Are You a Weekend Overeater?

Most people eat more on the weekends then on the weekdays. A study by Jeffery Inman, a marketing professor at the University of Pittsburgh found that people who are weekend overeaters, average 400 additional calories for an average increase of 20%. This excess translates into a potential 6 pound weight gain annually! What are possible explanations for this weekend increase?

• Cupboards and refrigerators are full from recent shopping trips.

• Breakfast is more robust, including calorie dense foods like bacon, sausage, pancakes and waffles with all the toppings.

• Late night, sleep deprived activities, fueled by one too many spirits leaves people reaching for convenience and fast foods.

• Sleeping in results in overeating at lunch and dinner.

• Dining out and entertainment combined with food like movies, soda and popcorn are more common.

• Mindless snacking in front of the TV, while reading, or at the computer are more apt to occur.

Thankfully, the average person only consumes 37 more calories on the weekend. If you are above average, in the 400+ check out my “favorites” on Twitter www.twitter.com/e2dietitian to help improve your eating and exercise habits Monday – Sunday! If you are in the average, +37 weekend category, share some tips with us on how you avoid weekend overeating.

Zero Calorie Sports Drinks

PowerAde Zero has dominated Olympic commercial time, promoting its new zero calorie sports drink. PowerAde Zero comes in strawberry, mixed berry, orange, lemon lime and grape. It is artificially sweetened with sucralose and acesulfame potassium. A single, 8 ounce serving of PowerAde Zero contains 0 calories (hence the name), 0 grams carbohydrate, 100 mg sodium, and 24 mg potassium. Its primary competitor, G2, contains 20 calories, 5 grams of carbohydrate, 110 mg sodium and 30 mg potassium and contains the same artificial sweeteners. Both PowerAde Zero and G2 mirror their big boy counterparts, PowerAde and Gatorade, in terms of electrolytes but cut out the 50 calories per serving and 14 grams of carbohydrate.


Traditional sports drinks provide fluids to hydrate, carbohydrates for endurance energy, and electrolytes to replace those lost in sweat. Who should use these newer zero calories, electrolyte drinks? The answer depends on the individual and the nature of the sport. If you’re calorie conscious, have eaten a nourishing meal 3-4 hours earlier and are not participating in an endurance event these zero calorie drinks could be a good solution. They hydrate with fluids and electrolytes but force the body to use its existing energy supply from the blood, muscle and fat storage. However, you will crash on zero calorie beverages if they are your exclusive fuel source in endurance events. My recommendation is still water in events lasting < 1 hour and use regular sports drinks, bars, gels, bloks, or beans for endurance events. Kids need to stick with water bottles.

Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think by Brian Wansink

Every once in awhile I read a really great book about improving one’s health and think “This is the kind of stuff that made me want to become a dietitian!” I relayed this thought to my 9 year old son who immediately responded “Did you highlight a lot of the pages mom?” to which I chuckled with a “definitely”.

Mindless Eating is a great read for anyone interested in health and wellness topics. For the 2/3rd’s of American’s struggling with weight issues, it provides many “aha” moments and memorable tools that instill confidence in finally being able to successful manage eating habits. It’s not the traditional diet book that pushes foods allowed, foods to avoid, and how many minutes of daily exercise you need to lose weight. Rather it exposes the hidden psychological triggers behind why we eat what we do and the invisible cues that lead to scale creep. The guy obviously likes to make people laugh because his studies while thoroughly fascinating are relayed in such a humorous way that you’ll feel like you’re watching an Ashton Kutcher episode of “You’ve Just Been Punk’d”. The book tackles a lot of not so obvious topics including your kitchen environment, movie theater popcorn, clothing choices, restaurant traps, socializing in the midst of food and alcohol, m&m and jelly bean colors, and warehouse clubs. For a taste of the book go to http://www.mindlesseating.com/ and take the quiz. The book’s grand finale chapter provides specific tactics to overcome an individual's mindless eating danger traps: The Meal Stuffer; The Snack Grazer; The Party Binger; The Restaurant Indulger; and The Desktop or Dashboard Diner. After reading this book you should definitely feel in control over environmental influences that cause you to eat when you’re not hungry and overeat beyond the point of no return.

It Might Be a Fad Diet If...

What day is it today?  Tuesday, January 19, 2010 is officially "Rid the World of Fad Diets & Gimmicks" Day, seriously!  Here are the top 10 indications that a diet isn't kosher.  It might be a fad diet if...

