Monday, September 26, 2022

After Dinner Snacking

You stick to your diet all day and eat healthy well-balanced meals. Then the evening comes and you find yourself making repeated trips to the refrigerator or pantry to eat food that you don’t really need. Sound familiar? If it does, you’re not alone. Nighttime calories are a struggle for many dieters who find that they continue eating after dinner. If you’re serious about losing weight, use these tips to stop eating at night. Those night-time snacks and drinks amount to more calories than you eat all day.

Why Do I Eat So Much At Night?

You’re normal if you like to snack and graze after eating dinner. But if you are trying to lose weight, the calories you consume from snacks in the evening could easily undo a day’s worth of smart food choices. So the first step to eating less is to find out why you eat when you don’t need to.

For most of us, the reason we overeat is related to the fact that we are less busy at night and we are near food. We like to relax and enjoy more leisurely activities; food and drinks are a common source of comfort. Without the distraction of work or other daytime activities, it’s easy to grab snacks that are nearby. If you can find other ways to unwind, then you’ll be likely to eat less at night. You can also use these strategies to curb night-time eating.

How to Stop Eating After Dinner

The best way to curb your nighttime eating behavior for good is to use short-term strategies to break the habit. If you can replace snacking with a healthier habit, you won’t feel the urge to overeat in the evening.

Use one of these tips (or all three) to change your night-time snack habit.

Move away from the food. You’re more likely to eat too much at night if you are always around food. So after dinner, move away from the kitchen. This might mean that you postpone clean-up tasks so that you aren’t tempted to eat leftovers. Or better yet, delegate the job to someone in your house who isn’t on a diet.

Another great way to get away from food is to go for a walk after dinner. Even if your walk is just 15-20 minutes long, physical activity helps to break up the eating momentum. It also gives your body a chance to feel the sensation of fullness so the urge to eat is less strong. Walk the dog, you can burn calories, the dog will appreciate the walk and you will lose the craving.

Use a “meal-ender” to curb your appetite. Some dieters use mint-flavored gum to diminish the desire to eat after dinner. Most of us don’t like the taste of food when we have a mint flavor in our mouths. Brushing your teeth after dinner provides this same benefit – along with a dental bonus. I drink coffee at the end of a meal. That’s nothing new, families have been ending a meal with coffee or black tea for decades.

You can also use MealEnders to stop eating so much. These small candies reset your taste buds so that you don’t feel the urge to eat. MealEnders contain no stimulants and are regulated as a food product so they have to follow strict guidelines of the Food and Drug Administration, unlike many diets and weight loss supplements. Yes, mints after dinner or lunch have always been popular. Gum, mints, coffee, tea, MealEnders or brushing your tooth, anything to get rid of the food taste in your mouth and you can lose food cravings.

Be a smart television watcher. Most of us eat too much at night when we snack mindlessly in front of the television. Some researchers even believe that certain "action shows" make us overeat food. Regardless of your show preference, however, you can create healthy eating habits in front of the television to eat less and lose weight. If I snack at night, I’ll have a piece of fruit.

My favorite way to eat less is to keep my hands active. I fold laundry or do other simple chores while I watch TV. If I really want to eat – and I know I’ve eaten enough for dinner – then I use specific diet strategies to control snacking in front of the tv. I also make sure that I follow good portion control guidelines if I choose to snack while watching TV.

Remember, snacking isn’t bad for your diet. But eating when you’re not hungry is never a good plan. Learn to eat a healthy dinner and then create habits to stop eating at night. You’ll reach your goal weight faster and keep your weight off for good.

Look for my podcasts on anchor.fm, or the podcast app on your cell phone.

 Search “howbaddoyouwanttoloseweight”.


If you really want to lose your body fat then look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books.


There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.


My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.





Thursday, September 22, 2022

Foods That Burn Fat

I hope your past all the parties by now and made your New Year’s Resolution. And if you're watching your weight, the resolution probably has something to do with losing some excess fat. No one wants to go to the gym looking like they need to go to the gym if you know what I mean. Yes, I can say it, I gained a couple pounds over the holidays, but I know that I can lose that extra fat just by changing what I eat.
Most people don’t realize it but you don’t have to exercise to lose weight. If you limit your calorie intake and eat the right foods you will drop weight. Now I want to be honest, if you had the extra weight for a long time it will take longer to lose it, but if you just added on a few pounds this winter and want to lose it before the warm weather, then just change your diet and the extra pounds will disappear.
I found an article about foods that can burn fat, read below and try it, but remember you have to cut the calories besides just eating these vegetables.

