Eat Out Eat Well

Do Fat Free Calories Count?

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Do you think you are being oh-so-virtuous by grabbing the reduced fat cookies or crackers off of the supermarket shelf?  I hate to disillusion you, but sometimes there isn’t a big difference in calories between the low or fat free version and the regular version of the same food.

In many reduced and fat free foods the fat is replaced with flour, sweeteners, or other starches and fillers which make the reduction in calories very small or, sometimes, nonexistent.

Reduced Fat Snack Food Hits The Supermarket Shelves

When fat free and reduced fat foods – especially snack foods like cookies, crackers, and chips hit the market — they were touted as products to help with the rising tide of obesity. Even things like pretzels, marshmallows, and gummy bears, foods that never contained fat to begin with, had “fat free” plastered all over their labels.

These fat and reduced fat foods certainly were not a panacea and consumers began to realize that they weren’t the magic bullet they were hoping for. Consumers choosing these foods were eating less fat  — but — they were still eating too many calories.

Calories Are Calories

Whether they’re from fat or carbs or protein, a calorie is a calorie.  If you eat more calories than you need you probably will gain weight. Reducing the amount of fat that you eat is one way to limit your overall calorie intake – as long as you don’t replace those fat calories with calories from another source.

Fat Free Is Not Calorie Free

Unfortunately, many people interpret “fat free” as “calorie free.”

Eating reduced or fat free foods isn’t always the answer to losing weight –especially when you eat more of the reduced fat food than you would of the regular one. And, because a lot of fat free foods aren’t very filling, it’s easier to eat a lot of calories and not feel full.

How Many Calories?

Compare the calories in the reduced or fat free versions to the regular version:

  • Reduced fat peanut butter, 2 tablespoons:  187 calories;  Regular peanut butter, 2 tablespoons:  191 calories
  • 3 reduced fat chocolate chip cookies, (30 g):  118 calories;  3 regular chocolate chip cookies, (30 g): 142 calories
  • 2 fat free fig cookies:  102 calories;  2 regular fig cookies:  111 calories
  • 1 small (2½ inch) low fat blueberry muffin:  131 calories; 1 small (2 ½ inch) regular blueberry muffing:  138 calories
  • 2 tablespoons fat free caramel topping:  103 calories; 2 tablespoons homemade (with butter) caramel topping:  103 calories
  • ½ cup fat free vanilla frozen yogurt (<1% fat):  111 calories;  ½ cup whole milk vanilla frozen yogurt (3-4% fat):  133 calories
  • Low fat cereal bar: 130 calories;  Regular cereal bar: 140 calories
  • 16 Low Fat Wheat Thins:  130 calories;  16 regular wheat thins: 150 calories
  • 3 low fat Oreo cookies: 150 calories;  3 original Oreo cookies: 160 calories

What’s In Your Cupboards — And Why Is It There?

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Take a look in your fridge and in your cupboards.  What’s in there?  Why did you buy it and when? Sometimes figuring out what to buy and eat is really tough.  Here are a baker’s dozen categories.  Which do you fall into most frequently?

1.     Are you a bargain shopper looking to get the largest amount of food for your money —  so you buy a dozen of what’s on sale or two of the gigantic size at Costco?  Check your cupboard or the back of your fridge there still might be some “bargains” left over from two years ago.

2.     Do you look for the most calories for your money (supersize me) — the biggest bang for your buck?  This often goes hand in hand with #1 above.

3.     Do you want the best nutrition for your money so you shop in CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) or go on the hunt for country farm stands? Do you then end up with so much produce that some of it rots and you have to toss it –- or, you’re so overloaded with kale or spinach that you never want to look at it again?

4.     Do you buy only what you want to eat – with no regard to cost, calories, or meal planning of any kind? My guess is that most people in this group are younger than 35.

