Belly Fat Loser

You'll have to lay off the giganto burgers, because the latest research ha discovered that fast weight loss is best. Okay, at least order them with no mayo.

Have you ever wondered weather losing weight slowly of fast makes a difference? Well, some researchers at the University of Florida shared your curiosity. Having the brains and the resources to get their question answered, they designed a study to do just that. The study was part of the Treatment of Obesity in Underserved Rural Settings (TOURS) research project, and was conducted by Nackers LM et al.

Their weight loss study examined 262 test subjects. Some were put on fast weight loss diets, while the others were divided into medium and slow weight loss groups. For 6 months the subjects, primarily obese women in their 30′s and 40′s, followed a regimen of increased physical activity and diets designed to have them lose weight at varying rates.

Does the Rate of Initial Weight Loss Make A Difference in Long Term Success?
The goal of the research was to determine weather the initial rate of weight loss had any impact on the total amount of weight lost, or long term success at losing weight and keeping it off. The initial results of those on the fast weigh loss diets are promising. The UF scientists determined that the women in the rapid weigh loss group (>1.5lbs weight loss per week) not only lost more weight throughout the course of the study, but they were more likely to keep the weight off long term.

Just How Much Better Does Fast Weight Loss Work?
Just how much more effective was the fast weight loss at getting the women to lose 10% of their body weight? The subjects in the fast group were an astounding 5 times more effective at losing the weight and keeping it off. It seems that every little bit of speed helps when you’re talking weight loss, because the medium speed group was a still impressive 3 times more likely to achieve positive results.

Results of the Study:
The researchers were overwhelmingly positive about the outcome of the study. In fact, their conclusions sound like a commercial for something:
“Our study provides further evidence that, within the context of lifestyle treatment, losing weight at a fast initial rate leads to greater short-term weight reductions, does not result in increased susceptibility to weight regain, and is associated with larger weight losses and overall long-term success in weight management “ They went on to say that it is extremely important to strive for initial rapid weight loss, because the odds of long term success are so much greater.

Seems like faster is better, at least when it cones to weight loss.

You want to be built like this guy? Great! Start lifting weights on a high intensity training program, but that's not all, you'll ahve to know how many calories you're eating every day if you want to be ripped like this, so start counting.

One of the things that people with a few extra pounds hanging around their waist want to know is how to lose weight fast, as if they can just do this or that and watch the pounds fall away in a couple of days. While that would be great, it all comes down to the age old battle: calories in vs. calories out. The trouble is that few people have any sort of accurate idea about how many calories are really going in.

Although counting calories is listed as one of the things you must do my some weight loss sources, and a total waste of time by others, the fact remains that you do really need to know how many calories you’re eating every day. Although you’ll get a pretty good gut feeling for this at some point, initially you’ll have to breakout the calorie calculator and keep track of things for a while.

An article today in the Daily Express, out of the UK reveals what we knew all the time, you’ve got a much smaller chance of losing weight if you don’t know how many calories you’re eating.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/175528/Fat-chance-of-losing-weight-if-dieters-don-t-count-up-calories

According to the study, an amazing 91% of dieters don’t weight their portion size. I posted about this in my post A Quick Weight Loss Tip some months back, and how the inconsistency can totally derail your weight loss efforts, even though you think you’re doing everything right.

Anyone can strap on a set of pads, but if you have skinny arms and a gut like this guy, a little mohawk ain't gonna save you. You're going to get crushed out on the field.

Football is one tough sport. It requires a mixture of speed, agility, and strength like no other. You’ll find world class sprinters on the field with some of the world’s strongest men, that also happen to be fleet of foot and more agile than any 320lb individual has a right to be. The collisions are, in the words of an NFL Pro Bowl strong safety I was talking with (who definitely should know) “Like being in a car crash.”

If you’re trying to get ready for the season, or if you just want to look like you could play, here is a football workout that can take you there. Strength and conditioning is key, and there is no sense in waiting for the season  to improve yours.

Football is all about explosive power. To that end, you’ll need to exercise the lifts explosively. It makes sense, really. Since football requires explosive power, you’ll have to workout accordingly. In almost any athletic event, most of your power comes from your hips and legs and is transferred through your abdominal region, so that will have to be strong as well.

Here is the football workout that can take you where you want to go, if you have the balls to get there.

Remember, always go hard, a little bit of puking never hurt anybody! You can get knocked on your ass or be the one doing the knocking, it’s up to how hard you work out.

Thoroughly warm up – Do about 5 minutes of light work on a bike or treadmill, and do a couple of high rep / light weigh sets for a body part before you begin the main workout.

Day 1 -
Weight room:
Power Cleans – Power cleans are one of the best overall power builders. They hit almost every muscle and give you the strength to fight through blocks or flatten tacklers.
6 sets of 6 – 8 reps

Squats – Someone once said “You ain’t done nothin’ if you ain’t been squattin’” It was back in the ’70′s, and I don’t remember who it was, but they were right on the money. Squats suck, they hurt, and they feel oppressive, but the fact remains that they will give you lower body power like almost nothing else can. Do squats right after power cleans for a real burn. Concentrate on being explosive, and squats will give you the power to get out of your stance and off the line.
4 sets of 6 -  10 reps

Overhead Dumbbell Presses -
A few sets of overhead dumbbell presses will finish off for the shoulders what power cleans started. These are better for leaving your shoulder joints intact than using a barbell for

You've got to carry the iron if you're going to get into shape for football, only you don't have to take it as literally as this guy!

overhead presses. Great for delts and traps, with a nice bit of work for your triceps thrown in, too.
4 sets of 6 – 10 reps

Upright Dumbbell rows
Overhead rows are one of the best upper body strength building exercises around. Unfortunately, doing these things with a bar can lead to all sorts of shoulder problems down the road. One way to avoid shoulder problems is to switch from using a bar to dumbbells. That’s pretty common for overhead press exercises, but less so for upright rows. If you’ve never thought about using dumbbells for them, grab a set the next time you’re doing shoulders.

These are very beneficial for football because they add strength and size to your entire neck and shoulder region, with strong secondary stress on the forearms and biceps for good measure.
3 sets of 8 – 10 reps

Day 2
Abs, obliques, and agility.

All the power in your body flows through your core. In addition, there is nothing to keep your guts from falling our except your abdominal muscles. Your performance on the field will suffer if you don’t suffer through 3 or 4 brutal ab and oblique workouts each week. Start now and you’ll be ready for 2-a-days at the end of summer. I have a link at the end of this post for the most scientifically effective ab and oblique workout.