Did you know that there is a particular family of vegetables that has more fat-fighting and health-boosting benefits than ANY other?  It’s true!  We’re talking about cruciferous vegetables, and there is a wide variety to choose from…just take a look at all these options!

Kale
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Brussels Sprouts
Rutabaga
Cabbage
Bok Choy
Swiss Chard
Turnips
Arugula
Collard Greens
Watercress
Radishes

And here are just some of their benefits:

#1 – Improved digestion, satiety, and weight!  Cruciferous vegetables are high in fiber — a fiber that promotes a healthier digestive tract while keeping you feeling fuller, and longer.  In fact, many studies have shown that increased fiber intake leads to lower weight levels and even weight loss.

#2 – Lower levels of belly fat!  One unique benefit of cruciferous vegetables is their ability to fight off dietary and environmental estrogens that we may be exposed to through soy, plastics, and pesticides through a special phytonutrient called indole-3-carbinol (I3C).  Environmental estrogens have also been linked to high levels of belly fat, so by consuming more cruciferous vegetables you’ll be fighting off belly fat stores at the same time!

#3 – Increased Gut & Immune Health!  Even beyond the above two benefits, a recent study published in the renowned journal Nature Immunology discovered that specific proteins in cruciferous vegetables may play an essential role in gut health by boosting immune cell production and ultimately combating bacterial infections, chronic inflammation, and potentially even bowel cancer.

#4 – Anti-aging!  Cruciferous vegetables have also been shown through research to boast antioxidant and anti-aging properties.  In fact, one study showed that participants who consumed 1 – 2 cups of cruciferous vegetables a day reduced their oxidative stress by 22% in just 3 weeks!

The list actually goes on and on with regard to what cruciferous vegetables can do for your body, fat loss results, and your health, so be sure to eat more of these “miracle” vegetables starting today!

Look for my podcasts on anchor.fm, or the podcast app on your cell phone.

 Search “howbaddoyouwanttoloseweight”.


If you really want to lose your body fat then look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books.


There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.


My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.




Monday, September 19, 2022

Don't Take Your Health For Granted

I think we all take our health for granted until we finally realize you’re going downhill. You have to do something and you know it. The problem is most people wait too long, and then you have a big job ahead of you.

When you’re young and athletic you can take your good health for granted. You don’t have to work at it, your active athletic lifestyle is all you need to stay in shape. But we don’t actually realize our lifestyle is keeping us in shape. Because we don’t belong to a gym or run three times a week. All we do is play soccer, baseball or maybe basketball because that’s what your friends do.

After we’re older, out of school, and have a job, our lives change. We spend our days working and our nights relaxing, washing clothes, cooking a meal, and getting ready for another workday. On weekends we try to socialize, meet with or meet new friends, work on relationships, and spend time with family. Our lives become complicated. We don’t have time for everything, but we need to make time for ourselves.

We need to take time to do something for ourselves. Taking care of yourself is not really on the front burner. We always push off anything that has to do with ourselves.

“I’m fine, I’ll get to it later. I feel fine I don’t need to exercise.” All excuses that we come up with are because we don’t want to deal with having to do one more thing than we already do.

But the truth is you have to find time to do the everyday maintenance your body needs. “What, my body needs maintenance, no one told me that.” Oh yeah, maintenance.

You see most of us can’t see a difference between the way we looked or feel from one week to the next, but your body is changing every day even if you don’t see it. Your body ages every day and depending on what you do every day your body will either age slower or faster. Every extra inch around your waist will age your body faster. So studies say, your waist should be half as big as your height. I’m 70 inches tall, my waist should be a 35 around my navel. For every extra inch around your waist, you’re cutting your life span by 10 years.

