Diets don’t work. We all know that. So what’s the big idea of gobbling up most of this front page to present the Q Diet?
Because it is the Undiet. As in Understand that a diet doesn’t work because we Americans see it as depriving ourselves. Or we think a diet means calculating calories down to the single digit or figuring out some complex formula to balance proteins, carbohydrates and fats.
Oh, a diet might work in the short term, such as for a local executive who lost significant weight during a recent European cruise–of all things–because he followed the Atkins diet of high protein (lots of sausages and bacon at those buffet tables) and minimal carbohydrates. But the executive said he abandoned the diet upon his return to the States because “it was not real life.”
Real life is having dinner with friends or eating on the run. Real life is wanting to enjoy a glass of wine or beer. Real life is looking for a healthy meal at lunch and finding fast food instead.
Real life, at least here in the United States of Appetites, is more food than your stomach can handle while your brain takes the documented 20 minutes to send the message that you are full.
Real life is the long term.
Rather than supply a customary meal plan for the day or week, the Q Diet is based on real-life strategies, developed with input from three local prominent nutritionists. The key objective: to be mindful of the best qualities of real life.
Here are eight strategies to help you reach personal goals such as losing weight, gaining more energy, feeling better about yourself or all of the above. If your goals are modest, pick three strategies to implement during the next three months. Introduce one strategy every month, beginning in October (which starts Tuesday).
If your goals are more ambitious, introduce the three strategies one at a time for the next three weeks. Once you master those strategies, add two more strategies (five total) between October and year’s end.
The following strategies address different needs and lifestyles. Select those that most suit your goals. And as with any program that recommends changes in eating habits or lifestyle, check in with your doctor.
Drink more water. The standard recommendation is eight glasses per day. A better measure is drinking half your current weight in ounces, or 10 servings of 8 ounces for a 160-pound person. Lisle-based nutritionist Susan Allen said it is critical to drink water throughout the day, not just load up on it in the morning and evening. This strategy addresses both weight loss and energy gain.
Stop drinking all alcohol for a month. Yes, that’s a tough one for some people but highly effective for dropping those nagging last 5 to 10 pounds. Ed Victor, a literary agent and author of “The Obvious Diet” (Arcade, $23), said that eliminating beer, wine and spirits for four weeks is “as much to establish discipline as to minimize intake of calories.” Interestingly, Victor has found drinking a glass of wine with dinner doesn’t put on any of the pounds he successfully lost, while beer and spirits both seem to encourage weight gain for him.
Make no mistake, alcohol with dinner is likely to push your one-sitting intake beyond 800 calories, which means the body will store surplus calories as fat. After the first month, establish a certain number of “no-alcohol” days each week. Even one a week can change patterns that aren’t working for you, such as low energy in the morning or waking up about halfway through the night.
Get some protein with every meal or snack. Addressing the protein-carbohydrate-fat debate, Roberta Clarke suggested that an imbalance of carbs in your daily meals might be confusing your hunger mechanism along with your brain (just whose diet is right, anyway?). Adopting this protein strategy means yogurt (plain is lower in refined sugars) with your fruit, peanut butter on your bagel (the fat satisfies hunger), or chicken or tuna–even anchovies–with your lettuce.
“Lots of women eat vegetable salads for lunch, then wonder why they are fuzzy-minded by midafternoon,” said Clarke, president of R.C. Nutrition Consulting and former coordinator of the nutrition clinic at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center. “Protein helps the brain function better and releases food [and the body’s main fuel, glycogen] more slowly to the bloodstream.”
Cut back on coffee. If you drink too much coffee–you know who you are–Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks team nutritionist Julie Burns strongly recommends substituting green tea, at least after your morning java. A few daily cups still afford a caffeine kick (it is gentler) but also fire up the body’s metabolism. What’s more, drinking less coffee avoids overstimulation of the adrenal glands, which, strangely enough, leads to fatigue and possible burnout.
Eat breakfast. The key factor involved with this simple, time-tested strategy is getting more calories earlier in your day to prevent overeating at lunch or dinner. Good choices include oatmeal and other hot cereals, eggs, smoothies (include milk, yogurt or soy milk), high-fiber cold cereals (4 grams or more per serving) and–don’t make a face–kippered fish. Important: Not all cold cereals are effective for weight loss just because they are low in fat. Two generous bowls of cereal with skim milk and fruit juice can push the upper limits of too many calories at one sitting.
Adopt an “eat half, save half” approach. Sports nutritionists have known for years that the body is fueled best with smaller, more frequent meals. So rather than eat the entire sandwich or burrito at lunch, eat half at noon, save the rest for 3 p.m. Your work output will increase almost immediately.
Make every day Fat Tuesday (sort of). Substitute olive oil for butter on your bread. Use flax oil to make your own salad dressing, which Burns said has a nutty flavor that clients grow to prefer. Eat salmon, especially wild varieties. Stock tamari almonds (available in bulk at Whole Foods) for your snacks and avoid any foods, including roasted peanuts, with “partially hydrogenated oils” on the label.Think essential fatty acids.
Realize that there are three kinds of eating days: Good Days, Splurge Days and Remedy Days. Commit to five Good Days per week (and forgive yourself if it turns out to be four some weeks). Then add one Splurge Day, which means you follow Ed Victor’s real-life finding that one meal every week eating anything you want won’t blow your weight-loss plan or goals such as gaining energy or feeling healthier.