Speed and Agility Drills –
Do any two of these drills each day 2, day 4, and day 6 workout. Mix them up and do not use the same two every day.

10-20-30-40-30-20-10 shuttle run –
This thing is absolutely brutal if you go all out, and really what other way is there? Remember, there is always someone trying to take your spot. If you want them to get all your playing time, just slack off a bit.

These shuttle runs will help your endurance, quickness, and agility. Start at the goal line and sprint to the 10 yard line, touch it, and sprint back to the goal line. Touch the goal line and then sprint to the 20, touch it and return to the goal line. Repeat this for the 30 and 40 yard line, then do the 30, 20, and 10 yard sprints over again. When you’re done, you will have sprinted
320 yards. The turning and starting and stopping helps out your quickness, and the sprinting helps your speed and endurance. Do not run low and bent over just to be able to touch the yard markers more quickly and improve your time. This isn’t about your time, it’s about improving your football skills. Run more upright, then get down to touch the line.

Wait about 1 minute, then do another set. Do at least 3 sets of shuttles, but preferably 5.

Cut Drill
Start out at the goal line. Run to the 5 and cut to the sidelines, sprint 5 yards, then cut up field and sprint toward the far end zone for 20 yards.
Do 10 of these, and alternate the direction of your first cut.

Hill sprints
Sorry for all of you who live in Kansas or New York City, but for the rest of you, these are great for boosting speed. Do 10 sprints up a moderately steep, grass covered hill. Make each sprint 30 – 40 yards. You may have to look some to find it, but it will be worth it. Every few workouts, do about 5 of these while running backwards.

Cone Drill
Place cones at irregular intervals over the length of about 30 yards and run a slalom course through them. At the end, touch the ground, turn around, and run back through the course.
5  – 7 reps

Day 3
Weight Room

Shrugs
On thing football players need is a big, strong neck. Shrugs will develop your traps and help keep your head where is belongs; on your shoulders and in the game. Start with your arms at

Nothing like shrugs for getting rid of the ole' pencil neck!

the front of your chest and pull your shoulders as far as possible up towards your ears, then roll your shoulders back and lower the weight. Although this is often thought of as a shoulder exercise, shrugs mainly work the trapezius muscle, which is really part of your back.
Use fairly heavy weights so you can do only  6 – 8 reps.

Wide grip pull ups – bar in front.
These are a tremendous upper body power builder. Pull your body up without doing any kind of contortions or leg swinging, so the bar hits your upper chest. Don’t do these behind the neck, it puts your shoulders at a mechanical disadvantage and can cause all kinds of shoulder problems. You’ll get enough of those on the field, no sense in getting them in the weight room.
3 sets of as many as you can. If you get to 12 reps with great form, start adding weight. You’ll look pretty impressive doing wide grip pullups with a 45 hanging off your waist.

Seated rows
These are a great back builder and they help add power to your entire back, upper and lower. Lean forward at the beginning of the movement, then straighten up to vertical as you pull the weight in toward your chest. Make sure you pull your shoulder blades all the way back at the end of the contraction phase.  Your hands should end up between your belly button and your waist, not up at your chest, or you’re doing too much with your biceps, and giving your back a pass.
3 sets of 10

Flat bench press
Okay here it is, the weight room staple you’ve all been waiting for. It is one of the best upper body power exercises you can find, and one of the top 3 weight exercises I’d recommend if

The bench press is one of the best upper body power exercises ever, and great for football.

you had to do only 3. (the other 2 being  the power clean and squat) Using dumbbells contributes to overall strength better than using a bar because of all the stabilizing muscles it uses in addition to the main targets; the pectorals, deltoids and triceps. Using dumbbells can help prevent injuries as well, or let you bench if you’ve got shoulder problems already.

If you’re in college the fact remains that you’ll probably be tested on the pro bench at some point, so you should use the bar on occasion just to see how many times you can blast out 225.

This is one exercise where explosive counts more than almost any other. Go down slow (about 2 – 3 seconds down, pause for 1 second with tension on your muscles, then blast out the rep as powerfully as you can. Use a spotter to get at least 1 forced rep, but have them help as little as possible)

Occasionally use a declining weight scheme, where you’ll do a set of 10, then on the next set you’ll add weight and go down to 8 reps, add weight and do a set of  6 reps, add weight and go to 4 reps, then add weight and do a set of 2 reps. Weight about 60 – 90 seconds between sets. Do this instead of the standard 4 set bench workout about every 4th – 6th bench workout.

4 sets of 6 reps

Incline dumbbell bench press
Everything I said for the flat bench press holds true for the incline press, except for the part about the pro bench, they don’t test using the incline. The incline press shifts emphasis off the pectorals somewhat, and places it more on the upper pectorals, deltoids and triceps. Another fantastic upper body power exercise for football. Think about it’s applications for blocking and getting past O-linemen.

Do 4 reps for these the same way you did them for the flat bench press, and once in while change to the declining weight scheme as well.

Lying tricep extensions
Lie on your back with a dumbbell in each hand and your upper arm toward your head so it is at about 80 degrees of elevation, instead of keeping them completely vertical. Angling your arms slightly off vertical keeps tension on the triceps and works the long head of the triceps muscle more efficiently. Lower the weights to each side of your head. Without letting your upper arm move at all, lift the weight back to the starting position. Your arms should be straight at the beginning and end of the movement.
4 sets of 8 reps

Dips
Dips are one of the best all around upper body exercises. They’ll blast your chest shoulders, and triceps like almost nothing else. If you start to be able to do them for more than about 12 reps, just add some weight. Be careful about doing them too fast, as they can be a recipe for shoulder problems., Great for giving you the power to shed blockers as you go around to get the QB.
3 sets of 8 – 12 reps

Dumbbell curls

Curls help the biceps, which are important in football for many things, including holding on to the ball when people are trying to rip it from your hands, and tackling, although many players rely too much on their arms to tackle, especially at the high school andcollege levels.

One thing that is very effective at increasing biceps development and adding grip strength is to start with your palms facing the body, then rotate them so they are facing up as you finish the curl. Rotate them back again as you lower the weight.
4 sets of 6 – 8 reps.

