Weight Loss Myths
How To Eat Fast Food And Lose Weight
If you’re out and about and you want a meal fast, sometimes the only option is fast food.
Other times, you just feel lazy and you don’t want to cook. Either way, fast food seems like a good option.
Thing is, eating out too much can really help you screw the pooch when it comes to your diet … there are healthy alternatives mixed in among all the fattening choices. Your best bet is to learn some common sense guidelines about what makes each item unhealthy and choose one of the healthy items.
It’ll also help if you study the menus of some of your favorite fast food restaurants. You’ll most likely be able to look up their nutrition facts online. Do that and you’ll know for sure how many calories are in your favorite fast food meals.
Now here’s your quick guide to eating healthy and keeping the pounds off while eating fast food …
Some Quick Guidelines:
- Grilled Meats. Grilled meats are a much healthier way of cooking rather than deep fried, breaded meats. If the fast food place you’re visiting has the option of choosing crispy or fried chicken versus a grilled patty, choose the grilled one. If the place is like KFC, and the grilled meat isn’t really grilled, then just eat the deep fried, breaded meats and avoid the side carbs (biscuits, etc).
- Skip the Fries. (Almost) Always. This one was SO HARD for me to get over because I love the way fries taste. I imagine kicking the heroin habit is easier than this. But I’ve probably had about a handful of fries in the last 1.5-2 years so I’m doing good! Nothing but starchy carbs and trans fats here.
- Healthier Sides. Some fast food places will offer alternatives to a side of fries. You may be able to opt for some healthy fruit or salad instead. Or you could do the healthiest side option–don’t get any!
- Don’t Super Size. Less calories = less fat. And they only supersize the fries and the soda! WTF? I want a super sized cheeseburger man!
- Diet Soda. I used to laugh at the fat guy who orders the big greasy meal and then orders a diet soda, as if it’ll make a difference. Well it does make a difference, but, not if your packing fries into your mouth too! Big sandwich, skip the fries or chips, and a diet soda can go a long way towards filling you up and helping you not eat as much … Water or unsweetened tea is a good choice too …
Examples Of Healthy Meals At Popular Fast Food Joints
Here’s a list of some healthy choices you can make at some of the most popular fast food restaurants:
- Taco Bell. Taco Bell has come out with a “Fresco Style” menu that allows you to choose popular menu items in a lower calorie style. A menu item ordered fresco style will come back with a special healthier salsa and it’ll also lack cheese. (I personally don’t take this option since the only time I eat Taco Bell is when I’m drunk anyways, but it’s worth noting)
- McDonalds. They now offer an extended list of “premium salads”. However, it’s still easy to get fooled into thinking something is healthy when it really isn’t. Make sure you use a low fat dressing on your salad (half a pack if you can) and opt for the grilled chicken. If you grab the ranch and crispy chicken, you may as well be ordering a Big Mac! A burger or two with no sides and a diet coke/unsweet tea will fill you up with less calories too.
- Subway. As healthy as they claim to be, there’s still a crap-load of empty bread carbs here. Try a salad, throw some protein in there with some chicken, avoid the chips, you should be good to go.
- Wendy’s. My all-time favorite fast food joint. If you order a value meal you can definitely opt out of the fries. You can substitute for a baked potato, mandarin oranges, and more. If you’re fasting, the Triple Baconator is the ultimate one burger per day — 1300 calories of fat and protein goodness. That’ll be it sir!
- Burger King. Like the rest of the popular fast food chains, Burger King has followed suit and made changes. You can opt for healthier alternatives like salads, chicken, etc. You can also do the one big burger thing with their whoppers if you’re fasting.
- K.F.C. Has actually got a GREAT menu item — the Double-down sandwich. Low carbs. High protein and only 500 calories. Fills you up and keeps the calories down. I bet you could lose 20lbs on an all Double-Down Diet.
- Chipotle. Not really fast food, but an AMAZING restaurant and probably the best choice for eating healthy. Some whiny punks complain about oversized portions but if you order the right stuff, it’s good portion sizes of good food. Skip the extra 1500 cals of empty carbs that comes with the tortillas, get a bowl instead, fill it with meats, salsa, fajita peppers, mounds of guacamole and lettuce and you’re kickin’ serious Bootay. Use the Chipotle Fan Nutrition Calculator to see the different macro-nutrient and calorie profiles of your food combos and enjoy!
