We’ve all heard that you can slow your metabolism by eating too few calories. But at what point does this “slow down” in your metabolism happen? I recently got asked an excellent question from a CGB reader regarding this subject.

Question from Dax: Hey, I really like your website . . . and I’m a guy, is that okay?  I understand the science behind the slower metabolism on a restricted diet.  Your body becomes more efficient, which sounds like a good thing, but actually means that you run on few calories and, therefore, more calories would become fat.

However, I get confused by the numerous examples of the opposite.  Why did Christian Bale in the Machinist get so thin!  He claims he lost 63 pounds by eating nothing other than a can of tuna and an apple per day.  Why didn’t his metabolism keep him from losing the weight? (Pic is of Christian Bale before and after his weight loss)

Also, what is the fewest calories a man can eat without going too low?

Answer from Martha: First, I think it’s great that you enjoy my blog! I actually have a lot of male readers. I try to make many of my posts of interest to both guys and girls. Second, you asked an excellent question that I have actually wondered myself.  While I don’t have a scientific answer for you, here are my thoughts…

Studies have demonstrated that the metabolism does slow when the caloric intake has been decreased to a very low level, especially when this restriction has been ongoing AND a fair amount of weight loss has occured. The act of losing weight in itself will slow the metabolism. In addition, the new lower body weight will require fewer calories that the initial higher body weight. So this is a double whammy so to speak.

But you have raised a good point. How can some people, such as Christian Bale or anorexics, get to such a low body weight if their metabolisms slow down? My answer would be that they consume SO FEW calories that they still lose weight despite the slow down in metabolism. Many anorexics consume only 400 calories a day and may exercise for several hours a day. Christian Bale’s diet doesn’t sound far off from 400 calories.  BTW - check out this link for more info on Christian Bale’s 63 pound weight loss for the movie The Machinist. Another example would be liquid diets. I worked with these medically supervised fasts, such as Optifast, for many years when they were popular. The participants generally started out obese and ate only 500-800 calories a day (in the form of shakes) for months at a time. If they stuck to the diet, the majority of them lost a large amount of weight.  So despite the slow down in their metabolic rate, they were still able to lose weight.  But here is the problem -  when they start to eat even somewhat normally … their weight skyrocketed back up - usually rapidly. This is because their metabolism had slowed down and even small increases in caloric intake caused rapid weight gain.

So to summarize, weight loss can still occur in many people if very low calorie diets are adhered to. However this is not recommended as very low calorie diets are inadequate in nutrients and will make weight regain likely once the low cal diet is discontinued. The best way to lose weight is a moderate reduced calorie diet and regular weight training and cardio.

To answer your second question - I can not tell you exactly how low you can go with your calories before your metabolism will start to slow. This really depends upon your age, weight, activity level and your own metabolism. But I can tell you that you should not consume fewer calories than your BMR (basal metabolic rate). Check out this link to find out your BMR.

Hope this answered your question Daz and thanks for reading CGB!

Related posts

• Your Plate or Mine? An Excerpt from my Colleague’s Book (2)
• When it’s No Longer a Diet (0)
• Week 8 & 9 New Hampshire Biggest Weight Loss Competition Progress Report (0)
• Week 4 Results of New Hampshire’s Biggest Loser Competition (1)
• Week 2 Results of New Hampshire’s Biggest Loser Competition (0)

The BBQ season is here - which can spell diet disaster! Lately, I have been seeing BBQ overindulgences on my clients food records. This Sunday is Father’s day and I would bet that many of you will be attending a family cookout. Esther (who’s weight loss journey we have been following on CGB) has asked us for some support on how to handle her family’s Big Greek BBQ this Sunday on Father’s day. (Pic on the right is NOT of Esther’s family). Esther’s family likes to eat and it is pretty much a sure bet that the food will be overflowing.  

Question from Esther:
Martha, I need some guidance.  Tomorrow is Friday night and I am supposed to meet some friends for drinks.  I normally would use up my two drinks for the week BUT on Sunday I am going to my cousins house for a family BBQ Greek style which means three times the amount of food of a regular BBQ.  Any tips so I could stay on track?

Answer from Martha: You have a couple potential troublesome issues ahead - however I want to focus on the BBQ. BBQ’s can spell trouble for anyone watching their weight. It sounds like your Greek BBQ could be especially problematic! However, with some careful planning and willpower, you’ll be able to get through it without overindulging.  

