1. If you’re full, stop eating and clear your plate right away.  If the food hangs around in front of you, you’ll keep picking at it until there’s nothing left. An exception – a study has found that looking at the “carnage” – the leftover bones from barbecued ribs or even the number of empty beer bottles – can serve as an “environmental cue” to stop eating.
2. Do you really need to stand in front of the buffet table or kitchen spread?  The further away from the food you are the less likely you are to eat it. Don’t sit or stand where you can see the food that’s calling your name. Keep your back to it if you can’t keep distant. There’s just so much control you can exercise before “see it = eat it.” Take a walk or engage someone in an animated conversation. It’s pretty hard to shove food in your mouth when you’re busy talking.
3. Before you grab another slice, some chips, mac and cheese, or a cookie — ask yourself if you really want it.  Are you hungry? Is it worth the calories? Odds are, the tempting display of food in front of you is visually seductive – and may smell great, too — but you may be reaching out to eat what’s there for reasons not dictated by your stomach, but by your eyes. Have you decided that you want to splurge on something specific? Try deciding what that splurge will be ahead of time and commit to your choice so you don’t find yourself wavering in the face of temptation.
4. Drink from a tall, thin glass instead of a short, wide one. You’ll drink 25%-30% less. People given short wide glasses poured 76% more than people who were given tall slender glasses, and they believed that they had poured less. Even experienced bartenders poured more into a short, wide glass.
5. Let this be your mantra:  no seconds. Choose your food, fill your plate, and that’s it. Keep a running account in your head of how many hors d’ oeuvre you’ve eaten or how many cookies. Keep away from food spreads and open bags of anything to help limit nibbling and noshing.
6. Stop eating before you’re full.  If you keep eating until your stomach finally feels full you’ll likely end up feeling stuffed when you do stop eating.  It takes a little time (around 20 minutes) for your brain to catch up and realize that your stomach is full. A lot of eating is done with your eyes and your eyes love to tell you to try this and to try that.
7. Divide your food up into smaller portions and separate them to help avoid overeating. Yale researchers took tubes of potato chips and made each seventh or fourteenth one red. The people who got to the red potato chip “stop signs” ate less than half as many chips as the people without the red chips — and they more accurately estimated how much they’d eaten. Definitely avoid eating from a large open bag — count out your chips, crackers, and pretzels or only eat from a single portion size bag. Who can stop when there’s an open bag of salty, crunchy food right in front of you? It’s amazingly easy to keep mindlessly eating until the bag is empty. A dive to the bottom of a 9-ounce bag of chips (without dip) is 1,260 calories. One serving, about 15 chips, is 140 calories.
8. Cut down a little bit, you probably won’t even notice. Have a one scoop cone instead of 2 scoops, a regular portion of French fries instead of a large, a small smoothie instead of a medium. Eat slowly and give your brain time to register the fact that you’ve fed your body some food. You’ll probably be just as satisfied with the smaller portion and you’ll have saved yourself a lot of calories.
9. Use a fork and knife instead of your fingers, a teaspoon rather than a tablespoon — anything to slow down the food going into your mouth. Chopsticks can slow you down even more. Chew your food instead of wolfing it down.  If you have to work at eating your food – cutting it with a knife, for instance – you’ll eat more mindfully than if you pick food up with your fingers and pop it into your mouth. Before you eat, drink some water, a no- or low-calorie beverage, or some clear soup. The liquids fill up your stomach and leave less room for the high calorie stuff.
10. Use a smaller plate. We eat an average of 92% of what we serve ourselves. We pile more food onto larger plates, so a larger plate means we eat more food. A two inch difference in plate diameter—decreasing the plate size to ten inches from 12 inches—would mean a serving that has 22% fewer calories. It’s a smaller serving but not small enough to leave you still hungry and heading back for seconds.

The post Ten Easy Ways To Save Some Calories appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

1. Don’t be duped by turkey, fish, and veggie burgers and sandwiches. They sound healthier and less caloric than beef, but that might not be the case. At Red Robin a grilled turkey burger has 578 calories, 29g fat. Burger King’s Premium Alaskan Fish sandwich has 530 calories, 28g fat while a Whopper Jr. without mayo has 260 calories, 10g fat. A Sedona Black Bean Burger at TGI Fridays has 870 calories, 49g fat.

