When you read this and see the word diet, don’t think of it as a thing to do for a short amount of time, diet should be a healthy life long change in the way you eat. A way of eating for lifelong health.
Finding the Excess Calories
Gaining weight and obesity is partly because there is so much more food available today than there was in the past. And Americans are certainly eating more calories than they used.
Americans and other western countries are eating about 400 more calories today than they did just 40 years ago, could this be the answer to the obesity problem?
One pound is equal to 3500 calories. If you were eating your BMR amount of calories to maintain your current weight and added just 500 calories more per week for a year, you would gain 7 pounds in that year.
You might think 500 extra calories a week is a lot when it isn’t. That is equal to an extra 71 calories per day, less than one piece of bread.
Thankfully all products tell us how many calories we are eating, but they also try and fool us if we aren’t paying attention. You have to look at the serving size on everything.
A simple can of soup says 180 calories per serving but the serving size is 2.5 servings per can. Who divides up a can of soup like that. That can of soup actually has 450 calories.
One cup of coffee with cream and sugar is 26 calories. When you are trying to cut calories every little bit helps. If you have 4 cups of coffee with cream and sugar per day that can really add up, in fact it adds up to 728 extra calories per week. You could have tea instead and in fact green tea actually helps to lose weight.
Hidden Fat In Your Diet
Try to greatly reduce or eliminate the use of oils. This means all oil like olive, canola, safflower, soy, etc. Do not use oil for cooking and do not use salad dressings that have oil in them. Oil is nothing but pure fat.
Carbohydrates and protein has 4 calories per gram, but oil and fat have 9 calories per gram. That is double the amount of calories, and all that oil really adds up. A healthy salad can turn into an unhealthy oil filled calorie bomb.
Beware of Vegan Junk Food
Many of these new plant-based fake meat products like Beyond Beef have a lot of oils in them, and oil is fattening. Despite all the claims that certain oils are healthy, it is a huge factor in gaining weight.
If you are serious about getting healthy and losing the excess calories, you have to cut way back if not totally eliminate oils from your diet.
Losing the Extra Calories
If you could cut out and or burn 500 extra calories per day you would lose approximately 1 pound per week. The math is 500 calories times 7 days equals 3500 calories in a week.
You could cut out 250 extra calories and burn another 250 extra calories per day and that would be the same as just not eating those 500 calories.
Losing weight slowly is the best way to do it. At first you might lose more than a pound per week and then it gets slower.
Some weeks you won’t lose any weight for a number of reasons. Everyone hits those plateaus. And as you increase your exercising even if it’s walking you will increase muscle, and muscle is denser and weighs more than fat does.
Cutting out extra calories is easier than you think it is. You want a big baked potato as a side dish, skip the butter and sour cream, you save saved about 200 extra calories. Use salsa or just a little salt. You want to make a tuna sandwich, skip the mayo and use mustard instead.
Mayonnaise is 57 calories per teaspoon versus 3 calories for 1 teaspoon of mustard. Having a list of weekly meals really helps and keeps you from just grabbing an unhealthy fast food meal or ordering a very high calorie fat filled pizza.
Do not fear eating carbs, no one ever got fat eating white potatoes. It is the fat like butter and sour cream on the potato that adds unhealthy calories.
The body needs carbohydrates for fuel and to function properly. Don’t just stop eating all carbohydrates since they are high in fiber, make you more full and keep your digestive system working. To be blunt, you can’t lose weight if you can’t go to the bathroom.
Carbs will not make you fat, it is the extra fat you add to the healthy carbs. Sour cream and butter on the nice baked potato and the oily dressing on a healthy salad are what adds the excess unhealthy calories.
Cutting down or completely eliminating oils from your diet can really help you lose weight.
Oil has more than twice the amount of calories that either protein or carbohydrates have. Carbs and protein have 4 calories per gram and oil/fat have 9 calories per gram, and oil is nothing but pure fat.
Some Ways to Fight Hunger
- Have a filling breakfast like oatmeal and berries, overnight oats or a healthy cereal like Ezekiel Golden Flax.
- Eat more fiber. Fiber is more filling than meat and healthier.
- Eat plenty of complex carbs like potatoes, beans, and vegetables since carbs fill you up longer than meat.
- Drinking a lot of water or tea since liquid fills you up.
- Eat healthier snacks. Sometimes we just want something to munch on. Have something like carrots, radishes, celery sticks or raisins.
- Have a bowl of soup before dinner and the soup will fill you up so you won't eat as much dinner.
- Instead of ice cream for desert have fruit, banana bread or make some plant-based cookies.
Fat Goes to Fat
There is also a belief that fat goes to fat. So even if something is equal in calories, but has more saturated fat, it could be worse for your health.
Usually it is the calories people count, but I also believe that all calories aren’t created equal and I know some will disagree. 100 calories is 100 calories, but if one item is nothing but fat I would think some of it goes to fat in the body.
Our body doesn't like to store carbs as fat, but it is very easy to store fat as fat. We use carbs for fuel before fat. We thrive on complex carbs, our muscles and brain needs complex carbs. We get enough fat in all of the food we eat, even plant foods.
Burning more calories
The more muscle you build the higher your metabolism will be and the more calories you will burn even when resting. Here are some examples of simple ways to burn calories for someone weighing between 145 and 200 pounds.
- Walking at 3 miles per hour for 30 minutes burns between 135 and 190 calories per 30 minutes. Walk 30 minutes in the morning and again in the evening and double the number of calories burned.
- Riding moderately on a stationary bike burns between 245 and 335 calories in 30 minutes.
- Resistance training is very helpful, not only for losing fat, getting a leaner body but also for getting a better bone density. Just by lifting some weights or dumbbells, you will build stronger bone density.
- Core exercises are great for building the core muscles, like the stomach muscles, thighs, buttocks, and lower back.
- Working out before eating breakfast can help burn more excess body fat, since we aren’t full of carbs. Our body will burn carbs before fat.
As you lose weight, you will have to recheck your BMR number since the less you weigh the fewer calories you will need to maintain your lower weight. The best thing about actively cutting out those excess calories and losing the inches will keep you motivated to continue exercising and eating a healthy diet.
About the Author
Sam Montana is a certified Food Over Medicine instructor from the Wellness Forum Health Center and certified in optimal nutrition from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Copyright © 2011-2018 Sam Montana
