No More Diets - To Count or Not to Count (calories)
1st April 2006
Contents
Feature Article:
To Count or Not to Count (calories)
Recipe of the Week:
Chicken Cacciatore
Hi!
I had a request this week to add calorie counts to recipes and as I have been thinking about this for a while I decided that I'd get my trusty calculator out and start giving the calorie counts for everything.
It's not that I advise my clients to count calories - I think it's a bad idea (and you'll see why in this week's article) but sometimes it's quite nice to know that you're not eating too many in one go.
Have a great weekend
Love
Janice Elizabeth
Personal Weight Loss coach
http://www.SimplySlimming.com
"The friendliest place to lose weight on the web"
P.S. If you've missed any issues of this ezine, you can find all 32 of them on the No More Diets back issues blog at http://nomoredietsezine.blogspot.com
Feature Article : To Count or Not to Count (calories)
You'll find lots of advice around about counting calories to lose weight. And in fact it does seem simple enough to work out how many calories your body needs in a day and then to just eat less than that. You don't even need to change what you eat as long as you keep within your calorie limits.
But if you have ever tried to lose weight in this way, you'll know that it's not as straightforward as all that.
1. All calories are not created equal
A calorie is simply a unit of energy in scientific terms but when you eat, the calories in different food groups (fat, protein and carbohydrate) are processed in different ways by your body with some foods being more likely to be converted to body fat than others.
So if you eat all your calories as fat they are more likely to become actual body fat than those you eat as protein. Now how do you account for that in your calorie counting?
2. Metabolism
Some people use up calories more slowly than others due to a slower metabolism. Generally the differences are so small as to be insignificant with one notable exception.
If you have been through a period of eating too little, your body switches into starvation mode and starts conserving calories and storing as many as it can as fat.
So a person with an average calorie intake can eat more calories than the strict dieter!
This makes it difficult to work out how many calories you need and in fact if you have been eating too little you might do better to start eating a little more and get your metabolism back to normal before trying to lose weight - it will be faster in the end!
3. Not everything comes with a label
It's reasonably straightforward to work out calories if you eat nothing but pre-packaged food or cook with standard ingredients but you will tear your hair out with frustration if you eat out a lot or buy ready prepared foods in delicatessens or bakeries.
4. You will underestimate
Hands up everyone who has ever said that the bit of cake you had on your friend's birthday "must have been about 300 calories" - mmmh - 700 to 800 more like! And that blob of mayonnaise? How big was that blob? Just a teaspoon? I don't think so! If you underestimate calories you can easily overeat and put on weight while thinking you are only eating your calorie quota for the day.
5. Counting is tedious
Despite all the programs around that are supposed to help you calculate the calories in your food, you have to be really dedicated to record everything in the programs and let's face it, life is really too short for that amount of tedious calculation and fretting about exactly how many calories there are in the food you eat.
So should you forget about calories?
Unfortunately if you don't care about calories at all, you do yourself a disservice too. It helps to have a rough idea of the relative calorific values in food so that you can make an informed choice. If you know about calories you can plump for the lower calorie food where it's as easy to make that choice as a higher calorie one.
Knowing about calories also helps you to remember not to pile on the salad dressing and spoil an otherwise low calorie lunch and to think before grabbing a handful of salted peanuts at 6 calories a nut.
So keep a balanced view about calories and don't ignore them altogether.
The best way to lose weight without counting every calorie is to choose food you know to be healthy and realtively low in calories (low in fat, sugar and salt and high in fibre, vitamins and minerals) and to eat just enough of it to satisfy your appetite, eating when you're hungry and stopping when you're full.
Those who are naturally slim don't count calories all day long. They simply respond to their body's needs. So if you want to be slim your whole life long you need to get into the habit of eating in the same way.
Copyright 2006, Janice Elizabeth Small
Make being slim a habit!
If you want to lose weight for good, discover the 24 keys to permanently losing weight with the Diet Exit Plan. This is an online coaching program which helps you think and act like the slim person you are inside. You'll see how to take on those slim habits and slot them more easily into your life.