5.     Do you buy food that you think, in the interest of your health or your family’s, that you and/or they should eat?  The problem is that a lot of these foods may not be what you want to prepare and what no one wants to eat.  The food you and your family like probably disappears quickly and the stuff that no one really likes ends up feeding the garbage pail.

6.     Do you buy special or celebratory food because it’s someone’s birthday, or Thanksgiving, or Easter, or Halloween?  Do you really buy it because of holiday traditions or because the holiday has given you an excuse to buy – and indulge – in what you ordinarily wouldn’t?

7.     How about the food you’ve always wanted to try and you bought on the spur of the moment because you happened to see it in the store. Then you got the food home and realized that you didn’t know how to prepare it or found out that the preparation is way too complicated – or that your spouse or partner really hates it.

8.     What about the product of the moment – which might fall into any number of categories.  It could be trendy, the latest low-fat wonder, or the cake mix your neighbor said was so good.  Maybe it’s good, maybe not.

9.     Then there’s the diet foods:  the  low or no fat, low or no sugar, fiber rich, reduced calorie food you bought in an endless quest for the miracle food that won’t pack on the pounds.

10.  What about “nutrition” foods – the ones with claims plastered all over the label that they can prevent or cure just about anything?

11.  Or, the convenience foods – the stuff, probably already prepared and/or processed, frozen, or take-out  — that you grab when you are totally exhausted or exasperated and you want to get the food on the table and not have anyone complain about it.

12.  Let’s not forget the craving foods – the sugar, fat, and salt foods that keep you coming back for more.

13.  And, last but not least, the reward foods — the “I’ve had such a tough day” or “I’ve been so good all day” food that almost always packs a whopper of a sugar, fat, and caloric punch.

Sometimes there is a time and place for food from any of these categories.  But, if you are a mindful, not mindless, eater you might want to think about the category you land in most frequently.

Did I miss any categories?  Please let me know what you think.

Other People May Make You Eat More

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Reservations for eight? You might eat 96% more! No kidding.  We tend to continue eating for a longer period of time when we’re with people compared to when we eat alone.  Maybe it’s because we mindlessly nibble while someone else talks, or the good manners we learned in fifth grade, or because we’re just having fun and enjoying great food. We do tend to stay at the table longer when we’re with others and the longer you stay at the table, the more you eat.

Losing Track

Friends and family also influence how much you eat. Sometimes you can get so involved in conversation that all the monitoring of what pops into your mouth goes out the window.  Have you ever looked down at your plate and wondered where all the cookies went or how you managed to work your way through the mile high dish of pasta or the four pieces of pizza?  How many tastes did you take of everyone else’s meal and dessert?  Those tastes aren’t like invisible ink.  Those calories count, too.

Who Sets the Pace?

You tend to mimic your table companions. They eat fast, you eat fast.  They eat a lot, you eat a lot.  Ever wonder why you look at some families or couples and they’re both either heavy or slender?  As Brian Wansink, PhD says in his book, Mindless Eating, “birds of a feather eat together.”

How Much More?

Wansink reports on a study that shows how strong the tendency is to increase how much you eat when you eat with others.  Compared to eating alone, you eat, on average:

  • 35% more if you eat with one other person
  • 75% more with four at the table
  • 96% more with a group of seven or more

Why?

The pattern of eating more when we’re in larger groups than when we’re eating alone is common in adults. One reason is a phenomenon called “social facilitation,” or the actions that stem from the stimuli coming from the sight and sound of other people doing the same that that you’re doing. When you’re eating in groups, social facilitation can help override the brain’s normal signals of satiety.

Some Helpful Tips:

  • Think about who you are eating with – and why.  If you want to have a blast and don’t care about how much you eat – eat with a big group and chow down.
  • If you want to be careful about what and how much you eat, think about eating lunch with your salad (dressing on the side, please) friends rather than the pepperoni pizza group.
  • You tend to adjust your eating pace to that of your companions.  So, sit next to the slow eaters rather than the gobblers if you’re trying to control how much goes into your mouth.

