Tag Archives: Calories

Go Under the Needle to Help Your Fat Loss Diet

Posted on by
Reply

From Men’s Health:

When Polish researchers examined acupuncture as a diet aid, they found that people who got needled lost 10 more pounds and ticked 2 additional points off their BMIs compared with those who merely cut calories.

Marie Cargill, a licensed acupuncturist in the Boston area, explains that pressure points on the body—mostly on the ear—work as a switchboard to the brain, triggering electrical pulses that suppress appetite. “The ear system is very effective for addiction treatment,” she says.

Creating a Calorie Deficit is Crucial for Your Fat Loss Diet

Posted on by
Reply

For fat loss to occur, you must burn more calories than you take in.  I can just hear the thousands of “no duhs” being muttered as you folks read this shocking revelation!  However, there are several components to creating a calorie “deficit” (not just eating less), and using them all together will be the most effective.  Plus, you won’t be starving yourself like you usually do when you diet.

My dear sweet Grandma (may she rest in peace) struggled with her weight her entire life.  I always got a good chuckle when she would say to me, “Matthew, I wish I could lose weight like you.  I don’t understand, I hardly eat anything at all.”  I never wanted to challenge my 70-something year old Grandma on the scientifically impossible statement she made.  If you are taking in less than your body requires, you will lose weight, end of story.  If your body could gain weight from eating nothing, you’d be on Dr. Phil, Oprah and the Today Show tomorrow!

So, how do you create this calorie deficit?  It is a combination of watching your intake with anaerobic training (the interval-style training) and resistance training, both of which burn calories not only during activity, but also after, as long as 36 hours after completion!  When you eat less and burn more, you have achieved the magic fat loss formula.

For a fat loss diet that creates a calorie deficit easily and without hunger, check out my new book The Burrito Diet!

Don’t Let the Girl Scouts Derail Your Fat Loss Diet

Posted on by
Reply

Did you happen to catch the news story about the Girl Scout from Michigan who sold 17,328 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies?  She was rewarded with a 10-day trip to Europe for her and her Troop, as well as an appearance on the Today show and other national media coverage.  But, why is no one talking about the implications of her actions?

Granted, we shouldn’t hold the young entrepreneur responsible for the weakness of her customers.  But, for simplicity sake, let’s say she sold all of one type of cookie – the Lemonades iced lemon shortbread cookies.  Her record sales would equal the following:

  • Calories – 20,793,600
  • Fat – 970,368 grams
  • Saturated Fat – 554,496 grams
  • Sugar – 1,247,616 grams

Well at least there’s no trans fat, right?  Well, the good old USDA allows food manufacturers to state that their serving has zero grams of trans fats if it contains less than 0.5 grams – so technically, a box could have as much as 3.92 grams of trans fat without copping to it!  Which means that these staggering numbers could include 67,926 grams of trans fats!

For full disclosure, yes I did buy boxes of cookies from my niece, and yes the Girl Scouts do sell dried fruit and nut mixes as well, but…

  • My wife and I are able to control our consumption of junk food
  • Dried fruit mixes have their own issues (preservatives, etc.)
  • My wife has the kind of meatbolism that lets her eat whatever she wants

If 75% of Americans can now be classified as Overweight or Obese, I’m guessing most of those cookies will be consumed sooner rather than later.

Maybe it’s time for the Girl Scouts to find a different way to raise money – how about selling real fruit or gym memberships…if they truly care about the girls’ futures.

Six Tips to Getting Calories Out of Eating Out

Posted on by
Reply

When I eat out I want it to be special, consequently I don’t eat out often. You may have seen the advice on how to shave calories at restaurants but really, are you wanting to pay high restaurant prices for undressed salads and plain steamed vegetables? If not, how then can you solve the dilemma of too many calories when you eat out?

Here are six tips for getting the calories out of restaurant meals while still ordering your favorites.

Say NO to super sizing: The size you ordered is already too big. Stop super sizing and you’ll save money. Better still, order one dinner and ask for an extra plate. Many restaurants will do this for a dollar or two, and it’s well worth it. Then share the meal with your friend and you split the cost straight down the middle. Another option is to order from the so called “appetizer” menu. Two people could order three entrees, one dessert and split the whole thing and it’s still a ton of food!

Skip the bread and rolls: Many family restaurants still serve a bread basket with your meal. Unless it’s a fresh baked loaf or some really special bread, just skip it. You don’t need to fill up on ordinary bread when you’re paying good money for a meal. Just ask for it to be taken away if you can’t resist, but frankly, you’re an adult, you can resist, if you want to. You can simply choose not to put a roll on your plate. Try it, just once and see if you don’t walk out of that restaurant feeling strangely powerful.