I know what you’re thinking, “How can that be true”. Studies have proven that a larger-than-normal waist is harder on your heart, and it will cause high blood pressure, high blood sugars, and high cholesterol. Also being overweight means you have too much body fat which will cause cancer.

Now, you probably feel fine and don’t understand why you need to be concerned, but as a young adult or someone under 40 years of age, you probably do feel fine. I was in my 40s before I finally wanted to lose weight.

Today, I think we are more aware of our health, what we eat, and that we need to exercise, but we don’t always do what we know is good for us. I think everyone knows by now the dangers of fast food, fried foods, and too much sugar but yet we still line up at the drive-in windows and never seem to find time for exercise and seem to ignore our health problems.

If you wait until your doctor tells you to wake up and lose some weight, it will probably be serious. Years of not doing the maintenance necessary to keep your body healthy will result in years of serious work and daily maintenance and diets if you want to correct the neglect you’ve done. But even if you get back to the normal weight you can’t get the years of your life back that you probably lost. I’m a senior now, and I believe I’m in good health for my age and I know I finally weigh a proper weight for my age and height. I’m 60 pounds less today than I was 30 years ago and when I get out of the shower I can see what those extra pounds did to my body. I’ll never get the body back that I had as a young man.

I swim at a local pool occasionally with many other seniors and you can see right away the people who have always stayed in shape all their lives and those who are trying to get back in shape and of course, they can’t, they waited too long, but they are working out, trying to become limber again and trying to regain their strength.

I know today our population as a whole is more aware of their health than we were 40 or 50 years ago, nevertheless, a larger part of the adult population is overweight and the numbers keep growing.

Look for my podcasts on anchor.fm, or the podcast app on your cell phone.

 Search “howbaddoyouwanttoloseweight”.


If you really want to lose your body fat then look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books.


There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.


My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.




Tuesday, September 13, 2022

Eating Slower Is Healthier

Couple eating dinner in a restaurant

David Sacks / Getty Images

When it comes to maintaining good health, most of us think about things like eating healthy foods and exercising, but have you ever considered slowing down your eating? While many of us have been educated about the benefits of things like eating fresh fruits and vegetables and cutting down on our sugar intake, rarely does anyone talk about how we eat. Perhaps that is because we are obsessed with defining what we should and shouldn't eat. Perhaps it is because we crave clear-cut, black-and-white rules for maintaining a healthy diet (of which there are actually very few). But it is not because it is not important.

The Science of Satiety: How You Know When You're Full 

The science behind satiety, or the absence or lack of hunger, is complex, to say the least. In fact, there are a lot of conflicting views and unknowns when it comes to food-related states and concepts like hunger, satiety, and appetite. But one of the things that we do know is how satiety is communicated in our bodies.

The satiety center, or the place that recognizes when we are full and no longer hungry, is located in the hypothalamus. The brain, being the highly complex organ that it is, uses several factors in regulating hunger and food intake. The brain relies on a combination of neural and hormonal signals from the gastrointestinal tract and levels of nutrients in the blood to determine when we are full or no longer need to eat. It is also believed that there are psychological factors that impact the communication loop as well.

Slow Down, You're Eating Too Fast! 

When it comes to those neural and hormonal signals from the gastrointestinal tract (including the stomach), it takes approximately 20 minutes for our stomach to tell our brains that we are full. This can cause stomach discomfort, and the unintentional overeating it leads to can cause us to gain weight, develop chronic health problems, and reduce our quality and quantity of life.

When we eat too fast, we can quickly eat way past the point of fullness before our brain even registers we're full.

Though overeating is the primary concern when we eat too quickly, there are other considerations as well. When you eat too quickly, you risk not chewing your food properly and thoroughly. What most people do not realize is that the first steps of breaking down and digesting food start in the mouth with teeth to grind the food into smaller pieces and saliva to start breaking down certain molecules. When we eat too fast, the question is how much work the rest of the digestive system much work to make up for improperly chewed food.

Tips for Eating Slower for Your Health 

While eating slower is not the only factor we must consider when looking at our diet and health, it is an important one. Try to slow down how quickly you eat using this "Fork down!" technique. You may even notice yourself tasting your food, enjoying it more, and losing weight.