2. Chinese food — even broccoli has calories. If you think you’re getting off easy because of all of the vegetables in Chinese food, think again. There are 466 calories in a cup and a half of beef and broccoli stir-fry (and about a day’s worth of sodium). One cup of fried rice has 333 calories. If you include a vegetable spring roll for 63 calories and three fortune cookies for about 100 calories, your meal clocks in at around 1000 calories. Cut down a little bit, you probably won’t even notice.

3. Avoid eating from a large open bag. Count out your chips, crackers, and pretzels or only eat from a single portion size bag. Who can stop when there’s an open bag of salty, crunchy food right in front of you? It’s amazingly easy to keep mindlessly eating until the bag is empty. A dive to the bottom of a 9 ounce bag of chips (without dip) is 1,260 calories. One serving, about 15 chips, is 140 calories.

The post Three “I Didn’t Know That!” Calorie Savers appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Are the calories in your favorite coffee the equivalent of the calories in a muffin – or your lunch — for that matter?

Calories and nutritional information for some Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts hot coffee drinks:

• Starbucks Caffe Latte, grande (16 oz), 2% milk:  190 calories, 7g fat, 18g carbs, 12g protein

• Starbucks Cappuchino, grande (16 oz), 2% milk:  120 calories, 4g fat, 12g carbs, 8g protein

• Starbucks Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha, grande (16oz), 2% milk, no whipped cream:  440 calories, 10g fat, 75g carbs, 13g protein

• Starbucks Gingerbread Latte, grande (16 oz), 2% milk:  250 calories; 6g fat; 37g carbs; 11g protein
• Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, grande (16 oz), 2% milk, whipped cream: 380 calories, 13g fat, 52g carbs, 14g protein

• Dunkin’ Donuts Gingerbread Hot Coffee with Cream, medium:  260 calories, 9g fat, 41g carbs, 4g protein
• Dunkin’ Donuts Snickerdoodle Cookie Hot Latte, medium, whole milk, no whipped cream: 340 calories, 9g fat, 52g carbs, 11g protein

Calories and nutritional information for some iced and frozen coffee drinks:

Note: all info (with the exception of Burger King) is for a 16 ounce cup.

• Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino with whipped cream, 16 ounces (grande): 400 calories, 15 g fat (9 g saturated), 64g carbohydrates.

• Starbucks Mocha Light Frappuccino with nonfat milk, 16 ounces (grande): 130 calories, 0.5g fat, (0 g saturated), 28g carbohydrates.

• Iced Caffe Latte with nonfat milk, 16 ounces (grande):  90 calories, 0g fat, 13g carbohydrates.

• Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee Coolata made with whole milk, 16 ounces (small):  240 calories, 4 g fat (2.5 g saturated), 50g carbohydrates

• Dunkin’ Donuts Vanilla Bean Coolatta, 16 ounces (small): 420 calories, 6g fat (3.5g saturated), 92g carbohydrates
• Dunkin’ Donuts Iced Caramel Mocha Latte with milk, (large):       450 calories, 12g fat (7g saturated), 73g carbohydrates

• Dunkin’ Donuts Iced Latte made with skim milk, 16 ounces (small):  80 calories, 0g fat, 13g carbohydrates

• Baskin Robbins Cappuccino Blast Mocha, 16ounces (small):  400 calories, 13g fat (9g saturated), 65g carbohydrates

• McDonald’s McCafé Iced Caramel Mocha, 16 ounces (medium) made with whole milk and whipped cream:  300 calories, 14g fat (8g saturated), 36g carbohydrates

• Burger King: Iced Seattle’s Best Coffee Mocha, 22 ounces (medium):  260 calories, 3.5g fat (2.5g saturated), 54g carbohydrates

Wow—It Can Add Up

• Say you have three grande (Starbucks)—or large (Dunkin’ Donuts)—coffees a day. Each is 20 ounces or 2.5 times the size of a traditional 8 ounce cup.
• If you add 4 tablespoons of half and half and three teaspoons of sugar to each—which sounds like a lot but is very east to do—that’s 128 calories for what you add and around 5 calories for the coffee for a total of 133 calories for each grande/large cup of coffee.
• If you have three of those daily that’s 399 calories a day or the equivalent of 145,635 calories a year.