Machine preacher curls
Preacher curls put a pad under your upper arms to isolate the biceps. Using a machine allows resistance to still be highnear the end of the rep, whereas using a weight would make the resistance near the completion of the rep fall off, due to the angle of the movement compared to vertical, where gravity acts upon the weight the most. These are fantastic for increasing biceps strength and size. No only will they help your play on the field, they’ll make your arms look impressive sticking out of your jersey this fall.

Day 4 – Repeat Day 2

Day 5 – Day Off

After the 5th day,start back on day 1 Again. Repeat as necessary, or until you’re starting.

If you start on these now, you’ll be a force when 2 a day’s come around in August. Maybe you’ll be able to finally get that starting spot, or keep it from that upstart junior whose been nipping at your heels. Weather you’re playing football, or want to lose fat and bulk up a bit so you’ll look like you do, this workout will get you in top shape.

To make sure your abs and obliques are up to the task, see my post on the best ab workout from a few months ago. It’s unlike anything else you’ve done for abs, and even better, it is  lab proven by a major university. Your 6-pack will be happy you did!

Shoulder pain can derail your workout and fat loss program in a hurry. Pain in the outer shoulder area, like this, often means a dreaded rotator cuff injury.

If you’ve been working out for any length of time, there is a great chance you’ve experienced shoulder pain. Almost everybody has. After all, the shoulder joint is complex and you use it pretty much every time you do any upper body exercise. To top it off, many of the exercises we do are wrong in terms of how they effect the shoulder joint, and cause considerable pain if continued. Here are some of the causes of shoulder pain and how you can get relief from it.

In addition to relief from your shoulder pain, you’ll also be happy to discover that some of the cures for shoulder pain will also increase the weight you can use on some of your lifts. Number one among lifts that can be helped by curing shoulder pain is the bench press. That is the number one bragging exercise among guys (typically) in the gym, so adding an extra 20 pounds or so to it is always a welcome development. You don’t see too many guys bragging that they just added 20 lbs to their calf raises.

One of the primary causes of shoulder pain is due to some smaller muscles that help hold the shoulder joint in place. The best known of these is probably the group of 4 muscles and tendons called the rotator cuff. These are responsible for stabilizing the shoulder joint and helping to keep it from popping out of place under the stress of doing what the shoulder does.

The 4 muscles that make up the rotator cuff are the teres minor, supraspinatus, infraspinatus, and subscapularis muscles. Now you know why they are referred to by one name. All that takes too long to say.

What is a rotator cuff tear?
A rotator cuff tear happens when the tendons at the ends of one or more of these muscles is torn. This can happen from a massive injury or through repetitive motion. Although baseball players made this injury famous, it happens to many other athletes, such as tennis players, boxers, quarterbacks, volleyball players, and water polo players. Hell, even orchestra conductors and house framers can get this!

I’ve torn both of mine in skiing accidents (different times). It hurts, but the worst part is that it keeps you from training for an extended period, wasting much of the hard work you put in before the injury happened. I was pretty pissed off when I could do almost no chest or shoulder exercises for the better part of a year. It stymies progress.

What else can happen to the rotator cuff?
The other common injury that causes shoulder pain is rotator cuff impingement. Impingement is when the tendons of the rotator cuff get pinched from overhead movement. They and the lubricating membranes, called bursa sacs, become inflamed and possibly damaged.

Basically, the movement of the shoulder joint causes everything to bind up. The supraspinatus tendon goes right under the acromion bone at the top of your shoulder and sometimes there just isn’t enough room for all this to happen, so things get bound up and internal swelling occurs, causing pain.

How can I get relief from my shoulder pain?
The good news is that, if things aren’t totally torn up in there, you can often heal on your own through the use of special exercises, and carefully tailoring your exercise program to avoid certain movements. The key is to strengthen the rotator cuff muscles. They are relatively weak compared to the deltoid muscles and other surrounding muscles, so they can easily be placed in a situation where they just aren’t strong enough to carry the load imposed on them by the weights you’re lifting.

One way to help alleviate your pain is to change the exercises you do. The barbell bench press can really make your shoulders hurt. I’ve had to stop doing them at times because the pain was too intense. You can switch to other exercises that don’t put as much stress on the rotator cuff and other sensitive shoulder areas. For example one thing to try is getting away from barbells altogether and using only dumbbells.

Many experts recommend this strategy because it allows for a greater range of motion and doesn’t cause the shoulders to bind up so badly. I have consulted elite level, professional athletes on this and they agree. In addition, it is sometimes beneficial to use the smith machine, because it helps stabilize the weight and keeps it from moving out of the grove, which can cause you to employ stabilizing muscles in an attempt to regain control.

Special Exercises to Help Shoulder Pain
There are exercise that are very effective at strengthening the rotator cuff and other small, stabilizing shoulder joint muscles. If you have experienced a massive tear, you’ll have to wait until you’ve healed. It is a great idea to do some stabilizing muscle strengthening exercises as a preventative measure. As an added bonus, it will usually give you an increase in your bench press poundages.

You’ll need an elastic band, weight pulley machine, or piece of surgical tube to provide resistance for these. I am explaining it with dumbbells as resistance, but you can stand up and use elastic or pulleys just as well.

1)    Grab a dumbbell.
2)    Lie down with your arm on top of your body extending down toward your feet.
3)    Bring your forearm up so that your arm is at a 90 degree angle.
4)    Rotate your upper arm so that you raise the weight in an arc from touching your stomach to about 45 degrees elevation. You only have to use light weight for this. 5 – 15 lbs usually does the trick. Repeat for 10 – 12 reps.

This kind of exercise can often strengthen your rotator cuff and keep you from wanting to scream every time you reach over to grab your jacket.

You can do the same exercise, but in reverse, using the arm that is on the bottom.

Hopefully these exercise will help relieve your shoulder pain by strengthening your rotator cuff. See a physician before you start anything like this to prevent from aggravating an injury further.

You can take a non-steroidal anti-inflamatory, like ibuprofen or naproxen sodium. That often relieves the pain and reduces internal inflammation. Don’t use this as a long term therapy however. Long term use or large dosages can have harmful effects on your internal organs. It can also mask problems minor and cause you to over do it, turning them into major ones.

Another remedy for shoulder problems is to go under the knife, although in this day and age, it often means the laser.

Hopefully you’ve managed to avoid major shoulder problems. Since they are used with almost every upper body movement a shoulder injury can really throw a wrench in your plans to exercise, and lose fat or build muscle. The proper shoulder pain relief strategy can get you back on track again.

