Nu4You.net Interactive Weight Management Service
	How It Works     Nu4You Toolkit     Manuel Villacorta, MS, RD, CSSD     Our Blog     Ask a Question   Welcome This is a periodic newsletter to provide you with independent, no-nonsense information on eating for optimum health. Everything you read here is based on real nutrition science from award-winning Bay Area Registered Dietitian, Manuel Villacorta, MS, RD, CSSD. For more great info, find us at www.Nu4You.net. In this Issue: Feature: Excerpts from Our Blog Keeping it Off: Part 3 of 5 Proven Behaviors for Long Term Weight Management: Monitor Weight Frequently New at Nutrition for You: New Charts Feature: Excerpts from Our Blog Nutrition for You is dedicated to delivering no-nonsense, gimmick-free nutrition advice. Our blog is one of the tools that we use to share this information. Weblogs or "blogs" are basically an online diary and news source. It allows you, as a blog reader, to read timely information from our service beyond our monthly newsletter. If you are not familiar with blogs, here are a few excerpts of some of our blog articles as an introduction. The Dangers of Diet Pills by Manuel Villacorta Pharmaceutical companies have spent millions of dollars researching the “magic pill.” Many have been released on the market only to have dire consequences. These companies propagate the illusion that there is a simple weight-loss solution requiring no effort. They instill false hope that lifts peoples’ spirits, only to drop them farther down in the end. And let’s not forget that most of these drugs can only assist people in losing 10 to 15% of their weight. Read the full article Snacks are an Important Part of Your Day by Kate Haisch Snacks are a very important and often underrated part of the day. With work, family, errands, obligations, it can be tough to take the time to pack a lunch much less multiple snacks. But when it comes to weight-loss, snacks really make all the difference. Read the full article Just Because a Food is Healthy Does Not Mean You Can Eat As Much As You Want by Dennis Allio The problem with labeling a food as healthy is that too many people assume that a food labeled as healthy means they can eat as much as they want. For weight loss and weight management, this assumption is almost guaranteed to keep you from losing weight. Read the full article Keeping it Off: Proven Behaviors for Long Term Weight Management You might wonder, once the weight is off, how do I maintain my hard earned loss? The National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) is a website dedicated to answering this very question. They have a large registry of people who have lost a substantial amount of weight and kept it off for a long period of time. The average weight loss is 60 pounds, maintained for an average of 5.7 years. These registered people then participate in ongoing research, which surveys their habits, successes and difficulties. This helps us to get a better understanding of the most common factors in weight loss maintenance. During this five part series we will talk about the five biggest conclusions of their research. 5 Proven Behaviors for Long Term Weight Management: Follow a low-fat diet Record keeping Monitor weight frequently Eat breakfast daily Exercise Part 3: Monitor weight frequently This month we will talk about why monitoring weight frequently is an important part of weight maintenance. 75% of the National Weight Control Registry members weigh themselves at least once a week. Whether practicing weight loss or maintenance, we recommend weighing yourself weekly. Weight can fluctuate dramatically from day to day (often 1-2 pounds or more). One day you might weigh yourself and be down 2 pounds only to find that you are back up 3 pounds the next and this can be very disheartening. If you weigh yourself once per week, you will get a much more accurate reading of how much weight you have lost or maintained. If you are on weight maintenance and you find that you have gained a few pounds, this will be your early warning sign that you might need to reassess what you have been eating. This is a good time to start record keeping (diet and exercise) again to learn what is causing your weight gain. Once you see how those extra deserts or missed days at the gym are adding up you will be able to make healthy changes to stop the unwanted weight gain. New at Nutrition for You: New Charts We are in the process of adding quite a few new charts to our Success Tracker tool. Charts provide a graphical view of how you are meeting your nutrition goals, and for some members the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words is undeniable. You will see the following new charts showing up in the Success Tracker. We think you'll enjoy the new charts and don't hesitate to send us your feedback and questions. Weekly Summary Allowance Charts These powerful new charts help you to learn about allowances, and to visualize your intake over the course of a week. These charts provide a comprehensive list of all of the foods that you've eaten that contribute to the allowance. You can gain a lot of insight from these charts. For example a good method to reduce your fat intake is to greatly reduce high and medium fat meats from your diet and these charts will show you which foods fall into those groups. Weekly Summary Caloric Intake, Caloric Burn, and Meals Eaten This chart shows a graphical view of your caloric intake for each day as well as your caloric burn through exercise. These two charts show your weekly average, goal, and actual caloric values. An additional chart of the number of meals eaten each day will also be available. Weekly Summary Macronutrient Distribution This chart includes two pie charts showing your goal and actual macronutrient (carbohydrates, protein, and fat) distribution. Percent Body Fat Tracking If percent body fat measurement is part of your nutrition plan, the new Percent Body Fat Record in the Success Tracker will let you track your progress. If you have questions about body fat percentage or measurement be sure to ask your coach in your next appointment. About Nu4You.net is an Interactive Weight Management Service founded by acclaimed California Registered Dietitian Manuel Villacorta, MS, RD, CSSD. In his clinical practice, Manuel has helped hundreds of people lose weight, gain muscle, improve sports performance, and achieve their fitness goals. Now the principles of his practice are available to everyone online via the interactive power of Nu4You.net. To find out more, visit us today at http://www.Nu4You.net.

