Use Your Imagination

The opposite of mindless eating:

[Research indicates that] indulging thoughts of eating a particular food may help us to eat less of the real thing.

The finding could mean a rethink of weight management and drug treatment programmes, because these usually emphasise avoidance of thoughts of the desired item, rather than encouragement of them. "We believe this is the first research to show the imagination can decrease the attraction of any initially attractive stimulus," says Joachim Vosgerau at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, part of the team that conducted the research.

"When you quit smoking you constantly get those urges, you're trying to suppress the thoughts," says Vosgerau. "According to our theory, you should do the opposite and imagine doing it, drag by drag."

I'm not sold. I think about eating macadamia nuts all day, and I'm still stuffing m

Excuse me. I need to go eat some mac nuts.

(Source: New Scientist)

Watch What You Eat

It helps to keep an eye -- literally -- on the size of your portions:

Researchers in Berlin set up a study where participants would eat in the dark, allowing the researchers to alter portion sizes without the participants knowing. In darkness, the participants—visually unaware of whether they had been given the regular or super-sized portions—ate all of the food with little change in feelings of fullness between those with the large or small portions. In contrast, those who were fed the same portions in a lit area reported feeling fuller sooner and ate less. They were able to gauge how full they should feel based on the size of the portion in front of them.

(Source: Lifehacker)

Dinner Plates for Dummies

Designers Rui Pereira and Hafsteinn Juliusson have created plates that remind diners of how to load up with nutritious foods.

Too bad they didn't make a Paleo/Primal version.

(Source: Daque Design via Neatorama)

Smells Like Sugar

I'm not exactly complaining about the (sickeningly) sweet fragrance of funnel cakes, churros and beignets wafting over us as we stroll from Adventureland to Tomorrowland. These scents are incredibly nostalgic for me, and I can't say I'm not a little tempted by the siren call of fried chicken, kettle corn, and Mickey Mouse-shaped pretzels, either.

But holy shit, people. I think I took in a few hundred extra calories simply by inhaling the smell of the stuff that everyone's mindlessly downing here.

This place smells like diabetes.

Jesus: A Mindless Eater?

Holy portion sizes!

Cornell professor Brian Wansink of "Mindless Eating" fame has collaborated with his brother, Craig, a professor of religious studies at Virginia Wesleyan College, to direct and publish a study in next month's International Journal of Obesity. They found that by closely studying paintings of The Last Supper throughout the ages, you can see that Jesus and his disciples' "entree sizes grew by 69 percent over the past millennium. Average bread-size grew too -- by about 23 percent."

"In the Gospels themselves when they describe this meal, they only describe bread and wine as being present," Craig Wansink ... So, it was up to the individual artists to decide what else might have been served, and sizes.

The paintings were analyzed with a computer program that scanned the depicted food items and calculated their dimensions. To account for varying sizes of the paintings and their foods , the size of bread loaves and main dishes was indexed based on the average head size of the people around the table -- or what the researchers call the "Bread-to-Head" ratio (and, of course, the "Main-Dish-by-head" ratio, too).

"The last thousand years have witnessed dramatic increases in the production, availability, safety, abundance and affordability of food," said Brian Wansink, "We think that as art imitates life, these changes have been reflected in paintings of history's most famous dinner."

(Source: NPR and NYT)

Calories In, Calories Out

I’m guessing that -- like me -- lots of folks got into P90X, Insanity, Turbulence Training, or other exercise program as a way to drop a few pounds and “tone up” a bit. But in the excitement of starting a new, challenging workout routine, we sometimes forget that diet's actually more important than exercise when battling the bulge.

It's a myth that working out is the key to losing weight. As I’ve mentioned before, the scientific consensus is that exercise alone doesn’t drive significant weight loss, but this message just isn't getting through. On shows like “The Biggest Loser,” overweight contestants are shown getting their asses handed to them by trainers who march them through up to six hours of exercise per day -- all in the name of surviving a humiliating “weigh-in” process at the end of the week. Yes, some onscreen time is devoted to doling out nutrition tips, but the grueling workouts remain the primary focus of the program. (I have to admit, though, that gawking at people who exercise to the point of vomiting is much more visually arresting than a watching a guy put three ounces of chicken on a kitchen scale while droning on about portion control).

But even outside of reality TV, there's a widespread assumption that exercise produces a post-workout “afterburn” that torches calories well after you've changed out of your gym clothes. As the New York Times points out:

“Many people believe that you rev up” your metabolism after an exercise session “so that you burn additional body fat throughout the day,” said Edward Melanson, Ph.D., an associate professor in the division of endocrinology at the [University of Colorado] School of Medicine ... If afterburn were found to exist, it would suggest that even if you replaced the calories you used during an exercise session, you should lose weight, without gaining weight — the proverbial free lunch.