What about the calories in some plain coffee or tea?

Hot or cold, you can have plain black coffee for a bargain basement 5 calories.  The trick is controlling the extras to avoid making your coffee just another sneaky calorie bomb.

• Brewed coffee, grande (16 oz), black:  5 calories

• Heavy cream, 1tbs:  52 calories

• Half-and-half, 1 tbs:  20 calories

• Whole milk, 1 tbs:  9 calories

• Fat-free milk. 5 calories

• Table sugar, 1tbs:  49 calories

Have your coffee and save some calories, too:

• Ditch the whipped cream.

• Swap half and half, full fat, or 2% milk for 1% or skim.

• Watch the sugar:  ask for one pump instead of two of sugar free syrup, add non-calorie sweetener instead of sugar, or don’t sweeten at all.

• Change the size of the drink that you order:  instead of a venti or an extra large, order a grande or large – or drop down to a tall, medium, or even a small-sized drink.

• If you have a two a day (or more) habit – like a latte in the morning and a frappuccino in the afternoon – substitute a plain coffee or iced tea (easy on the milk and sugar), or even a latte with nonfat milk for one of those choices.

• Order plain hot or iced coffee or even a hot or iced Americano (almost no calories for 16 ounces) and doctor it with non-caloric sweetener and skim milk.  You’d even come out ahead if you use controlled amounts of sugar and a bit of half and half. Or have an hot or iced brewed coffee with classic syrup:  a 12 ounce cup has 60 calories.

The post Is Your Coffee Giving You A Muffin Top? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Tip 1. Know your setting: pace yourself in the “speed eating” environment of fast food restaurants. Restaurant decor of fast food restaurants is not an accident — it is designed with the intention of getting you to eat and run. The red and gold color schemes in many fast food and Chinese restaurants encourage you to chow down quickly.

Tip 2. Go easy on sauces and dressings: There are lots of calories in mayo, sour cream, salad dressing and other “special” sauces, like those often found on burgers. The amount on your sandwich or salad often depends on the “hand” of the person preparing your food or how much you pour on. The best way to control this is to ask for the sauce or dressing on the side and add it (or not) by yourself. You really can do this — even in fast food burger places! Source: McDonald’s USA Nutrition Facts for Popular Menu Items

• McDonald’s Creamy ranch Sauce (0.8 ounces): 110 calories, 110 calories from fat
• Newman’s Own Low Fat Sesame ginger Dressing ( 1.5 ounces) 90 calories, 25 calories from fat
• McDonald’s Spicy Buffalo Sauce (0.8 ounces): 35 calories, 30 calories from fat
• Newman’s Own Creamy Southwest Dressing (1.5 ounces): 120 calories, 70 calories from fat
• Newman’s Own Ranch Dressing (2 ounces): 200 calories, 150 calories from fat
• McDonald’s Sweet ‘N Sour Sauce (1 Package): 50 calories, no fat
• McDonald’s Honey Mustard Sauce (0.8 ounces): 60 calories,, 35 calories from fat
• McDonald’s Tartar Sauce Cup (1 ounce): 140 calories, 130 calories from fat

Tip 3. Opt for chicken or fish as long as it’s not fried/breaded/or called crispy – which is just an alias for fried. Order it grilled, baked or broiled. Another sauce alert: lots of the sauces have a ton of sugar in them. Make your best choice (check the labels or nutrition info) and dip sparingly. Source: McDonald’s USA Nutrition Facts for Popular Menu Items

• McDonald’s Premium McWrap Chicken & Bacon (Crispy): 610 calories, 280 calories from fat
• McDonald’s Premium McWrap Chicken & Ranch (Grilled): 450 calories, 160 calories from fat

Tip 4. Order your burger or chicken sandwich without bacon or cheese: A serving size of meat is about 3 ounces — about the size of a deck of cards. You’re probably getting well over that with a single meat patty. One slice of bacon adds about 43 calories, but how many sandwiches come with only one slice? One slice of American cheese clocks in at 94 calories.