You get all the support and encouragement you need to succeed too. The Diet Exit Plan manual is accompanied by 8 weekly modules and help from our weight loss coach is always on hand. Not only that, we've also included 3-months membership of the Simply Slimming online slimming club with DAILY motivational messages about building, automating and planning your success, plus articles, recipes and tools. All for a single payment of just £47 (about $87). See it all at http://www.SimplySlimming.com
Recipe of the week : Chicken Cacciatore
Serve with brown rice and green vegetables
Serves 4
250 calories per serving
2 tablespoons olive oil
450 g (1lb) chicken breast, chopped, without skin
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
150ml (1/4 pint) white wine
400g (14oz) can chopped tomatoes
12 black olives (without stones)
12 capers
Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed pan and brown the chicken over a high heat. Lower the heat and add the garlic and herbs and cook for a minute or two, then add the wine. After a minute or so add the tomatoes and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 15 minutes until the chicken has cooked through and the sauce has reduced. Add the olives and capers, heat through for 2 - 3 minutes and serve immediately.
New on the members' site this week
In the Recipes section
On the Forum (Anything else to share section)
Have a great week
Love
Janice Elizabeth
P.S. I hope you enjoyed this newsletter. If you have any comments or suggestions for future issues, please let me know.
P.S. Know anyone else who would like a copy of this ezine? Please pass it on. If you received this from a friend you can get your own copy at http://www.SimplySlimming.com Look for the link to "Free report".
Legal and admin
Copyright 2006, J. Small All Rights Reserved.
This newsletter provides information for general purposes only and is not intended as a substitute foe medical or health advice from professionals. The accuracy, completeness and suitability of the material for your needs has not been assessed or verified and cannot be guaranteed. This disclaimer also applies to any recommendations or links within the newsletter. You bear responsibility for your own health research and decisions. Please consult with a professional health care advisor before embarking on a weight loss or exercise program or making any personal health decisions. No liability can be accepted for the use made of any information contained within the newsletter or obtained by following any links or recommendations within it. If you do not wish to accept the above conditions you may not use our materials.
Contents
Feature Article:
To Count or Not to Count (calories)
Recipe of the Week:
Chicken Cacciatore
Hi!
I had a request this week to add calorie counts to recipes and as I have been thinking about this for a while I decided that I'd get my trusty calculator out and start giving the calorie counts for everything.
It's not that I advise my clients to count calories - I think it's a bad idea (and you'll see why in this week's article) but sometimes it's quite nice to know that you're not eating too many in one go.
Have a great weekend
Love
Janice Elizabeth
Personal Weight Loss coach
http://www.SimplySlimming.com
"The friendliest place to lose weight on the web"
P.S. If you've missed any issues of this ezine, you can find all 32 of them on the No More Diets back issues blog at http://nomoredietsezine.blogspot.com
Feature Article : To Count or Not to Count (calories)
You'll find lots of advice around about counting calories to lose weight. And in fact it does seem simple enough to work out how many calories your body needs in a day and then to just eat less than that. You don't even need to change what you eat as long as you keep within your calorie limits.
But if you have ever tried to lose weight in this way, you'll know that it's not as straightforward as all that.
1. All calories are not created equal
A calorie is simply a unit of energy in scientific terms but when you eat, the calories in different food groups (fat, protein and carbohydrate) are processed in different ways by your body with some foods being more likely to be converted to body fat than others.
So if you eat all your calories as fat they are more likely to become actual body fat than those you eat as protein. Now how do you account for that in your calorie counting?
2. Metabolism
Some people use up calories more slowly than others due to a slower metabolism. Generally the differences are so small as to be insignificant with one notable exception.
If you have been through a period of eating too little, your body switches into starvation mode and starts conserving calories and storing as many as it can as fat.
So a person with an average calorie intake can eat more calories than the strict dieter!
This makes it difficult to work out how many calories you need and in fact if you have been eating too little you might do better to start eating a little more and get your metabolism back to normal before trying to lose weight - it will be faster in the end!
3. Not everything comes with a label
It's reasonably straightforward to work out calories if you eat nothing but pre-packaged food or cook with standard ingredients but you will tear your hair out with frustration if you eat out a lot or buy ready prepared foods in delicatessens or bakeries.
