Why it's so hard to keep the weight off!

Losing weight is hard, trust me I know. But what's even harder is to keep the weight off! Those pounds just have a way of creeping back into your life without you even realizing it until you try on those pair of skinny jeans you love. Here's why it's just so damn hard!
To lose weight, diet is very important. By diet, I mean a healthy and nutritious diet that facilitates weight loss. Physical activity is important too, but a good diet is more important. When you are at a higher BMI (Body Mass Index), your REE (Resting Energy Expenditure) is higher. Your REE is basically the calories that you burn just to be you, at rest without doing any sort of activity. So naturally someone who is larger will have a higher REE, to support a larger body. When you lose weight, your REE decreases as well and you have to consume approximately 15% less calories than someone of the same height, weight and BMI but has never been overweight/obese. Physical activity becomes very important to keep the weight off. How many people do you know who keep gaining and losing weight? To keep the weight off, you must increase your physical activity and eat 15% less calories than what is required by someone of similar height, weight and BMI. Unfair? Most definitely. But life's not fair is it?

Protein... a touchy subject

So, the latest craze: a high protein diet. Everyone's doing it. This new fad of consuming a very high protein diet is really doing the rounds, but what's the science behind it? What effect does protein have on satiety or on weight loss?
To be successful at losing weight or maintaining weight loss, one needs to feel full after a meal or till the next meal. It is very hard to do so if you're on one of those crazy and very limited diets. That's one reason the Atkins diet didn't work. You cannot eliminate a total food group and expect to keep the weight off, you can't and shouldn't live like that. So what does the research say about protein and satiety?

There are a lot of mixed results. The recommended daily allowance (RDA) for protein for a normal healthy adult is 0.8g/kg. The upper limit for protein intake is 2g/kg and beyond this your body cannot proces the extra protein is just excreted out. Most of the studies that I have read suggested that a high protein meal does not have any effect on hunger, satiety or the amount that is eaten in the next meal/snack. I think more research should be done to isolate all the variables that can affect satiety and hunger: timing of the meal, amounts of protein, fat content, fiber intake.
There are better and more effective weight loss strategies rather than consuming a high protein meal. Eating a well-balanced meal with all the food groups, adequate physical activity, and plenty of fluids is the best way to lose those extra pounds.

Granola

A picture of the granola I made
Lately I've been really developing a liking for yogurt and granola. When I went to whole foods recently I bought a package of their dried banana granola. Now most granola is made up of oats, some type of nuts like almonds or walnuts, dried fruit like raisins or cranberries and with some flavoring like vanilla. Now, the package of granola that I bought is very high in sugar, obviously less sugar compared to a bottle of regular soda. It was still too high for me. So this is what I thought, I went through 4 years of culinary school, I should be able to make my own granola and it will be fabulous. With this enthusiasm, I set about making granola this weekend and it would be much lower in sugar than the packaged version....and I had immense success!
These are the ingredients I decided to use: thick rolled oats, raisins, almonds, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, honey and cinnamon. It was just simply delicious and it's a great snack too. A good thing to have at home. Its got all heart healthy ingredients and good fats coming from seeds and nuts. Oats are high in fiber and can keep you full longer. Get this, my granola just has 5 grams of sugar and 50 calories per serving compared to the 115 calories and 8 grams of sugar of the packaged version.

Can alcohol be healthy?

Before I start promoting the health benefits of drinking, I just need to stress that this refers to drinking light to moderate amounts of alcohol, and mostly drinking red wine. The RDA (recommended daily allowance) for alcohol is <1 drink/day for women and <2 drinks per day for men.
1 drink= 12 oz beer
8 oz Malt Liquor
5 oz Wine
1.5 oz 80 proof hard liquor
1 oz 100 proof hard liquor
Just thought I'd clear that up first.

Study findings show that a moderate or light amount of alcohol increases HDL cholesterol (aka good cholesterol), increases insulin sensitivity (which is also a good thing, more on this later), and lowers triglyceride levels (circulating fatty acid levels in the blood).
Red wine in particular has been shown to improve cardiovascular (your heart) health.
I will write more about the benefits on alcohol and chocolate, so get read to with your glasses of red wine and chocolate in hand to protect your heart.

Why I stopped

So, I stopped the Atkins diet and I wanted to say why. Completely eliminating a food group makes it very difficult to lose weight and specially to keep it off. Most of the weight that you lose is water weight. Carbohydrates hold on to a lot of water, and so when you stop consuming carbs, you lose all that water. You are not really burning that much fat and the weight loss is attributed to water.
I am all for eating healthy, more fruits and veges, and working out. You need at least 150 minutes/week of moderate physical activity to have benefits. So that is my mantra from now!

* Special Note*

I just want to make something clear, whatever I talk about in this blog, whether it is about the Atkins diet, or about why you should eat breakfast isn't just me giving you baseless information. I have read research and articles about clinical trials that have been conduced about that particular topic. So if anyone is interested in knowing more about the research I will be more than happy to provide you with the research or give you the names of the researchers, journal name and date of publication.
I hate when people just lecture or preach without having a scientific background, so just wanted to make that clear.

Have been having crazy week! I started feeling very tired and got frequent headaches, possibly related to the no carbs or over stressing myself. So I have started eating a small amount of carbs, but I am staying away from refined carbs like white bread or white rice. If I do cook rice or pasta at home, it will be 100% whole wheat.