  1. Take a smaller bite of food than you normally would and put the bite in your mouth.
  2. Put your utensil (fork, spoon, chopsticks, etc.) on the table or plate and release it from your hand. Your hands should be free from eating utensils while you chew. The act of putting down your utensil actually stops you from readying your next bite as you chew the most recent one. 
  3. With your utensils on the table or plate, chew your food. Chew it well. Pay attention to taste and texture. Though the research and recommendations vary, try chewing softer foods at least five to 10 times and harder, denser foods up to 30 times before swallowing.
  4. When done chewing, swallow completely.
  5. Once you've swallowed, pick up your fork and reload it with food for the next bite. Be sure not to start this step until you have completely swallowed your previous bite.
  6. Then, continue this "fork down" technique through the whole meal. Notice if your eating time increases. Notice too if you naturally eat less or fee full sooner.


Sunday, September 11, 2022

A Closer Look At Processed Foods

This is a post that I’m re-blogging because it’s the most important information on the foods we eat. It exposes food manufacturers for what they have done to your food supply. Everyone who shops in a grocery store needs to read this post and remember the information when they buy groceries.

By Brenda Goodman
WebMD Health News

Melanie Warner is the author of Pandora’s Lunchbox: How Processed Foods Took Over the American Diet. A former reporter for The New York Times, she spent a year and a half investigating the modern system of food manufacturing in the U.S. to conclude that “much of what we now eat is not so much as cooked as it is engineered into finely-tuned, nutrient-deficient creations of science.”

Warner says she began to wonder what manufacturers were adding to foods after she started what she calls her “food museum”—a collection of products like cookies, crackers, and even guacamole from a grocery store deli that she discovered could sit on the shelf of her pantry or refrigerator for months or years past their expiration dates without spoiling.

Since her book came out in 2013, the FDA has told food manufacturers that trans fats are no longer safe to use in processed foods, and many major companies, including Kraft, General Mills, and Nestle have pledged to get artificial colors and flavors out of their products—a practice called “clean labeling.”

WebMD asked her what she thought of these developments, and whether companies have really committed to making healthier products.

Q: I’m sure you’ve noticed this recent spate of public announcements from Kraft and General Mills and Nestle that they’re going to get artificial ingredients out of their foods. Do you think companies are feeling more consumer pressure to talk more about how they make their food?

A: Companies, I think, are only going as far as people push them, and by people I mean consumers—the people that are eating their products. They’re doing it because they’re being pushed in that direction by consumers.

They get all this input coming from social media and focus groups and all this market data gathering that they usually do. What they’re hearing is that people are concerned about this, and they’re worried about sales. They feel like if they don’t do this there’s going to be an impact on sales, and they’re probably right.

But they aren’t doing it to be better companies. They’re not trying to truly open up the doors. They’re not truly trying to reform their foods to make them healthier. They’re simply reacting to what consumers are telling them. I know that sounds cynical. That’s just my observation of how food companies think and how they operate. Or any consumer-facing company, really.

Q: After telling us so many revealing details about how processed foods are made, you say in your book that food companies aren’t going to fix this. Since they’re making the food to begin with, why shouldn’t they be the ones to reform it?

A: I’ve had this debate and argument with some people in the food movement who think that we need to be putting pressure on companies. We need to look at regulations and force companies to do things. That’s great if it happens, but companies are so good at getting around rules. They find every loophole they can. And it’s also really hard to get any regulation passed.

So I think it’s really about pushing forward with a new consciousness about food and educating people and opening people’s eyes up. I’ve been really amazed and heartened by how much has happened on that front within the last 10 years. There have been books written, articles, and documentaries. People are looking at all this much more with much greater awareness about what’s healthy for us to eat and caring about our health. Not everyone — there’s still a huge way to go.

I think that’s where the momentum needs to continue. We need to keep focusing on opening up people’s eyes to what happens inside the food industry. And if they decide ‘Oh, it’s fine. No big deal,’ then let people decide for themselves. But most people when they see what happens inside the food industry, whether it’s on the farms or in factories decide, ‘Oh, that’s kind of gross. I think I’m going to find other options.’

Q: Where is the FDA in all this?