For all other restaurants, you can make an educated decision about the healthy items from the menu. If you’re unsure, use some common sense guidelines:
- Avoid empty carbs (fries, tortillas, chips, biscuits, etc)
- Layoff the transfats (deep fried foods, fries, etc)
- Avoid the sugar (no sodas, no sweet tea, no ice creams, etc)
- Try not to cram so much of it in your mouth a.k.a. watch your portion sizes
Follow the tips in this short article and you’re sure to lose weight while eating fast food.
Weight Loss Strategies
If you are wanting to lose weight, you should never skip meals, especially breakfast, and you should watch out for “hidden” calories that you either add to your food or that you drink, such as soda or juice.
Another key strategy to losing weight is making yourself feel full. Try drinking a glass of water just before you
begin eating. By doing so, the water is occupying space in your stomach. You will feel full faster. Most
importantly, eat foods high in fiber.
Foods that are high in fiber (such as fruits, whole grains, and vegetables) contain bulk with considerably
fewer calories-to-volume-of-food. Fiber is a substance that your body does not use as a calorie source. Yet,
it occupies space in your stomach which in turn makes you feel full faster.
Most fruits and vegetables are excellent choices when you are looking for a food low in calories. Watch out for avocados and coconuts. Both are high in fat, thus high in calories. Including a rich amount of fruits and
vegetables in your diet not only makes sense for a weight loss plan but for any diet plan. To promote good health, you should always incorporate a variety of fruits and vegetables.
Should a weight loss plan be fat-free?
No. A sensible weight loss plan will include fat, 15 to 30% of the calories from fat. Your body does need fat, so it is not a good idea to omit it from your diet. It is also not a good idea to eat too much fat, more than 30% of calories. Serious health problems can occur as a result of eating a diet rich in fat.
When a product states that it is fat-free or that it is lower in calories than the original version, be sure to
read the label. Always check the number of calories and know the serving size. Many fat-free versions of some of your favorite foods are not necessarily lower in calories.
Final comment, there are no “magic” foods. Eating grape fruit religiously, while it is a healthy food choice, do
not expect this practice to burn any extra calories.
Slurping down cabbage soup, sorry to say, will not produce any wonderful results either. Simply put, use
your head when you hear or read some quack’s new revolutionary diet plan. Nope, combining foods a certain
way is not going to make you drop the pounds either -
Double-Whammy From Fatty Foods
They Not Only Add to Your Waistline, They Can “Trick” You Into Eating More, Research Shows
Once you get started eating ice cream, do you feel like you could eat the whole carton? Or maybe polish off that second deluxe cheeseburger?
Turns out there may be a medical explanation for binge eating.
On “The Early Show” Wednesday, CBS News Medical Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton reported on new research suggesting the answer may lie in certain saturated fats that, in essence, trick the brain into eating more.
The study, done at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, found that certain fats interact with, and actually change, your brain chemistry, Ashton said.
The fats at fault — particularly palmitic acid, found in milk, butter, beef and cheese — tell the brain to ignore hormones involved in the regulation of food intake. So you wind up eating more.
And the research shows it can take anywhere from three to five days for the brain to wash out misleading signals spurred by the fats and start responding properly to the weight regulation hormones again.
check out the entire story here
Weight Loss Myths
Myth #1 – You Have to Do Cardio in the Morning on an Empty Stomach in order to Burn Fat
There is no fat loss magic to doing cardio on an empty stomach. In fact, most trainers “in-the-know” are using intervals instead of slow, boring cardio to help their clients burn fat fast. Plus, who wants to be doing boring cardio at 6am while their stomach is rumbling? If you could find better home fitness workouts to burn fat, wouldn’t you do those instead?
Myth #2 – You Have to Do Cardio in the Fat Burning Zone
By exercising in the fat burning “Zone”, as some folks like to call it, you only burn a few extra calories than if you weren’t doing any exercise at all! Slow, boring cardio workouts are not the best way to lose belly fat. If you truly want to change your body, you need to use short, burst exercise home fitness workouts.
Myth #3 – You Have to Do Cardio 7 Days Per Week
You don’t need to workout everyday. The truth is, you only need to do 3 short home fitness workouts per week of 45 minutes.
Myth #4 You Have to Do Cardio for at Least 20 Minutes Before You Start Burning Fat
We’re burning fat all the time, even while you sit here and read this message. Sure, exercise increases our fat burning, but it’s not as though the first 20 minutes of any workout don’t burn fat. That makes no sense at all! I’ll show you how the short, burst exercise system helps you achieve more fat loss in less than half the time of a regular cardio workout.
Myth #5 – You Can’t Lose Fat and Gain Muscle at the Same Time
Scientific research and my experience says, “Yes, you can!” A recent study found that men and women can gain muscle and lose fat at the same time if they use a component of my Turbulence Training system.