Here is a great shake you can make in the morning that will get you started on the right foot. It will power your body with nutrients for the day, and keep you going without making you feel heavy. It will get your metabolism going so you burn fat from the beginning. It’s also full of antioxidants and anti-inflamatories that help repair and protect your body tissues. A shake like this every morning for breakfast can really help you lose fat and gain muscle.

Maybe the best part is that it is really filling so that you feel full, but there are not that many calories  when you consider you are getting a full, nutritious breakfast.

¼ cup flax seed meal                            70 calories
½ cup blueberries                                  42 calories
medium sized apple (cored)               95 calories
heaping scoop of  whey protein        80 calories
½ cup green tea                                         0 calories
cup of low fat, no sugar vanilla yogurt    90 calories
fill blender with 2 – 3 cups of ice

Total breakfast  shake calories – 377.

Why do these ingredients make the perfect breakfast shake?

Apples have been proven to help get you going in the morning, in addition to providing you with healthy nutrition and fiber. The protein and green tea kick start your metabolism and help you begin burning fat straight away. Yogurt gives you the dairy sourced calcium that has been shown in numerous studies to help build muscle and burn fat. The ice helps hydrate you,  increases your metabolism, and makes you feel full. Blueberries and green tea are both loaded with powerful antioxidants to help fight off tissue damage. The flax seed meal is a fantastic source of omega-3 fatty acids, protein, and fiber, and salmon would taste like crap in a breakfast shake.

Here is the ROM, the world's most expensive exercise machine. If you paid for your workouts at your hourly rate, it may pay for itself sooner than you'd think. Then again, almost 15 large is a ton of money.

What is the world’s most expensive exercise machine, how does it work, and how much does the darn thing cost? Most important among the questions you’re probably asking is “Does it really work?” After all, if you’re paying a robust $14,615 for the darn thing, your overriding concern is weather or not you are getting what you’re paying for.

Well, the most expensive exercise machine in the world is the Range of Motion, typically called the ROM – It’s billed as The 4 Minute Cross Trainer. The ROM is built by a man named Alf Temme. You might have seen it advertised in magazines targeted at the wealthy (naturally), and airline passengers. That’s where I first saw it.

The two things that struck me about it were the outrageous price, and the claim that it could give you a complete body workout in only 4 short minutes. Well, my first thought was “You’ve got to be flippin’ crazy!”

Now I’ll be the first to admit that I have not gotten the opportunity to try the ROM for myself, but reports from the field are that it does work, and very nicely indeed. It damn well should, not only because it is so expensive, but because anyone that can afford $15,000 for an exercise machine can also afford a damn good lawyer, and probably has one on retainer. If you were peddling crap at that price point, you’d find yourself on the sharp end of a lawsuit in about the same 4 minutes that it takes to complete on of the machine’s workouts.

Alf has been selling these radical exercise machines for about 20 years now. That is another reason that you can tell these machines are for real. If they were garbage, the company would have faded away a long time ago. Indeed, they do not even do a persistent marketing job on it, instead relying on word of mouth and mailing out a demo DVD. Hell, they don’t even call you to follow up after they send the DVD. That would typically be a big marketing no-no, that even beginning marketing students would recognize.

Their other marketing method consists of letting people rent the machine for a 30 day trial period. The hope is that after the 30 days is up, the people are so thrilled with it that they’ll commit to a purchase. Of course, the other option might be that they may be to embarrassed to admit they just coughed up $1,500 to rent the thing for a month.

The radical machine has been featured in many magazines, and has even garnered a Popular Science  award shortly after it’s introduction. Gyms featuring the machine have been slowly popping up around the country, so if you have one in your area, you can pop in for 5 minutes and get your workout over with. Now you are only going to be able to burn so many calories in 4 minutes, but this machine enables you to recruit so many more muscles in the 4 minutes than you otherwise would, it’s like working out for much longer.

If there is a ROM gym in your area, you can probably be a member there for a good, long time before you’d get to $14,615. If it is close to your house, you’ll probably be able to drive there, work out, and drive home in less time than it would take you to get through your traditional workout. Or, I suppose, you could run there, do a few quick sets of bench presses and squats, then run home. Either way, you’ll get your workout.

You know that exercise and physical activity will speed your metabolism, but what about the foods you eat? Are there foods that will actually speed up your metabolism? Yes, and some will more than others, but remember that it is no magic bullet.

Here is one of the big secrets to weight loss, except that it isn’t really such a secret:Your metabolism, or more correctly, your metabolic rate, is one of the primary factors that will influence weather you lose weight or not. One of the keys to speeding your metabolism is the foods you eat and when you eat them. Here are some foods that can actually help speed metabolism and help you lose weight. Actually, any food you eat will cause your metabolism to increase, but some are better than others at increasing metabolism while packing a minimum of calories..

I’ve mentioned frequently that it is easier to lose weight when you eat 4 – 6 smaller meals, spread throughout the day because it lets you body absorb nutrients more effectively. Another reason to eat more frequently is that when you eat your metabolic rate rises. Eating more frequently also helps keep your blood sugar levels more consistent, which can make you less likely to store fat.

Please note that if you eat more calories than you take in, you will still gain weight, no matter how or what you eat. The trick is to make you body use more calories, and get all the nutrients you need out of the foods you eat, so you can eat as little as possible, yet still provide your body with the nourishment it needs. This is especially true if you are playing sports on a regular basis or involved in an intense exercise program. In that case, your body needs to be fueled correctly.

Foods That Speed Metabolism and Help You Lose Weight:

Eggs – These protein packed marvels have been in the news lately, because it has been discovered that you do not have to throw away the yolk in order to eat healthy, as we have been taught for the past 4 decades. The yolks are more caloric, so if you are trying to cut calories, no downing a dozen eggs at a sitting, but eggs are really a wonder food.

Why do eggs work so well at speeding up your metabolism? Well, one reason is that they are packed with vitamin B12 and protein. B12 is essential to metabolize fatty acids and form red blood cells. If you are eating a vegan diet, it is absolutely essential that you supplement your diet with B12, because although many plant sources contain B12, it is normally biologically unavailable to humans. It’s kind of like how we can eat trees, but not digest the wood, and so it is with plant B12. Eggs, however are an excellent source of the stuff, one of the best to be found in nature.

A controlled study published in 2008 in the Journal Nutrition and Metabolism also reported that eggs modulate the inflammatory response in people eating low carbohydrate diets. Such diets are widely used, and are very effective for weight loss purposes. The study also reported that the egg eating group lost fat (both total body fat and belly fat were measured, and both showed a decrease) compared to the control group, and experienced decreased insulin resistance as well.

