One small change in your diet that can have big changes on your waistline

When patients ask me what they can do to lose weight, the first question I ask is, “What do you drink?”  It is amazing to realize how much of your daily calories can be “used up” in what you are drinking.  For example, if you drink 2 regular cans of coke a day that’s an extra 280 calories to your daily total.  If you do that every day for two weeks that adds up to 3920 calories just from cokes!!  3500 calories is about equivalent to 1 pound of weight gain.  If you’re not burning that off in your calories expended during the day, you’ve put on an extra pound in two weeks just from a modest 2 cokes a day, not to mention the hamburgers, fries and sweets that you are likely washing down with your cokes, sweet teas or other sugar filled drinks.  Extrapolate that over the  year and those cokes have added up to 26 pounds of weight gain if  not balanced with exercise.

I often recommend the first change you make in your diet is the zero-calorie drink rule.  Save your calories for your food and drink water or other zero-calorie drinks like diet cokes or crystal light.  I’ve seen people lose a fair amount of weight just by adding in some exercise and adhering to the zero-calorie drink rule.  Next time you pick up that coke or sweet tea, ask yourself if that 12 ounces of pure sugar and preservatives is really worth it?

Low fat versus good fat diet

It is recommend that about 30% of our diet come from fat but more important than maintaining a “low-fat” diet is the balanced intake of saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat.  Here’s a quick breakdown of the types of fat, their effects and where they come from.  Use this to help you choose about 1/3 of your total fats from each category.  It doesn’t have to be that scientific- just focus on adding more of the healthy monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats into your diet and less of the saturated fats and your dietary fat intake will balance itself out.

• Saturated Fats- found mostly in dairy products and meats, also coconut oil and palm oil; raises your risk of coronary heart disease and possibly prostate and colon cancer.
• Monounsaturated Fats – found in olive oil, canola oil, nuts and nut butter, avocado, also in beef and chicken; lowers risk of coronary heart disease
• Polyunsaturated Fats – these are the omega 3 and omega-6 fatty acids, found in fish oil, flax seeds and oil, nuts and nut butter, vegetable oils; important in brain and retinal development, decrease risk of coronary heart disease, lowers triglycerides, may improve body composition, stabilize mood and improve depression.

So, next time you are reaching for the whole millk, try almond milk instead…ever tried it?  It’s delicious. I have started using it as a base for my protein shakes and even on cereal.   And, it’s really not that hard to take 6 grams of fish oil capsules a day- I’ve seen my triglycerides drop to 56 by doing this!  Small changes can make a big difference in affecting the overall balance of fats in your diet.