TOP FIVE diet killers! 4 of 5

UNDERESTIMATING CALORIES

Brian Wansink is a professor at Cornell who studies both calories consumed and how effective people are at estimating calories: In his book, MINDLESS EATING, he finds that people ALWAYS underestimate calories especially under two circumstances: when eating out and when they believe they are eating something healthy.

Professor Wansink conducts a variety of studies at his Food and Brand Lab, which explores the psychology behind what people eat and how often they eat it. One study tested the theory that overweight people consistently underestimate how much they eat much more than normal-weight people do. This study concluded that people of all weights underestimate calories for big meals. Ironically, the bigger the meal, the more people underestimated calories, estimating up to 50% less calories than they actually consumed.What to do to avoid this problem?

There aren’t many new tricks to healthy eating and weight loss, if there were we’d all know them! You have to get back to basics:

1)Learn what the calories are for the foods you eat. We eat the same foods over and over so it gets much easier. www.calorieking.com and many other sites offer this information.
2)Know how to read a nutrition label, type in nutrition label in the search line above!
3)Keep a food diary, otherwise you won’t know what your total calories are
4)If you can’t eat out less or don’t want to, be smart. Eight ounces of fried chicken on a salad with full fat dressing is not a healthy meal. Ask for grilled, order light dressings or dressings on the side, ask for sauces on the side and no butter and oil preparations. If you’re not out much just enjoy but don’t count on the scale showing a loss.
5)Know that a lot of people who are trying to lose weight lie about their eating habits because they are just not motivated to change. Be honest with yourself by keeping track of what you are doing.