Goal!!!

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Do you remember being told to line up in size places in elementary school?  How about getting a star for hanging stuff up in your cubby – or winning a candy bar for hitting the most tennis balls over the net?

We’re a goal-oriented society.  From very early on we learn to work toward a goal or an end result – and often receive some kind of reward if we succeed.

Why not apply that focus to healthy eating and managing your weight?

Goals Can Be Tricky

Have you seen the hang-dog look on an athlete’s face when he or she is in a goal scoring drought?  What about the look on a goalie’s face when that blasted ball or puck lands in the net?

The same thing holds true for goals we might set for ourselves.  Many of us set these broad – huge – goals that are virtually impossible to accomplish.  For instance, (despite Biggest Loser results) you’re not going to lose thirty pounds by the end of next week.

All those huge non-specific goals just end up making you feel positively awful when you don’t succeed at achieving them.  You’ve basically set yourself up for failure and you’ll be physically and/or emotionally sporting that hang-dog demeanor.

Are You Starting Small And Specific Enough?

So many of us are guilty of all-or-nothing thinking and overly ambitious goals. Guess what happens?  We shoot ourselves in our collective feet and call ourselves failures.  Do it often enough and we solidly embed a “no can do” attitude and habit in our brains.

The key is to start with very small, realistic, and accomplishable goals – like putting mustard on your sandwich instead of mayo, or riding your exercise bike for 15 minutes three days this week (instead of saying you’ll ride for an hour seven days – most likely it ain’t gonna happen).

Write your goal down (writing reinforces it) and set a time target for achieving it. Leaving it open ended is just an invitation to put off taking the necessary action (a form of procrastination).  Commit to taking whatever action is required twice a week, then three times, then everyday. Start small and with things that are fairly easy to do and that don’t disrupt your lifestyle. Get some success under your belt.  Then move on to bigger challenges.

You’ll be amazed at how good you feel with a nice sense of accomplishment tucked under your belt.  Makes you want to go back for more!

Have You Broken Your “I’m Going To Lose Weight” Resolution Yet?

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The definition of a resolution is a firm decision to do or not do something. Have you made one or more resolutions recently – and does one or more of them have to do with losing weight or changing an eating habit?

The #1 New Year’s resolution is to lose weight. A recent study by a psychology professor found that for people who make resolutions, 75% keep them for the first week of the New Year; 71% are still maintaining their resolution after two weeks, and 46% are still keeping their New Year’s resolutions at six months.

Are those better stats than you thought? New Year’s resolutions really help you to define your goals and to identify what you want to accomplish or change.  But, identifying your goals or desires is one thing, realizing them requires a plan, work, and most of all, a commitment.

Why Do You Want To Lose Weight?

Losing weight and keeping it off takes time, effort, and a long-term commitment. It’s important to ask yourself if you’re really ready to make permanent changes and to decide if you’ll be making those changes for the right reasons  — for instance, losing weight because your want to feel better and be healthier, or that you want to look better because you want to look better – not because your spouse or partner wants you to look better.

Staying Committed

To stay committed you really need to be focused. It takes a lot of energy, both mental and physical, to form new healthy habits. So, to clear the way, first try to address the other challenges in your life – things like relationship or financial problems. It’s awfully tough to focus on multiple challenges at the same time.  While some challenges may never completely go away, managing them should make it easier to focus on losing weight.

Then, when you’re ready to commit to working on losing weight, pick a start date and go for it. Weight loss is a personal journey.  No one else can make you lose weight, although others can certainly help support you and hold you accountable in positive ways. Try to identify what will motivate you and keep you focused and then figure out a way to call on those motivators during those inevitable moments of temptation.

To use a frequently overused phrase – weight loss is a journey – but for this journey there is a map you can draw and follow – your own foodMAP to weight control.

Next post: goals, goals, and more goals.