Is your food personality making
you fat?
February 7, 2005
By Jenna Schnuer
What you eat for dinner determines your weight-loss
success. Here's how to make over your eating habits
painlessly.
Are you a Cocktail Party Princess who nibbles her way
through a different event every night or a Fast-Food
Fiend who grabs Chinese takeout and crashes on the couch?
Either way, your evening eating routine could be sabotaging
your weight-loss efforts. "Many women consume half
or more of their calories at dinner and during the evening,
often overdoing it on fat, sugar and processed grains
-- food choices that undermine their health, figures
and moods," says SHAPE contributing editor Elizabeth
Somer, M.A., R.D., author of The Food & Mood Cookbook
(Owl Books, 2004).
The key to success lies in revamping your dining habits
in a manner that suits you, nutrition experts say. Turn
the page to discover your dinner personality along with
expert weight-loss solutions tailored to the way you
like to eat. We've also included four customized recipes
by Kathleen Daelemans, author of Getting Thin and Loving
Food! (Houghton Mifflin, 2004) and a chef who's maintained
her own 75-pound weight loss for more than 13 years.
THE FAST-FOOD FIEND
The problem Too tired to cook, you reward yourself with
takeout. Yet convenience comes at a price: The typical
burrito has 700 calories and 26 grams of fat (7 saturated);
a typical serving of a Chinese chicken dish, like kung
pao, has 1,000 calories. "But fast food doesn't
have to be synonymous with junk," says Lisa Sasson,
R.D., an assistant clinical professor at New York University's
department of nutrition, food studies and public health
in New York City. Step outside the pizza box, suggests
Carolyn O'Neil, M.S., R.D., co-author of The Dish: On
Eating Healthy and Being Fabulous (Atria Books, 2004).
Train yourself to look for the healthiest choices in
the unlikeliest places.
Solutions for Fast-Food Fiends
* Look for lower-calorie options at
your favorite fast-food joints. Choose smaller portions
and dishes prepared with minimal fat. For example, swap
a beef burrito with sour cream for a grilled chicken
soft taco with salsa. You'll save 510 calories and 22
grams of fat. Trade General Tso's chicken for steamed
chicken and vegetables with a cup of brown rice. You'll
save 500 calories, and over the course of seven takeout
meals you'll have cut enough calories to lose 1 pound.
* Stop being so "value-minded." Biggie sizing
doubles your fries for an extra quarter, but it's your
body that pays. A large serving of french fries has
520 calories and 26 grams of fat. Though still not the
healthiest choice, a small serving has 210 calories
and 10 grams of fat. Instead, order a baked potato with
salsa; a 5-ounce potato has just 100 calories, no fat
and 3 grams of fiber.
* Learn to make your own "fast food," says
cookbook author and weight-loss guru Kathleen Daelemans.
Instead of stopping at a restaurant after work, pick
up a piece of fresh fish at your local market, which
you can later steam in the microwave in minutes. While
you're at the store, stock up on a few staples that
make whipping up healthy dinners a cinch, like pre-washed
greens, salad-bar veggies and canned black beans.
THE DEPRIVATION DIVA
The problem Subsisting on a restricted-calorie diet
-- coffee for breakfast and a vegetable-only salad for
lunch -- makes you feel virtuous. But the truth is you're
not getting enough nutrients to make it through the
day. By evening you've hit a wall. "You're starving!"
Sasson says. "Never allow yourself to go hungry
-- it has a rebound effect." The result is "speed
eating" at dinnertime, O'Neil says, a binge session
that can leave you feeling defeated and depressed.
Solutions for Deprivation Divas
* To keep moods stable and avoid dinnertime bingeing,
divide breakfast and lunch into nutritious mini-meals
every three to four hours throughout the day, being
mindful of your total calories consumed. "You can't
offset your temperament if you're a grazer, but you
can offset the sense of being overly hungry and setting
yourself up for a binge," says Madelyn Fernstrom,
Ph.D., director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical
Center Weight Management Center.
* Banish the skinny lunch salad. Add lean protein to
your greens and you'll keep hunger at bay. Try 3-4 ounces
of water-packed tuna, 1/2 cup of beans, chopped egg
whites or an ounce of chopped almonds, O'Neil advises.
* Choose high-volume, high-fiber foods for dinner.
You can have a satisfying meal without blowing your
entire day's calorie allotment in one nighttime sitting.
Just make sure the bulk of what's on your plate comes
from healthfully prepared vegetables.
THE NOTORIOUS NOSHER
The problem After eating what you consider a sensible
dinner -- a diet frozen entree and some cherry tomatoes
-- the snacking begins. Though you nibble on just two
or three cookies at a time, the night always ends with
a box as empty as the 1,440 cookie calories you consumed.
"Hunger is either true and authentic or emotional,"
Daelemans says. "If food is a very temporary fix
for whatever else is ailing you, it won't work -- and
it's time to explore some real solutions. If you're
truly hungry, you need more nutrient-dense calories
at dinner and to plan ahead for the evening snack attack."
Solutions for Notorious Noshers
* Figure out what's behind all that snacking. Keep a
food journal for two weeks to get to the bottom of why
you're eating, Daelemans says. Record the times you
ate, what you ate and what you were feeling at that
moment.
* Work healthy fat into your dinner. If you're still
hungry 20 minutes after dinner, it usually means you
didn't have enough protein or fat -- both bump up a
meal's satisfaction level. And there's no need to be
fat-phobic. "A little fat goes a long way,"
O'Neil says. Try drizzling a teaspoon (a mere 40 calories)
of lemon- or basil-infused olive oil over steamed vegetables.
* After dinner, prep for the next day's meals. By washing
spinach, chopping onions, peeling carrots or rinsing
grapes, you'll satisfy your desire to be around food
in a healthy way, Daelemans says, and you'll be ensuring
that tomorrow's dinner is nutritious too.
* Plan your snacks. Save 200 calories of your daily
total for after dinner. Split them up in the way that
suits you best. Like to nibble all night? Pick post-dinner
delights that offer greater volume for fewer calories,
such as light popcorn, pre-cut vegetables with salsa
or Mock Deep-Fried Chickpeas (see recipe here.) Or,
divide your dinner in two; eat half at your usual hour
and the rest later in the evening, Daelemans advises.
THE COCKTAIL PARTY PRINCESS
The problem Your evenings are a whirl of work and social
functions featuring cosmos and appetizers; you've never
used your oven for anything other than shoe storage.
More important, you have never taken control of what
you eat for dinner.
Your excuse? It's a special event. "But this is
not a special event; this is the norm for your life,"
Sasson says.
Solutions for Cocktail Party Princesses
* Never hit a party starving. Bring a second, small
lunch to work, such as soup or a pasta dish with protein
(see recipe for Sesame Noodles With Chicken), and eat
it about one hour before dashing out the door, Sasson
advises. Or have a 150-calorie protein bar "to
take the edge off," Fernstrom says.
* Set some goals for each event. Planning ahead is
key. If the party is at a truly great restaurant, save
calories for it, Daelemans says. Typical cocktail fare?
Try taking three healthy bites (the crudités)
for every high-calorie bite (the crab puffs) you consume.
Also, instead of grazing, put together a meal on an
actual plate -- and then curb your eating after you've
finished it.
* Keep your alcoholic-drink intake to one or two --
max. Drinks add empty calories to your day's total without
doing a thing to fill you up. "Liquids are not
perceived by the body as well as food," Fernstrom
says. To maintain a festive look, ask the bartender
to make you a mocktail with seltzer, a splash of cranberry
juice and a slice of lime, O'Neil advises.
Source:www.shape.com
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