It's five o'clock on a Friday afternoon and after a long week of work you and a few friends head out for happy hour. Having meticulously balanced your calories over the week you figure you deserve the treat; and after all, what will one high-calorie meal do to a week's worth of watching calories?

A lot! Despite what you may have heard about the harmlessness (or even the benefits) of splurging one or two days each week, "cheat day" might not be okay for people trying balance calories in with calories out. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis recently reported findings from a study that followed participants over one year of either decreasing their calories by 20% or increasing their daily exercise to have a comparable calorie deficit. What did they find? Before the study started participants consistently gained weight (due to eating more calories and expending less calories) on the weekends but not on weekdays. Although the weekly weight gain was only about 0.077 kilograms, this rate of weight gain could result in an annual increase of 4.0 kilograms, or almost 9 pounds if continued over a year!

And even after the diet and exercise interventions, researchers found this pattern remained the same. Both intervention groups were in negative calorie balance (i.e., they ate less calories then they expended) during the week but on the weekend the calorie restricting group stopped losing weight and the exercising group gained weight–both due to eating too many calories on the weekends.

Still don’t see how a single meal can sabotage an entire week of balanced calories? Do the math… Say Scott determines his daily calorie needs for weight maintenance to be 2300. He is moderately active during the week and sticks very close to his calorie budget each day. But, on Fridays he frequently goes out for happy hour and orders beef nachos (of which he eats 75%) and three light beers totaling 1635 calories. When he arrives home from happy hour he’s usually a little hungry again and eats a few cookies or bowl of ice cream for another 250 calories. Thus, he replaces his typical 450-calorie dinner with a 1885-calorie splurge. While this is only an excess of 1435 daily calories, if he does this just once a week it could lead to an imbalance of 5740 calories over the course of a month, equating to over 1.5 pounds gained if all other calorie conditions remain the same. If he continues this routine for a year it could lead to an 18-plus pound weight gain!

So, yes, every little calorie counts when you’re dealing with the calorie balance scale. And treating yourself to a “cheat day” each week is hard to recover from. However, it is not realistic to forbid yourself from eating high-calorie foods. Instead, allow yourself small indulgences throughout the week (like a square of dark chocolate for dessert); pay close attention to portion sizes when eating high-calorie foods (check out this download - http://www.standupandeat.org/pdf/portion_size_pitfalls_portion.pdf); and plan ahead for times when you know you’ll be tempted to eat more than you’ll expend. An extra walk or bike ride can help to balance out and evening of overeating. 

When we created the Stand Up & Eat web site, the product described in this video clip is NOT what we had in mind.

The Onion News Network, a spoof news web site, recently ran this hilarious story about a feedbag that people could strap on their heads so they could eat their favorite fast food meal while standing up (or driving or napping).  One interviewee said he liked the feedbag because he sometimes didn’t like to move his arms.  Talk about a way to eat more and move less.  Yikes!

The feedbag “news” story is very, very funny.  But it is also distressing.  Quoting the pseudo-CEO of the fast food chain cited in the clip, “It’s hot steamy foods in your face right now.”  Mindless eating, whether it is with a feedbag or by mindlessly dipping your hand into a large bag of chips is a sure way to get your calorie balance out of whack.

To learn more about how to combat mindless eating, check out Dr. Brian Wansink’s book, Mindless Eating:  Why We Eat More Than We Think and his resource-rich website.

We queried readers in the last blog for ideas on how to reduce excess daily calories from sweetened beverages such as soda, fruit drinks, and sweetened tea and coffee. “Switch to diet versions of these products” would be a logical answer, right? Well, it may be logical but it appears not to be accurate.

In a study published in the December 2007 issue of the Obesity, researchers reported that in a weight loss study of 118 overweight women, replacing sweetened caloric beverages with drinking water was associated with an average decrease of about 200 calories per day. In the statistical models used to test this study’s data, replacing sweetened caloric beverages with diet beverages did not yield the same caloric reduction.

Huh? This counterintuitive finding likely occurred because the women who used diet drinks compensated for the reduced beverage calorie intake by getting more calories from solid food. Not so for the women who drank water instead of sweetened caloric drinks. Though not fully understood, it may be because diet beverages actually stimulate appetite whereas water does not.

Bottomline:  If you want a simple way to cut out excess calories in your diet, drop the pop (and sweetened tea, coffee, and fruit drinks), ditch the diet drinks, and reach for a big glass of clear, refreshing water. 

“I don’t know why I am gaining weight.  I haven’t changed what I eat” is something we hear a lot. And in fact, a person may NOT have changed what they are eating. But what about what they are drinking?