Potential problems at BBQ’s

1. You are often there for many hours. The longer you are there, the more food will likely be consumed.
2. A lot of food may be served. Since the grilling can go on for hours, you may feel tempted to have a little “taste” of everything. A burger here, a hot dog 15 minutes later, then some ribs. A hour or so later, the steak goes on the grill, so why not have a little piece? And this is not even counting the side dishes. I actually see this on my clients food logs (for those who are brave - or honest - enough to record it!)
3. With the hot weather, the beers or vodka and lemonades can go down very quickly. The calories add up quickly too!
4. With increased alcohol, your discipline can fall by the wayside.
5. Often times, fatty meats such as ribs will be served, along with high calorie side dishes such as pasta or potato salad.

Tips to stay on track at your next BBQ
1. First, don’t go to the BBQ hungry. Low blood sugar will only lead to overeating. Make sure you have a light meal several hours before the event or a snack right before.
2. Drink A LOT of water during the BBQ. For 3 reasons - it will help you to stay hydrated in the hot weather, it will give you something to drink instead of alcohol and it can help make you feel fuller so you can eat less food.
3. If possible, find out what will be served ahead of time. This can help you prepare mentally what you will eat in advance. If most of the food choices seem on the heavier side, offer to bring a green salad or sliced vegetables ready to be grilled.
4. Once you get to the BBQ, take notice of what the food options are. Plan in your mind what you will eat instead of starting in on the food frenzy. You don’t have to have one of everything that is served. Wait for what you really want - even if it something fattening like ribs. It would be better to have a smaller portion of ribs than to load up on burgers, hot dogs and steak - without feeling satisfied.
5. I would definitely suggest you limit yourself to 2 small portions of a protein food - but take one without the bun. For example, maybe take a small burger on a bun and then a plain hot dog without a bun. Now if there are side dishes that you want such as pasta salad, I would recommend you avoid the bun.
6. BBQ’s can be quite healthy. You can grill fish, skinless poultry, veggies and fruit with a side green salad.
7. You can always take your relatives to a computer in the house to show them your journey on CGB! Knowing that others are watching you may curtail your urge to splurge!
8. Try to include a physical activity at the BBQ to do something besides eat. Maybe a game of frisbee!

Esther, from what I understand about your family, I would imagine there will be quite a lot of food served. Your best bet is to fill your plate with salad and take smaller portions of the foods you really want. Eat very slow and drink a lot of water.  Try not to have several plates of food - stick to one. You mentioned that your brother is aware of your weight loss attempts and will be watching you. That is great! The more support, the better. Remember, you will be writing everything down and reporting to us. Some pictures would be nice too!

With regards to your 2 allowed alcoholic beverages, I would recommend that you choose when you really want them the most. Maybe tonight with your friends - that way the alcohol won’t decrease your willpower for staying on track at the cookout.

Good luck at the BBQ!

Related posts

• Fit into Your Little Black Dress by New Years Eve (1)
• Esther’s Weight Loss Journey: Progress Report #2 (1)
• Esther’s Weight Loss Journey:Progress Report #7 (0)
• Esther’s Weight Loss Journey: Progress Report #4 (0)
• Does Alcohol Cause Weight Gain? (4)

Question from KN: Thanks for these tips on pre-workout eating for cardio. My biggest problem with properly preparing for a hard cardio workout is that I have trouble eating and/or drinking before a workout as it gives me terrible stomach cramps once working out- even if I ate something (healthy) or just drink water even a whole hour before. Therein I dont have the energy I should have to get through the workout well. Is there any correlation that you have heard of between the kind of pre-workout snack you have and getting stomach cramps? or does it really just vary by person?

Answer from Martha: Yes, tolerance depends upon person to person. Years ago, I once saw my aerobic instructor inhale a jumbo slice of pizza 30 seconds prior to teaching an very intense aerobic class. Not recommended (or tolerated by the average person!). The best kind of meal/snack to eat prior to cardio is something that is easily digested; something that is low in fat, low in fiber, high in carbs and moderate in protein. Examples would be pretzels, nonfat yogurt, a slice of bread with jam, low fat crackers, low fiber cereal with nonfat milk. Since it sounds like you have a more sensitive gastro-intestinal tract, you may want to avoid fruit prior to exercising as it contains fiber. Even some of the energy bars may bother you. Have you tried to eat this snack 1 1/2 hours prior to exercise? If you still have trouble tolerating that, just make sure that you eat a good meal that contains carbs and protein several hours prior to exercising. And make sure you drink water throughout the day so you will go into your workout session being hydrated.

