No? OK, so you're not as weird about that as me, but I wonder about it all the time, and after reading this maybe you should be too.
Some have the information available upon request, but most don't make it available.
Well, my aunt sent me an email that had the worst restaurant meals and their caloric content and nutritional breakdown.
Here's just a few examples.
McDonald's 5 piece Chicken Selects with ranch sauce has over 800 calories with 55g of fat. 55 Grams of fat! That's insane. Especially when you consider that they advertised them under the guise of healthy food because they were supposed to be chicken breast, but even chicken breast isn't healthy when it's doused in batter and deep fried.
My favorite, though was the smoothie from Jamba Juice. When you hear smoothie you probably think it's healthy, right? That's how they're marketed after all. But this smoothie from Jamba Juice had 900 calories, with 160g of sugar! That's unbelievable!
By the way, those two I just gave you were the "best of the worst". There were plenty with upwards of 1500 and 2000 calories. That's how many calories many people should be consuming in an entire day if they want to lose fat and these entrees (or some appetizers) have them in one shot.
Hearing numbers like that it should be no surprise to anyone that we have an obesity epidemic in this country. We simply eat too much, or don't pay any attention to what's going in our mouths, and don't notice until it's wound up as gooey fat sitting on our gut, butt or thighs.
You should be wary of any meal when dining out. I'm not saying that you shouldn't go out to eat. Quite the contrary. I think it's necessary that we get out of the house and frequent restaurants. I'd go crazy and get cabin fever if I didn't get out of the house and eat at restaurants. What I am saying is that you need to understand that many meals and drinks are not prepared with the idea that they're going to keep your waist line in check.
They are made to taste as good and but as cheaply as possible because restaurants need to make money, after all. So in order to make many foods taste better, they are fried, saut'ed, or otherwise prepared to increase the fat, because fat makes food taste better, or are smothered in sugar and fat loaded creams and sauces.
So here are a couple tips to watch out for when dining out.
First, avoid the appetizer. Appetizers are usually loaded with fat, and this includes the veggie dishes because they come with some sort of dipping sauce.
Next, avoid anything fried, saut'ed or cooked in some sort of sauce. It may sound healthy because it's salmon or chicken or vegetarian, but if it's fried, saut'ed or cooked in sauce, it's high in fat and loaded with calories.
Last, if you've decided that you're going to eat poorly when you're eating in a restaurant, at least get a half order. The proportions on full orders are so out of whack they could feed an entire village in some starving country. So do yourself a favor and just ask for a half order, or split it with whomever you're dining.
Another easy thing to do is to take a drink of water between every bite. Water will fill you up a little faster, which means you won't be able to eat as much, which means you won't store as much fat.
I hope I've enlightened you a little bit, and will begin to eat a little more consciously when you're out and about.
Copyright (c) 2008 Ed Scow
What is the goal of a fat loser?
'To burn as many calories during the workout and raise the metabolism after your training session'.
How does the idea of raising the metabolism for up to 36 hours sound?
Well this becomes possible when we introduce weights into our training programme.
If we really want to speed our metabolism for an extra day and a half and I'm guessing if you're reading this article you do. Then we need to involve as many muscles in our exercise or workout as we can.
This is exactly what happens when you train with free weights and/or you train more functionally when using what I call the 600 muscle rule.
Our body has over 600 muscles, if we can actively stimulate as many of those muscles as possible within one exercise, we will naturally stimulate and raise our metabolic rate. What I mean by functional exercise is the use of free weights whilst exercising on your feet. Immediately, this brings more stabilizing muscles such as the glutes (bum) and core muscles. Just by involving these muscle alone, we increase and stimulate our metabolism.
Something else we produce when performing this kind exercise is something called EPOC (Excessive Post Oxygen Consumption) meaning that our body has to work harder to produce more oxygen to recover. This is where we are able to raise the metabolism for up to 36 hours after exercise and where weights play a vital part in fat loss.
To get the full effect of EPOC, weights play an essential part to making our muscles work harder. We can turn our everyday exercises such as the squat, lunge and step up into a more intense exercise by adding weight that we can do for no more than 12 repetitions.
Now this is pretty much common sense and the out come will be more muscle meaning increased calorific expenditure and increased metabolism. The body actually burns approximately 50 calories extra!
What may often happen is a litlle too much growth, only on a few women who have higher levels of testosterone. I'm not going to go into the science of why this happens but this is where we need a more even balance of exercise routines which you will get in part 4. So don't panic too much.
So with a combination of strength exercise to increase lean muscle whilst at the same time reducing the amount of aerobic exercise and instead focusing on higher intensity cardiovascular exercise. We already have a better idea of personal programme design for us to achieve maximum results for fat loss.
The great thing about this whole programme is by adding one more exercise routine, we are able to slow down the muscle growth whilst increasing muscle firmness. But you'll have to read part 3 for that kind of information.
Both Ed Scow & Kevin Raison are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Ed Scow has sinced written about articles on various topics from Fitness, Fat Loss and belly fat. Ed Scow's fast, time efficient fat loss workouts have helped busy men and women lose fat faster than they ever could have imagined. Ed's workouts can be done in the comfort of your own home with limited equipment in as little as 15-20 minutes! To learn mo. Ed Scow's top article generates over 60500 views. to your Favourites.
Kevin Raison has sinced written about articles on various topics from Fitness, weight loss secret and Fitness. Kevin Raison fast becoming the UK's top weight loss specialist. Having worked as a senior coach at Dax Moys personal training studios, Kevin now runs his very own personal training studios in the midlands. You can visit Kevin at. Kevin Raison's top article generates over 3600 views. to your Favourites.