Green Tea – Green tea has experienced a surge in popularity in the last few years, now finding it’s way into all manner of weight  and fat loss products. Several studies have positively linked the consumption on green tea with fat loss. One of the main reasons that green tea is a metabolic booster is the caffeine it contains.  In addition, green tea is mildly thermogenic, and it’s thermogenic effect is not related to it’s caffeine content. Some of those however, had the subjects drinking upwards of 4 cups per day. This can be a problem for people with a caffeine sensitivity. It’s is effective, and it is also pretty darn affordable, unlike some of the supplements containing it.

Green tea is also loaded with powerful antioxidants called polyphenols, and has been shown to promote overall health, and potentially decrease diseases such as cancer.

Coconut oil – One thing that is not typically known about oft touted “healthy” oils such as canola, is that they aren’t as healthy as they’ve been portrayed. Indeed, some researchers have noted damaging effects to the heart from Coconut oil. Canola is derived from rapeseed oil, which has demonstrated toxicity to humans. A 1997 Canadian study of canola oil on pigs showed that it harmed the pigs, partially by depleting vitamin E to extremely low levels. In addition, cooking canbola oil causes oxidation, yet few are cold processed. Researching this stuff was a bit frightening, especially for something that has been touted for it’s health benefits. I think I’ll have to do a post on canola oil soon.

Virgin coconut oil is not as widely used as are vegetable and canola oil, but it has substantial benefits for weight and fat loss. Part of the problem with the decline of coconut oil’s popularity is that it contains saturated fat, which has been vilified in the press, in part due to an organized campaign, from, you guessed it, canola oil manufacturers. Some researchers theorize that coconut oil is an antioxidant, whereas other oils tend to oxidize fairly rapidly. Many signs of aging have been linked to lipid peroxidation. Substituting coconut oil for other cooking oils largely eliminates this problem.

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that coconut oil speeds metabolism and helps people lose weight. That’s very well and good, but are there any reports from actual researchers, or better yet, double blind research studies on it?

The power of coconut oil comes form the fact that it contains medium chain triglycerides, abbreviated as MCTs. Vegetable oils, on the other hand, contain primarily long chain triglycerides, or LCTs. LCTs have a greater propensity to be stored in the body as fat. MCTs, on the other hand, are more likely to burned as an energy source.

One study demonstrating this was conducted in 1989 at Vanderbuilt University Department of Pediatrics. This study revealed according to researchers “Our results demonstrate that excess dietary energy as MCT stimulates thermogenesis to a greater degree than does excess energy as LCT. This increased energy expenditure, most likely due to lipogenesis in the liver, provides evidence that excess energy derived from MCT is stored with a lesser efficiency than is excess energy derived from dietary LCT.”

McGill University, noted for it’s research on sports medicine, exercise physiology, and diet, also conducted a study on body composition, energy expenditure, substrate oxidation, subjective appetite, and ad libitum energy intake, and how they were effected by the amount of MCTs and LCTs on the diet. The McGill study, again, showed that, in the researcher’s words: “Consumption of a diet rich in MCTs results in greater loss of AT compared with LCTs, perhaps due to increased energy expenditure and fat oxidation observed with MCT intake. Thus, MCTs may be considered as agents that aid in the prevention of obesity or potentially stimulate weight loss.”

Dr. Jon Kabara, a professor at Michigan State University for over 20 years, who researched lipids and their relation to health, noted that “Never before in the history of man is it so important to emphasize the value of Lauric Oils. The medium-chain fats in coconut oil are similar to fats in mother’s milk and have similar nutriceutical effects. These health effects were recognized centuries ago in Ayurvedic medicine. Modern research has now found a common link between these two natural health products—-their fat or lipid content. The medium chain fatty acids and monoglycerides found primarily in coconut oil and mother’s milk have miraculous healing power.”

Another reason for the effectiveness coconut oil has shown for weight loss is derived form the fact the the MCTs it contains behave differently in the body than do other fats. Instead of circulating in our bloodstream as lipo-proteins,  MCTs are delivered to your liver for use as energy. That is the kind of behavior we need from our fats. In fact, coconut oil will speed metabolism even more than protein! That’s pretty darn powerful, and I think I am going to add more of it to my diet right now. I’ll report back soon.

Cold Water – It doesn’t get much simpler than this, but drinking cold water will definitely speed your metabolism. That is because your body has to get the water up to body temperature, and that takes energy. Since water has zero calories, the energy it takes has to come from somewhere else.

Water also helps your body burn fat in other ways besides the metabolic rate increase it causes. For example, water keeps your body hydrated so that the liver can put it’s effort to metabolizing fat. If you are dehydrated the liver will instead shift to helping the kidneys pull toxins from the body. The kidneys need copious quantities of good old H2O in order to operate correctly. If they don’t get it, your liver steps in to help, distracting it from it’s fat burning function.

Another bonus for water; you can’t beat the price!

Protein powder – Protein supplementation will help keep your metabolism rockin’ along. Don’t over do it. Stick to the recommended amount (See my post on How Much Protein do I Need to Lose Weight?) A 2007 double blind, randomized study performed at the Minnesota Applied Research Center demonstrated that whey protein supplementation can help burn fat and spare lean muscle.

Subjects were weighed and measured like horses at an auction, then their tissue composition was determined using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). This is a very accurate method to determine body composition. The subjects reduced their calories 500 calories per day, and one of the groups added the protein supplements to bring their diet to about ¾ gr protien per kilo of body weight, while the other had a placebo.

The weight loss between the two groups was marginally greater for the protein group. What was not marginally greater was the fat loss experienced by the subjects. The protein supplementation group lost 80% more body fat than the group who was not taking extra protein.

The study also found that whey protein influenced hormones that affect metabolism and weight loss.

Cayenne Pepper - Another food that has been shown to cause a mild metabolic increase is cayenne pepper. Add some spice to your diet while you kick your metabolism in the rear.

All foods speed metabolism due to the thermogenic effect caused by the food itself. This can be maximized by carefully choosing the foods you eat. Always remember that you have to burn more calories than you take in to lose weight. You can only increase your metabolism so much by changing your diet.

Getting school kids to eat right from an early age could help them develop nutritional habits that would serve them well for life, but what about the kids that don't eat school lunches? Are they going to police brown bag lunches too?