We continue our five part series where we talk about the five biggest conclusions of the National Weight Control Registry's research.

5 Proven Behaviors for Long Term Weight Management:

1. Follow a low-fat diet
2. Record keeping
3. Monitor weight frequently
4. Eat breakfast daily
5. Exercise

Part 2: Record Keeping

You may have heard or read about one of the many news stories last week about Food Record Keeping. A recent study by Kaiser Permanente reported that keeping a food diary, on average, doubled the weight loss as compared to those that did not record keep. Record keeping is so important that it's one of our key Success Tracker tools available to all of our members.

For weight loss, we recommend practicing daily food record keeping. If you don’t food record keep for a day or two, don’t worry about backlogging. Just pick-up again from where you are. It is important not to let a bad day (or week!) throw you off completely. Start fresh from where you are and do not stress about past choices. Even if you are not proud of the food you are recording, just keep going.

Record keeping isn't just for those losing weight. It is also important for those that are doing weight maintenance and weight gain. Food record keeping helps to keep you on track and makes you aware of your eating habits and choices. When on weight maintenance you do not need to food record keep everyday, but it is helpful to check in every once and a while, just to see how many calories you are consuming and to ensure you are eating from all of the food groups to ensure adequate nutrition. We recommend checking in for a total of one week every month.

It is an important habit to maintain that will help you for life. It takes just a little time each day to record keep. If you need tips on how to speed up your record keeping or to understand how it works don't forget to ask one of our nutrition coaches.

Weight Watchers may be one of the largest and most recognizable brands on the web, but how does it measure up to Nutrition for You?

To answer that we have added a service comparison to the Nutrition for You web site.    We felt it was important to document how Nutrition for You surpasses many of the better known weight loss brands out there today.  We are very proud of the fact that we have addressed many of the deficiencies of other programs like Weight Watchers, NutriSystem, FitDay, eDiets, and Jenny Craig.

Our goal at Nutrition for You is to give you solid, science-based nutrition advice and the help you need to succeed.  One size does not fit all when it comes to weight loss and weight management.  Each and every person is different.  Any program that does not take that into account is going to be hit or miss.

This is an instance where bigger is definitely not better.   As always if you have any questions about Nutrition for You just ask!

Snacks are a very important and often underrated part of the day.  With work, family, errands, obligations, it can be tough to take the time to pack a lunch much less multiple snacks.  But when it comes to weight-loss, snacks really make all the difference.

When I got serious about losing weight, snacking was a hard habit to learn.  Eat more, lose weight - it just seems so contradictory!  But when I journaled my foods for the days that I snacked, I actually ended up eating less calories.  I realized that snacking kept me from overeating when it came time to break for meals.  Plus, because I wasn’t starving I made better choices.

Snack Tips:

1. Over the weekend, pre-portion snacks into little baggies or plastic containers.
2. Pack snacks that you like and look forward to eating.
3. Leave snacks out on desk so you don’t forget to eat them.
4. Eat snacks at a specific time (e.g., 10:30am and 3:00pm) - before you get hungry so you aren’t tempted by a better looking/unhealthy snack.  Set an alarm or computer reminder (I put a snack reminder in my calendar).
5. Leave multiple snacks at work so you can choose what you are in the mood for.
6. Keep an “in case snack” in your bag, purse, car and/or desk drawer, so you will always be prepared when hunger strikes.
7. Don’t eat out of the bag or container - it is too easy to overeat!  Take a portion size out and place it on a napkin/plate, etc. and eat from there.
8. Mix and match allowances, a.k.a “Food Combining” - you will stay fuller for longer.

