similar. First thing’s first: there is no magic food product, plan, pill or otherwise that will make you lose weight. Only healthy and moderated eating and exercise will help you do it to a point that your loss will be sustainable and good for you.

Be aware of labels, certainly - both in being able to read your nutritional labels as well as knowing what to be wary of. The following information is taken from the UK Food Standards Agency website: http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/ - a website worth a general look regardless of your weight intentions.

Total fat - what's high and what's low?
High is more than 20g fat per 100g
Low is 3g fat or less per 100g

Saturated fat - what's high and what's low?
High is more than 5g saturates per 100g
Low is 1.5g saturates or less per 100g

Total sugars - what’s high and what’s low?
High is more than 15g sugars per 100g
Low is 5g sugars or less per 100g

Salt and sodium - what’s high and what’s low?
High is more than 1.5g salt per 100g (or 0.6g sodium)
Low is 0.3g salt or less per 100g (or 0.1g sodium)

Make sure you check the servings per container on your nutritional label if it gives you calories per serving! Otherwise, you may find yourself eating more than you realise. Know that labels like “fat free”, “sugar free” and “low” such-and-such don’t necessarily mean “low calorie” either. Particularly in low fat and low sugar foods, salt is added in to bring in flavour where it may be lost. Low fat foods can also be high in sugar. “Low calorie” can still be high in salt or sugars. This is all why it’s generally a good idea to go as unprocessed as possible with your foods.

Aim for fruit and vegetables that is in season and make regular trips. Only buy the fresh produce you know you are going to use within the next two to three days and make sure you use it. For dry staples and cupboard stores, try finding a local wholetrader and buying in bulk as it saves money long term. Do not get picky about brand labels and organic food. Some things it is not worth paying organic for anyway as there is little difference in content of pesticides and what have you.

Canned vegetables are fine but look for a low-sodium brand or vegetables canned in nothing more than fresh water. Better yet, try growing your own. It’s a good investment in the long term of both time and money. And if you don’t have a garden or room in your garden, you can still grow some things in windowboxes or even try a landshare with a friend in their garden.

Become friends with your local greengrocer, butcher, baker, fishmonger - with your local food producers, really, or at the very least the people on your local supermarket’s bakery, meat and deli counters. They can let you know the best cuts of meat for what you’re trying to do, provide advice, and even in some places get you a good bargain. And who can discourage the beauty of local produce?

If you're buying fish and seafood, tinned fish is still good. One thing you can afford to do is look for sustainable, seasonal fish and meat when you shop. If there are worries about mercury look at sardines and pilchards in particular - they are oily fish, contain calcium and vitamin D, and have one of the lowest mercury contents of any fish.

If time is your problem and you’re grabbing too many processed foods on convenience, invest in a crockpot or slowcooker, a deep baking dish for casseroles, bakes and desserts, and/or a large pot for stews and soups. It is remarkably easy to make a large pot of something and to then freeze the leftovers to eat them over a few days, at a comparatively minimal cost of ingredients.

In stews, for example, you can use cheaper cuts because the meat becomes tender as it cooks. Chilli con carne (or non carne, for you veggies out there) is a brilliant example of a cheap dish that can last for days. And because of the nature of many of these dishes, you don’t need to be there to watch them (“slow cooker”, after all).

Ultimately, the more you know about what is going into your food, the easier - and often a great deal more fun - your food can be. You don’t have to rule out processed food altogether, but don’t become reliant on it.

