Perhaps the most difficult time of year for me when it comes to my diet is winter. While it may not be that time of year yet, it is the latter part of fall and the cold weather is beginning to set in. Generally speaking, summer time tends to be easier for me in controlling my food intake, especially since I enjoy doing a lot of outdoor exercise at that time of year. I know one can easily stock up on calorie-packed barbecue foods and sweets, but I have generally been able to overcome these desires and it hasn’t generally been that big of a deal since I got through the difficult first part of my diet. But now that winter is looming, the urge to stock up on warm food and drink to combat the colder temperatures is all too alluring.

For example, I am a chocoholic and one thing that I absolutely love is a cup of hot chocolate. On a cold day, nothing beats a cup of hot chocolate when visiting Peet’s Coffee with my office mates to start off the day. During the summer I always bought a cup of sugarless iced-tea, which certainly helped in my daily caloric intake. But a cup of hot chocolate can certainly pack a number of calories unless one is careful in how they order it.

What I do is I order a small hot chocolate with no whipped cream. According to the data I have been able to find, a small cup of hot chocolate is 200 calories.  On a 1,200 daily calorie diet, that leaves me with 1,000 calories left to consume for the day. If I decide to order a small hot chocolate, I am sure to add a fast paced walk during my work day, a route that is just over 1 mile in distance and takes just under 15 minutes to walk, a nice 4 mph walking speed. And according to my diet/exercise database of calorie numbers, a 15 minute walk at 4 mph is 76 calories. If I do this twice in my work day, that adds up to just over 150 calories, leaving just 50 calories of that hot chocolate drink.

Adding in exercise routines to counterbalance calories that I have eaten or drank during the day is what I do on a regular basis to try an end up at the daily 1,200 calorie mark. And just to be sure, I add an additional workout at the gym in the evening.

A study funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on the New York City law requiring chain restaurants to include calorie counts on menu labels has delivered its first set of results. It would seem that the number of calories consumed/purchased has not decreased among lower-income residents.

Nearly 28 percent of purchasers reported seeing the calorie labeling information, and almost 90 percent of this group reported that they purchased fewer calories as a result. However, the researchers found that the number of calories purchased in New York City actually increased slightly, from a mean of 825 calories to 846 calories. The authors concluded that calorie labeling increased the percentage of consumers from lower-income, minority communities who reported seeing calorie labels, and subsequently the number of consumers who reported that the information influenced their food choices.

My guess is that this New York City law that requires calorie counts to appear next to menu items largely helps those that are already focused on dieting and losing weight, while those that are not dieting and perhaps don’t care so much about the number of calories in their meals simply ignore or are not even aware of the information they are looking at.

However the law needs more time to evolve and create a greater awareness before any study has results that are truly helpful and realistic, as this study may have started too soon after the initial implementation of the law.

Via Marc Ambinder.

New York City recently instituted a program requiring restaurants to include calorie counts in food menus for all public restaurants. Now a study has been released apparently with some results to show for it. While I think it’s too early to announce a verdict on whether the program is a success or not based on the available data up to this point (the program started on July 19, 2008), McArdle takes a dive anyway.

But while a study like this certainly can’t disprove the effectiveness of calorie labeling, what remains is that we don’t have much evidence to indicate that it works. It’s not that it was a bad idea. But lots of good ideas don’t pan out in the real world.

I particularlly enjoyed this comment by McArdle:

People may have mentally credited themselves with a savings on one item, and allowed themselves an indulgence in another: “I orderd a single instead of a double or triple, so I get large fries and a frosty!” They might just be bad at math. Or they might have wanted to look good for the interviewer, which is always a risk in these sorts of surveys. But the receipts don’t lie.

Every dieter’s worst habit.

(Via The Atlantic Magazine)

Update:

Update:
Ezra Klein gives his two cents worth on the subject.

