A Man’s Eating Plan to Burn Fat and Lose Weight

Because most purveyors of weight-loss plans are idiots, the words “diet” and “deprivation” have become nearly synonymous. When you start thinking about reducing your gut, you imagine a dreary patch of flavor denial and an aching belly, and quite naturally you turn away. That’s what’s wrong with the average diet: It contains the seeds of its own destruction.

We’re not going there. Instead, we offer this promise: We’ll help you chase your extra 10 or 15 pounds out of town by tempting you with eating opportunities all day long—by keeping your belly so full it’ll never occur to you that you’re on a diet. And all we ask is that you agree to explore a broader swath of life’s big buffet.

The fact is, you can feel better than you do today; you can have more energy; you can improve your long-term health prospects; you can even get lucky more often, with better results. And food—the right kind of food—is your ticket; all the secrets are right here. In 5 weeks, you’ll be in your new home: the land of the 32-inch waist. Ready? Let’s go.

I mean, let’s eat.

Eat 5 Meals a Day

That’s three squares and two snacks. In a study in the American Journal of Epidemiology, researchers found that men who ate four or more times a day had half the risk of becoming overweight compared with those who ate three times or fewer. This doesn’t mean three feasts and two 900-calorie “snacks”; read on for the foods to pile on your plate.

Fill Up on Fiber

“Fiber is the best food you can eat when you’re trying to lose weight,” says Gay Riley, R.D., a nutritionist in Dallas and the author of Pocket Personal Trainer. Here’s why: It slows your rate of digestion, which keeps you feeling full longer and reduces sugar cravings. And because it binds to other foods, fiber helps hustle calories out of the body.

A USDA study determined that people who consume 24 grams (g) of fiber daily earn a 90-calorie free pass. Your goal is 5 g fiber at each meal.

5 or more g fiber:
– 1 cup of any cereal with “bran” in the name—such as raisin bran or All-Bran. If the magic word is missing, check the Nutrition Facts label.
– 1 cup of cooked beans—pinto, kidney, navy, any kind

2 to 4 g fiber:
– 1 medium apple, pear, orange, or banana
– 1 cup of any fruit that ends in “berry”
– 1/2 cup of cooked asparagus, broccoli, brussels sprouts, carrots, cauliflower, green beans, sauerkraut, or spinach
– 1 ounce (about a handful) of almonds, peanuts, cashews, pecans, or sunflower seeds
– 1 cup of cooked brown rice or whole-wheat pasta, or two slices of whole-wheat bread

Put a Limit on Starch

Since 1980, the average guy’s food intake has grown by 500 calories a day, nearly 80 percent of which can be attributed to carbohydrates; in that time, the prevalence of obesity has increased by 80 percent.

The lesson: Cap your intake of the most carbohydrate-dense foods—such as grains and potatoes—at three servings a day. (One serving is the equivalent of one slice of bread, 1/2 cup of cooked pasta or rice, or one small potato.) Always eat the highest-fiber, least-processed versions of these foods—whole-wheat breads, pastas, and cereals; brown rice instead of white; and whole potatoes, including the skin.

Don’t Count Calories

A good diet is effortless. By frequently eating the right foods, you’ll eliminate hunger and control your calorie intake.

Never restrict your produce intake. You can’t eat too many fruits and vegetables. Potatoes excepted, they contain very few calories, little starch, and lots of fiber.

Have some protein with every meal. Make an effort to eat a serving or two of high-quality protein—yogurt, cheese, milk, beef, turkey, chicken, fish, pork, eggs, or nuts. You’ll get the daily ideal 8 g leucine, an amino acid that’s critical for boosting metabolism and preserving muscle as you drop pounds.

Don’t be afraid of fat. Researchers at the City of Hope Medical Center, in Duarte, California, report that men who ate a low-calorie, high-fat diet lost 63 percent more weight in 6 months than those who followed a low-fat plan with the same number of calories. By replacing some of the starches with fat—which takes longer to digest—you’ll stay full longer and eat less. Emphasize healthy, unsaturated fats: In the study, the high-fat dieters ate 3 ounces of almonds a day.