HELPFUL LINKS

From CC and About.com

http://lowcaloriecooking.about.com/

http://nutrition.about.com/

http://exercise.about.com/

http://weightloss.about.com/od/morediet1/a/fa ddiets.htm - Article: "The Facts About Fad Diets: Why do we fall for fad diets?"

http://nutrition.about.com/od/diets/a/fad_die ts.htm - Article: "Why Are Fad Diets Bad?: Too Good to Be True?"

http://caloriecount.about.com/main-dish-recip es-rc27 - CC's recipe browser



Calculators and Tools

BMI TOOL: http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/bmi.php

BURN METER/CALCULATOR FOR OVER 21'S: http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/calories-bur ned.php

BURN METER/CALCULATOR FOR UNDER 21'S: http://www.bcm.edu/cnrc/bodycomp/bmiz2.html 



Articles, Guidelines, and Websites

http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/ - Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

http://www.eatwell.gov.uk - The British Food Standards Agency Nutrition website.

http://www.mypyramid.gov - A website dedicated to the food pyramid.

http://www.healthcastle.com - A nutrition website detailing the basics of nutrition, as well as podcasts - all provided by qualified dieticians.

http://www.whfoods.org/ - "The World's Healthiest Foods" - non profit, devoted to education about nutrition in food.

http://www.healthcastle.com/nutrition-food-la bel.shtml - Article from healthcastle.com: “Understanding Food Labels and Nutrition Facts”

http://www.healthcastle.com/organic_foods.sht ml - Article from healthcastle.com: "What should you buy organic?"

http://www.eattheseasons.co.uk/ - What is in season around you.

http://www.fishonline.org/advice/eat/ - Sustainable fish and seafood list.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/healthy-diet /NU00190 - The Mayo Clinic article about using a food pyramid.

http://www.shmc.org/index.php/page/298 - Sacred Heart Hospital's repudiation of the famous cabbage soup diet.

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/biology/b103/f02 /web1/asullivan.html - Student Paper: "Fad Diets: Seduction and Deceit" by Anne Sullivan.

http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/ - Dove Campaign for Real Beauty.

http://www.about-face.org/ - A campaign set on warning against and fighting negative imagery of women in the media.

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/mbi1.html - "Mirror Image" by Alicia Potter - a series of articles on male body image in the modern day.



Recommended Reads

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto - by Michael Pollan (Penguin Press)
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals - by Michael Pollan (Penguin Press)
What to Eat - by Marion Nestle (North Point Press) - also see Marion's blog: http://www.whattoeatbook.com/
The Hungry Self - by Kim Chernin (Times Books)
Losing It?: America's Obsession with Weight And The Industry That Feeds On It - by Laura Fraser (Dutton Adult)

All in all, the CC Team hopes you have a happy, healthy, and fad-free 2009!

If you have any tips, links, and otherwise you would like to add, please do!

Wow thanks for this lala - looks fantasticI can't wait to get stuck into some of those links as I look for health and happiness in the New Year (cos tbh 2008 sucked for me!

Great post. I totally belive that a diets are always made to be broken.. I feel that it must be a lifestyle change in order to lose weight.

How long have you been on here submitting posts?

Since May. I've been a Volunteer Moderator since... October, I think? Heh. Either way, I'm glad this helped!

I have a queston? I used a personal trainer several years back and he put me on a great diet. It was composed of all the healthy foods your body needs to stay healthy, fit and lose weight. The trainer checked my numbers every 2 weeks weight, inches, body fat ect... I ask the young man how many calories I was eating per day and he told me he didn't count calories and that he just went by the food my body needed to get threw the day and lose weight. At first I was skeptical, but this diet worked great and I lost over 30 lbs in 121 weeks.

My question is that do you ladies feel that counting calories is the biggest factor in losing weight because if you record your food every day and make adjustments to the diet when needed I feel you don't have to count calories?? What does everybody else think?

http://caloriecount.about.com/rewards-reachin g-goals-ft124656

For me counting calories helps a lot mostly because:

1. It makes me think of everything I eat and control portions (I know that if I eat that burger I'll have to "confess" and see it in my list). 

2. It helps me to know better what I'm eating, so I know what's more fattening without having to guess. With time you learn end even on non calorie counting phases, you can kind of calculate it in your mind. WIth time you get used toeating better.

3. Calorie Counter also calculates my vitamins, fiber, calcium and iron consumption, which is a big deal for me, as I tend to eat the same empty calories all the time if I don't pay attention.

I am so damned surprised this doesn't have a bajillion and 7 replies. This is such a damn good read. I thank you so much for posting it.