Victor said his splurges range from a full English breakfast with sausages to a hamburger with fries to a favorite meatloaf recipe wrapped in bacon. Your splurge might veer toward a banana split, which doesn’t particularly faze Holly McCord, a dietitian and author of “The Ice Cream Diet” (Rodale, $6.50). McCord’s book allows women two scoops of ice cream daily (men get three) if they follow an otherwise sensible eating plan.McCord doesn’t endorse the high-butterfat premium brands with added chocolate and other fillings, but her plan offers plenty of tasty choices.
The Remedy Day is critical each week. Pick a day (it might stay the same or rotate) on which you eat only fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains. No sauces, no dairy, no meat, poultry or fish. Drink a moderate amount of juices and lots of clear soups. Give your body a chance to recover from the rest of the week.
You will be amazed at the Remedy Day’s effect on your waistline and mood. Plus, you will probably discover your body doesn’t need as much food on any day.
Susan Allen can be contacted at s-allen1@msn.com; Julie Burns at julieburns@sportfuel .com; and Roberta Clarke at in fo@figurefacts.com. If you are interested in keeping us posted on your own Q Diet adventure, please e-mail us at Q@tribune .com.
How those calories add up
Some scientists contend that consuming about 20 percent fewer calories than the body requires at rest maximizes longevity. But University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign nutritionist Karen Chapman-Novakofski said research is not persuasive that such “near-starvation” is indeed healthy for the body. Like many nutritionists, she recommends becoming more aware of how much food you eat during a day.
Too frequently, it is more than we need. Use the information below to guide you in determining your daily caloric needs.
Decide ideal body weight
Chicago-based dietitian Roberta Clarke uses a caloric-needs formula with clients based on ideal body weight rather than current weight. Deciding on an ideal body weight is a personal decision. Think of the weight at which you felt best during your adult life.
Calculate calories
Once you have that ideal weight in mind, you are ready to calculate the number of calories you need during the day. For women, figure about 10 calories per pound of your ideal body weight as your base amount of daily calories. For men, the number is 11 calories per pound. Then add 10 percent of that total as calories burned to digest your food.
Make adjustments
Of course, none of us stays completely still all day. Add 2 calories per pound of ideal weight if you are planning on a sedentary day (hey, it happens, especially on rainy Sundays). That’s 12 times ideal body weight for women and 13 times ideal body weight for men. Always add 10 percent on top of the new figure for digestion.
If you plan a light-activity day (a few blocks of walking, a few flights of stairs), add a calorie per ideal body weight. The multiplication factors increase to 13 for women and 14 for men.
If your day will be moderately active (you plan a brisk 20-minute walk), increase your multiplication factors to 14 (women) or 15 (men).
On heavy-activity days, such as hoping to impress your girlfriend’s father by helping him split a pile of logs or running 10 miles, up the factors to 15 and 16.
How to figure
Examples: A woman who wants to be 130 pounds has a base-line caloric need of 1,430 calories with what Clarke describes as a “caloric range” of roughly 1,600 to 2,000 calories depending on the day and give or take a Hershey’s Kiss or two. A guy aiming to be 185 pounds has a base-line caloric need of 2,238 calories and a caloric range of roughly 2,600 to 3,200 calories. That’s a lot of wood-chopping to cover the high end.
That’s enough of the numbers, except for one. Researchers have found the human body can’t process any more than 800 calories during any meal. Any surplus is likely to be stored as fat.
— Bob Condor
A closer look at a Good Day
A “Good Day” in the Q Diet plan means you are following your strategies, whether it is drinking half your weight in ounces of water or getting some protein with every meal and snack.
It also means making a point to consume foods high in nutrients throughout the day.
If every bite qualifies, great. But be vigilant that, say, 9 of every 10 food items have some redeeming nutritional value.
Dietitians call it avoiding “empty calories.” For instance, a can of soda provides scant nutrition but lots of sugar calories.
Fat-free cookies have the same downside, and low-fat chips are not much better.
On the other hand, if the low-fat chips are used to scoop guacamole, there are nutrients in the bites. If you can’t resist a muffin, eat half along with a piece of fruit.
Read your nutrition labels. Any food with high sugar and low nutrients (vitamins, minerals, protein and fiber) is a food or drink to consume less frequently.
Dr. A. Scott Connelly, author of “Body Rx” (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, $25.95) and founder of the Met-Rx sports supplements company, is adamant that most Americans would lose weight (if applicable) and feel better simply by eliminating fructose from their diets.
Fructose or high-fructose corn syrup is a common ingredient in processed foods, including baked goods, soups, snacks, soda, condiments, frozen entrees, many breakfast cereals, candy bars and even many brands of yogurt.
A good day is cutting most of your usual intake of fructose–and replacing those foods with whole foods, including vegetables, fruit, whole grains, beans, fish, chicken and, yes, if you prefer, a juicy steak.
Just remember that many nutritionists are recommending eating animal and fish proteins in no larger portion than a deck of cards (some say “no larger than would fit in the palm of your hand”).
Don’t neglect beverages. Water is a major nutrient; don’t underestimate its curative powers. Even too much juice in your day can throw off good health. Six to 8 ounces of juice is plenty. Substitute with whole fruit (especially watery varieties) and/or water.
If you are enjoying an alcoholic drink, match it with 2 cups of water.
Diet soda is one item that doesn’t fit too well into the Q Diet. It cuts out the calories but provides no nutrition.
Your health is likely to change dramatically by giving it up.
If caffeine is part of your reason for the diet soda habit, substitute green tea.
Otherwise, try sparkling water with a splash of fruit juice. Try it for 10 days. You won’t go back to those diet sodas.
— B.C.
