n o u r i s h

How to Avoid Those “Extra” Calories You Don’t Even Know You’re Eating…

08 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment

by Christine Scarcello in Calories, Exercise, Nutrition, Wellness/Health Tags: Alcohol, Portion Control, Protein

So you started a new diet and exercise regimen… you’re eating “right” and exercising as much as you can. Yet your weight and body composition still aren’t budging. You increase the intensity of your workouts, talk to trainers at your gym about how to get your weight off, and look for dieting tips online. Chances are, you’re doing almost everything right – except you might be getting a few “extra” calories, or making calories harder to burn, unbeknownst to you.

Weight loss – while not easy by any means – is quite simple: you need to consume less calories than you expend. It’s a mathematical equation of a deficit between calories IN to calories OUT. One pound of body weight consists of 3500 calories. You could try to make a deficit of 500 calories per day (either through food reduction or exercise) and come out one pound lighter each week (I should add that weight loss of 1-2 pounds a week is absolutely healthy, and any more than that is not recommended.) So when you put it in this perspective, what you really need to do to eat right is to watch how much you eat and how many calories you intake.

There are many ways in which extra calories sneak in and can derail your weight loss progress. They come in many forms, even some that are presumed to be healthy, like protein shakes. Here are a few ways that I’ve noticed unwanted calories sneak into my diet over the years:

1. You Are What You Drink

I’m writing about this one first because, for some reason, I feel like the majority of society doesn’t count their drinks as calories. Sure, that soda or coffee isn’t a solid food, but it still contributes to your total caloric intake for the day. David Zinczencko’s newest Eat This book is entitled Drink This, Not That! and it has eye-opening revelations about the many calorie-dense drinks out there. Without naming any names, there are milkshakes out there with literally 1600 calories or more! 1600 calories!! That’s more than what some people should consume in one day!! So please – watch what you drink.

That also goes for alcohol – one shot of liquor contains 50-75 calories. One triple-shot drink, then, can contain 150-225 calories, even if it’s just straight or mixed with diet (zero calorie) soda. Amazing, isn’t it? Wine and beer aren’t devoid of calories either. So be careful what you drink, and if you must have a giant milkshake or a few drinks with your friends, be sure to fit it into your caloric intake for the day.

2. Extra Protein, Please

Protein shakes are notorious for their hidden calories. Chances are, if you’ve started working out you’re under the assumption that you NEED TO HAVE a protein shake post-workout. I don’t want to knock protein shakes, because I myself do indulge every once in a while. But regularly drinking milk-laden protein shakes in addition to regular meals – instead of in place of a meal – can be contributing to a ton of extra calories that you don’t even know about.

Aside from the shakes, protein in general has many added calories. Cheeses, nuts, and meats are all excellent sources of protein and other nutrients, but are also calorie-dense. Meats in particular have more calories than vegetarian entrees (like beans, lentils, and soy), which is why only 6% of the vegetarian population is considered overweight. There simply aren’t many calories in staple, healthy vegetarian foods (pizza and mac n’ cheese don’t count as “healthy” vegetarian food!). If you’re starting to workout, that’s great! Keep it up! But if you’re overloading on protein, take a step back. Also keep in mind that your body can’t efficiently use more than 20-35 grams of protein at any one time, so eating any more than that is just a waste.

3. Late Night Snacking

Anytime you eat late at night it’s generally a bad idea. This is because your body is preparing for sleep, and it slows your metabolism waaaaay down to a pathetic crawl. Also, the snacking is probably impulsive and/or emotional – used to fulfill a need like boredom or a habit of always eating late at night. Either way it’s not a good idea.