Rise and Dine

Never mind what you’ve seen at Denny’s—fat guys skip breakfast. University of Massachusetts researchers found that men who skip breakfast are 4 1/2 times more likely to be obese than those who don’t. “Eating breakfast is like putting kindling on the fire of your metabolism,” says Riley, so your body will be less likely to store fat.

Make sure you eat within 90 minutes of waking—men in the study who waited longer increased their chances of obesity by nearly 50 percent.

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The Scoop on Soda

Children sip it, college students crave it, and adults gulp it to get through the workday. But according to a growing body of research, America’s favorite fizzy drink isn’t just a harmless vice—it’s a genuine health hazard that can cause obesity, bone loss, and tooth decay. Some studies even suggest that soda can increase your risk for diseases such as diabetes and cancer. Read on to get the real story behind these sparkling soft drinks.

Here, the top 10 reasons why you should put pop to a stop.

1. It makes you gain weight. According to a 2005 study conducted by the University of Texas Health Science Center, drinking one to two cans of soda a day increases a person’s risk of being overweight or obese by 32.8 percent. And if you think diet soda is a better option, think again: The researchers found that those who drank one to two cans of diet soda per day were at an even higher risk (54.5 percent) of being overweight or obese.

2. It increases your disease risk. A 2007 study published in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation found that people who drink soda every day, whether regular or diet, were 44 percent more likely to develop metabolic syndrome—a condition that greatly increases your risk for heart disease and diabetes.

3. It has no nutritional value. A 20-ounce bottle of cola contains nearly 250 calories, but take a look at the label, and you’ll see that it has virtually no vitamins or minerals. In fact, the only things soda is packed with are sugar and caffeine—two ingredients for which FDA has no recommended daily allowance.

4. It doesn’t satisfy your thirst. When it comes to quenching your thirst, water is the gold standard, but herbal tea and fruit juice are also good options. Soda, on the other hand, is likely to make you thirstier because caffeine is a diuretic and sugar interferes with the body’s absorption of fluids.

5. It’s bad for digestion. Soda’s effects on digestion are a source of ongoing debate, but some experts believe the phosphoric acid these beverages contain may disturb the acid-alkaline balance of the stomach. As a result, they believe, soda drinkers may develop digestional distress, acid reflux, stomach inflammation, and intestinal erosion.

6. It can be addictive. A 2000 study published in the Archives of Family Medicine revealed that soft-drink manufacturers add caffeine to soda for one reason only: to get consumers hooked. Although this type of addiction may seem benign, experts are quick to point out that caffeine is a stimulant, and once you’re addicted, going cold turkey can create withdrawal symptoms, including fatigue, depression, irritability, tremors, sleep deprivation, and headaches.

7. It’s not eco-friendly. Believe it or not, many people still don’t recycle their bottles and cans. In fact, it’s estimated that some 50 billion aluminum cans and plastic bottles from soft drinks get thrown into landfills every year. Even if you recycle, the containers are still energy-intensive to mine, produce, and recycle.

8. It’s bad for your bones and teeth. According to a recent Tufts University study, women who drank three 12-ounce colas a day had 5 percent less bone density than women who drink less than a serving a day. As the researchers explained, the phosphoric acid in cola prevents calcium from being absorbed by the body. Not surprisingly, soda is also damaging for teeth: A 2006 study, published in General Dentistry, reported that the citric and/or phosphoric acid in soft drinks can be harmful and corrosive to a healthy smile.

9. It may cause cancer. Although still controversial, some scientists believe that soda can increase your cancer risk. A 2006 study from Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet supports the theory: Study subjects who drank high quantities of fizzy or syrup-based soft drinks twice a day or more ran a 90 percent higher risk of developing pancreatic cancer than those who never drank them.