A: I think people have gotten so used to the FDA not doing anything that it’s hard to summon anyone’s outrage about it. They say, ‘Well, the agency doesn’t have a big enough budget to really police our food supply.’ But they’ll never get enough money if people don’t get angry about it and insist on greater regulation.

It is a Herculean job to try either to initiate or try to stay on top of the scientific research on so many different food additives. Let me just say that. It is a really big deal. But there are just clear examples of how the FDA is just not being rigorous at all in ways that it definitely could.

Trans fat is just the most recent and glaring example. We’ve known for at least 10 years, probably more, that trans fats are one of the most harmful things in the food supply and it’s just now that FDA has taken away the GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status of partially hydrogenated oils. So, just the fact that they sat on it for that long and didn’t want to press the food industry, and from what I can tell, the reason they didn’t take action was that the food industry said ‘No, wait, it’s not that bad. We’ll just reduce the amount, and we’ll still have half a gram, you need to give us time.’ So they kind of go in line with the schedule that the food industry requests.

There are other examples like BHT, which is the preservative that’s used so that oils don’t go rancid in foods, and you find it in a number of processed foods as well as in packaging. That’s a probable carcinogen, according to the Health and Human Services department, so clearly that could be something that’s banned and not allowed in food. So those are just small examples of where the FDA could take simple action without going through tons of scientific studies. The data is already there.

Six months ago, there was a study that popped up on a couple of emulsifiers that are pretty widely used. Polysorbate 80 was one of them. It’s a whole area where there has been hardly any research done because it’s relatively new, knowledge of the gut microbiome. We have no idea what all these additives are doing to our gut bacteria. That’s just another example of how there is a need for more research.

I’m not going to be the one screaming, ‘Don’t eat any food additives, they’re all horrible.’ I think in a limited amount, your body can handle (them) and has a system for detoxifying. Because everyone eats some processed food. We’re all exposed to food additives. It’s just a question of quantity. If people are consuming a diet heavy on processed food, then they’re getting an abundance of all these different kinds of food additives. And I think the FDA needs to be a lot more aware of that, the accumulation of many, many food additives coming into our bodies day after day for people who are eating these diets heavy in processed food.

Q: What do you think is the next trans fat?

A: Certainly the most dangerous things in our food now are sugar and refined grains. They’re in abundance in processed food and their effect on the body in excess is well documented.

Refined grains get turned into glucose in the body very quickly. If you’re eating a whole grain product, like oatmeal, there’s some fiber that helps to slow down the absorption in the body, but if you take out that fiber, there’s nothing to prevent it from being readily converted into glucose and function very similar to the way sugar does in terms of rapidly going into the bloodstream and causing these rapid spikes in blood sugar, and your pancreas produces a lot of insulin to compensate, and you have that whole cycle that can lead to metabolic syndrome and diabetes if left unchecked.

Q: Do you think when you take artificial colors and flavors out of processed food, that makes it a better product? Is clean labeling really going to make our food healthier?

A: That’s a tough one, I think. Some days I think, ‘OK, that’s kinda good. It’s making something less bad.’ It’s good to have those options as a better alternative when you do want the chips, cookies, frozen stuff, and cereals. But on the other hand, the concern is that it gives those foods a health halo and confuses people. And then people think, ‘Well I can eat more … or (it’s) a healthy product.’ … I think people have to be sophisticated about it and think ‘Well, there are none of these seemingly horrible additives, but what are the other ingredients in them?’ If there’s a lot of sugar and refined grains, then I think you have to look at those ingredients and make an assessment.

(Some companies) are taking out artificial colors and flavors without really addressing the other stuff. Like BHT and methylcellulose and all these other ingredients and preservatives.

Q: How natural are “natural flavors”?

A: All the natural flavors are still highly processed. The special strawberry flavor doesn’t come from a strawberry. They’re coming from a natural source. It could start with corn, soybeans, or yeast. It starts with a natural source, but the way you get to it is highly processed, similar to the way you would for an artificial flavoring. The process is very similar. It’s just what you start with that’s different, that makes it natural. People can decide whether that’s better. I don’t necessarily think it’s better.