Your body doesn’t burn calories very efficiently while you are asleep (but it does still burn… it’s not completely off) because it is saving energy and resting. Since your metabolism is not working on processing the food you just ate, it will be stored as fat. Do you ever wake up in the morning and feel hungry? That should be a good feeling. It means that you’re legitimately hungry and your body and metabolism are ready to get going. Everyone should eat within 45 minutes of waking up in order to “break” the overnight “fast” when you didn’t eat anything (isn’t that cool? That’s where we get the word breakfast from!) and jumpstart the metabolism.

If you wake up, however, and are unable to eat, one of the main culprits may be that you ate too much the night before and simply aren’t hungry in the morning. I’m not saying that you should go to bed starving…. if you haven’t eaten in more than 3 hours due to certain circumstances and need to eat before bed, then by all means fix a light snack. But overloading on fat or carbs is the worst thing you could possibly do right before bed, because it stresses out your metabolism, which is already getting ready to unwind. Try to avoid eating 2-3 hours before you go to sleep. Your body processes foods differently at night before bed than it would during the day, meaning that the calories in the foods you eat right before bed will not get burned as quickly as they would during the day. Do you really want that added fat from inefficiently used calories? Didn’t think so…

4. Out of (Portion) Control Eating

One thing you should learn as quickly as possible is portion control. This is hard for many people to do because our society is bombarded with extremely large portion sizes. Your typical entree at a restaurant can be 2-3 times the size of one single portion, and at many fast food chains you have the option to super-size or upgrade almost any meal combo. The food industry has also been a victim to overly sized portions; take bagels for example. A typical bagel that you could buy at Panera or Dunkin Donuts is probably 5-6 grams, whereas as 10 years ago it was only 1-2 grams in size. Do you remember Lender’s bagels? They seem tiny now, but at one point, that was the only size that existed. Now any bagel you would buy is almost 3 times the size, and 3 times the amount of calories.

Since the food and restaurant industries aren’t any help, you must take it into your own hands. Do some solid research about portion sizes. My favorite place to recommend is MyPyramid.gov because it is accurate and easy to use! The next step you have to take is to read the nutritional info label on all food products to determine what serving size is indicated for the number of calories you see. For example, the amount of calories for one serving of Gatorade is 50, but if you look closely, that’s only for 1/3 of the bottle. If you drink the whole bottle, it’s closer to 150 calories. So be sure to accurately measure your portions and to keep your food and calories in check.

5. Sloppy Seconds

In addition to out-of-control portion sizes, we have another bad habit: going for seconds or thirds, or having unplanned snacks. Additional servings of food and unplanned snacks are dangerous because at the time of this impulsive act you don’t think that they will contribute to any major calorie gain… but they will. In order for your weight loss to become a reality, you need to make a lifestyle change that you can stick with. This doesn’t mean that you can’t have snacks or seconds of your favorite meal, it just means that you have to hold yourself accountable for it. If you have extra food throughout the day, forgo a dessert that night, or pick a healthier snack like fruit instead of your favorite cookie since you already splurged on double servings of pizza. Like I said – all it comes down to is calories IN to calories OUT, so if you control your calories in some way, you can eat what you desire (within reason!)

6. “But I Just Worked Out!” Or, “I’ll Run an Extra 15 Minutes…”

Another mistake that I always made was to overeat and have an exercise excuse ready to make me feel better. Any time you’re eating extra because you think your workout will make up for it, think again. What you eat today will not get burned off at the gym today, and all that hard work you did at the gym could be totally wasted on a pastry you’re dying to have. Never make excuses for why you need extra food if you’re serious about losing weight, especially if you are under the impression that exercise will make up for it!

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These are just a few things I’ve learned from my own experiences as well as research I’ve read on nutrient timing and athletic performance. While it is important to give yourself extra calories because you’re working hard, it isn’t the end-all, be-all excuse for overeating that many of us make it to be. Yes, Michael Phelps eats an insane amount of calories everyday – but he has a ton of Olympic gold medals to prove it. Do you train as hard as he does? Didn’t think so… so stick to a normal calorie plan and don’t let those hidden extra calories derail your weight loss progress!