4. You will underestimate
Hands up everyone who has ever said that the bit of cake you had on your friend's birthday "must have been about 300 calories" - mmmh - 700 to 800 more like! And that blob of mayonnaise? How big was that blob? Just a teaspoon? I don't think so! If you underestimate calories you can easily overeat and put on weight while thinking you are only eating your calorie quota for the day.
5. Counting is tedious
Despite all the programs around that are supposed to help you calculate the calories in your food, you have to be really dedicated to record everything in the programs and let's face it, life is really too short for that amount of tedious calculation and fretting about exactly how many calories there are in the food you eat.
So should you forget about calories?
Unfortunately if you don't care about calories at all, you do yourself a disservice too. It helps to have a rough idea of the relative calorific values in food so that you can make an informed choice. If you know about calories you can plump for the lower calorie food where it's as easy to make that choice as a higher calorie one.
Knowing about calories also helps you to remember not to pile on the salad dressing and spoil an otherwise low calorie lunch and to think before grabbing a handful of salted peanuts at 6 calories a nut.
So keep a balanced view about calories and don't ignore them altogether.
The best way to lose weight without counting every calorie is to choose food you know to be healthy and realtively low in calories (low in fat, sugar and salt and high in fibre, vitamins and minerals) and to eat just enough of it to satisfy your appetite, eating when you're hungry and stopping when you're full.
Those who are naturally slim don't count calories all day long. They simply respond to their body's needs. So if you want to be slim your whole life long you need to get into the habit of eating in the same way.
Copyright 2006, Janice Elizabeth Small
Make being slim a habit!
If you want to lose weight for good, discover the 24 keys to permanently losing weight with the Diet Exit Plan. This is an online coaching program which helps you think and act like the slim person you are inside. You'll see how to take on those slim habits and slot them more easily into your life.
You get all the support and encouragement you need to succeed too. The Diet Exit Plan manual is accompanied by 8 weekly modules and help from our weight loss coach is always on hand. Not only that, we've also included 3-months membership of the Simply Slimming online slimming club with DAILY motivational messages about building, automating and planning your success, plus articles, recipes and tools. All for a single payment of just £47 (about $87). See it all at http://www.SimplySlimming.com
Recipe of the week : Chicken Cacciatore
Serve with brown rice and green vegetables
Serves 4
250 calories per serving
2 tablespoons olive oil
450 g (1lb) chicken breast, chopped, without skin
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
150ml (1/4 pint) white wine
400g (14oz) can chopped tomatoes
12 black olives (without stones)
12 capers
Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed pan and brown the chicken over a high heat. Lower the heat and add the garlic and herbs and cook for a minute or two, then add the wine. After a minute or so add the tomatoes and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 15 minutes until the chicken has cooked through and the sauce has reduced. Add the olives and capers, heat through for 2 - 3 minutes and serve immediately.
New on the members' site this week
In the Recipes section
- Roast cod with herb crust
- Camembert stuffed mushrooms
- Frozen yogurt pots
On the Forum (Anything else to share section)
- How can affirmations help?
Have a great week
Love
Janice Elizabeth
P.S. I hope you enjoyed this newsletter. If you have any comments or suggestions for future issues, please let me know.
P.S. Know anyone else who would like a copy of this ezine? Please pass it on. If you received this from a friend you can get your own copy at http://www.SimplySlimming.com Look for the link to "Free report".
Legal and admin
Copyright 2006, J. Small All Rights Reserved.
This newsletter provides information for general purposes only and is not intended as a substitute foe medical or health advice from professionals. The accuracy, completeness and suitability of the material for your needs has not been assessed or verified and cannot be guaranteed. This disclaimer also applies to any recommendations or links within the newsletter. You bear responsibility for your own health research and decisions. Please consult with a professional health care advisor before embarking on a weight loss or exercise program or making any personal health decisions. No liability can be accepted for the use made of any information contained within the newsletter or obtained by following any links or recommendations within it. If you do not wish to accept the above conditions you may not use our materials.
posted by Jan at 8:55 AM
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