Q: We looked into problems of adulteration with processed foods like parmesan cheese. When I asked a cheese expert if he wanted the FDA to do something about it, he said no. He said the agency has to stay focused on preventing foodborne illnesses caused by contamination with E. coli and Listeria and things like that. He said these additives aren’t really a health issue. What do you say to that?

A: If you have to choose one or the other, you’re going to go with prevent E. coli and Listeria, obviously. But why do we have to choose?

It’s ironic that the FDA was inspired by Harvey Wiley, MD, who wanted an agency to oversee food, specifically because there was so much adulterated food and no one was overseeing this. That was the original inspiration for the FDA in the first place. So you didn’t have sawdust in your coffee and things like that. Now it’s cellulose in the parmesan cheese. Maybe that’s why all those shakers of parmesan cheese, when you buy them, have no taste. There’s no flavor. You have to put so much on to get a little bit of taste.

Look for my podcasts on anchor.fm, or the podcast app on your cell phone.

 Search “howbaddoyouwanttoloseweight”.


If you really want to lose your body fat then look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books.


There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.


My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.




Thursday, September 8, 2022

More Frequent Meals Can Lead To A Thinner, Healthier You

This article in Reuters last month will verify the same things I’ve talked about for years now. The more calories you eat at a meal, the more of your food will turn into fat. We can only process so much food at a time and the rest will just get stored as fat. That’s how we gain weight.

Reuters Health – Adults who had multiple small meals every day tended to eat better, and weigh less than those who had fewer but larger meals, in a recent study.

People eating fewer meals tended to eat the most at night, and drink alcohol with meals, both of which might contribute to their higher body mass index (BMI), a measure of weight relative to height, the researchers said.

“The major hypothesis that can be taken away from this study is interesting but not so mind-blowing – eating more frequently throughout the day leads to a greater intake of healthier, lower calorically-dense foods, which in turn leads to a lower overall caloric intake and BMI,” said Elena Tovar, a clinical dietitian at Montefiore Medical Center in New York who wasn’t involved in the study.

“This just makes sense – eating more often staves off hunger so that we don’t end up eating whatever we can get our hands on, later on, thereby making it more likely that the foods we eat are healthier,” Tovar told Reuters Health in an email.

Researchers in the UK, at Imperial College London, and in the U.S., at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, analyzed data from 2,385 adults from a study conducted between 1996 and 1999.

They found that participants who reported eating less than four times during a 24-hour period had an average BMI of 29.0 and consumed an average of 2,472 calories.

A BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 is considered normal weight and BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight. A BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese.

Participants who ate six times or more over 24 hours had an average BMI of 27.3 and consumed an average of 2,129 calories.

People who ate more often tended to consume foods that were lower in calories and higher in nutritional value, such as vegetables, the researchers found.

Meanwhile, people who ate less than four meals tended to consume more calories in the evening, and to have alcohol in the evening. This pattern is consistent with meals eaten at restaurants, where food tends to be rich or fried and it’s harder to get fresh, healthy foods, the authors note.

“Our findings demonstrated that lower BMI levels in more frequent eaters are associated with consumption of lower dietary energy density and higher nutrient quality foods,” the authors write in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

“Modifying eating behavior through more frequent meals of low dietary energy density and high nutrient quality may be an important approach to control epidemic obesity,” they note.

They also acknowledge limitations to the study, including the fact that it doesn’t prove that timing or frequency of eating caused the differences in BMI.

“Although this relationship requires further testing, it seems to support the idea that eating large meals later in the day may not be doing our waistlines any favors,” Tovar said.

Tovar highlighted the study authors’ speculation that the apparent effect of meal timing might be related to an increase in insulin sensitivity later in the day.

“I would be curious to see more research on this topic in particular, especially because so many people these days are being told by practitioners not to eat after certain times at night without there being much science to back up these arbitrary requests,” she said.

Look for my podcasts on anchor.fm, or the podcast app on your cell phone.

 Search “howbaddoyouwanttoloseweight”.


If you really want to lose your body fat then look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books.


There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.


My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.