Related posts

• Your Plate or Mine? An Excerpt from my Colleague’s Book (2)
• Work While You are on the Treadmill… and Lose Weight (1)
• Will Eating Late at Night Make Me Gain Weight? (0)
• Will Diet Foods Contribute Towards Making Your Child Obese? (1)
• When it’s No Longer a Diet (0)

Question from Joe: Excellent article on wine.  Are there any “low carb” wines?  After all they have light beers.

Answer from Martha: Glad you enjoyed the wine article! You asked a good question. Many people assume that wine is high in carbs because it is made from grapes. However, in the process of making the wine, yeast is used to ferment the grapes. Much of the yeast “eats up” the carbs in the grapes, leaving the wine with a minimal carb content. This fermentation produces alcohol. In general, a dry wine has little residual sugar (or carbs), whereas a sweet wine can have quite a bit.

While the carb content will vary somewhat when it comes to specific wines, on average, 4 oz of a dry white and dry red wine has ~ 1-2 grams of carbs, whereas 4 oz of a sweet dessert wine, sweet sherry or port will have 8-12 grams. Most distilled spirits such as vodka, gin, tequilla, etc. have negligible amounts of carbs. The carb content will be increased with mixers such as sour mix, regular soda, etc.

Of course, as I had mentioned in my recent post on wine, you need to pay attention to the portion size of the wine. Many bars and restaurants double this “4 oz” size therefore the carb content as well as the calorie content may double. For most people, the calorie content of wine and other types of alcohol is more of a concern than the carb content - at least when it comes to weight control.

 Of note, not only is  most alcohol low in carbs, it can actually cause hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) in diabetics. So therefore it is important for a diabetic to eat a little food along with the alcoholic drink. Actually, this is not a bad thing for all of us to do!

Related posts

• Is Master Cleanse a Good Plan to Try? (0)

Making permanent changes in behaviors are difficult - whether the changes are in your eating, exercise, drinking, or even shopping habits. For example, I am sure you know that eating a candy bar in the afternoon is not the healthiest habit, but how do you go about stopping yourself from doing it if you are an emotional eater when your boss assigns you another project at 4 pm … to be completed by the end of the day?

I’d like to share an email I received from a client whom I had worked with in July 07  for several months on a weight loss eating plan. She has been successful in making behavior changes.

Here is some background info on the client:

K.N. is a 23 year old women who weighed 162 pounds and was 5′10. She wanted to get to a goal weight of 150 pounds. K.N.  had a busy work and social schedule, frequently having business dinners during the week and eating out with her boyfriend on weekends.  She usually skipped dinner but “grazed” most of the night on peanut butter, apples and cheese. This grazing dinner frequently came to 1000 calories. She was really hungry at that time because her lunch often didn’t include enough protein nor did she have an appropriate afternoon snack. Her afternoon snacks tended to be something like granola bars.  She was a carb craver but had omitted most bread during the day in an attempt to lose weight. However, when the bread basket came with dinner, her “no bread” rule went out the window due to her hunger.  She usually exercised 3 times a week.

 Here is an email I recently received from K.N:

Dear Martha,
You may not remember me- I very unfortunately was unable to continue meeting with you beginning this past fall because of various family emergencies that limited my ability to meet with you on a regular basis, but I hope to be able to begin with you again soon.
In any case, I wanted to tell you how very much you have helped me with my eating habits and my attempts at weight loss.  I have lost 7 lbs over the last few months and could not be more pleased!!! I feel very much in control of my eating and feel I have found a ‘happy medium.

Few things that have helped me in particular: your great advice to keep hard boiled eggs in my refrigerator at all times– I eat the egg whites only (unless I feel I need a little extra ’something’ and have part of the yolk) and often have two egg whites for breakfast with some fruit, which I really love!  I also keep string cheese in my fridge at all times and find both are great things to have to snack on when needed. I have focused on having a piece of fruit as my ’snack’ mid morning and mid afternoon- (instead of a granola bar or something sweet) and this has made a huge difference in my control of cravings and energy levels.  I really love fruit and had sworn off it in attempts to limit my sugar in previous years, but ended up eating too much cheese or wayyy too many nuts to make up for it!