Tip 5. Do you really need (read “need” not “want”) fries, curly fries, potato sticks, or onion rings? You can order salad or a baked potato instead (as long as you don’t smother them in butter and/or sour cream or salad dressing). If you absolutely must have fries, order a small or a kid’s size. Large fries can tack on around 500 calories. Larger sizes may seem like a good “value” but the beefed up sizes also beef up the calories, fat, and sugar.

Tip 6. Avoid combo specials: they might have wallet appeal but you get, on average, 55% more calories for 17% more money.  What’s more important, your waistline, or your wallet?

Tip 7. Survey the sides: Eating a burger or sandwich by itself is often filling enough. If you do want a side, consider ordering a fruit cup or side salad instead of French fries or onion rings. Most fast food restaurants now offer them. Source: McDonald’s USA Nutrition Facts for Popular Menu Items

• McDonald’s Side Salad (3.1 ounces): 20 calories, no fat
• McDonald’s Apple Slices (1.2 ounces): 15 calories, no fat
• McDonald’s Large French Fries: 510 calories, 220 calories from fat
• McDonald’s Medium French Fries: 340 calories, 140 calories from fat
• McDonald’s Kids’ Fries: 110 calories, 50 calories from fat

Tip 8. Don’t drink your calories. Soda isn’t the only sugary drink. Sweetened tea, sports drinks, non-diet flavored water, juice, flavored milk, and shakes are sugary drinks, too. A 12-ounce can of coke has 140 calories and 39 grams of sugar (about 10 teaspoons). Eight ounces of orange juice has 110 calories and 25 grams of carbs. At Burger King, a small classic coca cola has 190 calories and 51g carbs; a medium classic coca cola has 290 calories and 79 carbs. Decreasing – or eliminating — the amount of sugary soda that you drink is an easy way to save calories.

For 99 cents you can get the lowdown on Easter Candy.  Check out my ebook Easter Candy Facts and Fun on Amazon.  You’ll spend less than you would on jelly beans.  It’s also way fewer calories than a chocolate bunny!

The post 8 Ways To Save Calories When You Order Fast Food appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Putting the “big” meal aside, most extra holiday calories don’t come from the “day of” holiday meal but from unrelenting nibbling over the long holiday season.

Here are 15 workable tips to help you handle holiday food. Choose and use what will work best for you and your lifestyle.

1.  You’re the one in charge of choosing what, when, and where you eat. Make the best choice for you — not for someone else. Eat what you want not what you think you should. Give yourself permission to NOT eat something just because it’s tradition.

2.  To make good choices you need to inform yourself. If 12 ounces of eggnog has 500 calories and 12 ounces of beer has around 150 and you like them both, which would you choose?

3.  Don’t feel obliged to eat what your partner, parent, neighbor, or sibling is having – and don’t let them make you feel guilty if you don’t. What you choose to eat should be what you like, want, and is special to you — not someone else.

4.  Say “no thank you” to rolls, mashed potatoes, and ice cream. You can have them any time of the year. Spend your extra calories on something special.

5.  Practice portion and plant control. Pile your plate high with lower-calorie vegetables and be stingy with portions of the more calorically dense, fatty, and sugary foods. Eat high volume, lower calorie foods (like vegetables and clear soups) first – they’ll fill you up leaving less room for the other stuff.

6.  Be attentive to mindless noshing. For some reason we don’t seem to mentally process the random nibbles and calories from the treats on the receptionist’s desk, the office party hors d’oeuvres, the nibbles off of a child’s plate, or the holiday cake in the snack room. If the food is in front of you it’s hard not to indulge. See it = eat it.

7.  Don’t deprive yourself of your favorite holiday foods3. Give yourself permission to eat the holiday treats that you really want – just not the whole platter. A good strategy is to decide on one fantastic treat a day and stick to your decision. Do it ahead of time and commit to your choice so you don’t find yourself wavering in the face of temptation.

8.  Let this be your mantra: no seconds. Double-decking the food on your plate isn’t such a great idea, either. Choose your food, fill your plate, and that’s it.