Interesting post today from The Design Observer Group showing a nutritional chart from 70 years ago. While the tone of the post suggests that the chart is out-of-date and no longer mainstream dietary thinking, I think the chart is closer to today’s nutritional beliefs than it would appear. While the list of myths in the article are largely true, the chart itself is not that far off the mark:

By zooming into the image, one can glean the following text:

“The heat given off by food is used in maintaining the body temperature and supplying energy to the muscles. For this work the average daily requirement is around 3,000 Calories, and then since a pound of butter will produce 3,600 Calories, any one of the food quantities shown in this chart would more than supply all the daily heat and energy needs of most people. The quantities, however, are only approximate and will vary according to the weight and fat content of the particular …, chop, cantaloupe, or bunch of celery, etc, you may happy to buy. The amount of fat in food is what largely … in heating power, since, when burned in the body, one gram of fat will produce more than twice as much heat (3.3 Calories) as one gram of either protein or carbohydrate (??? Calories). Today Calories are considered a crude guide to diet simply because the heating power of food often has little to do with its nourishing power.”

Read The Design Observer Group post here.

The New York Times reports today that Mayor Michael Bloomberg, while instituting strict regulations on New York City for the use of trans fats, salt, restaurant displays of calorie amounts and more, isn’t always one to practice what he preaches.

“Friends of the mayor said that, like most New Yorkers overwhelmed with food choices, he swings between two dietary poles: indulgence and abstemiousness. After a dinner loaded with fat and salt, they said, he will consume a grapefruit for breakfast, then a bowl of soup for lunch. He keeps a running calorie count in his head, and rarely exceeds 2,000 a day, they said.”

Too many people after getting married or reaching beyond the age of 40 feel that there is no need to lose weight or maintain a smaller waistline. It’s quite refreshing to see someone as rich and powerful as Michael Bloomberg following some sort of regimen in losing weight, even if he too often splurges. But as I have described myself doing in previous posts, heavy duty meals are followed by lean and overly healthy meals the following day. As long as one falls under the weekly estimate of a 2,000 calorie per day meal, or in my case, 1,200 calories when aiming to lose more weight.

Unlike Mayor Bloomberg, I tend not to trust my head in tabulating calorie numbers for a day, because it’s all too easy to forget the small little nibbles that come up throughout the day. This adds up and might lead one to a false comfort in thinking that they ate under the calorie limit for the day. Software tends to be more efficient than my memory in this department when recording one’s daily intake.

Read the New York Times report.

There’s a good article from CNN Health today for those that tend to binge on fatty foods, don’t get enough sleep and suffer from high amounts of stress. As I have written about before, as much as I stick to my routine of whatever calorie limit I have set for myself, it can be all too easy to cave into the temptation of a wonderful aroma or delicious looking food. In my experience, if my journal shows that I am well under my limit for the week, I allow myself to splurge a little bit and go over that daily limit, since at the end of the week I’ll still be under the overall limit. But it’s how I splurge is what is important. While I sometimes allow myself a hamburger and some fries, it’s important to constantly be aware of how I decide what to eat.

For example, if my co-workers decide to go to a burger joint for lunch, I obviously want to go along. My mind then begins to race on what I should order while I am there. A quick review of the actual ingredients is my first order of business, which usually includes a patty, hamburger bun, cheese, pickles, tomatoes, onions, lettuce and maybe some bacon. Taking out bacon and cheese from the order will reduce the calorie intake of that hamburger by up 130 calories, since bacon (50-60 calories) and cheese (60-70 calories) are very fatty foods, especially based on their actual physical size. The other large number of calories in that hamburger is the hamburger bun itself (around 120 calories). But what is a hamburger without the bun, and you certainly don’t want to make a scene eating a hamburger with a fork and knife and no bun. As long as you keep the raw vegetables for the rest of your hamburger, it’s not such a bad lunch. Hold off ordering the basket of fries and make do stealing a few from your co-workers and you’ll do just fine. Perhaps go for a walk after you get back to the office to burn off a few more calories to even out a little bit more. If you do all of that, you’ll feel that you dodged a bullet a little while still being able to hang out with your co-workers, if you like them, that is.