I also followed your advice on having more broth-based soups before meals and find they really help fill me up with relatively little calories (Also very welcome in the winter months in particular!)  I also got over my ‘fear’ of sandwhiches which you were great to point out are not necessarily the enemy–and have found that a small turkey sandwich on whole wheat toast with tomato / cucumber /lettuce and either a tiny bit of light mayo or mustard (from Lenny’s) for lunch fills me up, is very satisfying and yet ends up being a whole let less total than a large salad where I mix in all sorts of things that add up- and still inevitably leaves me feeling hungry afterwards!

I found that when going out to dinner, if you focus- you really can avoid indulging in the bread basket- and it only becomes more of a habit the more you do it- until you hardly think of it anymore!.. I have continued to be disciplined at going to the gym 4 times a week- and it continues to lift my mood and give me lots of energy.

Thank you so much for all your help- you have truly helped me so much.
 
P.S. I recently bought a new product that I was curious to see what you thought of- the Planters ‘Nutrition- Digestive Health Mix’ they recently came out with. It is super super yummy and I think is a nice change from nuts alone (so long as you can portion control of course) but I don’t know if I am just falling in their marketing trap. It is a combo of pistachios, almonds, cranberries, granola and cherries-  they say serving size is 1/4 cup (8 servings per container) with 150 cal, 70 from fat- 8 grams of Fat, 17 grams of carbs, 3 grams of dietary fiber, 11 grams of sugar and 4 grams of Protein. 
Also- is there much cholesterol in egg whites? Is it a problem if I have them everyday?
 
Thanks again for your help!

My answer to K.N:
1. That Planters product you described sounds fine as long as you can control your portion.

2. Egg whites don’t contain any cholesterol or fat and are very low in calories (only about 15 calories per egg white). You can definitely eat them daily!

Check out my other ideas for breakfast choices,  snack tips and crunchy snacks.

Related posts

• Read Martha’s Quote in Womans Day on Snacking (0)
• PCOS and Difficulty Losing Weight (2)
• Esther’s Weight Loss Journey: Progress Report #2 (1)
• Your Plate or Mine? An Excerpt from my Colleague’s Book (2)
• When it’s No Longer a Diet (0)

Question from Linda: I have PCOS (polycystic ovarian sydrome) and am trying to follow a lower carb diet. However, I’m having trouble finding something low carb to eat for breakfast. My favorite breakfast foods - cereal and bagels - are loaded with carbs. Help!

Answer from Martha: You are right - most breakfast foods are high in carbs. However with a little creativity, you can find lower carb breakfast choices. But first, here is a little info on diet and PCOS.

Low glycemic index diet and PCOS
Many of the symptoms of PCOS (irregular periods, hair growth, hair loss, acne, etc.) may be caused by high levels of insulin. Eating foods that rapidly turn to sugar will increase blood levels of insulin. So I often recommend that women with PCOS follow a lower glycemic index diet to help lower insulin levels. In addition, many women with PCOS find that they feel better and have an easier time losing weight when they follow a diet plan that has a lower glycemic index. 

So what is a low glycemic index diet?
Basically, this type of diet contains  meals and snacks that include moderate amounts of higher fiber carbs as well as protein and a little fat. This combination of nutrients allows for a slower rise of glucose, less insulin secretion and then a slower drop of glucose. It can help you feel full longer, have fewer cravings and sustained energy levels.

Even if you don’t have PCOS, you might want to try some of the following suggestions for breakfast. They are a lot healthier and lower in calories than a jumbo bagel, a donut or a giant cup of oatmeal loaded with granola, brown sugar and raisins.

Suggestions for low glycemic index calorie controlled breakfast choices:

* These breakfast choices were taken from the chapters I wrote on diet and pcos for Dr. Walter Futterweit’s book: A Patient’s Guide to PCOS.

Related posts

• The Silent Womens Condition: Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (6)
• PCOS and Difficulty Losing Weight (2)
• Allison’s Story with PCOS (0)
• We No Longer Need to Exercise to Control Our Weight??? (0)
• Update from a Successful Patient (0)

Question from R.C: Help me City Girl! I can not control any of my urges. I am a junk food eating machine. I have a very negative self image…

 Answer from Martha: For those of you who have not been following my posts, R.C. is one of the contestants from the New Hampshire Biggest Loser Competition . As you can see from some of the comments to this post, his eating habits are being closely monitored by his co-workers. It appears R.C. likes donuts and junk foods.  