9.   Pick the smallest plates, bowls, and glasses you can to help you feel full even when you’re eating less. The smaller the plate, the less food that can go on it. You probably won’t even notice the difference because your eyes and brain are registering “full plate.” The same optical illusion applies to glasses.  Choose taller ones instead of shorter fat ones to help cut down on liquid calories.

10. Don’t feel obliged to eat out of courtesy because you don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings.  Get over it – the calories are going into your mouth, not someone else’s.  Avoid food pushers who insist on trying to get you to eat more. Have some polite excuses ready to use. You’re the one who will be stepping on the scale or zipping up your jeans the next day – not them.

11. Don’t go to a party hungry, thirsty, or tired — it sets you up for overindulging. Our bodies have a tough time differentiating between thirst and hunger and we often make poor decisions when we’re tired. Before going out have a small healthy snack that‘s around 150 calories and has protein and fiber — like fat-free yogurt and fruit, a serving (not a couple of handfuls) of nuts, or a small piece of cheese and fruit. When you get to the party or dinner you won’t be as likely to attack the hors d’oeuvres or the breadbasket.

12. Forget about grazing. Take a plate — or even a napkin for hors d’oeuvres — put food on it and eat it. Lots of little nibbles add up to lots of big calories. Noshing is mindless eating.

13. Sit with your back to a buffet table – and as far away as possible – so temptation isn’t in your line of sight. A lot of “eating” is done with your eyes and your eyes love to tell you to try this and to try that. Try talking to someone, too. It’s hard to shove food in your mouth when you’re talking.

14. A buffet doesn’t have a “stuff your face” sign hanging over it. Pay attention to what you’ll enjoy and really, really want — not how much you can fit on your plate.

15. Keep in mind that a holiday is a day – 24 hours — like any other day, except that you’ll most likely encounter more food challenges. Be selective. Pass on the muffins at breakfast and save your indulgence calories for “the meal.” Before you put anything on your plate survey your options so you can choose what you really want rather than piling on a random assortment of too much food.

The post Nibbles and Noshes, Cocktails and Cookies: 15 Tips To Keep You and Your Scale Happy appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Candy, costumes, trick or treaters, and shaving cream in roadside mailboxes (one of many suburban pranks) are all part of the ritual of Halloween. One thing for certain — there’s candy everywhere and it’s pretty hard to resist as an adult and horrifically hard to resist as a kid.

On average, each piece of Halloween sized candy contains around two teaspoons of sugar and the same number of calories as two Oreos. Do the math – if you or your child pops 10 or more pieces of Halloween candy that’s 20 teaspoons of sugar and the calories of more than half a package of Oreos (36 cookies per package).

It’s not the day of Halloween (or Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter) that presents the food challenge – it’s all the other days when the eating with abandon continues and continues …that’s when the weight piles on and poor eating choices become a habit. So enjoy the day of celebration and think about putting the brakes on making every other day a food holiday, too.

Here’s Another Way To Calibrate Halloween Candy

Here’s another way to think about Halloween candy — how much walking will it take to work off the calories in various types of candy?

According to walking.com:

• 1 Fun Size candy bar (Snickers, Milky Way, Butterfingers, etc. is about 80 calories. You’d need to walk 0.8 miles, 1.29 kilometers, or 1600 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.

• 2 Hershey’s Kisses are about 50 calories. You’d need to walk 0.5 miles, 0.80 kilometers, or 1000 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.

• 2 Brachs caramels are about 80 calories. You’d need to walk 0.8 miles, 1.29 kilometers, or 1600 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.

• 1 mini bite-size candy bar (Snickers, Milky Way, Butterfingers, etc.) is about 55 calories. You’d need to walk 0.55 miles, 0.88 kilometers, or 1100 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.

• 1 Fun Size M&M package – Plain or Peanut, is 90 calories. You’d need to walk 0.9 miles, 1.45 kilometers, or 1800 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.

• 1 mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup is 33 calories. You’d need to walk 0.33 miles, 0.53 kilometers, or 660 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.

• 1 full size chocolate candy bar (Snickers, Hershey, etc.) is about 275 calories. You’d need to walk 2.75 miles, 4.43 kilometers, or 5500 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.

• 1 King Size chocolate candy bar (Snickers, Hershey, etc.) is about 500 calories. You’d need to walk 5 miles, 8.06 kilometers, or 10000 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.