Ideas for Snacks:

Salty

•    Low-fat microwave popcorn
•    Pita chips
•    Whole-wheat crackers
•    Baked chips
•    Pretzels/pretzel nuggets
•    Beans
•    Low-fat cheeses (laughing cow, baby bell, string cheese)
•    Nuts (watch portion size)
•    Turkey Jerky
•    Dried soy nuts
•    Wasabi peas
•    Seeds (watch portion size)

Dips/spreads

•    Hummus
•    Salsa
•    Canned refried beans
•    Fat-free ranch/blue cheese
•    Jam/jelly
•    Spreadable cheese (Laughing Cow)
•    Guacamole
•    Sweet mustard
•    Bruschetta topping

Sweet

•    Fruit
•    Dried fruit (watch portion size)
•    Flavored low-fat/fat-free yogurt
•    Frozen yogurt bars
•    Frozen fruit bars
•    All fruit roll-ups
•    Cereal bars
•    Skim milk latte with 1/2 tbsp sugar, topped with cinnamon
•    ¼ oz dark chocolate
•    Fat-free hot chocolate
•    Cereal

Other

•    Veggies (carrots, celery, bell peppers, green beans, cucumber, jicama, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, radishes, broccoli, cauliflower) with dip
•    Canned soups
•    Deli Slices (turkey, chicken, ham, roast beef)
•    Tuna, canned in water
•    Whole wheat breads, pita breads, tortillas

Kate’s Favorite Snacks:

Morning

•    1 apple, 4 walnut halves
•    1 granola bar (Kashi), 2 tbsp raisons
•    ¼ c dry soy nuts, 1 all fruit roll-up
•    Cereal bar, ¾ c berries
•    1 hard-boiled egg, 1 orange
•    ¼ c trail mix
•    Celery with 2 tbsp low-fat peanut butter (Better than Peanut Butter), 20 mini rye toasts

Afternoon

•    6oz low-fat yogurt, ½ c high fiber cereal, 1 tbsp sunflower seeds
•    ½ c pinto beans heated with 1 slice low-fat cheese (Jarlesberg Lite), topped with ¼ c salsa (or fat-free sour cream)
•    Veggies dipped in 1/3 c hummus, 6 almonds
•    5 dried apricot halves, whole-wheat crackers (Ak-Maks) with low-fat spreadable cheese (Laughing Cow)
•    8 mini-rice cakes dipped in salsa, 15 pistachios
•    ½ c low-fat cottage cheese topped with sliced fruit, 1 tbsp pumpkin seeds
•    1 oz deli turkey slices wrapped around cucumbers sliced lengthwise and dipped in sweet/spicy mustard

 

Today I saw a television advertisement for orange juice.  The new advertising slogan was Healthy, Pure & Simple.

The problem with labeling a food as healthy is that too many people assume that a food labeled as healthy means they can eat as much as they want.  For weight loss and weight management, this assumption is almost guaranteed to keep you from losing weight.  A an 8oz glass (1 cup) of pure orange juice has approximately 120 calories.  Most people drink twice that much at a time in a full glass.  A single medium size orange (6.5oz) only has 60 calories.   Pure fruit juice is healthy, but it is a very high calorie food!  You really need to understand that healthy does not mean as much as you want.

Do you recognize some of the following phrases and behaviors in yourself, friends, or family?

"Olive oil is delicious and healthy!" which means that olive oil is drizzled (or poured) over vegetables, pasta, bread, or used to pan fry vegetables or meat.  (The serving size for almost any raw oil fat is 1 teaspoon not "as much as you want".  1 teaspoon of most oils contain 45 calories. 

"Almonds and Walnuts are heart healthy super foods!"  followed by someone eating an entire handful of nuts.  (The serving size for almonds is 6 almonds, not a handful.  6 almonds have about 45 calories)

"This cereal is made from whole grains!" which is then consumed in a giant bowl.  (The serving size for most cereals is 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup.  Depending on the sugar content that single serving will start anywhere from 80 calories to much higher for sugared cereals)

"Red wine is good for your heart." followed by consumption of half a bottle.  (The serving size for a glass of wine is 4oz (1/2 cup).  And that's about 90 calories.  Most people drink double that amount in a glass)

The lesson to be learned?  Just remember that just because a food is healthy it does not mean you can eat as much as you want.  If you eat too many calories you will gain weight. 

Eat healthy foods (GREAT!) Eat as much as you want (BAD!)

At Nutrition for You we teach you about healthy food choices, and teach you to focus on portion control and serving sizes by using food allowances rather than calories.  Simply knowing how much of a food you need each day will help you to manage your weight.