So R.C, here are the problems as I see it:

1. You enjoy the taste of junk food. I’m sure everyone has cravings for certain foods that aren’t the healthiest (I personally love milk chocolate …. and not the dark healthy kind) 

2. You are trying to cut back on what you are eating for the competition. It is possible that you cut back too much during the day. This can lead to overeating at night.

3. It is very difficult to change your eating habits. We are used to eating a certain way and our bodies fight us when we try to make changes - especially when we try to make many changes at once.

My suggestions to control your urges for junk food:

1. Get whatever you can out of your house. I realize that you have kids, but try to keep mainly healthy snacks in the house. This will benefit your kids as well. Or try to buy snack foods that your kids like but that you don’t love (if such a food exists). The more junk food you have around the house, the more tempted you will be to eat it.

2. Avoid having jumbo sized bags of junk in the house. If you have to have some snack foods in the house, buy mini bags such as 100 calorie packs of popcorn, cookies, etc. Buy individual sized ice cream treats versus 1/2 gallons. Check out my post on snack tips.

3. Start your dinner with a big salad or bowl of vegetable soup. Studies have shown that this will make you consume fewer calories at your meal. I will more about soups soon!

4. Eat slow. It takes at least 20 minutes for your stomach to trigger your brain that you are getting full.

5. Stay hydrated. Make sure you are drinking plenty of non-caloric liquid during the day. Being dehydrated can make you think you are hungry, when you are really thirsty.

6. Keep a food record of what you eat. This is very important and can help to deter you from eating junk. You will need to make the commitment to be thorough and honest with these records. You can email them to me if you like!

7. Make sure you are not eating too few calories during the day. It sounds like you are trying to be really “good” during the day, but then end up overeating at night. Make sure your breakfast and lunch are substantial. Include adequate protein at lunch (at least 4-5 ounces of turkey, chicken, lean meat, etc) . Plan a healthy afternoon snack. This will help to keep your blood sugar up so you won’t be so hungry for dinner. Again, make sure you are eating adequate protein and fiber at dinner.

Here are my comments on what you eat on a typical day (based on the food records you previously sent me):

Breakfast: Small bowl of cereal, yogurt, or banana for breakfast.
My comment: cereal, nonfat milk and fruit or yogurt and fruit are good ideas for breakfast. Just a piece of fruit is not enough.

Lunch: small sandwich or salad with a bunch extras like hard-boiled eggs, tuna, carrots, ect… 
My comment: Not a bad lunch. Just make sure there is a significant amount of protein in the salad or sandwich. Add raw veggies for fiber.  Use low cal salad dressings.

Afternoon Snack:
My comment: you didn’t mention an afternoon snack. You should be having something for about 100 calories such as a yogurt, string cheese, piece of fruit, etc. Check out my suggestions for crunchy snacks.

Dinner: You mentioned that “the wheels come off the cart” at dinner and later you start to snack on chips and sweets.

My comments: Start dinner with a salad and/or broth based soup. Fill up on cooked veggies, about a small fist sized portion of starch and ~ 7 oz of lean protein. Try to avoid kid food like mac and cheese, chicken nuggets. (not to make your wife a short order cook…but these foods are obviously not the best for “dieting”). Continue to drink a lot of water while you eat and eat slow!

Snacks after dinner: As I said previously, get the bad stuff out of the house and stock up on healthier snacks such as fruit, sorbet or fruit pops, Skinny Cow bars, diet jello, 100 calorie packs of popcorn. Limit your snacks after dinner to 150 calories.

Lastly, since you love junk food, think about allowing yourself 1-2 “treats” a week. A “treat” would be something not-so-healthy for approximately 300 calories. So technically, you could work 2 donuts into your diet a week and still lose weight!

Related posts

• Your Plate or Mine? An Excerpt from my Colleague’s Book (2)
• Work While You are on the Treadmill… and Lose Weight (1)
• Will Diet Foods Contribute Towards Making Your Child Obese? (1)
• When it’s No Longer a Diet (0)
• Week 8 & 9 New Hampshire Biggest Weight Loss Competition Progress Report (0)

Question from Sharon: In the colder weather, I tend to go to more movies. How bad is the movie theater popcorn?