10. You can buy it on the television shopping network, in the back of a magazine or is advertised by a buff looking dude by the name of "Abs".
9. You have to exclude an entire food group or certain foods are "forbidden" due to their illustrious past.
8. The pads you put on your feet to remove toxins from your body work double duty and remove excess weight loss too!
7. The FDA pulled it from the shelves, only to have it reappear 3 months later as new and improved.
6. It requires you drink copious amounts of foreign liquids, only to expel copious amounts of unmentionables in the restroom all day long.
5. One little pill, liquid, cookie, bar, or supplement "does it all"! No change in eating or exercise required.
4. You can save 25% off by ordering NOW!
3. The celebrity promoting the product, appears on the cover of a magazine in the grocery store check out aisle 2 months later, bigger than ever.
2. It was manufactured in a lab by skinny, vegan scientists.
1. It is just plain and simple, TGTBT (Too Good To Be True)

For this years "Slim Chance" Awards go to: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-talk-0119-small-talk-20100118,0,7853792.story

Happy “Healthy Weight Week” January 17-23

A healthy weight has been clearly defined by the medical, insurance and research industry. A healthy weight is one that falls within the “normal” weight range based on your Basal Metabolic Index (BMI). Click here to calculate your BMI .

   BMI Categories:
• Underweight = <18.5
• Normal weight = 18.5-24.9
• Overweight = 25-29.9
• Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater

32.7% of Americans adults are overweight, 34% are obese and 6% are extremely obese.  32% of American children are overweight, 16% are obese and 11% are extremely obese.  Looking at these statistics, it is easy to believe that a child has a 65-75% chance of following in their overweight parent’s footsteps.

You can do the math, but its safe to assume that very few people are in the normal weight range. Why should you care about being in the norm? According to the Center for Disease Control, as weight increases to the overweight and obesity range, the risks for the following conditions are elevated:

• Coronary heart disease
• Type 2 diabetes
• Cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon)
• Hypertension (high blood pressure)
• Dyslipidemia (for example, high total cholesterol or high levels of triglycerides)
• Stroke
• Liver and Gallbladder disease
• Sleep apnea and respiratory problems
• Osteoarthritis (a degeneration of cartilage and its underlying bone within a joint)
• Gynecological problems (abnormal menses, infertility)

Yet achieving a healthy weight is not just about reaching a set number of pounds that categorizes you as normal. It includes a collection of positive lifestyle behaviors that include a healthy diet, regular physical activity, adequate rest, not smoking, alcohol in moderation and effective ways of coping with everyday stress. Follow my favorites (yellow stars) on Twitter www.twitter.com/e2dietitian for 52 weeks of health tips that can help your family move their BMI score towards normal in 2010! If you or a family member would benefit from individual healthy lifestyle coaching, source a Registered Dietitian in your state by going to http://www.eatright.org.

Do Runners Burn More Calories in Winter or Summer?

There should be some benefit beyond heart, lungs, and the “feel good” to running outside on a frosty, winter  day! Unfortunately, calorie burn is not one of them. The metabolism of fat or burning fat for energy, actually slows down when the temperature gets colder. This is a nice preservation feature if you’re a bear hibernating in a den, or stranded in a blizzard, yet it’s not the pat on the back you might be looking for if you’re trying to lose weight. While you might breathe heavier when initially heading out, respiration returns to normal fairly quickly. Heart rate is often lower, but not always during cold weather exercise. So no, running outside is not an effective strategy for accelerating calorie burn in the winter months. Despite all this I’ll continue to run outside on cold winter days and hope you do too. Conquering the elements is what we Northern runners do, neither wind, nor rain, nor sleet, nor snow…not quite super hero stuff but still empowering!

When the Power to Cut Out Exceeds Work Out

In the New Year, just in time for vacation or bathing suit season, people choose severe low calorie diets, pills and beverages to help promote weight loss. The will power to cut out calories comes easier to some, than factoring in 30-60 minutes of daily exercise. While restrictive eating can result in significant weight loss, the long term success rate is poor at less than10% and it’s far from a healthy solution. Let’s compare the health differences between moderate exercise and restrictive eating.

 
       (For better viewing click on chart)


The best approach to weight loss is one that combines regular moderate activity with a healthy balanced diet. To learn more about healthy diets see a Registered Dietitian in your area by going to www.eatright.org. They will be able to co-design with you, a healthy eating plan that fuels your activity at the right time, based on your health conditions, weight goals and lifestyle.