But after conducting a study among athletes and non-athletes, University of Colorado researchers "found that none of the groups, including the athletes, experienced ‘afterburn.’ They did not use additional body fat on the day when they exercised. In fact, most of the subjects burned slightly less fat over the 24-hour study period when they exercised than when they did not."

The problem, it seems, is that vigorous exercise makes us want to eat more.

"In general, for weight loss, exercise is pretty useless," says Eric Ravussin, chair in diabetes and metabolism at Louisiana State University and a prominent exercise researcher. Many recent studies have found that exercise isn't as important in helping people lose weight as you hear so regularly in gym advertisements or on shows like The Biggest Loser ...

The basic problem is that while it's true that exercise burns calories and that you must burn calories to lose weight, exercise has another effect: it can stimulate hunger. That causes us to eat more, which in turn can negate the weight-loss benefits we just accrued. Exercise, in other words, isn't necessarily helping us lose weight. It may even be making it harder.

Plus, people tend to overestimate the calories they’ve burned, while underestimating the calories they ingest to sate their workout-induced hunger. The electronic calorie counters on fitness machines don’t help; in fact, many of them (especially the ones on elliptical machines) wildly overestimate users' calorie-burn.
              
In other words, while you may think you just torched 500 calories after a hardcore session on the elliptical (and that you're going to benefit from a post-workout afterburn, too), your actual output may be closer to 300 calories. And now, you're famished, but if you wash down a banana and a PowerBar with a bottle of Gatorade, you'll have consumed 460 calories.

[T]here's the rub: Few people appreciate the amount of activity required to compensate for even small amounts of food. To lose 500 calories through exercise would require a daily eight-kilometre walk or run, or an hour of vigorous exercise.

"It's always disheartening to be on the treadmill and be sweating and sweating and sweating, and you realize, this is just 200 calories? It's not even a candy bar," says Amy Luke, an associate professor in the department of preventive medicine and epidemiology at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

People can overcompensate for the calories burned during a typical workout before even leaving the gym. The Dairy Farmers of Canada recently began promoting low-fat chocolate milk as a post-exercise recovery drink, based on studies suggesting that the protein found in chocolate milk helps recharge muscles.

One 500 ml carton of 1% chocolate milk contains 332 calories.

"For the vast majority of gym-goers that would be about an hour's worth of exercise," says Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, an Ottawa doctor who runs an obesity treatment clinic. "So, at best, you're breaking even. At worst, you come out behind."

One of Mark Sisson’s mantras is that “80% of your body composition will be determined by your diet. Yes, exercise is also important to health and to speed up fat-burning and muscle-building, but most of your results will come from how you eat.”
                        
I believe it. Towards the end of Round 2 (which -- as you’ll recall -- involved frequent Insanity sessions), I found myself taking in a lot more food after my workouts. In particular, I was loading up on carbs. I guess this shouldn't have come as a surprise; after all, calorie compensation “can be triggered by particularly intense workouts,” and we're conditioned to crave carbs when we're hungry.

[T]he desire to compensate is … physiological, says Church. "No doubt the body wants to replenish," particularly after a grueling exercise routine.

The widespread availability of calorie-dense, carbohydrate-heavy foods complicates the problem, says Leslie Bonci, director of sports nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Many people crave carbohydrates after a workout but, to a degree, that "taste" has been engineered by the marketing of energy bars and drinks packed with sugar, she says. "We've been conditioned, like Pavlov's dogs," says Bonci. "I don't know anyone who really craves a salad after working out."

So after a tough Round 2 session of Max Cardio Conditioning or whatever, I'd often reach for some lavash crackers and slather 'em with peanut butter. I'd eat them along with a banana. And maybe a cheese omelet -- sometimes with toast. And a big handful of nuts. And possibly a protein shake. In my hungry, exercise-addled mind, I'd burned so many calories during my workout that it didn't matter what I decided to eat afterwards.

I was wrong. I put on almost five pounds between the end of Round 1 and Round 2 -- despite doing crazy-intense interval training with Insanity.

With Round 3, I’ve renewed my focus on what I’m eating. No, I’m not counting calories (unlike M, who now has a BodyBugg and is logging all her food into the BodyBugg website with an almost religious zeal), and I'm certainly not depriving myself, but I’ve stopped eating mindlessly after my workouts. In fact, just cutting back my intake of carb-y, calorie-rich grains has made a huge difference; in less than three weeks, I’ve returned to my pre-Round 2 weight -- and I’m no longer hobbling around from too-frequent high-impact Insanity sessions, either.

