Tag Archives: calories

Is Eating Breakfast Really Necessary?

Healthy Eating, ,

Whether it’s oatmeal, cereal, or eggs and toast, many people enjoy breakfast. For some it gets you going and fuels your morning. But is it really necessary?

The BMJ did an analysis on just that. They examined the effect of breakfast consumption on weight change and energy intake. In their conclusion, they caution the addition of breakfast for weight loss. They looked at trials that had already occurred in the U.S., U.K., and one from Japan, and found seven studies that had data about breakfast consumption from various previous years.

They found that those who did eat breakfast had higher energy intake (assuming calories) per day. Daily calorie intake was higher in those who did eat breakfast than those who skipped breakfast. The assumption that early calorie intake in the day helps metabolizing calories throughout the day was debunked.

So whether you eat breakfast or not, we suggest you eat when you are hungry, not because of whatever the clock says.

Source: The BMJ

Cheat Days

Health Issues, Healthy Eating, , ,

So there was a new study done in Australia that concludes that having cheat days can help in weight loss. Now this is not a license to binge or overeat but quite contrary.

What they really are conveying is that it is better to stick to your strict diet for maybe two weeks and then for the next two weeks eat the things you want but keep within the calorie frame for maintaining your weight. For instance, if it’s determined that your maintenance calories are 2,000 per day you can go ahead and sustain that for two weeks and then go back to your 1,200 calorie per day dieting for two weeks.

After a while of dieting your body goes into “starvation” mode (the study called it ER or Energy Restriction) and by doing this, you may trick it into not doing that.

Be careful with “comfort foods”

Healthy Eating, , ,

We all know and love our “comfort foods” but did you know what the calorie counts are? It also depends on the portion size. The Victor crew found an article that talks about these comfort foods you might find at a local fast food joint.

Buffalo Wings from Buffalo Wild Wings: 10 wings have 750 calories, 45 grams fat, and 14 grams saturated fat.

Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Sandwich: one egg, one slice of cheese, two strips of bacon, a roll, and butter can give you about 600 calories and 36 grams of fat.

Cheeseburger from Shake Shack: this will give you 455 calories, 26 grams fat, and 13 grams saturated fat. (They don’t taste terrible either.)

Cheeseburger from Red Robin: on the other hand, this one will give you 733 calories with 41 grams of fat.

Chili from Chili’s: this can run you 460 calories with 31 grams fat, and 15 grams saturated fat. Bean-free will have even more calories.

Donuts from Dunkin’ Donuts: a chocolate frosted donut has 280 calories and 15 grams of fat; a coconut donut has 400 calories and 22 grams of fat. Even a munchkin averages 70 calories apiece. How many of these do you pop in your mouth without thinking (or counting)?

French Fries from McDonalds: a medium-sized order has 230 calories and 11 grams fat.

Fried Chicken from KFC: original recipe half chicken has 860 calories, 52 grams fat, 11 grams saturated fat, 280 mg cholesterol, and 2,640 mg sodium. Fried chicken tenders can also exceed 1000 calories.

Don’t always trust what you see

Healthy Eating, ,

The Victor crew was going to investigate some information about corn. So we went to Google. We entered “calories in corn” and look what popped up:

yellowcorn

Corn

So what happened? Can corn really be that high in calories? We thought not so we further investigated. Under the Google box, it shows “Sources include: USDA.” So we clicked the link and sure enough that’s what it said. So we downloaded the printable pdf to look a little closer.

We’ve attached 2 pdfs. One is for the yellow corn link and the other for the white corn. The yellow corn says “Corn grain, yellow” and the white says “Corn, sweet, white, raw”. So it seems the yellow one is talking about a grain – meaning most likely a dry flour or meal.

Corn grain report

White corn report

Hopefully that will allay any fears about eating corn. We will talk more about corn in the future.

Losing Weight

Fitness, , , , , ,

Losing weight depends on several factors. How much you eat, how much you exercise, what your metabolic rate is. Counting calories is a guideline to help you figure out how much you are eating. Here is what the Victor crew found out.

Start out by figuring our what your BMR is. BMR means Basal Metabolic Rate. It’s the number of calories you would burn by doing nothing at all. The number is calculated by your present weight, height, and age. The calculations are different for men and women.

Women: BMR = 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) – (4.7 x age in years)
Men: BMR = 66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) – (6.8 x age in years)
(If you don’t want to do the math – here’s a calculator that can do it for you!)

These measurements are a guideline as well. They don’t take into consideration muscle-to-fat ratio. Leaner bodies will need more calories because muscle burns more calories. If you are overweight, this count could be too high for you. If you use the calculator above, you will see there are other calculators available including BMI (Body Mass Index) and Waist to Hip Ratio as well as Body Fat Percentage calculator. All of this will give you an idea of how much you should lose.