Mindful Eating: A Diet for 2010 & a Lifetime

Does your food seem to disappear without you smelling, tasting or truly enjoying the pleasure of a good meal? Mindful eating is a way of eating that can translate into a significant health improvement for everyone in your family. It involves lifestyle changes that you can follow forever, and at no cost. Mindful eating teaches people how to avoid the opposite, mindless eating. Mindful eating requires that you shut off the computer, TV, or electronic devices and put down reading material. It requires that you sit down at the table, portion and plate foods versus bag, counter or car eating. Minus these distractions, you slowly become more in tune to your body’s hunger and fullness (satiety) cues and more appreciative of the meal before you.

People who eat mindlessly often eat in a rushed, panicked or tense manner. They don’t relax during a meal; rather they chew very little and swallow in large chunks. It takes 20 minutes for the stomach to signal the brain that it has had enough. A mindless eater is typically the 1st one done, and reaching for dessert because their stomach brain relay is still in midcourse. Many mindless eaters also need to harness responses to emotions (angry, sad, bored, and happy), society pressures (time is everything, thin is in) and specific foods (chips & cheese, ice cream, chocolate).

Select foods based on quality not quantity. Make sure they appeal to your sense of smell, taste, and are visually appealing. Mindful eating does not require that you eat certain foods just because they are good for you, in fact you shouldn’t eat foods that you don’t like. It is most important to enjoy your meal from beginning to end, savoring each bite, listening to body cues, eating slowly and as a result not overeating. What do you think? Should a change to mindful eating be in your 2010 plan?

Make 1/2 Your Plate Fruits & Vegies

The Healthy People 2010 objectives are nearing the end of their 10 year plan. The objective for fruits and vegetables is to increase the proportion of Americans over 2 year of age consuming > 2 servings of fruit daily to > 75% and > 3 servings of vegetables to > 50%. Unfortunately, Michigan like most ranks in the norm as a poor consumer with only 10-14% of the population meeting the goal. Why the push? Fruits and vegetables are a cheap form of health prevention. They are rich in phytochemicals that halt, lessen or prevent disease and are a great source of antioxidants which help repair the tissue damage caused by long runs and sprints. They are also part of a high fiber diet that has been shown to reduce risk for obesity and cancer, lower cholesterol and improve blood glucose levels. If you have younger family members try www.theportionplate.com as a fun way to serve up health meals. If you are looking for ideas on how to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into your diet go to www.fruitsandveggiesmatter.gov. This site will calculate your individual fruit and vegetable needs, provide good budget ideas, identify recipes for picky eaters and feature a special fruit and vegetable of the month.

Breaking the Fast

By the time breakfast rolls around athletes have gone 8-12 hours without eating. Breakfast makes an important contribution to both our mind and body yet up to 30% of people head out the door with a low tank of gas. It is the most frequently skipped meal. Common excuses for skipping breakfast include: “I have to run or I’ll be late, I’m just not hungry that early in the morning, it makes me nauseous” and “I’m trying to lose a few pounds”. Breakfast eaters share many of the following characteristics that are beneficial in school, work and athletic performance.


• Better hand eye coordination
• Higher attendance
• Improved concentration
• Greater spatial and cognitive problem solving
• More nutritious diet, better intake of vitamin A, C, riboflavin, calcium, iron, zinc and fiber

Breakfast skippers on the other hand tend to have a higher incidence of obesity and their diets that are higher in saturated fat and cholesterol.

As an athlete skipping meals causes the body to rely on glycogen storage in the liver and muscle for energy. Performance will improve if these resources are topped off instead of running on reserves.  In order for an athlete to excel, they must put forth their best effort at every training session. Improving performance means not missing practice, showing up alert and focused and not starting your engine cold for morning workouts.  Break the fast!

What's In Your Grocery Cart?

According to Information Resources, a Chicago based resource firm, the top 10 selling grocery store items are:

The percentage of Americans who are overweight or obese, inactive with heart disease, diabetes and cancer related to obesity continues to rise. It’s no wonder if soda pop, alcohol, junk food, TV dinners and cigarettes (yes some make a diet of this carcinogen) head up the average American’s diet? Look inside a few grocery carts the next time you’re at the store and you will find many examples to support these survey results. Which shoppers are making purchasing decisions based on sustaining good health and optimum performance of mind and body? You don’t have to be an athlete to eat like one and it might even help reform health care the old fashioned way, prevention!