• 1 small Tootsie Roll is 25 calories. You’d need to walk 0.25 miles, 0.40 kilometers, or 500 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.

If You Ate Them All . . .

2 Brachs caramels, 2 Hershey’s Kisses, 1 small Tootsie Roll, 1 Fun Size candy bar (Snickers, Milky Way, Butterfingers, etc.) 1 mini bite-size candy bar (Snickers, Milky Way, Butterfingers, etc.), 1 Fun Size M&M packet – Plain or Peanut, 1 mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, 1 full size chocolate candy bar (Snickers, Hershey, etc.), 1 King Size chocolate candy bar (Snickers, Hershey, etc.)… comes to 1188 calories. You’d need to walk 11.88 miles, 19.16 kilometers, or 23,760 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.

Happy Halloween!

The post How Far Would You Have To Walk To Burn Off Halloween Candy? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

We eat a lot of pizza:

• 94% of Americans eat pizza regularly
• Pizzerias represent 17% of all restaurants and pizza accounts for more than 10% of all food service sales
• 5 billion pizzas are sold worldwide each year; 3 billion pizzas are sold in the US each year
• Kids ages 3 to 11 prefer pizza over other food groups for both lunch and dinner
• In the US, 61% prefer regular thin crust, 14% prefer deep-dish, and 11% prefer extra thin crust
• 62% of Americans prefer meat toppings; 38% prefer vegetables36% order pizza topped with pepperoni.

What’s Good, What’s The Not-So-Good?

It’s difficult to estimate the number of calories and fat grams in a slice of pizza because the size and depth of the pies and the amount of cheese, meat, or other toppings vary enormously.

Here’s the good news: pizza can be a healthy food choice filled with complex carbs, B-vitamins, calcium, protein, vitamin A, and vitamin C and calorically okay if you choose wisely and don’t eat more than your fair share.

The not so good news:  fat and calories. If your mouth starts to water at the thought of golden brown crust and cheesy goodness — here’s the downer: if you don’t choose wisely, that luscious pizza can be a fat and calorie nightmare.

Mall pizza can be okay — and not okay. 

• Sbarro’s Low Carb Cheese Pizza has 310 calories and 14 grams of fat.
• Sbarro’s Low Carb Sausage/Pepperoni Pizza has 560 calories and 35 grams of fat.
• A slice of Sbarro’s Fresh Tomato Pizza clocks in at 450 calories with 14 grams of fat.
• Any of Sbarro’s “Gourmet” pizzas have between 610 and 780 calories a slice and more than 20 grams of fat.
• “Stuffed” pizzas are even worse—790 calories minimum and over 33 grams of fat per slice.
• Most Costcos have a food court that sells pizza, making Costco the 15th largest pizza chain in the US. A single slice of Costco pizza is estimated to have 804 calories, 342 of them from fat.

Build a Better Slice of Pizza

Although we all have our own pizza preferences, the next time you order try some of these tricks to keep your choice on the healthy side:

• Order thin crust rather than a thick doughy or deep dish crust.
• Resist the urge to ask for double cheese  — better yet, go light on the cheese or use reduced-fat cheese (if they have it).
• Ask for a pizza without cheese but topped with veggies and a little olive oil. You can always sprinkle on a little grated parmesan – 1 tablespoon has 22 calories — for flavor.
• Instead of cheese go for big flavors:  onion, garlic, olives (use them somewhat sparingly because of the oil but they’re a whole lot better than meat).  And don’t forget anchovies  — a lot of flavor for minimal calories – but you have to like them!
• Choose vegetable toppings instead of meat (think about the fat content in sausage, pepperoni, and meatballs) and you might shave 100 calories from your meal. Pile on veggies like mushrooms, peppers, olives, tomatoes, onion, broccoli, spinach, and asparagus. Some places have salad pizza – great if it’s not loaded with oil.
• Order a salad (careful with the dressing) on the side and cut down on the amount of pizza.  Salad takes longer to eat, too.
• If you’re willing (and not embarrassed or grossed out), try blotting up the free-floating oil that sits on top of a greasy slice. Blotting (it’s easy to do this on the kind of hot slice where the oil runs down your arm) can soak up a teaspoon of oil worth 40 calories and 5 grams of fat.