Proposed changes to federal legislation governing school lunch programs, the Child Nutrition Act,  would put them under the direct control of the FDA. While this represents a broad expansion of federal government power into an area traditionally the province of state and local governments, it could help the nation’s children eat a more balanced diet.

Increases in federal government control of previously local and state matters notwithstanding, many children today develop bad eating habits which they carry with them to adulthood. Why is much of America obese? In most cases it is because poor dietary habits lead to gradual increases in body weight. Although gaining a mere 5lbs a year doesn’t seem like much, in a decade or so you’re 50 lbs past fighting weight.

One thought on the proposed new federal school lunch standards is that just because the FDA is going to standardize school nutrition programs doesn’t necessarily mean that they will be better, although it is certainly possible. Take a look at the recently replaced food pyramid, with it’s preponderance of grain. If we had a lunch program based upon that, we would see much of the obesity trend continue.

Thankfully, the old pyramid has been replaced with a much better one, but one wonders what new problems may arise with any revised standards. I may be showing a bit of bias here, but it seems like whenever politicians and bureaucrats get involved in setting standards, it takes too long and one or more outside influences invariably play too great a role in some aspects of the final decision.

As I posted a few weeks ago, parents should take some responsibility in what their children eat, and the nutritional habits they develop, and not leave everything to Uncle Sam. The nutritional information is there for the taking, if they would only spend the little time it takes to learn about it. Get  kids started young, because it’s very tough to change poor eating habits once they’ve gained a foothold. Speaking from experience, it isn’t a fun battle to fight.

Solid nutritional standards for out nation’s youth? I’m all for it. Now, if we can only do something about all those PE programs that seem to be dropping by the wayside……..

You may have been going crazy with these and eating what you think is the perfect diet, yet seeing little or no results. Are you missing something? Maybe so, read on.....

One of the most common fat loss mistakes people make is they simply eat too much. Sure, they do everything that they read about here and other places; you know, eat small meals, only eat low glycemic index carbs, no carbs after dinner, plenty of protein and good fats in their diet, the whole gamut. They even exercise regularly.

I’ve known people like that myself. I knew this gal about 15 years ago who worked herself half to death in the gym, and ate a healthy diet, but couldn’t seem to lose that last 20 lbs, no matter what. Does this sound familiar?

Ultimately weight loss comes down to one thing and one thing only. You have to burn more calories in a day than you take in. Sure, it makes sense to increase the number f calories you use in a day, but you have to keep what is coming past your lips below that magic number, or you’ll never lose weight.

Why do some people have such a tough time doing that? It is because they are very poor at guestimating how many calories they’re eating each day. Really, it’s that simple. You have to know exactly how many calories you’re eating each day, and many people just can’t guess well enough to know with any accuracy what the true number is.

If that is you, and it probably is, there is only one option. You have to actually count calories for long enough to know how many calories you’re eating every day. Some people can merely take a stab at it and have an uncanny ability to hit the magic number right on the head. The rest of us, on the other hand, must count, for at least long enough to get a handle on things.

One of the best ways to discover how much your daily calorie intake is is by measuring your food. I’ve posted about this before, but simply eyeballing your portions isn’t accurate enough to let you know with any certainty your true portion size. Without that knowledge, you can not count calories very well.

Get a scale to use for measuring your daily portions. It will seem like a hassle at first, but after a short time, it will just be routine, and it really takes very little extra time; a heck of a lot less time than you’d be wasting working out and going on a diet for zero results.

Read the labels on the foods you eat, and for those foods without labels (the whole foods you should be eating the most of) you can find out how much calories are in a portion size and other nutritional data at http://www.nutritiondata.com.

So, for a few weeks at least, take the time to measure and count calories for your portions. You may surprised at how much you’re actually eating. Keep a diary of your daily meals. That is a very powerful technique that’s been proven to accelerate weight loss. You can get a basic notebook to keep track of what you eat each day. Most restaurants now have calories for each menu item posted right on the menu, or in a nutrition guide.  After a short while, you’ll get a pretty good handle at how much you should be eating each day, and the pounds will melt off like magic.

Cocoa, from which we make that wonderful treat known as chocolate, has some powerful properties, but is helping your health one of them?

Chocolate is one of the world’s favorite treats. It is especially popular in North America and Western Europe. Americans alone gobbled down over 3 billion pounds of chocolate last year, and yes, that is billion with a “B”. The most chocolate indulgers are the Swiss and Austrians, whose citizens average over 20lbs per person each year. Is that the secret to their skiing prowess?

That’s some pretty healthy chocolate consumption, but is chocolate actually bad for your health? Several studies indicate that it may actually be good for you. The latest was just published in the European Cardiology Society’s European Heart Journal two days ago. The roughly 8 year long study of German adults indicates that moderate chocolate consumption can have a positive effect on your cardiovascular health.

Study participants who consumed the most chocolate (an average of about 1/4oz per day) had the lowest risk of heart disease. The study concluded that “Chocolate consumption appears to lower CVD risk, in part through reducing BP. “ If only 1/4oz per day is the highest average chocolate consumption among those tested, it would seem that most study participants really aren’t chocolate lovers, are they?

An earlier study, published in the journal Hypertension in 2005, revealed much the same results. In that study, participants who ate a bar of dark chocolate every morning for two weeks had improved blood pressure measurements.

A few years before that, in 2002, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was being conducted by Mary Engler, PhD RN, a professor of physiological nursing at the University of Calfornia – San Francisco. It was published in the June, 2005 issue of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. This study too demonstrated that daily doses of dark chocolate, administered over a 2 week period, had a positive effect on cardio vascular health.

You know what these studies say to me? They say that it’s not too difficult to get people to sign up for a study where they get to eat chocolate every day.

Why does it work? Dark chocolate contains these cool, little plant derived things called flavonoids. Flavonoids are plant compounds that help protect the plants. Fortunately for us, they work their magic on humans, too. Flavonoids are strong antioxidants and happen to be found in significant quantities in cocoa powder. Dark chocolate is less refined than milk chocolate, so contains a far greater amount of flavonoids, which are all but eliminated by processing.

This is another reason to eat whole, minimally processed foods. If you can choke down pure, unsweetened cocoa powder, go for it! Most people however, can’t force themselves to eat pure cocoa powder, it’s just too bitter. The next best thing is a dark chocolate bar, which is less processed than milk chocolate bars.