I’m rambling now, so I’ll stop. But in case you missed it, here's the moral of the story: Exercise is awesome, but if you’re looking to lose weight or stay trim, don’t lose sight of the importance of diet and nutrition.

Still want more info? Check out this post by Nerd Fitness on "How to Lose Weight Without Doing One Minute of Exercise."

Round 2 / Day 42: Insanity Pure Cardio + Cardio Abs

Holy hell. Diving headlong into Cardio Abs immediately after the craziness of Pure Cardio isn't the easiest way to start the day.

Afterwards, I wanted to eat everything in sight. I downed a banana, a few heaping spoonfuls of peanut butter and fistfuls of almonds -- and then I saw this on my laptop screen: An article in the L.A. Times discussing the tendency to overeat after intense exercise (a.k.a., "the post-workout binge").

While compensation can be triggered by particularly intense workouts, in most people it appears to be driven by a misunderstanding of how many calories a workout actually burns, [Louisiana State University professor Timothy] Church says. "People greatly overestimate how many calories they've burned," he says. "Forty-five minutes to an hour on a treadmill only burns 450 calories. You can neutralize it with one coffee and muffin at Starbucks or two glasses of wine that night." But the desire to compensate is also physiological, says Church. "No doubt the body wants to replenish," particularly after a grueling exercise routine.

The widespread availability of calorie-dense, carbohydrate-heavy foods complicates the problem, says Leslie Bonci, director of sports nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Many people crave carbohydrates after a workout but, to a degree, that "taste" has been engineered by the marketing of energy bars and drinks packed with sugar, she says. "We've been conditioned, like Pavlov's dogs," says Bonci. "I don't know anyone who really craves a salad after working out."

And there's yet another complicating factor, says Brian Wansink, professor of consumer behavior and director of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Many people will choose low-fat or low-sugar foods in order to adhere to an exercise or diet routine, but then allow themselves to eat more as a reward for choosing such foods, Wansink says.

What a fucking buzzkill.

Round 2 / Day 26: P90X Legs & Back + Ab Ripper X

I know, I know: according to my self-created P90X/Insanity Hybrid Schedule, I was supposed to do Core Synergistics today. But lately, I feel like I've been slacking a bit too much. It's been icy and wet outside, so I haven't been running. And while Insanity is crazy-intense, the workouts are relatively brief, so I'm not convinced that I'm getting the same calorie burn that I got during my first round of P90X.

(One easy way to confirm this would be for me to actually wear my heart rate monitor, but I hate having the plastic sensor strap around my chest -- once I work up a sweat, it starts sliding down my torso, and it's just a big pain in the ass.)

My eating habits are sliding, too -- I catch myself mindlessly stuffing handfuls of almonds and cereal in my mouth at all hours. (I'm addicted to whole wheat Chex with Trader Joes' roasted almond slivers.)

So today, I opted to do Legs & Back and Ab Ripper X instead of the (somewhat) easier Core Synergistics. Legs & Back has always been one of my least favorite P90X workouts, but it's grown on me in recent weeks. Still, I struggled to maintain my previous rep count on all the pull-up variations today, and my ability to balance on my left leg has declined since I finished Round 1. This is puzzling to me; I'd assumed that Insanity would have improved my leg strength and stability. Is it possible that I'm overtraining despite an overall decrease in my total exercise time?

Stating the Obvious

Is it at all surprising that too much TV can make you fat? According to the Los Angeles Times:

Watching hours of television isn't the best thing kids and teens can do. Studies have shown a connection between high screen time volume and obesity rates. A new study found a correlation between longer hours of television watching and lower levels of muscular fitness in young adults.

Well, duh. This ain't exactly shocking news. And frankly, anyone who's thrown themselves into P90X knows that TV time is the first thing to go; it's impossible to devote endless hours to television viewing when you're: (1) spending an hour and a half exercising each day, and (2) too damn tired to stay awake past 9 p.m.

Still, it's good to be reminded that:

• Two hours of TV is too much.
• We need to avoid mindlessly eating while watching TV.
• Even while we're unwinding in front of the tube, we should try to keep moving if at all possible. (At the very least, we can do some stretches, right?)

Good Eats

My P90X Nutrition Plan book's been sitting in my work bag for weeks. Since early in Phase 1, I've ignored the Nutrition Plan, preferring instead to go by my own (somewhat haphazardly collected) rules of eating. So it surprises me that a number of you have asked what I've been ingesting during my first round of P90X -- are you not yet aware that I have no idea what I'm doing?

If you're really interested in what I've been shoveling down my throat, click below for the utterly non-fascinating details.

Portion Control

As I was flipping through M's copy of the latest issue of Cooking Light, I came across a short article about Brian Wansink (of "Mindless Eating" fame) and his quest to bring portion awareness to the masses.  Included in the piece are ten useful tips to help us avoid unknowingly stuffing ourselves.  They pretty much encapsulate the entirety of Wansink's book, so I thought I'd summarize them here for those of you who hate having to read anything longer than a blog post:

• Before eating, divide the plate.  To ensure a properly balanced meal, fill one half of your plate with fruits or vegetables.  Divide the remaining half equally between protein and starch/carbs.
• Pre-portion tempting treats.  In other words, don't eat out of the bag or box; portion out the amount you're supposed to eat and set it aside, and put away the container before you turn off your brain and start popping stuff in your mouth.
• Head off the mindless munch.  Have your restaurant server take away the basket of bread before you mindlessly down the contents.  
• Downsize your dishes.  Dinner plates are enormous compared to the ones used by our parents and grandparents.  Trade them for smaller ones, or you'll end up overloading them with food (and eating all of it) just so your plates don't look so bare.
• Limit your choices.  We tend to overeat if given more choices.  Implement a no-buffet rule.
• Use your power for good.  The person in your household who buys and prepares food is a "nutritional gatekeeper" who dictates the healthfulness of family meals and snacks.  If that's you, wield this power responsibly.
• Avoid a "see-food" diet.  Keep unhealthy snacks out of sight, and you'll be less likely to munch on them.  Remember: Candy dishes are evil.
• Turn off the television.  There's a direct correlation between time spent in front of the boob tube and amount of food that goes down your throat.  Before you know it, that shitty episode of "CSI: Miami" is over and your bag of Cheetos is empty, leaving you with fluorescent artificial cheese flavoring smeared all over your gaping mouth.  
• Think before you drink.  Remember to choose zero-calorie beverages like water or tea.  But when you do sip on something with calories (I'm talking juice, not soda), keep in mind that we're horrible at judging volumes and tend to drink more when using short, wide glasses.
• Serve good-for-you foods family style.  Don't go family style when it comes to less-than-healthy foods -- we tend to pig out when a big-ass platter of deep fried anything is placed in front of us.  But salads and vegetable sides can be an all-you-can-eat affair.

There.  I just saved you the cost of a paperback.

Check It Out: Mindless Eating

In "Mindless Eating," food psychologist Brian Wansink discusses why many people don't realize how much they're eating, what they're eating, or even why they're eating. Along with thoughtful discussions of studies he's done as director of the Cornell University Food & Brand Lab, their results and real-world applications, Wansink sprinkles his book with nuggets of wisdom for those of us who clutch Costco-sized bags of chips as we hunch, zombie-like, in front of the television.


After pointing out that our environment significantly influences our propensity for overeating, one of Wansink's suggestions is to create "distraction-free eating scripts":

Rescript your diet danger zones. We all have various eating scripts for the five most common diet danger zones -- dinners, snacks, parties, restaurants, desks/dashboards. A common dinner script -- particularly for men -- involves eating second helpings of most foods until everyone at the table is finished or until the food is gone. If such a man wanted to rescript his dinner, he might try being the last one to start eating, pacing himself with his spouse, serving triple helpings of the healthy foods and single heapings of the meat and potatoes, or not including bread. Similarly, after-work snacking could be rescripted with a stick of gum rather than whatever is in the refrigerator.

Distract yourself before you snack. Distractions are good news and bad news. They are goo when they prevent us from starting to snack. they are bad when they prevent us from stopping. at home, you can make your snacking life less distracting and less alluring by eating in one room only, such as the dining room or kitchen.

Serve yourself before you start. If you can't distract yourself from a yummy snack, you can minimize the damage it does in a distracting situation (such as eating in front of the TV). To avoid "eating until it's over," dish yourself out a ration before you start. Eating straight from a box, bag, or serving bowl is the recipe for regret.

I've found the last suggestion above to be particularly helpful. I used to eat handfuls of nuts (they're healthy! I told myself) straight from the container while staring at the television at home or computer screen at work. Since I started on the P90X Nutrition Plan, however, I've been diligently counting out a snack-sized portion of almonds (15 nuts = 100 calories) rather than taking the free-for-all approach. And surprisingly, this tiny handful of almonds actually satisfies me -- at least until my next feeding.