Monday, September 5, 2022

Losing Weight Is A Life Changing Experience

Once you make the decision to lose the excess weight and change your life the trick is to never go back. Losing weight is a combination of your diet and an exercise program. Exercise is the part of losing weight that turns off most people. They’re all motivated at the beginning and then the exercise part is the part that causes them to quit. Remember that exercise is only about 30% of the weight loss process. Diet is 70% of the process. Only eating the proper foods is key. Yes, exercising is a part of the losing weight process but you don’t have to kill yourself exercising. Some people think that’s the only way to lose weight, “You have to sweat it off”. That’s just not true. It is true that you need exercise to jump start your metabolism and start burning calories, but you can start slow.

Walking is a good way to get your body going. You want to try to do your walking as early as you can. Try and do this for 30 minutes, and a couple times a day. Your metabolism goes dormant at night so you’re only burning the minimal amount of calories until you wake and start moving. At first you’re still burning a minimal amount and that doesn’t change until you start moving vigorously by walking fast or running or lifting weights, riding a bike, something to get your blood pumping. That’s why you need to exercise early, the faster you get your metabolism into high gear the more calories you’ll burn that day. Remember after dark your metabolism slows down. At night your body goes into a healing mode. That’s necessary for sleep.

O.K., some people will find the exercise part of losing weight the most difficult and others the diet part. I guess for me it’s the diet part. I love food and always find a reason to go off the diet. And for some people it’s both parts. After you get use to the exercise part it will make you feel better when you exercise. So I like to exercise, but for the “newbies” who never did much exercise it’s difficult to fall into a routine. This is when you need to begin slowly. A gym membership is o.k. but still go easy. Just go for the walking or treadmills or maybe the stationary bike. A beginner at exercise can easily get burned out or overdue. Do something you can do easily at first. You can challenge yourself later after a few months of conditioning. You want your heart to get use to exercising every day. This is when talking to your doctor is a great benefit. Your doctor will help you begin with a safe exercise program. Yes, you want to challenge your muscles but you can’t let your heart rate go too high for your size and age. Your doctor knows what the safe limit is for you. This along with a good diet program and in a few months you’ll see and feel the results of your hard work. For those of us that are new or don't exercise regularly you might want to invest in a fitness monitor. The important things to track is blood pressure and heart rate, you can't exceed the level for your condition, that's where your doctor comes in, he'll give you the numbers to keep you safe.

Gym membership can actually cause a “newbie” to give up. After about twenty minutes you wonder what you’re doing there. Try and buddy with someone you know who is already going. Or on your first day sign up with a trainer. Some trainers will work with you by the day and some by the week and if you can’t find a trainer at that gym, maybe you should move on. You can look on-line for a trainer that will work with you at any gym or in your home. You don’t need a lot of equipment to workout.

A trainer can also help you with your diet. The diet is the most important part. I wasted a lot of money at a health club because I thought I could sweat off the weight. I was doing Racquetball, rowing, and machines but I barely lose any weight. If you really want to lose weight you have to change your diet.

I started to eat fresh, which means fish, poultry (only white meat), vegetables and fruit. No dairy (except plain Greek yogurt). Whole grain bread is okay. Whole wheat is not whole grain (read the labels) no enriched flour. Anything with enriched flour is just as bad as eating sugar. You can buy “Gluten-Free” bread that has no wheat. If you wondered why “Gluten-Free” became so popular it’s probably because of enriched wheat flour.  No “processed foods” (store made food), no can food, some say that fish packed in water is okay, it’s a good source of protein. And drink only water, tea or coffee. While you are in that weight loss mode, don't drink calories and increase water.

On the top of this page you’ll find a tab for another page that has a diet suggestion. It’s a good diet and you don’t have to count calories.

There are lots of choices and the only exercise that’s suggested is walking, brisk walking every day. Nothing to buy, just wear a comfortable pair of walking shoes. For a “newbie” who is just starting an exercise program walking is the best way to begin. Walk outside if the weather permits or in the mall if it doesn’t. In the beginning remember it’s not a race, don’t let your heart rate get out of control. Your target heart rate should be 220 minus your age. I’m 70, so my target heart rate is 150, maximum is about 180. Your doctor will help you find a heart rate right for you.

Look for my podcasts on anchor.fm, or the podcast app on your cell phone.

 Search “howbaddoyouwanttoloseweight”.


If you really want to lose your body fat then look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books.


There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.


My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.