New research from the University of North Carolina shows that in 2002, American got 222 more calories from beverages than in 1965. Over the same period, calories from all other foods actually decreased slightly. So the nearly 200 calorie increase in total daily calories observed between 1965 and 2002 can be attributed mostly to the increase in beverage calorie intake. Not surprisingly, the researchers showed that the proportion of total daily calories from beverages increased from only 12% 1965 to 21% in 2002. And, almost one-third of Americans in 2002 were “drinking” 25% or more of their daily calorie intake. That’s nearly double the rate measured in 1965.

This dramatic increase in total calories from beverages is startling.  Especially in a land with an overweight and obesity epidemic. But what is really alarming is where those extra calories came from. Sweetened beverages* (regular soda, fruit drinks, sweetened tea and coffee, and other sweetened beverages) increased by 153 calories. These beverages are not good sources of nutrients, i.e., they're “empty calories.” Beverages containing nutrients (100% fruit juice, milk) only increased by 45 calories. 

So how did we find ourselves in this predicament? Sweetened beverages are:

• cheap. All it takes is water, sugar or some other sweetener such as high fructose corn syrup, flavoring and coloring agents. The marketing, packaging, and shipping of these products cost more than what’s in the bottle. 
• everywhere. From middle school vending machines to gas stations. 
• sneaky. There is evidence that suggests that the body’s appetite regulating system doesn’t recognize calories consumed from beverages the same as from solid foods. So drinking a 150-calorie soda is not going to satisfy you the same as eating a 150-calorie granola bar.

Clearly, beverages – calorically sweetened beverages in particular – are a part of our diet that we can easily adjust. How? Stay tuned for the next blog entry. In the meantime, add your ideas for cutting beverage calories in the comments section below.

* Sweetened beverages are those in which sweeteners that have calories (sugar, corn syrup, honey, etc.) are used.  In contrast, noncalorically-sweetened beverages (e.g.,diet soda) use artificial sweeteners that add very few if any calories.

If a “picture is worth a thousand words,” here's a video that will give you a real education about the calorie content of six healthy meals (it's worth the 15-second commericial that precedes it).  If you need about 1,800 calories a day (check out our calorie needs calculator), the 300-calorie meals and snacks shown can add up to a day’s worth of good nutrition without busting your gut. 

Let us know your reaction to seeing what 300 calories of food looks like. 

Do you know just how much food you chow down on each day? Chances are you don’t. And that can get you into deep calorie balance trouble.  
 
According to Dr. Brian Wansink, a former professor of marketing at Cornell University and now the Executive Director of Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, you make several hundred different decisions about food – each day! But most decisions are mindless ones. That is, your food environment – the packaging, placement, and promotion of foods – guides how much you put into your mouth. For example, Dr. Wansink’s research has shown that people will eat:

• more when eating out of larger packages. You’re likely to finish the whole container of soda whether it is a 12-ounce can or a 20-ounce bottle. There’s a difference of 100 calories between the two.
• more when the visual cues of food being eaten are removed. Wansink had participants in one study eat chicken wings while watching a sports event on TV. The subjects ate more wings when the leftover wing bones were taken away periodically by the wait staff than when the bones stayed in a bowl on the table.
• less when food is harder to access. In one study, moving a dish of chocolate candies from a person’s desktop to just six feet away led to a significant reduction in number of candies – and calories – eaten.
• less when using smaller plates and beverage glasses. 

Here’s living proof of the latter point. A participant in one of our personal training workshops stated that on the Navy base where he worked, the galley (that’s cafeteria to us civilians) started serving smaller portions in an effort to help patrons balance their calories better. There was nearly a mutiny as active duty sailors and civilians complained profusely that they were getting gypped. The galley staff switched to serving the smaller portions on smaller plates. The customers’ complaints subsided because they thought they were once again getting the larger portion. It’s been smooth sailing ever since.
 
To combat mindless eating,

• Let physical hunger, not food proximity, be your eating trigger.
• Focus on the food.  Don’t read, watch TV, drive, or otherwise be distracted when you are eating.
• Use your grandma’s china.  In the last few generations, plates have grown from the 10 inches to 12 inches in diameter.

We’ll discuss mindless eating and Dr. Wansink’s work in future blogs and articles. In the meantime, how do you stay mindful about how much you eat?

Calorie literacy - that's what we're after. And boy is it needed. Check out this YouTube clip of people trying to guess the amount of calories in a typical fast food meal.  The vast majority of people get it wrong. There are guesses from 0.3 to 5,000 calories! The actual total is 1,215 calories.

