1. Don’t underestimate eating out- University of Toronto researchers recently tracked the calorie content of food ordered at 19 sit-down restaurant chains and the results were, well, extraordinary in the truest sense of the word. On average, breakfast, lunch, and dinner meals from the restaurants contained an astonishing 1128 calories (that’s more than the 881 calories previous research has found that the average fast-food meal delivers). Depending on age and gender, most adults should eat between 1,600 and 2,400 calories a day. Researchers have long understood that people are more likely to finish what’s on their plate than to stop eating because they’ve consumed a given amount of food. It’s “the completion compulsion,” a phrase coined in the 1950s by the psychologist Paul S. Siegel. This means that in one meal the average person may have consumed 2/3rd’s of their daily caloric intake. Not to mention the salt! Several chains, including Applebee’s, Chili’s, IHOP and Olive Garden, had average sodium levels last year that hit 1,500 mg or more, the recommended level for roughly half of high-risk Americans. Considering U.S. dietary guidelines call for no more than 2,300 mg per day, these items pack quite a punch.
2. Be honest about your diet: When a person tells me they eat healthy I’m always a little skeptical because why would anyone eat healthy. Most people remember when they have a healthy meal or if they pick up a healthy item and completely forget that entire frozen pizza. In a recent poll of more than 1,200 American adults, close to 90 percent said their diet was either “somewhat,” “very,” or “extremely” healthy. However, 43 percent of the survey respondents said they drank at least one sugary soda or sweetened drink every day. A third also said they were at a healthy weight when they actually were overweight or obese. This shows me that most people are delusional about their diet. When a person says they eat healthy what they really mean to say is that they eat healthier than their spouse or their even more overweight friend. Don’t compare yourself to someone else to get the results they aren’t looking for.
3. Get more sleep- According to research conducted a few years ago by physicians at the University of Chicago General Clinical Resource Center, dieters who get less than 6 hours of sleep a night lose significantly less fat than those who get the gold standard 8. When you have sleep deprivation and are running on low energy, you automatically go for a bag of potato chips or other comfort foods. It’s not so much that if you sleep, you will lose weight, but if you are sleep-deprived, meaning that you are not getting enough minutes of sleep or good quality sleep, your metabolism will not function properly. Sleep increases ones will to reject foods that they know are not good for their diet.
4. Stop being stressed about not losing weight- researchers from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles recently sifted through the results of all existing research studies on meditation’s effect on binge eating, emotional eating, and overall dietary intake. And they found that the vast majority of the studies (86%) found that meditation improved all three. If you’re stressed because your weight loss appears to have stalled, don’t reach to Ben & Jerry’s for comfort; try quieting your mind instead. The human adrenal glands govern our stress response, by secreting hormones relative to our stress levels. They actually help control many hormonal cycles and functions in our body. When the adrenal glands are overworked, the body prepares for disaster, by storing fat and calories. If the scale is stressing you out, try taking it out of your bathroom and focus more on how your clothes fit.
Siddiqu “The Personal Trainer” is a CPT, motivational speaker, author of How Are You Fat and Saved?! He is also the Co-creator of the largest bootcamp in Chicago The No Excuse Bootcamp and the exercise series “You Would Think I Invented Sweat” for booking information or more fitness tips visit our NEW WEBSITE www.chicagofit4life.com