Studies indicate that bars with at least 70% cocoa content are best for helping the cardio vascular system. It is difficult to find flavonoid quantities listed on labels. You will, however, find them on Dove Dark Chocolate bars, which have roughly 50-% more flavonoids than the bars used in the UCF study. The Dove Silky Smooth Dark Chocolate bar has 71% cocoa content, so it squeaks past the experts recommendations.

This doesn’t mean you should run out and start horking down chocolate. Remember that sugar is still the enemy of weight loss, and powering down the chocolate will add to your waistline. The aforementioned Dove bar is 200 calories, if you have ½ a bar every morning, you’ll get your flavonoids, but you’ll have to drop that 100 somewhere else. In addition, the bar has 10 grams of saturated fat, so eating one will cost you a lean sirloin burger somewhere down the line, too.

So, studies indicate that chocolate is not bad for your health. Have your chocolate, but make it dark, and try to hold yourself to ½ a bar per day.

A burrito from one of the fresh Mexican grills is my choice for the best tasting and healthiest fast food around, but you wouldn't want to order yours looking like this. Find out what else you can eat and how to order your burrito that will save your waistline.

It’s a fact of life today that too many people rely on a fast food diet to keep them going. The demands of time, screaming kids, and sometimes outright laziness,  get us going up to the drive through window way more often than is nutritionally prudent. What if I told you that you could maintain your fast food lifestyle, but live a healthier one as well? It’s true, you can do just that! Here are some healthy fast food choices that make it possible.

Healthy Fast Food Choice Numero Uno
If you read my post on Quick and Easy Weight Loss Tips earlier this month you will have already been introduced to my favorite healthy fast food, the fresh Mexican grill style burrito, preferably eaten naked (the burrito, not you). That means that you order the thing in a bowl, sans tortilla. Tortillas are made primarily from one of the banes of your existence if you are trying to lose weight, white flour. They are between 275 and 425 calories, depending on the size, so you can see how avoiding them will put quite a dent in your calorie count. While Qdoba calls the zero tortilla option “Naked”, Chipolte Mexican Grill prefers the more pedestrian term “burrito bowl”.

Why do I like the fresh Mexican grill as a place to get fast food? Well as the name implies, the ingredients are whole and fresh, plus they are cooked to drain off much of the saturated fat. The same can’t be said for many of the menu items found at your local Wendy’s or McDonald’s, can  it? That’s not to say those restaurants don’t have some healthy food choices too, and I’ll get to some of them in a minute. It wouldn’t mean much if the fresh Mex food didn’t taste fantastic, but oh, it does!

You can do some minor menu modifications to improve the health quotient even further when selecting your burrito. I already mentioned the wisdom of ordering it naked in such a way that won’t command stares from the other patrons. Something else you can do is to eliminate the scourge of white rice, by substituting beans. The food already comes with beans, but most places give you a choice of 3 different kinds; black, whole pinto, or re-fried. You can have both black and whole pinto beans instead of beans and rice.

At Chipolte Mexican Grill, you can get a burrito bowl, but at Q-doba, you can order it naked!

Another way to make your burrito even healthier is to forgo any kind of fatty sauce. One popular choice is queso sauce, but it is not on the weight loss plan, so go with pico de gillo or verde instead. They are much healthier choices and taste great. One more thing; when they ask if you want sour cream, just say no. The sour cream is about 120 calories, and loaded with saturated fat. Your waist line will thank you for it. About the only downside to any of these fresh Mex places is that they don’t have drive throughs.

Chipolte Mexican Grill uses naturally raised chicken and about 25% of their beans are organically grown. As an added bonus, Chipolte even has an ordering app for your i-Phone. Could it get any easier?

Healthy Fast Food Choice 2 – Sandwiches
Just because I love fresh mex burritos doesn’t mean you will, and besides, a little variety never hurt anyone. Maybe you could stop in and visit Jared’s place. After all, he lost hundreds of pounds eating Subway sandwiches, maybe you could lose a few pounds by eating there too. As with just about any food, making some judicious choices when they ask you what on it will go a long way toward determining the ultimate healthiness factor.

One bad thing about subs is that they have comparatively large amounts of bread, which is something that you should steer clear of if you’re trying to lose weight. You won’t be able to do that with a sub sandwich, so at least order the whole grain, instead of sourdough or white.

The meat you choose can make a big difference in the success of your weight loss program as well. For example, getting the 6 inch turkey breast sandwich instead of the chicken breast will have you downing only 280 calories, instead of 320. Tuna may be really healthy, but after you mix all the stuff with it that they use to make a sandwich, it is decidedly less so. The 6in tuna is a whopping 520 calories, almost twice (okay, so I took some liberties with the math on that one) what you’ll be eating by choosing the turkey breast. The tuna does have about 30% more protein than the turkey, however, but also about 6 times the saturated fat. Again, it’s not the tuna itself, but what goes in the mix with it that does that. Skip the 12in and get the 6in sandwiches, unless you’re going to save half for later, in which case it is a pretty good value if you choose one of the popular $5.00 foot longs.

Healthy Fast Food Choice 3 –  Salads from the drive through, but it’s all in how you tweak them.
Salads can be really good for you, but too many times, that’s not the way they come out of the drive through window. There are some relatively good for you fast food salads, and you can often tweak them to make them even better.

Case in point, the Wendy’s Mandarin Chicken® Salad with Grilled Chicken Fillet. Out of the chute, this treat has 540 calories, and 31 grams of sugar. Not quite as healthy as you thought, huh? With a few small changes, we can turn this salad around and make it much better for you and your weight loss program.

One simple substitution and a small deletion, and you’ll be on a much better path. First, substitute the oriental dressing that it comes with for some vinaigrette then lose the crispy noodles. The result of these changes is that your formerly 540 calorie delight now has only 430 calories. To top it off, it has only 19 grams of sugar, down from 31 grams.

Before you congratulate yourself too much however, take a look at what is in the chicken, besides the bird itself. How about sugar, disodium idosinate, disodium guanylate, dextrose, artificial flavors? Is there any room in there for the chicken? Whith all those disodiums in there, it’s no wonder that the salad contains more than a full gram of sodium, even with the two changes. Without them, there’d be even more.