10. It costs a lot of money. Compared to fruit juice or milk, soft drinks may seem inexpensive, but when you consider the lack of nutritional value, soda seems like a rip-off. And keep in mind that the costs of soda can quickly add up. The average 12-ounce can of soda costs about $1 from the vending machine, so if you drank two a day for a year, you’d spend a whopping $730 on pop every year.

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6 Habits of Naturally Slim People

I’m afraid I relate to this overload photo. It’s the day after Thanksgiving and I feel soooo bloated.  I’m having another one of those ” morning after holiday dinner symptoms”.  First comes the guilt pangs from eating way too much and not passing up on dessert, then the  moaning and groaning due to common side effects of a stuffed tummy- stomach aches, heartburn; and finally the unavoidable weight gain that makes you want to throw the scale out the window.

I read somewhere that a typical Thanksgiving meal contains a staggering 7,100 calories. Ouch! Two more holiday dinners are coming up.  How can we indulge without feeling guilty? As if on cue, the answer came to me by way of cyberspace technology. A well meaning friend who has managed to stay slim all these years sent me this post.  Let us hope to high heavens that we don’t gain seven pounds from now until New Year’s Day!

Have you ever wondered why certain people manage to stay so slim? Here, we expose their six best-kept secrets.

Are you sick of drinking diet soda with your salad while your skinnier girlfriend gulps down supersize colas and cheeseburgers? You could blame your waistline on bad luck or bad genes, but the difference in your body shapes is more likely the result of your eating patterns.

A growing body of research suggests that most people who appear to be naturally slim actually share several characteristics that keep them from packing on the pounds. The good news? You can learn from their success. Follow these six easy tips to become naturally slim, too.

1. Low fat isn’t necessarily better.

People who are thin often eat full-fat foods and drink regular soda, while dieters choose zero-calorie or reduced-calorie alternatives. However, foods with few calories that are sweet can impede the body’s natural ability to judge how many calories a person consumes. One study shows that diet foods trick your body into believing foods sweetened with real sugar have no calories, which can lead to patterns of over-consumption.

2. Listen to your brain, not your cravings.

Lean people are less likely to eat immediately when they feel the urge. Food cravings, which can be triggered by familiar smells or fast-food commercials, are really just a temporary urge. With the exception of people who have diabetes and other-blood sugar problems, people can usually ignore their cravings by distracting themselves with another task. Try taking a walk, calling a friend, or reading. Thin people don’t eat out of boredom.

3. Don’t abandon the scale.

While diet experts once advised against weighing yourself on a daily basis, patients enrolled in the National Weight Control Registry prove that weighing yourself every day on the same scale helps people to lose weight and keep it off, according to Rena Wing, Ph.D., founder of the registry. She attributes the scale’s effectiveness to the fact that people can catch small changes as they occur and take measures to correct the weight gain immediately.

4. Figure out what four ounces looks like.

People who have always been slim tend to have a better understanding of what portion distortion looks like. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that when thin teenagers ate fast food, they automatically ate less than usual for the rest of the day, compensating for the extra calories from the fast food. Overweight teens, by contrast, ate just as much food as normal after eating the fast food, therefore consuming hundreds of extra calories.

5. Hit the snooze.

A good night’s sleep is actually important for maintaining a healthy weight. Researchers at the University of Chicago studied healthy men and women who were allowed to sleep only four hours each night. After six days, the metabolisms of the sleep-deprived men and women were so irregular that their bodies weren’t processing glucose in the blood in a normal manner.

6. Say later on instead of no.

Eliminating favorite foods from your diet can actually have adverse effects on your diet goals. People who sacrifice their favorite treats often wind up eating several other foods to replace the ones they gave up because they didn’t feel satisfied. Most experts believe that it’s okay to eat virtually any food the key is moderation. Treating yourself to an occasional reward can actually be a practical way to limit your intake of your favorite junk foods.

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