Some good tips for those who are looking for redemption after a calorie orgy:

Forgive yourself. “Having one overindulgent meal should not derail you from your healthful eating habits, while being too negative will make you more likely to throw up your hands in despair and overindulge at the next meal or several meals for days to come,” Elisa Zied, R.D., says.

Give yourself a do-over. Immediately start with lean protein, veggies, whole grains, and fruit, and drink plenty of water, Zied suggests.

Learn from it. Think about what triggered your overindulgence–not to punish yourself, but to choose smarter next time. “If you keep a food journal, you might see you ended up pigging out because you waited too long to eat,” Keri Gans, R.D., says.

Add on exercise. To feel in control again, simply tack on a few extra minutes to your regular walk, gym routine, etc. At the same time, “try not to think of exercise as a punishment for overindulging,” Zied says. If you do, you’ll grow to dread the gym

You can read the entire article here.

When it comes down to it, whatever diet you choose, whether it’s a low fat, low sodium, low carbs or low whatever diet, there’s no avoiding the fact that you must always consider the number of calories you are putting into your system. If you eat foods that contain a high number of calories, you will gain weight. If you eat fewer calories than the daily recommended intake of 2,000 calories, you will more than likely lose weight. This is my diet in a nutshell.

Starting on January 1 of this year, I decided to start a diet. It’s a resolution I made in the past, but as a majority of Americans do, I failed. This time I can say I was a little more focused than in previous attempts, since in just 6 months I managed to lose 50 pounds. At the beginning of my diet, I weighed 208 pounds. When July 1st rolled around, I weighed in at 158 pounds, a weight I had not seen since the beginning of college over 20 years ago.

There were a few reasons I wanted to lose weight. My 20th anniversary high school reunion was coming up, and I wanted to go back in time as best I could (ironically, my old high school friends said I hardly changed a bit … if they only knew). The second reason was a more serious matter: my doctor said my bad cholesterol level was too high and I was at risk of heart disease, diabetes and other ailments.

For most people, the number of diets to choose from is long and complicated. There is Atkins, South Beach, Sugar Busters, Protein Power, the Zone Diet, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, the Sonoma Diet, the Paleo Diet, the Caveman Diet, Body Fat Solution, the Glycemic Impact Diet, Weight Watchers, The Master Cleanser, Detox, Metabolic Balance, Bridal Bootcamp, the Spectrum Diet, the Cabbage Soup Diet, the Cardio Free Diet, the Idiot Proof Diet, the Low Sodium Diet, the Oprah Diet, Slim Fast and so on and so on. I don’t deny that these diets work for some people, but the majority of those embarking on a diet eventually fail for a variety of reasons, chief among them simply being laziness. But for me the idea of paying a corporation to send me food and printed materials on a regular basis telling me how to lose weight just didn’t sound right for me. I wanted as natural an experience as possible, one where I could be more proactive and learn about the foods I was buying and eating. I wanted no processed foods, lots and lots of fruits and vegetables and smaller portions of meat.

As I will write about in future posts, I keep a daily diary of what I eat each and every day. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks are all recorded in my iPhone app Lose It! I remain completely honest with what I eat, even on days when I splurge and go over my limit (failure to do so would make the exercise a complete waste of time). I set a daily limit of calories per day (1,200 calories per day when wanting to lose 2 pounds a week, 1,500-1,750 when looking to maintain my weight with minimal loss of weight) mixed in with a weekly regimen of physical exercise. If on a particular day I eat more than 1,200 calories, I increase my exercise regimen to bring me under my daily calorie limit.  If I am under my daily limit, I reduce my exercise load.  The diet essentially becomes a numbers game, something that can be much easier to follow in real time than murky weight loss philosophies that are difficult to follow.

I end this post by showing you a picture of myself before and after the first 6 months of my diet: