Calories can be cruel. Sweat through a 30-minute workout and you can torch 200. Take three gulps of a foamy frappuccino and you’re right back where you started.But slashing those suckers can be as effortless as piling them on. We’ve found 78 ways you can cut 100 or more calories at a pop. From picking the right slice at Pizza Hut to skipping the whip on your latte, they’ll add up so fast, you won’t miss a thing—until poof! Your love handles are gone.  (from Eat this, Not That)

At Breakfast

• • Ditch the Pop-Tart for a slice of high-fiber toast with strawberry jam.
• • Gotta have carbs? Split a bagel with a coworker.
• • Drink your two cups of joe black. Or order a single espresso instead of your usual latte.
• • Swap OJ for the real deal—one fresh orange.
• • Trade a side of regular sausage for turkey.
• • Top your waffles with Reddi-Whip instead of syrup (or use sugar-free).
• • Skip the whip on any Caribou Coffee 16-ounce drink.
• • Eat your granola from a 4-ounce mug, not an 8-ounce bowl.
• • Lose the Yoplait Thick & Creamy and have a Yoplait Fiber 1.
• • Order pancakes, but hold the butter.
• • Scramble together 4 egg whites instead of 2 whole eggs.

At Lunch

• • Leave the Swiss cheese out of your sandwich.
• • Slather your bread with mustard rather than mayo and save 80 calories per tablespoon.
• • Pass up croutons at the salad bar.
• • Use up to 10 pumps of ranch dressing spray instead of pouring 2 tablespoons from a bottle.
• • Devour a slice of Pizza Hut cheese pan pizza instead of the meat lover’s variety.
• • Take your iced tea unsweetened.
• • Reach for a Snapple raspberry white tea instead of a Snapple raspberry iced tea.
• • Stuff chicken salad into a whole-wheat pita instead of between slices of multigrain bread.
• • Make your burger turkey, not beef.
• • Slurp minestrone soup instead of cream of anything.
• • Go bunless—shed your hamburger roll.
• • Use south-of-the-border savvy: Have a quesadilla made with two 6-inch corn, not flour, tortillas.

At Happy Hour

• • Nurse a single glass of wine instead of downing 2 beers.
• • Ask for your rum and cokes in a highball glass. Bartenders pour an average of 20 percent less liquid into taller tumblers, so you’ll swig less per round.
• • Drizzle extra hot sauce, not blue cheese or ranch dressing, on your wings.
• • Ordering a cocktail? Make it on the rocks instead of frozen. Slushy fruit drinks tend to be made with bottled mixers that contain added sugar and syrups.
• • Blending your own? Have a daiquiri, not a piña colada.
• • Pop the cap off of an MGD 64 instead of a bottle of Killian’s Irish Red.
• • Sip a glass of water between drinks—pacing yourself can help you cut back by a glass or more.
• • Dip your nachos in salsa rather than guacamole.
• • For automatic portion control, sip wine from a Champagne flute, not an oversize goblet.

On Your Snack Break

• • Drink sparkling water instead of soda.
• • Move your stash of Hershey’s Kisses at least 6 feet away from your desk—you’ll dip in half as often.
• • Drain the heavy syrup from your can of fruit cocktail and then rinse the fruit with water before digging in.
• • Have 1/2 cup of fresh grapes instead of that little snack box of raisins.
• • Lay off the Lay’s Classic potato chips and have a handful of Rold Gold pretzels.
• • Munch on a bag of Orville Redenbacher’s Smart Pop Kettle Korn, not Movie Theater Butter.
• • Chase down the ice-cream truck for a Good Humor vanilla sandwich, not a King Cone.

During Dessert

• • Stop eating when you hit the crust. The edges and bottoms of baked goods are especially caloric because they absorb the butter used to grease the pan.
• • Fill your bowl with sorbet instead of ice cream—you can have an extra 1/2 cup of the former and still slash calories.
• • Next time a cocoa craving hits, ditch the dish of chocolate ice cream (about 3/4 cup) for a Fudgsicle.
• • Have sugar-free Jell-O instead of pudding. Better your nighttime treat jiggle than your thighs.
• • Go ahead and have that piece of birthday cake—just scrape off the chocolate frosting first.
• • Eat 5 meringue cookies instead of 2 chocolate chip ones.
• • Pass on the à la mode and savor that brownie au naturel.
• • Can the cone. Have your ice cream in a bowl.
• • Top your dessert with 1/2 cup of fresh berries instead of 2 tablespoons of chocolate syrup.

In the Kitchen

• • Substitute nonfat Greek yogurt for a serving of sour cream.
• • Use chicken broth (low-sodium is best) instead of oil to sauté meat and veggies.
• • Making homemade mac ‘n cheese? Cut 2 tablespoons of butter from the recipe.
• • Replace the oil or butter in cakes with Sunsweet Lighter Bake prune-and-apple mixture or any brand of unsweetened applesauce.
• • Next time you make meatballs, meatloaf, or burgers, go half-and-half with ground beef and turkey.
• • When preparing packaged foods that call for butter or oil, like rice and stuffing, use a broth instead.
• • Swap low-fat cottage cheese for whole-milk ricotta when you make lasagna or stuffed shells.

At the Drive-Thru

• • Pass up a Wendy’s baked potato with sour cream and chives and chow down on value fries instead.
• Amazing but true.
• • Have a McDonald’s cheeseburger instead of a Quarter Pounder with cheese.
• • Downsize your drink: Trade a large fountain soda (with ice) for a medium.
• • Go for grill marks. Order a flame-broiled chicken sandwich rather than one that’s breaded (and usually fried in oil).
• • Treat yourself to an ice-cream cone at McDonald’s instead of Dairy Queen.
• • Crunch on one Taco Bell regular taco instead of a Ranchero Chicken Soft Taco. And all the hot sauce you want.
• • Slurp a cup of Panera Bread’s low-fat chicken noodle soup instead of the cream of chicken with wild rice.
• • Make your daily pick-me-up at Starbucks a skinny vanilla latte, not a regular.

When You’re Not Cooking

• • Request the lemon chicken with white rice, not fried.
• • Skip the crunchy noodles with your bowl of wonton soup.
• • Ask for an order of Szechuan Shrimp instead of your usual General Tso’s.
• • Choose the pasta with 1/2 cup of marinara instead of 1/2 cup of Alfredo sauce.
• • Indulge your inner carnivore with beef stroganoff, not meat lasagna.
• • Go with the baked potato (butter only), not the mashed, as your side of choice.
• • Dip your dinner roll in marinara sauce instead of olive oil.
• • Avoid anything breaded. Flour and bread crumbs not only add calories but also absorb more cooking oil.

Food manufacturers think you’re stupid. In fact, their marketing strategies rely on it. For instance, candy makers hope you’ll equate “fat free” with “healthy” or “nonfattening” and forget about the load of sugars stuffed into their products. It’s a classic bait and switch. And the candy aisle is just the start.
That’s why we’ve scoured the supermarket to crack the code on packaged-food labels. Check out these 18 Supermarket Lies and never again be fooled by misleading labels.

If you want some insight into the food industry, take a stroll through your grocery store’s candy aisle. There, on the labels of such products as Mike and Ike and Good & Plenty, you’ll find what perhaps is a surprising claim: “Fat free.” This is completely true, but it’s also utterly insulting. These empty-calorie junk foods are almost 100 percent sugar and processed carbs. You’d be better off eating fat.

18. Food manufacturers think you’re stupid.

In fact, their marketing strategies rely on it. In the case of candy makers, they’re hoping you’ll equate “fat free” with “healthy” or “nonfattening”—so that you forget about all the sugar these products contain. It’s a classic bait and switch.

And the candy aisle is just the start. That’s why the Eat This, Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide has scoured the supermarket to crack the packaged food labeling code—now you can make sure you get exactly what you’re paying for. Never be fooled by misleading labels again!

17. Organic Junk Food

Kraft Original Macaroni and Cheese

The Claim: “USDA organic”

The Truth: It’s organic so it must be healthy, right? Not so much. For an extra 60 cents per box, consumers save 20 calories and 1 gram of fat. They also gain 2 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fiber, and 50 milligrams of sodium and they lose 6 percent of their daily iron. The point is, even organic junk food is still junk food. Your body processes organic refined flour and powdered cheese the same way it does conventional, so at the end of the day it’s still a high-calorie, low-nutrient letdown.

What You Really Want: If you must have mac, pick one with a label that reads like the recipe you’d use to fix it at home. Annie’s line of macaroni and cheese contains about eight ingredients per box and cuts the fat by 72 percent over Kraft Organic.

16. 100 Percent Misleading

Tropicana Pure 100% Juice Pomegranate Blueberry

The Claim: “100% juice pomegranate blueberry”

The Truth: Drinks may be labeled 100 percent pure juice, but that doesn’t mean they’re made exclusively with the advertised juice. Pomegranate and blueberry get top billing here, even though the ingredient list reveals that par, apple, and grape juices are among the first four ingredients. These juices are used because they’re cheap to produce and because they’re very sweet-likely to keep you coming back for more. Labels loaded with of-the-moment superfoods like acai and pomegranate are especially susceptible to this type of trickery.

What You Really Want: To avoid the huge sugar surge, pick single-fruit juices. POM and R.W. Knudsen both make some reliably pure products.

15. A Not-So-Juicy Cocktail

Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry

The Claim: “Juice drink”

The Truth: Words like “juice drink” and “juice cocktail” are industry euphemisms for a huge dose of sugar water. In this case, the product is also adorned with a cluster of other claims that attempt to hide this simple fact. (Most of Ocean Spray’s juice products suffer from a serious lack of juice; this particular one, with just 18 percent juice, is one of the worst offenders.) Ocean Spray, to be sure, is not the only juice purveyor guilty of this sleight of hand: Dozens of manufacturers, including Welch’s, Minute Maid, and SunnyD, perpetrate similar nutritional injustices.

What You Really Want: Every juice that hits your lips should be 100 percent juice. Period.

14. Got Milk?

Yoo-Hoo

The Claim: “Chocolate drink”

The Truth: Ever notice the conspicuous absence of milk in the title of this popular drink? The first ingredient in this kid-favorite is water, the second high-fructose corn syrup; in fact, nonfat dry milk does not appear until the ninth ingredient, three slots below partially hydrogenated soybean oil. As a result, Yoo-Hoo offers less than half the calcium and vitamin D provided by the real thing.

What You Really Want: Yoo-Hoo is fine for the occasional indulgence, but for a kid in need of nutrition, real milk will always be the better choice. Organic Valley’s Chocolate Lowfat Milk comes in 8-ounc cartons for automatic portion control.

13. All-Natural Disaster

7UP

The Claim: “All Natural Flavors”

The Truth: The FDA doesn’t have a definition for this claim. Case in point: 7UP now boasts that it’s made with 100 percent natural ingredients. That’s because they’ve switched from carbonated water to filtered water, from citric acid to natural citric acid, and from calcium disodium EDT to natural potassium citrate. Got it? Here’s the kicker: The soft drink is still sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup, which can’t be made without the help of a centrifuge.

What You Really Want: A healthy choice, like lemon and seltzer. 7UP’s tactic is employed primarily by companies making junk food (see also: Natural Cheetos). Considering that the calorie counts are nearly always identical with their “unnatural” brethren (in the case of 7UP, calories and sugar counts are the exact same), concentrate on the bigger issues and find reliably healthy drinks and snacks.

12. The “Health” Food That Isn’t

Healthy Choice Sweet & Sour Chicken

The Claim: “Healthy Choice”

The Truth: A company can call itself whatever it wants, but that doesn’t give credence to the name. Healthy Choice even provides a handful of nutritional stats-430 calories, 9 grams fat, 600 milligrams sodium-to back up the name, but they neglect to mention the 29 grams of added sugars used in this dish. The six different forms of sweeteners in the ingredient list combine to give this less-than-healthy choice almost the same amount of sugar as a Snickers bar. Many Healthy Choice selections are reliably nutritious; this is not one of them.

What You Really Want: Dinner that doesn’t taste like a bowl of ice cream. While fat and calories are important considerations in everything you eat, be sure to read the fine print. Companies with healthy label claims often pull the bait and switch, going low in fat but then elevating the sugar or sodium to up the flavor quotient.

11. The Freezer Burn

Tofutti Vanilla Almond Bark

The Claims: “No butterfat”; “no cholesterol”

The Truth: Though both of these claims are technically true, they paint a false sense of security in the person looking for a healthy indulgence. Ignore front label claims (Tofutti is not made with dairy, so by definition it can’t have butterfat or cholesterol) and flip the package for the straight scoop; here you’ll see that this ice cream substitute still has 15 grams of fat and 16 grams of sugar per serving-as high as most full-fledged ice creams.

What You Really Want: If you’re lactose intolerant, both Soy Delicious and Soy Dream make reliably low-cal non-dairy creams. If you’re just looking for a healthy ice cream fix, try Breyers Double Churn.

10. (Kind of) “Real” Food

Kid Cuisine All Star Chicken Nuggets

The Claims: “Made with real chicken”; “made with real cheese”

The Truth: Yes, there is actual chicken in these “nugget-shaped patties,” but it shares space with 17 other ingredients, including textured soy protein and modified food starch. The mac with “real cheese” does have cheddar, but it also has 34 other ingredients, including the carb filler maltodextrin. Rule of thumb: If a product makes claims about its realness on the package, be skeptical.

What You Really Want: To eat more food and fewer science experiments. While it’s tricky with our industrialized food complex, stick to items with as few ingredients as possible. If they’re chicken nuggets, that means chicken, bread crumbs, and oil. Foster Farms Breast Nuggets fit the bill.

9. The Cheeseless Cheese Pizza

Mama Celeste Original Pizza

The Claim: “Original Pizza”

The Truth: Ever had a pizza without cheese? Well, if you eat this one you will have, since Mama Celeste doesn’t use a single shred of real cheese in making this problematic pie. What does she use? Imitation mozzarella, which is the second ingredient on the list and is composed mostly of partially hydrogenated soybean oil, endowing each serving with 5 grams of nasty trans fats. Also watch out for the attachment of the word “flavored,” as in “strawberry-flavored”; it’s a surefire sign that the product is utterly fruitless.

What You Really Want: Cheese, strawberries, or whatever you think it is you’re getting. If the name or flavor in the food’s title isn’t one of the first few ingredients, find another product.

8. The Absent Avocado

Dean’s Guacamole

The Claim: “Guacamole”

The Truth: This “guacamole” dip is comprised of less than 2 percent avocado; the rest of the green goo is a cluster of fillers and chemicals, including modified food starch, soybean oils, locust bean gum, and food coloring. Dean’s isn’t alone in this guacamole caper; most guacs with the word “dip” attached to them suffer from a lack of avocado. This was brought to light when a California woman filed a lawsuit against Dean’s after she noticed “it just didn’t taste avocado-y.” Similarly, a British judge ruled that Pringles are not technically chips, being that they have only 42 percent potato in them.

What You Really Want: If you want the heart-healthy fat, you’ll need avocado. Wholly Guacamole makes a great guac, or mash up a bowl yourself.

7. The Unnatural Fruit

Nutri-Grain Strawberry Cereal Bar

The Claim: “Naturally and artificially flavored”

The Truth: While the FDA requires manufacturers to disclose the use of artificial flavoring on the front of the box, the requirements for what is considered “natural” and “real” are not strict: Even trace amounts of the essence or extract of fruit counts as natural. So yes, there is fruit in this bar, but it falls third in the ingredients list, behind HFCS and corn syrup.

What You Really Want: An honest snack with nothing to hide. Lärabars, one of our favorite snacks in the aisle, are made with nothing more than dried fruit and nuts.

6. The Hidden Trans Fats

Cheetos Crunchy

The Claim: “Zero gram trans fats”

The Truth: FDA allows manufacturers to make this claim when their products contain less than 0.5 gram of trans fats per serving. It may seem insignificant, but 0.49 gram of this nefarious fat can add up quickly.

What You Really Want: Keep total trans fat intake to no more than 1 percent of total calories-about 2.5 grams per day for most adults. That means reading the ingredients list (especially those that proclaim to be trans-fat free) looking for “partially hydrogenated,” “shortening,” or “interesterified.”

5. The Conspicuous Trans Fats

Pop Secret Homestyle Popcorn

The Claim: “Made with a sprinkle of salt and a taste of butter”

The Truth: The taste of the butter is actually the taste of partially hydrogenated soybean oil, which imbues on this greasy bag a total of 18 grams of trans fats-more than seven times what you should safely consume in a day, according to the American Heart Association. No area of the supermarket is more riddles with these fats-proven to increase the risk of coronary heart disease-than the snack aisles, so be on high alert.

What You Really Want: Unadulterated popcorn. Buy a low-calorie bag like Smart Balance Smart Movie-Style, then flavor it at home with a bit of heart-healthy olive oil, grated Parmesan cheese, and fresh herbs.

4. Bogus Bread

Home Pride Wheat Bread

The Claims: “1 gram of fat per slice”; “wheat bread”

The Truth: This over-trumpeted claim (since when has bread contained much fat, anyway?) tries to distract from the fact that each slice has three times more sugar than fiber. Whatever wheat that went into this bread was stripped of all of its meaningful nutrients. Perhaps most concerning, the ingredients list here is more than a dozen items long, many of them unpronounceable additives, chemicals, and preservatives. Whatever happened to the days when bread was just flour, water, and yeast?

What You Really Want: Ignore fat when it comes to bread; there’s rarely enough in a slice to make a real difference. More important, seek out a bread with more fiber per slice than sugar and with as few ingredients as possible.

3. The Fat Fake-Out

Smucker’s Reduced Fat Creamy Peanut Butter

The Claim: “25% less fat than regular natural peanut butter”

The Truth: Smucker’s has indeed removed some of the fat from the peanut butter, but they’ve replaced it with maltodextrin, a carbohydrate used as a cheap filler in many processed foods. This means you’re trading the healthy fat from peanuts for empty carbs, double the sugar, and a savings of a meager 10 calories.

What You Really Want: The real stuff: no oils, fillers, or added sugars. Just peanuts and salt. Smucker’s Natural fits the bill, as do many other peanut butters out there.

2. The Cereal Conundrum

Kellogg’s Smart Start Cereal

The Claim: “Lightly sweetened”

The Truth: Unregulated by the USDA, the word “lightly” gets tossed around like a Frisbee in the food packaging world. Always take it with a grain of salt; in many instances, “light” is the first sign of trouble. With this healthy-sounding cereal, “lightly” means 14 grams of sugar from 5 different sources, all of which adds up to a cereal with more added sugars per serving than Froot Loops, Frosted Flakes, or Apple Jacks.

What You Really Want: A cereal with less than 10 grams of sugar per serving (and ideally less than 5), with at least 3 grams of fiber per serving. Look at cereal as a sugar-to-fiber ratio; you want a ratio no higher than two to one.

1. The Vitamin Vacuum

Kelloggs Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pop-Tarts

The Claim: “Good source of 7 vitamins and minerals”

The Truth: Five of the seven vitamins and minerals are derived from this product’s first ingredient-enriched flour. That’s the code word for “refined flour that’s had nutrients added to it after it’s been stripped of fiber.”

What You Really Want: A breakfast without the nutritional profile of a dessert. Studies show that people who opt for high-quality protein (eggs, yogurt) over refined carbohydrates (pancakes, bagels, Pop-Tarts) lose weight faster and maintain higher levels of energy throughout the day.

By Karen Ansel, MS, RD

When it comes to hidden fat and calories, your drink may be delivering more than you bargained for. In fact, sipping just one extra can of soda a day can add up to nearly 15 new and unwanted pounds in a year. But that liquid refreshment doesn’t need to add to your bottom line. We reveal the healthiest – and most waistline-friendly – drinks to grab on the go.

Starbucks – Espresso
Counterintuitive as it may seem, an espresso from Starbucks actually has less caffeine than a cup of Joe. With only 75 milligrams of caffeine per cup, this brew gives you a kick compared to the 260-milligram jolt you’d get from a tall coffee. How so? It all boils down to caffeine per ounce. Ounce per ounce, espresso does have more caffeine than coffee, roughly 75 milligrams versus 22 milligrams. But because that cup of java is 12 times bigger, its caffeine really adds up.

Jamba Juice – Probiotic Fruit & Yogurt Blends

Jamba Juice just made your smoothie even healthier. Their Probiotic Fruit & Yogurt Blends pack a probiotic boost to improve digestion and bolster your immune system. Made with nonfat yogurt, soymilk, and whole fruit, they’re available in three good-for-you flavors: strawberry, mango, or blueberry. One 16-ounce smoothie boasts roughly 15% each of your daily dose of calcium and iron, half of your day’s vitamin C, and 2 to 3 grams of filling fiber for 230 to 250 calories.

Einstein Bros Bagels – Medium Iced Latte
Craving something cool and caffeinated? A medium iced latte from Einstein Bros Bagels hits the spot. Ask for yours with nonfat milk and you’ll shave off some serious fat and calories – and get 16 ounces of refreshment for a surprisingly low 60 calories and zero grams of fat. You’ll also score a quarter of your day’s calcium and 7 grams of high-quality protein.

McDonald’s – Small Nonfat Latte
Among its dizzying array of coffee drinks, frappes, shakes, and smoothies, McDonald’s serves up a winner. Its small, 12-ounce, nonfat latte packs as much calcium and protein as you’d get from a glass of milk, all for only 90 calories and zero grams of fat. Pair it with a Fruit and Maple Oatmeal for a hearty breakfast or an order of Apple Dippers with Low-fat Carmel Dip for a satisfying snack.

Seattle’s Best – Small Nonfat Chai Latte
One of the best nutrition bargains at Seattle’s Best is a tea drink. For only 140 calories and zero fat grams you can walk away with a chai latte that’s way skinnier than the competition. And if you don’t do dairy, you can still drink up. This spicy elixir is also available in a 150-calorie soy version. Did we mention that each variety packs 20% of your daily calcium, too?

Dunkin’ Donuts – Small Green Tea

Sometimes simpler is better. Skip the souped-up coffee drinks and order a small, zero-calorie green tea at Dunkin’ Donuts. You’ll get a cupful of flavonoids, antioxidants that have been shown to prevent cancer and improve heart health. You’ll get a mental boost, too. Green tea contains theanine, a compound that enhances energy and concentration, without the jitters you get from all the caffeine in a cup of coffee.

The Coffee Beanery – Mocha Cream

We’re not sure exactly how The Coffee Beanery does it. Their ultra-decadent coffee and cocoa Mocha Cream concoction rivals the creamiest of coffee drinks, yet clocks in at a mere 120 calories. Laced with orange and vanilla and then topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings, this creamy mocha brew is satisfying enough to curb the 4 p.m. munchies and give you a lift at the same time. Sure it has 6 grams of fat, but on the flip side you get 6 grams of protein, too.

Burger King – Fat Free Milk

Who says fast food has to be filled with fat? While many fast food restaurants like McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Subway now offer lowfat milk, Burger King is the only one to serve their moo juice fat free. That means fewer calories (100 calories total), zero fat, and a healthy dose of potassium to offset the blood-pressure-raising effects of some of those fast-food menu items.

by Chris Ashenden

If you can avoid unplanned cheat meals, and keep your diet on the straight and narrow at least 90 percent of the time, you are going to double your chances at getting the body or performance you are looking for.

Ok – Here are 9 Easy Tricks I use and tell my athletes to implement from Day 1. Yes, that means you start from today.

Trick Number 1 – If it ain’t there, you CAN’T eat it

Take everything in your kitchen that is bad for you and throw it out or give it away. (if you need help determining what is good or bad, don’t worry, we are covering that in an upcoming article). This trick is so simple but it is SO important that I put it at number 1.

Do it. Now.

Category: control food access

Trick Number 2 – Eat before you dine out, every time

Eat something healthy to take the edge off your hunger before you leave the house to dine out. Every time.

The second you leave your house for a social event you have limited control over what is served, and if you are meeting other people, when it is served.

If you eat a tiny bit prior you can keep the edge off your hunger to avoid caving to craving if great food selections do not present themselves. You are also likely to eat LESS.

My favorite pre dining combo: a handful of raw organic almonds and some organic, grass-fed beef jerky, but even an apple is better than nothing.

Category: control food access

Category: never let yourself get super hungry

Trick Number 3 – Watch the dressings, condiments, and food prep ingredients

Not much point thinking you are eating a healthy meal if you are downing dressings or sauces full of sugar or countless grams of unhealthy fats.

Same goes for how your food was prepared. There are often going to be some oils and sugars in the cooking process, especially eating out, just watch how much and what is used. Coconut oil and olive oil ROCK. For everything else, ditch the oil and sugars and keep the cheat meals planned cheat meals people.

Category: control food access

Trick Number 4 – Eat nutrient dense foods regularly whenever you get hungry

If you find yourself starting to get very hungry, eat a healthy meal while you still have some self-control.

Some intermittent fasting has its uses, and while there are advocates out there for rampant fasting, I am not a big fan of the big fasts for a few reasons: 1) athletic performance (and daily productivity) bomb for me when eating this way when compared to other more regular feeding diets that have a surplus of adequate nutrition (try it without ANY caffeine, I dare you) 2) most importantly it is when super hungry that most serious binges occur, especially with beginners 3) cortisol management. The adrenal/cortisol axis is SO important to fat loss that it deserves its own book… don’t stress your body any more than you have to.

Especially at the start of any new diet, eat enough and regularly to never get super hungry – just make sure it is the good stuff.

For athletes, most especially those with a significant metabolic component to their training, keeping the nutrition coming in and energy going is the key to training hard and recovering quickly.

Then there is the question of energy and more frequent feeding: do your sense of body heat and your energy levels go up after you eat a meal? Coming off the rails is a big problem if you can’t get back on afterwards. Enough said.

Category: never let yourself get super hungry

Category: avoid deficiencies that will impair health or performance

Category: avoid brain confusion for EAT messages

Trick Number 5 – Keep some healthy snacks on hand with you at all times

Life happens. Have a selection of healthy ready to eat choices on hand at all times for those occasions when you are forced to go longer between meals than intended, or are stuck somewhere with only poor food choices (such as an airport)

Some readily portable examples: organic raw nuts, premade grass feed beef or bison in chili (ideally sans legumes) or as jerky, cold meat cuts from home, hard boiled eggs, low salt cans of fish, organic vegetables, organic seeds, organic nuts (I love almonds, macadamias, and walnuts) and if you must, low glycemic fruit (blueberries rock).

Category: never let yourself get super hungry

Trick Number 6 – Cover your nutritional bases, EVERY day

Eat nutrient dense foods from a variety of sources. Nature loves variety, and if you can eat a broad spectrum of all the good stuff daily, you will reduce the likelihood of having any nutrient deficiencies.

While this is great for health, it is also important for dieting. Your brain’s solution when it feels like it is missing nutrition? You get the craving to EAT, even if your caloric needs are already being met.

(This is so important, it is getting its own chapter one day)

Category: avoid brain confusion for EAT messages

Category: avoid deficiencies that will impair health or performance

Trick Number 7 – Get more quality sleep

Remember the comment above about the adrenal/cortisol axis? This might sound weird as a trick to improving diet results, but one thing is for sure, not only does not getting enough sleep mess up your good hormones, if your body is lacking energy, you will feel the pull to find it, somewhere, often from food.

“Fatigue makes cowards of us all” – a comment so true made famous by Patton, Lombardi, and others.

Getting enough REGULAR sleep aids in health, mood, superior hormone levels, a faster metabolism, higher daily activity levels, and general happiness. Put simply

you will find that with enough rest and sleep you will have faster fat loss results, and more energy and will power to keep going for what you want. Stay on the path, mate.

Category: avoid brain confusion for EAT messages

Category: maintain will power

Category: improve hormone states to maximize fat loss

Trick Number 8 – Have a cheat meal!

Yes, schedule it in, and MAKE SURE YOU DO IT.

Pick your favorite “nemesis” foods and for one meal a week, take that puppy down, BIG time.

Knowing you have a cheat meal coming up will keep your will power where it should be on the days when you are supposed to be behaving, which is so important for compliance. If done right it will also reduce cravings for days afterwards.

Having a cheat meal also allow you to enjoy some of the finer things in life while doing all sorts of wonders for fat burning hormones and muscle glycogen.

(There are a lot of tricks and pointers to ensure you are doing this correctly and getting the most out of it. Don’t worry if you have no idea how to do this, I am going to bring in the biggest names in the business to help you guys out).

Want to take it to the next level? Try to avoid fried foods and make sure your cheat meal has NO GLUTEN in it. Trust me, makes a big difference.

Category: maintain will power

Category: avoid brain confusion for EAT messages

Trick Number 9 – Don’t beat yourself up. Face forwards

Sometimes you are going to slip, fall, and pig out on the wrong stuff at the wrong time. Or eat the wrong type of food because there was nothing else available.

It is ok, one unplanned cheat meal is not going to end it all for you. Just make sure you stick to clean eating as often as you can, get back on the rails, and face forwards, positively.

Category: maintain will power

Those are my 9 Tricks – now go for it!

What little tricks do you use to keep your diet and clean eating on track? Let me know on Facebook.

Want a bonus trick that is MAGIC but with a bit more detail? Read on…

Trick Number 10 – Make every healthy meal a sequence of Protein, Good Fats, and Non Starchy Veges… In that order.

This trick, which automatically ensures a superior macro nutrient ratio for fat loss -has outstanding results with everyone who tries it.

1. Protein FIRST. Every meal, start by eating a clean, quality source of protein. What do I mean? (Grass-fed) meat, (non-farmed) fish, free range poultry, clean living or game meats, and free range eggs. Aim for a DAILY intake of 1 gram of protein per lb of bodyweight. Yes, I really said that that, and yes, it is harder than it sounds. Break this protein intake over each of your daily meals (3 meals is perfect and 4 is more than enough), and make getting in that quota your priority at every meal.

Yes, it is so important it is going at number 1.

2. Fat SECOND. After you get your real food protein down, ensure you are getting some healthy, quality, FATS at every meal.

 

If you cook in coconut oil and eat nothing for protein but grass fed meat, wild salmon, anchovies, and sardines, game meats and wild fowl, you are probably good to go without any supplementation whatsoever.

Since this is nearly NO ONE, everyone else needs to balance out their omega 3 to omega 6 ratios. You are aiming for a 1:1 or 1:2 ratio which are our ancestral dietary norms and NOT what is happening with the bulk of the food you eat (you need a LOT more omega 3 and a lot LESS omega 6 to get this balance, trust me). Take down a handful of fish oil with every meal. Work up to 10-50 GRAMS per day. Yes I said that too.

Daily amount as follows:

10 grams if you can see your abs even when sitting, never eat any grain fed meat, have no auto-immune or inflammatory issues, and none of your joints hurt, ever.

50 grams if you are more than 30lbs overweight, any of your joints hurt, or you suffer any form of auto-immune or inflammatory disease. If you are anywhere in between, I recommend you continually build up towards 50 grams until you CAN see your abs, then drop back down to the 10 grams per day level.

Divide your daily intake across your meals equally.

Trust me on this, it may take some working up to, but the results are outstanding.

What about eating grain fed meat? Avoid it whenever possible, but if you have to, go for the leanest cut you can (the fat on grain fed meat is BAD). PLUS automatic 10 grams of fish oil, every time.

You can also chomp away on almonds, macadamias, Brazil nuts or walnuts, but these can potentially increase your Omega 6 load (macadamias, brazil nuts and macadamias the best of the nuts but remember that ratio) so personally, get the fish oil in first and see how you feel. Any meal that is made up of grass fed meat, wild salmon, anchovies, or sardines, you can halve the fish oil.

3. Veges THIRD. Yes, third. Fill up (keep going until you achieve satiety) with green, nutrient dense veges. Just close out the meal and keep chomping until you are no longer hungry. You will get a TON of micronutrient goodness with very little calories, so eat away! Here are my favorites:

• Spinach
• Kale
• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Baby Bok Choy
• Brussel Sprouts
• Cauliflower
• String beans

 

Just make sure you cycle through the vege choices, and don’t be afraid to add plenty more, variety rocks, and there can be too much of a good thing.

What about carbs you ask?

My answer: What about them?

Limit fruit, eat NO white carbs at all, and only drink sugar free, unsweetened beverages. This means water, tea, black coffee.

Sound extreme? Not really, extreme is forcing our bodies to survive on a diet that is terrible for us. The result, lots and lots of fat and miserable people. Don’t be one of them.

Ancestrally, we didn’t eat any processed carbs, or even a carb heavy diet. Move your body over to this, our more ancestral and evolutionary format for eating and quite simply… prepare to be amazed. The nutrient density of a meal like this alone is a world away from a modern, nutrient starved, about to make you fat and miserable “meal”.

Try this EXACT eating pattern and food choices for EVERY meal for 30 days. If you don’t love me at the end of it… … well, there is always a first time for everything.

By Brian St. Pierre

• Meat, eggs and dairy should mostly be from pasture-raised, grass-fed animals
• Eat mostly full-fat versions of these foods for the greatest nutrient profile and absorption
• Produce would ideally be from local, seasonal and sustainably grown sources, as is possible

Dairy is a perfect example of context in my mind. On one hand consuming dairy from pasture-raised grass-fed cows is a good thing. On the other hand, consuming dairy from conventionally-raised corn-fed cows, not so much.

The difference is, that traditional dairy was from cows who ate grass, got exercise, fresh air and sunshine. Their quality of life, and therefore quality of milk, was excellent.

Fast forward to today and things have changed. Milk demand has increased greatly in the last hundred years, and so the industry responded. Cows moved off family farms and onto Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations; basically huge conglomerate farms where they are fed tons of corn, stand in their own shit, are given antiobiotics to prevent the illnesses from that corn consumption and the unsanitary living conditions, as well as given copious amounts of growth hormones to speed their growth and increase their milk production. Appetizing I know.

Grass-fed pasture-raised dairy also contains far more omega-3’s, CLA, and fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, K2-MK4). While they are both “dairy”, one is much closer to its natural/traditional state than the other. Is a little conventional dairy going to be a problem? No probably not. Is 3 servings a day a good idea? I would say it is certainly doubtful. Stick with dairy from grass-fed cows for the greatest benefits.

As for the full-fat reasoning well all of those compounds mentioned above, the omega-3’s, CLA and fat-soluble vitamins are all either fats themselves or are bound to the fat in the food. Getting low-fat or fat-free versions you lose out on all of these beneficial compounds, as well as the fats themselves! A recent study actually just linked trans-palmitoleic acid, a fatty found almost exclusively in milk and meat, with a decreased risk for diabetes. Here is a direct quote from the study:

“Greater whole-fat dairy consumption was associated with a lower risk for diabetes.”

While many people also mistakenly believe that saturated fat is linked with heart disease, it has never been conclusively so, and in fact most recent research has come to the same conclusion as Dr. Krauss and his fellow researchers who performed a massive meta-analysis and found this:

“A meta-analysis of prospective epidemiological studies showed that there is no significant evidence concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease or cardiovascular disease.”

At the end of the day the point is that eat foods that are as close to their natural state, even if that means they are full-fat.