In Light of St. Patty's Day...How to Get the Most Bang for Your Caloric Buck

Just how much green beer did you down on St. Patrick’s day? Did you engage in the debauchery, or did you treat it like any other day of the week?

As a young professional and current DC’er, I witnessed some pretty reckless binge drinking over the weekend, but didn't realize the extent of the calories consumed.

Women’s magazines and the occasional scientific study encourage us to sip red wine to maintain heart health, and remind us that, in moderation, nothing is truly off limits. But, on major drinking holidays (think: Mardi Gras, St. Patty’s Day, Fourth of July, etc.) calorie consumption from beverages alone can wreak havoc on your healthy habits.

Blue Moon, a favorite at DC bars, has 171 calories per 12-oz bottle. Drink one (or two, or three!) in addition to munching on happy hour snacks, and the average individual risks adding significant pudge around the midsection over time.

What about the college classics? Coors light, PBR, Bud light. All three of these adult beverages pack in over 100 calories per bottle. Your best bet when it comes to beer that still contains a comparable alcohol content is Busch Light (95 calories per 12-oz).

The quintessential St. Patrick’s day drink – the Irish Car Bomb – packs a whopping 237 calories per 12-oz glass. Worth it? Opt for a Guinness instead. At 126 calories, it's certainly an improvement over the mixed drink.

A glass of red wine (5-oz) has a little over 100 calories but offers 25% more alcohol as the same amount of beer. Clearly, wine is not the drink of choice on St. Patty’s day, but a glass of merlot offers more heart healthy benefits than a beer. In fact, for individuals who exercise regularly, eat healthfully, but still suffer from low HDL cholesterol levels, drinking wine can actually boost "good" cholesterol and decrease their cardiac risk.

Many Americans turn a blind eye to calorie consumption from drinks, ignoring the fact that sodas, smoothies, frappuccinos, and booze are some of the worst diet saboteurs out there.

(Remember to drink in moderation and never get behind the wheel after imbibing!)

Nike+ FuelBand: Futuristic Pedometer or Just Another Device to Make You Feel Lazy?

The Nike FuelBand might just be the coolest new product in the realm of self monitoring and fitness tracking – but with a U.S. release date of February 22nd, any device flaws remain to be seen. I’m biased because my Fitbit (pedometer, calorie counter, and sleep tracker) took center stage this year. Personally, with a price tag of $149, I’m unlikely to make the switch to Nike’s product simply for a few cool perks, but for anyone interested in investing in a fitness device for the first time, the FuelBand looks like a good place to start.

The defining characteristic of the FuelBand (and perhaps the most polarizing) is the use of the Nike-specific metric. The band takes into account movement and oxygen consumption to calculate a fitness score, or “Nike Fuel Points”, for the user. Instead of a traditional pedometer that tracks step count, the FuelBand has a set daily goal of 750 points. Beyond FuelBand owners, this value is virtually meaningless. The FuelBand does offer step and calorie count, but one critic described these features as almost an “afterthought” – the real selling point after all is fuel.

There are several products currently on the market that track movement, steps, weight loss, etc. but the Nike FuelBand seems to do a good job capturing the most desirable characteristics and combining them into an unobtrusive, wearable device. Step count, calories, fuel, and a clock are all instantly viewable on the surface of the band and all data can be uploaded via bluetooth onto a computer, iphone, or other mobile device. The Nike Fuel app will be available the day of the FuelBand release.
In all - seems like a pretty cool product, but for $149 it’s costlier than your average pedometer. The slogan is motivational - "LIFE IS A SPORT. MAKE IT COUNT" - but for a non-athlete or regular office worker who squeezes in a 30-minute run on a good day, the Nike FuelBand probably won't get much of a workout.

I’m sticking with my Fitbit…for now!

Quote of the Week

In response to the news that next week the Food and Drug Administration will propose rules requiring chain restaurants nationwide to post calorie counts for the food they sell, Slate contributor Nicholas Bagley writes:

Posting calorie counts won't push people out of chain restaurants and into their kitchens. It won't eliminate the food deserts that make it hard for people to buy healthy food. It won't stop people from guzzling soda packed with high-fructose corn syrup. It won't encourage exercise or reshape neighborhoods to make them more conducive to play. And it certainly won't end the farm subsidies that make it cheaper to buy junk food than real food. Combating obesity requires a mammoth social commitment, the success of which will depend (among other things) on reversing decades-long trends away from home cooking and toward processed foods and restaurant meals. Posting calorie counts just doesn't cut it.

Click here for the full article.

Stomach Grumbling at Noon? Step Away from the Computer

Eating lunch in front of your computer might be making you fat. A recent study finds that workers who eat at their desks become distracted from the process of eating and subsequently consume more calories throughout the day.

Study subjects were either asked to play online games while eating a multi-course meal or move away from their desks while dining. Sometime later, all subjects sampled cookies as part of a mock dessert taste test. Researchers found that participants who played computer games while eating sampled up to 250 calories worth of cookies while the non-gamers consumed less than half of that. When the participants were asked to recall what they ate for lunch and the order in which it was served, those who sat in front of their computers were significantly less accurate than the control group. Although this study was performed under controlled conditions, employees should recognize that checking email, reading online news, and engaging in other distracting activities can all affect memory.

It might be hard to push yourself away from your computer and focus on your food, but it’s one of the easiest ways to help with portion control. When you’re at the office, savor your lunch and let yourself escape from work obligations for 5-10 minutes. Your scale will thank you.

Successful Dieting Tool Or Path To Disordered Eating?

Visualizing dessert can help you eat less later.

Today, fast food restaurants pepper every city block and increasingly sedentary lifestyles have decreased physical activity opportunities for millions of Americans; However, portion control remains one of the most promising tools for weight loss or healthy weight maintenance. A recent study by Carnegie Mellon researchers analyzed undergrad food consumption under varying circumstances. They found that students who visualized the process of eating the food in front of them before they ate it ultimately consumed significantly less than those who were told to focus on an unrelated visualizing task. While this research offers a potentially promising weight loss option for dieters, it seems that promoting this type of behavior leads to over-thinking the basic essence of a meal. Instead of food simply being sustenance, it becomes a battle of sorts between the consumer and the consumed. This does not strike me as the healthiest approach.

However, previous findings suggest that asking dieters to ignore food cravings to distract themselves from their hunger typically backfires. It’s like the psych 101 white bear theory. If you tell a group not to think about a white bear, it is suddenly the only thing anyone can think about. Images of white bears literally take over the brain even as one tries desperately to suppress the thought. So, if not visualizing food leads a dieter to obsess about that taboo slice of cake, perhaps imagining the consumption of the decadent dessert prior to eating can truly minimize eventual food intake. Food visualization could be a first step towards overall portion control by tricking the brain into thinking the eater is satisfied.

In the end, many of these studies need to be replicated under a variety of conditions to see if certain theories can be applied to the population at large, but it seems as if visualizing techniques could be a valuable weight loss tool to help some individuals keep calories in check.