News Article

News Article

For: January Issue

To: Gulf Coast Womens News

By: Linda K. Bowman, Ext. Agt. IV - Family & Consumer Sciences

Santa Rosa County Extension Service

Telephone: 850/623-3868 or 939-1259, ext. 1360

Five Tips for Staying Lean

What’s the best way to stay lean? There are no magic bullets, despite the bold (or merely sneaky) claims on weight-loss supplements. But there are some fascinating possibilities on the horizon.

Researchers at Laval University in Quebec, for example, recently found that when people are fed an appetizer of chausson (a savory pastry) and a red sauce with capsaicin—the stuff that makes red chili peppers hot—they eat about 200 fewer calories over the next three hours than when the sauce has no capsaicin.

“But so far we’ve only tested it in lean individuals under laboratory conditions,” says Laval’s Angelo Tremblay.

Until researchers know more, here are some new (and some old) strategies that may give you a fighting chance to win the battle of the bulge.

1. Curb calorie density

Does fat make you fat? For years, popular diet books assured the chubby masses that a low-fat diet was the key to weight loss. They were right...and wrong.

“Our research shows that it’s calorie density—not fat—that determines how many calories people eat,” says Susan Roberts of the Jean Mayer U.S. Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston.

“When we kept calorie density constant, people on the high-fat diet ate no more calories than people on the low-fat diet,” says Roberts.

2. Shrink your servings

“When people were served larger portions of lasagna, they ate more than when they were given smaller portions and allowed to get up for more,” says Tufts McCrory.

That’s what happened in single-meal studies done decades ago. More recent studies show that when people are given larger amounts of “hedonistic” foods like M&Ms, they eat more than people who are given small amounts.

The nation is proving those studies right. “Serving sizes in restaurants have gotten bigger.”

And it’s tough to change. “People become accustomed to large amounts, so if they’re served a normal portion they feel cheated.”

That could explain why people who frequent restaurants are more likely to be overweight.

3. Limit (some) choices

“Eat a variety of foods,” says the government’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the American Dietetic Association, and others.

But variety may be the dieter’s enemy. “If people are offered three different kinds of sandwiches, they’ll eat more than if they are given three of the same sandwich,” says McCrory.

4. Curb liquid calories

Ate more than you should have? No problem. You’ll just eat less later.

That’s more likely to happen if the extra calories you ate came from solid rather than from liquid foods, says Richard Mattes of Purdue University. “Liquid calories don’t trip out satiety mechanisms,” says Mattes. “They just don’t register.”

A recent analysis of a national survey jibes with his findings. “The more (non-diet) sodas children drink, the more calories they consume,” he notes. The solution: “Use beverages that have no calories,” Mattes suggests. “Or limit calorie-containing beverages. Don’t drink them all day long or in large quantities.”

5. Make movement part of your life

We have more-sedentary jobs, more cars, more computers, more televisions, and more labor-saving conveniences. Is it any wonder that we also have more stores that specialize in big sizes?

“Overweight people are more amenable to increasing lifestyle activities—like using the stairs or parking farther away from the mall—than going to the gym.” And people who boost their lifestyle activity are just as successful at keeping the weight off as people who participate in formal exercise programs.

For further information contact: Linda Bowman, Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Agent, The University of Florida--Santa Rosa County Cooperative Extension Service--IFAS, at (850)623-3868 or (850)939-1259, Ext. 1360 for south county residents, between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. weekdays. Hearing-impaired individuals may call Santa Rosa County Emergency Management Service at 983-5373 (TDD).