Answer from Martha: It is true that with the colder weather, city girls often head to the movies as opposed to sitting at outside cafés. And when we think of movies, many of us think of popcorn. So to answer your question - I usually don’t like to use the word “bad” when it comes to food, but I will use it now … movie theater popcorn is bad, bad, bad! Bad for 2 reasons - the portions are jumbo sized and it is popped in oil. 

I think most of us realize that movie theater popcorn is not exactly a health food, but did you realize that a medium size popcorn without added butter contains 11-16 cups (depending on which movie theater you are in), 650 - 900 calories and 43-60 grams of fat?  You probably thought it wasn’t so bad because you didn’t add butter! Now if you add butter,  the calories jump to 910-1220 calories and 71-97 grams of fat. This is more than 6 McDonald cheeseburgers! And even worse, much of that fat might be saturated, depending on what kind of oil it was popped in. Saturated fat is the kind of fat that raises LDL cholesterol (the kind that clogs arteries).

A few years ago, the Center for Science in the Public Interest made headlines with its expose on movie theatre popcorn. This caused many theaters to change from using a saturated oil such as coconut oil to an unsaturated oil such as peanut oil. While this was better for the heart, your waistline doesn’t know the difference between good fat and bad fat. In any case, many theaters have changed back to using the saturated oils - so back to bad for the heart and waistline.

 Check out the calories and fat content of movie theater popcorn:

Tips to improve your movie munchies:
1. Bring in your own snack- discreetly of course! Pop a 100 calorie mini bag of popcorn at home and eat that instead of the movie theater popcorn. Check out my post on crunchy snacks for other ideas.

2. If you really have the urge for real movie popcorn, get a kid size if they have it - no butter of course! A small sans butter would be your next best choice.

3. If you have the real movie theater popcorn, try to make your next meal a little lighter.

Related posts

• Your Plate or Mine? An Excerpt from my Colleague’s Book (2)
• Work While You are on the Treadmill… and Lose Weight (1)
• Will Eating Late at Night Make Me Gain Weight? (0)
• Will Diet Foods Contribute Towards Making Your Child Obese? (1)
• When it’s No Longer a Diet (0)

Question from B.N. and his office staff: Martha, what do you think about the Master Cleanse Diet? Our office staff is thinking of trying it. Do you think it is a good plan to try?

Answer from Martha: I have had several inquiries in the past few weeks regarding my opinion of the Master Cleanse diet.

First, a little background info on Master Cleanse
The Master Cleanse detox diet, also known as the Lemonade Diet was originally created by Stanley Burroughs in 1941. It has been made more popular lately by Peter Glickman in his  book Lose Weight, Have More Energy and Be Happier in 10 Days.  The reported purpose of Master Cleanse is to eliminate toxins and congestion that have built up in the body, however many people (including Beyonce, Robin Quivers from the Howard Stern show) have used it for weight loss. The diet is recommended for a minimum of ten days, although it is not uncommon for people to stay on the cleanse for longer periods of time

What does it consist of?
The Master Cleanse involves eating no solid food. Instead, you drink up to 10 daily glasses of the following ingredients:
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp maple syrup
a small amount (~ 1/10th teaspoon) of Cayenne pepper.
1 cup water (or to taste)
This mix can be taken cold or hot, as a tea. In addition, you may take a laxative tea at night and luke warm salt water in the morning. This passes through the digestive system rapidly - in about 30- 60 minutes. Fasters who drink 6 glasses a day are likely consuming ~ 650 calories a day.

Possible “Cons” to Master Cleanse
1. This diet, along with other fasts, is deficient in most all nutrients including protein, fat, and all vitamins and minerals.
2. Chances are that if you follow this diet for more than a few days, you will feel weak, lightheaded, get a headache and experience overall poor energy levels.
3. Contraindicated in certain medical conditions such as hypoglycemia and diabetes (if on insulin).
4. If weight is lost while on this fast (which probably will occur as you are only consuming ~ 600-700 calories a day!), it will likely will be regained as much of the weight loss will be from water. In addition, fasts and other strict diets often lead to binging once the diet is stopped.
5. It will put a crimp in your social life…no more dinners and drinks out with friends while on this fast.
6. Plan on spending lots of time near the bathroom as this diet is likely to cause excessive urination and liquid bowel movements.