Obviously, most people don't have a clue about the number of calories they put into their bodies each day.  That's one of the reasons for the growing obesity epidemic in America and around the globe.  It's also why New York City and other places are trying to mandate that restaurants post calorie amounts on their menus and menu boards. 

This is a great step to promoting calorie literacy - the degree to which individuals can get, understand and use calorie information to make calorie balance and health decisions. But as we argue in an earlier Stand Up & Eat Blog, calorie labeling is only one part of calorie literacy. People also have to know how many calories they need to maintain their current weight. Or for most Americans, the calories they need to lose weight. Plus, we all need to get a clue about how FEW calories we burn each day and what are simple, easy ways to move more.

There are resources in the Stand Up & Eat Tools page to help you become fluent in all parts of calorie balance - calories in, calories out, and calories needed.  Check them out and report back in the comments section on what you learned about your calorie literacy.

When you go shopping, you start out with a certain amount of cash in your wallet (or ATM account!). Your goal? Get as much as you can for as little cash as possible. You’re hunting for bargains.

When it comes to making food choices, you should be a “bargain” shopper, too. No, we are not talking about a grocery cart full of 99-cent Ramen noodles. The bargains we mean are “caloric bargains.”

Think of your daily calorie allotment as the same as the money in your wallet. Each day, you only have a certain amount of calories you can “spend” on food and beverages. So you want to spend your calories wisely on low-calorie, nutritious foods. What are “caloric bargain” foods?  Generally, foods that are minimally processed and rich in fiber or have a lot of water. For example:

•    Fruits - fresh, frozen, and canned without added sugar or syrup
•    Vegetables – especially high water content vegetables such as tomatoes, greens, squash
•    Whole grain pastas, rice, cereals (ready-to-eat and cooked) and breads
•    Very lean meat, poultry and fish
•    Nonfat dairy products
•    Broth-based soups

Remember, not all low-calorie foods are nutritious. Take jelly beans for example. Ten jelly beans have only 103 calories. But other than a simple carbohydrate, sugar, the jelly beans don’t provide any nutrients.

Not all high-nutrition foods are low in calories either. The avocado, for example, is a wonderfully nutritious fruit (yes, fruit!) packed with healthy oils, vitamins, and minerals. But a medium avocado packs 306 calories.  We’re not saying you should never eat avocados, just in moderation. Spend most of your daily calories on the “caloric bargains” described previously.  

What are “caloric bargain” foods that you like? Use the comments section below to add your ideas.

If every person living in New York City chose a McDonald’s cheeseburger instead of a Big Mac for lunch today, they would save over 1.9 billion calories — IN ONE DAY! That’s equal to about 274 tons of body fat. No wonder the NYC public health department has legislated the listing of calorie counts on certain restaurant menus.  And just last week the legislation was upheld after the New York State Restaurant Association sued to stop it.  Read a press release.
 
While this is a great step, we argue that this is only part of the solution. The other part is that people need to know what their daily calorie limit is so that they can know how a 1,420 calorie lunch fits – or not – into their total calorie allotment for the day. Let’s look at this more closely:

A man walks into a Burger King in Chicago. He orders the combo meal with the Whopper, large fries and a large soft drink. Grand total: 1,550 calories. He doesn’t even have a clue that he just ate 74% of his total daily calories in one meal.

A second man walks into a Burger King New York City. This restaurant lists the calories of each food item on the menu board. He sees that the Junior Whopper, medium fries, and a medium soft drink all have fewer calories than the big combo meal. Grand total: 970 calories. Better than the guy in Chicago but he still ate nearly 50% of his daily calorie total at lunch.

A third man walks into the same Burger King in NYC. He has learned from the Stand Up & Eat Calorie Calculator that he needs about 2,000 calories per day to stay in calorie balance. He decides that he wants to keep his calories about 1/3 of his daily calorie total (about 660 calories) so he orders the grilled chicken salad and uses ½ of the ranch dressing packet. That adds up to only 335 calories so he orders a diet coke and a small fries for a grand total of 565 calories. He has about 100 calories leftover to add to another meal or snack.

Here’s our argument. Providing calorie information on menus is a good idea. At least people can see and compare the low to high calorie options. But a recent report from the International Food Information Council stated that only 11% of American adults know how many calories they need in a day. So we need to make people aware of just how many (or for most of us, how few) calories we need each day.  

Let’s hope NYC – and other places – are successful in getting calorie labeling in restaurants. In the meantime, calculate how many daily calories you need. Send the calculator to people whom you think need to know their calorie limits.  

Would it make a difference to YOU if restaurants listed calorie information on the menus? Add your comments below.