If you know someone who is heading off to college, you might want to get this book for him or her.  It gives 30 ways to handle college food — plus 30 bonus tips — all easy to incorporate into the college lifestyle.  One thing it definitely does not do is tell you not to eat.  On the contrary — food is necessary, social, and fun!  Get it now from Amazon (available in paperback and as an ebook) or as an ebook from Barnes & Noble.

The post 7 Ways To Cut Down On Pizza Calories appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

It certainly can. Pure alcohol, gram for gram, has almost twice the number of calories as a gram of carbohydrate or protein. One gram of alcohol has 7 calories compared to the 4 calories for carbohydrate or protein – fat has nine calories a gram. Some research is showing that calories from alcohol may be burned less efficiently, but the calories still pack a punch.

There’s another factor, too.  If you drink alcohol along with your other daily food, you’re often adding, not replacing, the calories from other food or drinks. If everything else stays the same, you’ll gain weight. And, alcohol can cause disinhibition — it reduces your ability manage your immediate impulsive response to a situation – in other words, it makes you less focused on how much you’re eating.

However, statistically, drinkers aren’t more likely to be obese than nondrinkers. But a number if factors come into play: the amount and type of alcohol; when, where, and the type of drinking pattern; the way your body processes the alcohol; and various psychological factors.

Gender Differences On Drinking Days

A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition compared the food and calorie intake of 1,864 people on days when they did and didn’t drink. On drinking days men (including 10% who were heavy drinkers which would skew the numbers higher) averaged 433 extra calories; 363 of them came from alcohol, the rest from extra food and other kinds of beverages. The men also ate more protein, fat, salt, and meat on drinking days.

Women averaged an extra 299 calories on drinking days, almost all of them coming from alcohol. Although they didn’t eat much more than on nondrinking days, they did eat more fat and less healthy foods.

Good News, Bad News

About 35% of American adults don’t drink, 55% are light or moderate drinkers, and 10% drink more than a moderate amount. It’s estimated that alcohol directly or indirectly causes 90,000 deaths a year in the US, including more than 11,000 traffic fatalities.

But drinking has benefits, too It can be part of social, business and family life and regular drinking, even in small amounts, decreases the risk of cardiovascular disease. Alcohol, like aspirin, reduces blood clotting — a transient effect that lasts for about a day. Alcohol can raise HDL (“good”) cholesterol levels over time and moderate intake helps to reduce the risk of other health problems, including type 2 diabetes, gallstones, peripheral artery disease, and perhaps dementia.

The most serious health risks — alcoholism, heart and liver disease, hypertension, certain cancers, osteoporosis, car crashes and other accidents — come mostly from heavy drinking, but moderate drinking can affect your coordination and ability to drive, operate machinery, or swim.

If You’re Going To Drink, Should You Do It Every Day?

It seems that drinking small amounts regularly and with meals  (it slows the absorption of the alcohol) is better than occasionally drinking larger amounts. Some research findings suggest that daily (or almost daily) drinking is best for the heart; other studies have found that drinking every other day is enough to get benefits; and still others have found that it only takes half a standard drink a day. (In the US a “drink” is 5 ounces of wine, 12 ounces of beer, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof liquor, which all contain about 14 grams of pure alcohol.)

What’s Moderate Drinking?

In the US, moderate drinking — as defined in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans — is up to one drink a day for a woman and up to two for a man. (Other countries define moderation and the size of a “standard” drink differently.) The recommended amount is less for women because they tend to be smaller, have proportionately more body fat, and have less body water (alcohol is diluted in body water). Generally, the same amount of alcohol would cause higher blood level of alcohol in women than in men and would also cause more impairment.

The post Does Alcohol Make You Gain Weight? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

How did your team do this weekend?  Did they win or lose?

If you’re being careful about what and how much you eat, you better hope they won (for more reasons than one) or chances are you’ll be joining your fellow fans who will be rummaging around the kitchen or who have the pizza place on speed dial.

That’s not hearsay.  According to a study published in Psychological Science, on the Monday after a big football game fans of the losing team like to load up on sugar and saturated fat. Fans of the winning team go for healthier foods.