Possible “Pros” to Master Cleanse
Hmmm…. Had to think long and hard about this one.
1. Some people say they feel healthier after fasting. If you do a search on the web, you will find a lot of testimonials (look in chat rooms as well). Supporters of the Master Cleanse have credited it with helping them lose weight, increase energy, and even alleviate some chronic diseases.
2. Does not require you to plan meals as it is simple and mindless to follow.
3. While I do not recommend fasting for more than a few days, it could help you get rid of some bloat to fit into an outfit for a special occasion.

What the experts say about Master Cleanse
Most experts caution against extended fasting. While there is no harm in fasting short term for the average healthy person, there are no proven benefits. There is no scientific evidence that these types of fasts “cleanse” the body. While it is possible that our bodies hold on to toxins, (i.e. mercury from eating too much tuna), there is no proof that the ingredients in this fast will rid the body of toxins. Our organ systems such as the liver, spleen, lungs, gastrointestinal tract, and kidneys have a natural way of getting rid of toxins. In addition, most experts recommend limiting toxins such as excessive alcohol and acetaminophen.

My opinion on Master Cleanse
As I stated above, there is no evidence that these fasts actually detox the body (it sounds good though!). I would recommend that you do your own natural “detox” by drinking a lot of water, limiting alcohol, eating adequate amounts of fiber found in fruits, vegetables and whole grains and limiting processed foods.

However, if you still have your heart set in doing Master Cleanse, try not to do it for more than a few days. If you don’t feel well on it, stop!  And keep in mind that if you are doing it for weight loss, the majority of weight that you lose will likely be regained. I have seen this happen numerous times with my clients! Forget what the testimonials say.  The only way to lose weight and keep it off is to make permanent changes in your eating and exercise behaviors.

Related posts

• We No Longer Need to Exercise to Control Our Weight??? (0)
• Product Sighting: Mini Bags of Almonds (100 calories) (1)
• Meet the New Hampshire Biggest Loser Participants (11)
• Do Artificially Sweetened Foods Make You Gain Weight? (1)
• Your Plate or Mine? An Excerpt from my Colleague’s Book (2)

Question from Susan: I work late and then go to the gym. I usually end up eating dinner at 9 pm. Is this making it more difficult for me to lose weight?

Answer from Martha: Eating late dinners is a problem for many people. Maybe in suburbia people eat dinner at 6 pm, but most of the city girls and guys I know eat at 8 pm or later. You are not alone!

So this brings us to the question - will eating late at night contribute towards weight gain or make it more difficult to lose weight? Most health experts agree that it is the total amount of calories that you consume in a day that has the greater effect on your weight as compared to the time you eat.  So technically, if you eat dinner at 9 pm versus 7 pm, it should not make a difference one way or another when it comes to your weight… as long as you are sticking to your daily calorie goal.

If you are diligent about sticking to your weight loss calorie goal (more on determining these calorie goals will come in a future post), you should be able to lose weight despite eating a late dinner.

However, if you find your weight will not budge (despite being careful with your total calories), you might want to try to eat a lighter dinner. I would suggest that you eat a good sized snack (~ 200 calories or so) prior to working out.

Suggestions for snacks include:
- 1 T. peanut butter on a small banana 
- 4 oz cottage cheese and fruit
- a string cheese and 100 calories of whole grain crackers
- energy bar

Then eat a light dinner (300-400 calories) after working out.

Suggestions for dinners include:
- egg white omelet with veggies and whole grain toast
- steamed Chinese food with 1/2 cup brown rice
- miso soup, salad, 3 pieces of sushi and 3 sashimi
- 4 oz chicken breast or turkey burger and 2 cups veggies
- frozen dinner and veggies  

One more thought…while your total caloric intake is what is most important when it comes to weight control, we can’t totally discount the way you space out your calories. Eating multiple meals or “feedings” as I like to call them, tends to help speed the metabolism more than just eating 1-2 large meals - even if the calories were the same for the both scenieros. I have many clients who eat minimally during the day and then gorge at night. Your best bet from an energy standpoint as well as from a metabolism standpoint is to eat something every few hours.

Related posts

• When it’s No Longer a Diet (0)
• We No Longer Need to Exercise to Control Our Weight??? (0)
• The Story of a “Successful Loser” (0)
• The Effects of Consuming Too Few Calories on Your Metabolism (1)
• Question on Diet Soda (3)