Calorie Creeps

From Dr. Bert Herring's Fast-5 lifestyle:

"Calorie creeps are foods that are casually consumed when location or labeling obscures the calorie content of the food, letting a lot of calories creep into your body, hampering your efforts to lose weight...

Calories can also creep into your diet using alternative names for sugar or substitutes that have significant calorie content, such as dextrose, fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, glucose, lactose, maltodextrin, maltose, sorbitol, sucrose, invert sugar, juice concentrate, and molasses. Check the nutrition label for calorie content if you’re not sure."

At a restaurant with friends:

"Eat, but practice damage control. Restaurant chefs pile on the calories to make the food taste the best possible at the lowest practical cost. The portions are often excessive because the food cost for a typical restaurant is only about 10 percent of the total. Serving large portions lets the restaurant boost apparent value without adding much in cost. It’s culturally Un-American to serve a plate with room on it for more food.

One method of damage control is to order the thing on the menu that you like the least. It’s likely to still be palatable fare, but it won’t compel you to push any more of it into your belly than necessary. Choosing from the low-carb options or the salads can help with damage control, too.

Apply the Sunk Cost Rule. Once you’ve ordered an entrée, the economic principle of sunk cost applies. No matter how much of the entrée you eat, the amount you have to pay will be the same, so you should make choices that maximize your benefit. Enjoy the food and savor each bite. There is no reason to eat it all. You’re better off with the excess in the trash than on your waist. If millions of people eat less, the portion size may decrease, leaving more supply at the source for the starving people of the world."

"An imaginary friend can help. As a last line of defense, try to mentally divide the portions in half, and imagine you are sharing with someone who is expecting to eat the other half. Leave half of everything behind."

The Lemonade Diet (Master Cleanse Diet)

I am a child of the 60's, so new-age fads were an integral part of my development. The Lemonade Diet, Master Cleanse Diet, or similar variations, were always around in the greater alternative medicine/life-style community.

What could be more 'natural' than Lemons? Throw in some cayenne pepper for zing, and organic maple syrup or perhaps honey for that sugar rush, filtered water for authenticity and, in the words of the great guru Steve Jobs, "Magical and Revolutionary" things happen.

Usually diet blogs and diet analysis are tailored to the prejudices of the author, often with an e-book to sell... but occasionally I find a review impeccable. This one on the Lemonade Diet by Kathleen M. Zelman, MPH, RD, LD for WebMD feels quite reasonable!

" The Lemonade Diet has been around for more than 50 years, but its popularity soared a few years ago after Beyonce announced she'd lost 20 pounds on the diet for the movie Dreamgirls.

The Lemonade Diet, also known as the Master Cleanse, was developed by the late Stanley Burroughs as a detoxification and fasting program. Originally intended to rid the body of toxins and internal wastes brought on by "improper diet, lack of exercise, and negative mental attitude," it's now also touted as a quick weight loss plan. "
Read the whole article for a deeper understanding of this classic de-tox.

The Fast-5 Diet

"Living a Fast-5 lifestyle means setting a window of five consecutive hours in which you do all your eating for the day. It doesn't mean binge eating or overeating. The long fasting period (19 hours) lets your body use stored fuel instead of fuel being delivered from digestion. That time also lets your body measure how much fat is stored and turn your appetite down if there's too much around. With a lower appetite, weight loss becomes easy." The Fast-5 Diet is available on line for free or as a book. There is a Facebook community experimenting with this life-style diet, as well as a forum. Both seem to be carefully monitored by the creator Bert W. Herring M. D.

He does have his detractors, like Alan Aragon, yet the muscle-building blogger world, and various testimonials, all seem to take much of what he says to heart and have applied variations in their own lives.