How Much Fat?  How Many Calories?

Researchers looked at food consumption habits on typical Mondays for people living in over two dozen cities.  They compared that data to people’s food consumption on Mondays after NFL games in cities with NFL teams who had played games over the weekend.

They found that people living in cities where the football team lost ate about 16% more saturated fat and 10% more calories compared to how much they typically ate on Mondays.

People in cities where the football team won ate about 9% less saturated fat and 5% fewer calories compared to their usual Monday food.

These changes happened even when non-football fans were included in the study sample. And, they didn’t find these results in cities without a team or in cities with a team that didn’t play that particular weekend.

The after effects were even greater in the most football crazed cities; the 8 cities with the most devoted fans, people gobbled up 28% more saturated fat after a loss and 16% less after a win.

A Down To The Wire Game Turned Up The Food Effects

The trends were especially noticeable when a game came down to the wire. When their team lost, especially if the loss was unexpected, or by a narrow margin, or to an equally ranked team  — the effects were the most noticeable. The researchers think that people perceive the loss, perhaps unknowingly, as an identity threat and use eating as a coping mechanism. A winning team team wins seems to give a boost to people’s self control.

To further test their findings, in an experimental setting the researchers asked French participants to write about a memory they had when their favorite soccer team either won or lost a game. Then they asked them to choose either chips and candy or grapes and tomatoes as a snack. The people who wrote about their favorite team winning were more likely to pick the healthier snacks.

What You Can Do

Previous studies have shown how sports can influence — among other things — reckless driving, heart attacks, and domestic violence.  But, according to the researchers, no one had ever looked at how sports results can also influence eating.

The researchers suggest a technique to use tp help keep your fat intake and calories under control if you root for a team that doesn’t have a winning record — or even if you just live in a city with a team that tends to lose.

• After a loss, write down what’s really important in your life.
• They found that this technique, called “self affirmation,” eliminated the eating effects that occurred after football losses.

Want more tips — especially if you eat in dining halls of any kind?  Get my new book, now available on Amazon — 30 Ways to Survive Dining Hall and Dorm Room Food: Tips to Avoid the Freshman 15.

The post A Losing Team Means Lots Of Sugar, Fat, And Calories. No Kidding! appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

How many people do you usually sit with when you’re eating? Not all the people surrounding you in a cafeteria or restaurant, but the number of friends or family at your table?

Amazingly, the number of people you eat with can make a big difference in how much you end up eating. If you have eight people at your table you might end up eating 96% more than if you ate alone!

That’s not to say that you should limit the number of friends you eat with—it should just make you aware that friends, unintentionally, can influence how much and how fast you eat.

How Come?

You tend to eat for a longer amount of time — and eat more — when you’re with people you like compared to when you eat alone.  It could be because you mindlessly nibble while someone else talks, or you’re using the good manners you were taught in fifth grade about not letting someone else eat alone, or maybe you’re just having fun and enjoying your food. Whatever the reason, most of us tend to stay at the table longer when we’re with others –and– the longer you stay at the table, the more you eat.

We also tend to mimic the other people at the table. It’s almost as though how much you eat and how fast you eat is contagious. If your friends eat fast, you eat fast. If they eat a lot, you eat a lot.

Friends and family influence how much we eat, too. Sometimes you get so involved in conversation that all monitoring of what you pop 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.

How Much More Do We Eat When We’re With Others?

In his book, Mindless Eating, Brian Wansink, PhD 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

What’s The Reason?

It’s a common pattern for adults to eat more when they’re in larger groups than when they’re eating alone. One reason is a phenomenon called “social facilitation,” or the actions or behaviors that result from the sight and sound of other people doing the same thing that you’re doing. When you’re eating in groups, social facilitation can help override your brain’s normal signals of satiety.

What You Can Do

• Think about who you’re 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.
• Without even thinking about it, 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.

Want more tips — especially if you eat in dining halls of any kind?  Get my new book, now available on Amazon — 30 Ways to Survive Dining Hall and Dorm Room Food: Tips to Avoid the Freshman 15.

The post Did You Eat Too Much? Blame Your Buddies At The Table appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.