Stop Ordering Drinks: Soft drinks are a huge cash cow for restaurants. For pennies they sell you a squirt of syrup and carbonated water and act like they’re doing you a big favor by only charging you $1.29 for a giant 64 ounce soda. Start saving those dollars. Especially if you’re ordering “to go” skip the drink. If you’re eating it there, ask for water, or at least switch to diet drinks. Never drink “fat pop.”

Slow Down You Eat Too Fast! What’s the rush? Take your time, savor the moment, enjoy the flavors. A big part of getting in touch with your hunger signals and learning to eat what really will satisfy is learning to recognize the subtle signs of hunger. You won’t know when you’re approaching satisfaction if you’ve gobbled everything down in five minutes. Take a bite then notice how many times do you chew before you start wanting to swallow? Once, twice? Make an effort to chew your food and your body will be much happier. A very large part of digestion begins in your mouth, not to mention you’ll get much more pleasure if you let the food linger.

Ask for a Doggie Bag at the Beginning of Meal: When the food is served, immediately portion off some to take home for tomorrow. Most restaurants in the US serve way too much. There is no law you have to eat it all. Do this frequently and soon you’ll find you’re getting an extra lunch out of that meal.

Get a copy of Eat This, Not That! or Restaurant Confidential, and start checking out how many calories you’re really eating. If you eat out frequently and you carry extra weight, then that’s probably the problem right there. These books can help you realize why it seems you don’t eat that much yet you can’t lose any weight. Hardees recently introduced a new burger that clocks in at just under 1200 calories all by itself! Now that’s frightening.

If you really want to get a handle on your weight problem, look first to where you eat, second at what you eat, and third how much you eat. Where, What and How Much? Try these steps choosing one tip at a time, and see how easily you can take some of the calories out of restaurant food

The Flat Belly Rules for Men

Posted on by
Reply

Men who lose weight successfully and keep it off share these eight characteristics according to Suzanne Phelan, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University.  You should be striving to live by these rules!

  1. They eat 1,850 calories a day – 27% of which come from fat
  2. They burn 3,300 calories a week through exercising
  3. They watch less than 10 hours of TV per week
  4. They weigh themselves every day
  5. They eat the same way on weekends and holidays as they do during the week
  6. They eat breakfast every day
  7. They limit the variety in their diet – i.e. they eat the same foods pretty consistently
  8. They rarely eat fast food

Want a plan that incorporates all of these suggestions? Try this one

In Order to Burn Fat, You Must Go Into Debt

Posted on by
Reply

This was one of the e-mails from my newsletter at leanstate.com  It is the opposite of everything you have ever heard about the most effective way to burn fat, and it took me a LONG time to finally get through my thick skull.  Remember, it is NOT about the calories you burn while exercising, it is about the calories you burn when you are NOT exercising.

No, I’m not suggesting you sink all of your money into every fat loss product imaginable.  In fact, you can go into this kind of debt without spending a nickel.  I’m talking about oxygen debt, and it is critical to fast and efficient fat loss!

Traditional “cardio”, where you do long bouts (45 minutes or more) on a treadmill or an elliptical machine at a moderate pace has always been the recommendation of doctors and trainers.  Why? Because at a moderate pace your body is using stored body fat for energy.  You’ll often see this referred to as the “fat burning zone.”  So, why is burning body fat a bad thing?  Have I finally lost my mind?

Your body is a pretty complicated engine, so when the fat is being burned, it says “well, I better save up some fat for the next time we go through this.”   So, what does it do?  It uses your lean muscle tissue to help preserve fat.  Now, that doesn’t sound right, does it?

Confused?  It’s really quite easy.  You don’t exercise to see the results that happen to your body during exercise – all of the magic actually happens after, not during, exercise.  So, while you rest and recover, your body is burning the fat.  Yeah, baby!

Intervals, which are short bursts of exercise followed by recovery, don’t use fat as their energy source.  During interval training, your body will call on carbohydrates which are stored in your muscles.  The effort that your body needs to go through to replace the carbohydrates stored in your muscle is much more intense, therefore it needs to call on the stored body fat for up to 24 hours after you’re done.  So, would you rather burn fat for 45 minutes or 24 hours?

Back to oxygen debt – this is how you can judge the proper intensity of your interval training.  Simply put, your interval needs to be of a high enough intensity that, when you stop and start recovery, that you are left panting.  This means that your body is asking for more oxygen than you currently can provide.

You can also monitor yourself with a heart rate monitor.  If your interval was intense, your heart rate will actually bump up when you stop before heading downward.

In 20 minutes or less, you’ll be revving up your fat burning engine like never before.  At some point I’ll share some of my favorite interval workouts with you.  But for now, even if you’re just walking outside, crank up your intensity for 30 seconds, followed by 60 seconds of recovery at a slower pace for 20 minutes total.