WORKING LATE

I need advice and wisdom on how to deal with the nights I work.  I leave for work at about 4:30 pm.  I usually eat lunch and then a large snack before I go to work.  I take something I can eat quickly and discretely during the evening as I do not get an actual dinner break.  I have taken things like salad or fruit, cheese and whole wheat crackers.  I also take an Atkins bar in case I am really hungry or want something a bit sweet.

I generally eat my "dinner" in two parts during the night before I leave at 1 am.  When I get home, I have a cup of tea to unwind.  I am frequently very hungry again by this time.  I have tried going to bed hungry.  I have tried having a little whole grain cereal or an Atkins bar but what I am really craving is some major carbs.  I realize that is because this is a comfort food for me and I and trying to de-stress from work and get settled enough that I can go to sleep - so this have been a slip sliding area a couple of times.

So - what to do in the middle of the night?  If I save calories for it, I think I will really be hungry during the day but having veggies in the middle of he night is not going to satisfy part of the "hunger" going on.  I don't sleep late enough the next day to make up for the "late night meal."  Do I just make allowances for extra calories 3 nights a week? 

AEROBIC HOUSEWORK

Sometimes when I skip a day at the gym I say I did "aerobic housework" instead.  I know that you burn calories doing pretty much anything you do - so housework can certainly be done vigorously in a way that will up the burn.

This weekend we moved a sofa from Tom's office to make room for his new "litigation table."  So that meant we had to make room for it in the house.  We moved my comfy old reading chair and ottoman out of the master bedroom (and listed it on the Free Craigslist - it's still sitting in the driveway...)

Tom and Zac, did the moving in and out of the furniture and left it to me to do the arranging.  In the course of the morning I moved the queen sleigh bed, side tables, eight drawer dresser, armoire and sofa around into 3 different configurations.  Of course I did not empty the dresser and armoire and this is all on carpet. Thus, the aerobic and weight lifting component of the day.  (I also vacuumed  because there were feathers from my leaking former down pillow everywhere!)  Then I dusted everything and cleaned the glass shelves and mirrors and picture frames and glass. Finally I was done -  hot, sweaty and while drinking an iced tea I wondered about the reality of the workout aspect of my morning.

So I checked out the calorie burn based on the effort and time spent.  Looks like I did better than I would have if I had done my regular gym routine!  About 620 calories which includes lugging the vacuum up and down the stairs twice because I thought I was done and then rearranged it again and found more feathers...

NOT WHAT YOU EAT BUT WHAT YOU ABSORB

We have all known those people who eat the same things we eat, sometimes a lot more, and never gain weight. So that must mean they are expending more calories, right? If you stick with the old calories in, calories out theory that would be the case. However, new research shows that calories that count are those extracted by your digestive enzymes and the trillions of bacteria in your intestine.

People whose gut bacteria are better at digesting fats and carbs than their neighbor’s will absorb all 1,500 calories in a Friendly’s Ultimate Grilled Cheese BurgerMelt, while the neighbor will absorb fewer.

A study done at Washington University showed that obese mice and slim mice have different populations of gut bacteria. Crucially, they showed that the bacteria caused obesity, rather than obesity producing a specific mix of bacteria. When the scientists plucked bacteria called Firmicutes from obese mice, then put them in the bacteria-free guts of mice raised in a sterile environment, the latter bulked up within 10 to 14 days—even though they ate less.

Why? Firmicutes, it seems, are more adept at liberating calories from food than are bacteria from the other common lineage, Bacteroidetes. Firmicutes can digest complex sugars that neither the mice’s own enzymes nor Bacteroidetes can, breaking them into simple sugars and fatty acids that the mice’s intestines then absorb and turn into more mouse. People harbor bacteria from these same two lineages, with the obese among us having more Firmicutes and fewer Bacteroidetes than slim people, exactly as in fat and lean mice.

The study then had 12 obese people follow either a low-fat or a low-carb diet to lose weight, the result was more Bacteroidetes and fewer Firmicutes—the profile of slim people. The more Bacteroidetes, the more weight the volunteers lost.

Although the diet experiment shows that losing weight can tip the bacterial balance away from bugs that extract the maximum calories from what we eat, what’s needed is a way to tip that balance and thereby lose weight, rather than lose weight and thereby tip the balance of gut bacteria.

So the next big push is to determine if there is another way to alter the bacteria (in a safe way) before making the dietary changes. There will certainly be those questionable marketers who will rush out with claims they can change your intestinal bacteria with their product However, at this time, there is no support for that approach.

In fact, it is possible that one component of the obesity epidemic is actually the widespread use of antibiotics which have changed the bacterial make-up of millions of Americans. This may even explain the upsurge of diabetes on the theory that the bacteria changes are altering the immune system. “I think the idea that foods, drugs, or other things in our environment might contribute to the epidemic by changing gut microbes is a distinct possibility" says Randy Seeley, an obesity researcher at the University of Cincinnati.

So all those years you though your metabolism was shot? Or that you were just so different from other people when it came to calories? You just might have been right!

MY KIND OF SUMMER LOVE

One of the goals I have for this month is the switch from my packaged "diet" foods over to real food but keeping my calorie counts about the same. The ease of the packaged foods and the one "lean and green" meal was a great way to get things started and I have been happy with the quick weight loss.

Now that the wonderful summer fruits are out I knew I would not be able to keep away from them and it is time to "get real." It requires much more effort to plan my meals and to count my calories. My daily food logs went from a consistent 6-8 items to 12 and 15 even 20! All depending on how many ingredients go into what I am making. I am going to streamline some of my regular meals and enter them as "favorites" to make it quicker!

The good news is that I have been managing to maintain the calorie counts in the 1200 to 1400 range which was my goal. My weight loss will likely slow down, and that is ok. I was losing 12-15 pounds a month which is great but unrealistic for the long run.

Besides, today I had blueberries and a pluot and I have apricots and nectarines almost ripe and ready to eat...that's worth a little slow down on the weight loss.

SAVE CALORIES AND LOSE WEIGHT?

There are all these articles and books about cutting out this or that food and by the end of the year you lose 10 pounds!! Or eat this instead of that for lunch every week and you will lose 20 pounds!

Except it isn't true.

On paper it looks good, but in reality, the body adjusts. Most of us life long dieters have known this and have been frustrated by this for years.
But bodies don’t gain or lose weight indefinitely. Eventually, a cascade of biological changes kicks in to help the body maintain a new weight. The JAMA study explains, a person who eats an extra cookie a day will gain some weight, but over time, an increasing proportion of the cookie’s calories also goes to taking care of the extra body weight. Eventually, the body adjusts and stops gaining weight, even if the person continues to eat the cookie.

Similar factors come into play when we skip the extra cookie. We may lose a little weight at first, but soon the body adjusts to the new weight and requires fewer calories.

A 2007 study indicated that small changes did set the stage for bigger, more life changing changes to follow. Like starting with "baby steps" you can't get far if you stick with them, but if you start that way and then move on to bigger and bigger steps, then you are on the way to meaningful changes.

“Once you’re trying for weight loss, you’re out of the small-change realm,” said Dr. Hill, the author of the study. “But the small-steps approach can stop weight gain.”

While small steps are unlikely to solve the nation’s obesity crisis, doctors say losing a little weight, eating more heart-healthy foods and increasing exercise can make a meaningful difference in overall health and risks for heart disease and diabetes.