Here is McDonald's Premium Southwest Salad. If you order it with grilled chicken, it passes for a healthy meal, and it doesn't tasdte half bad either

How does a different salad selection stack up against the Wendy’s contender? Looking at another popular choice, the McDonald’s Premium Southwest Salad with Grilled Chicken, this first thing that jumps out is that it has 100 calories less than the Wendy’s offering, at only 330. Saturated fat for the Mickey D’s salad is a fairly healthy 3 grams, and it has 30 grams of both carbs and protein. Protein wise, it’s about the same as the Wendy’s salad, which has 29grams. Only 11 grams of carbs come from sugars, however, so that it is probably a better choice for those of us trying to cut back on refined sugar and simple carbohydrates(and that should be everybody).

Healthy Fast Food Choice 4 – Grilled Chicken Sandwiches, but which ones?
You guessed it, it’s the ubiquitous chicken burger. Actually, a grilled chicken breast on a whole wheat bun isn’t half bad, either for you, or tasting. Don’t let them bamboozle you with one of those fried chicken breast patties. That doesn’t count as healthy fare, even though is is chicken. The deep frying and the breading kill any healthy aspirations it may have.

Just how healthy is an honest to goodness grilled chicken burger? Just about every restaurant has one, but not all of them come on whole wheat buns, which are a healthier choice than are the plain, white bread buns used by others.

One of the best is The Chargrilled Chicken Sandwich from Chick-fil-A. It sports a whole wheat bun and is only 300 calories with only half a gram of saturated fat! It complements that with 27 grams of protein and 33 grams of carbohydrates (10 of which is from sugars), courtesy of the bun, BBQ sauce and two tomato slices contained within. You can make these a staple of your diet, and if you leave off the BBQ sauce, you’ll eliminate 90 calories and almost all the sugar. That means thae sandwich would have only 210 calories and 1 gram of sugar. One problem with Chick-fil-A is that you can travel far and wide without spotting one. Their presence is limited, and in many states, nonexistent.

Just about nothing beats chili, too bad Wendy's doesn't have lena turkey or chicken chili like Taco Time.

Healthy Fast Food Choice 5– Baked Potato and chili at Wendys
Sure it’s loaded with carbs, but if you eat the outside skin, a baked potato is full of goodness, and it’s cheap, which is a solid attribute in this day and age. Just one caveat, no bacon, sour cream and cheese. I can hear you complaining now “So what the heck am I supposed to put on it then?” Well, chili, of course.

A small Wendy’s chili is only 190 calories and has 14 grams of protein with 2.5 grams of saturated fat. Just the thing to pour on a protein deficient spud. Order just the bare, baked spud, without all that stuffed nonsense, and you can be out of there with a good, filling lunch for only $2.00. Any way you slice it, the combo has a lot of carbs, about 80 grams total, so don’t have this for dinner or whatever you call your late meal. The two combined have 460 calories, with 70% of your USRDA of vitamin C and 30% of your iron. How’s that for healthy eating on a budget?

If you live in the northwest, don’t forget to check out Taco Time’s chicken chili. It tastes good, and has only 98 calories, but packs 9 grams of protein and only 1 gram of fat. Not that fat is bad, but you need to get it from the right sources.

Healthy Fast Food Choice 6 – Burgers?
Sometimes you just gotta have a burger; a real burger, not one of those chicken burger poseurs. On those days, what should you be eating, if you’re trying to stay on the healthy side of the fence? One burger you should run away from of it ever gets anywhere close to you is the Wendy’s Baconator Triple. That even sounds like an artery clogger, and some things are just as they appear.

The Baconator Triple probably is a culinary orgasm, but at what cost? Well one of these ¾ lb beauties will infuse you with a robust 1,330 calories. That’s about ½ of your entire day’s allowance if you’re a 200lb man who is relatively active. It greases you up with 38 grams of saturated fat and over 3 full grams of sodium for good measure.

Now that you’ve seen what you shouldn’t eat, here are some better burger choices, when you’re caught in a must have burger situation.

First, let’s compare some popular quarter pounders, all without cheese -

Restaurant
calories
Sat fat
Carbs
protein

McDonalds
Quarter Pounder
410
7
37
24
Dairy Queen
Classic Grillburger
470
8
42
24
Jack n the Box
Jumbo Jack
540
11
45
23
Burger King
Whopper
670
11
51
29

You’ll note that none of these burgers could be confused with anything truly healthy. Here’s something you can do; leave the mayo off the Whopper. Do that, and it drops from 670 calories down to 520, and out of first place. It’s saturated fat content dips to 9 grams, from 11.

These can’t hold a candle to buffalo burgers, however. The downside to bison patties is that you won’t find them at any of the big name fast food places that I’m aware of. You can find them in many smaller and mom and pop fast food joints strewn throughout the U.S. When you do, you’ll be rewarded with a delicious burger that is lower in fat and tastes great too.

One more thing; I’m exceedingly lucky in that I hate mayonnaise. It just makes my skin crawl and stomach turn, so I order everything without it. That helps keep things healthy, because many fast food restaurants slather their offerings with enough mayo to lube up a porn star convention. Mayonnaise is just about all fat, and not the healthy kind, either. It adds plenty of calories to your meal, so if you can convince yourself that it plain tastes terrible, ask them to please hold the mayo.

It should go without saying, but do the same for the fries. There may be a way around that, though. If you can find them, substitute sweet potato fries for regular French fries. They are much healthier. Sweet potato fries have 4 times the protein, one tenth the fat, and about one fourth the carbs of traditional spud-based fries, like you’ll find at the major fast food chains. My kids love ‘em, and they don’t even know they are good for you!

Leave your healthy fast food favorites in a comment to let others know about them too.

One of the things that the food industry has been criticized for in recent years has been dramatically increasing portion sizes. Experts point to this as another contributing factor to the obesity problem in the U.S.  Lo and behold, it looks as if the problem may not have been spawned by MickeyD’s supersized portions after all.

Look at the bounty assembled before the Apostles. Note the portion size. Amazingly, it seems to have grown, even since this was painted by DaVinchi in 1498.

Civilization’s success at finally producing enough food to comfortably feed much of the population after millenea of subsistence living has been documented in an unlikely source; paintings of The Last Supper. Two college professors and brothers, Craig and Brian Wansink, just released a study of 52 Last Supper paintings. These works were painted over the last 1,000+ years and show a surprising trend; the growth of both plate and portion sizes of the assembled diners.

Just as the “large” size has grown in soft drinks and french fries, so too has it increased for the meals being eaten by those partaking in Jesus’ last evening meal. Researchers found that the size of the main dinner being enjoyed by those breaking bread with Jesus had grown by a waistline expanding 69% and the bread it self had ballooned by 23%. The findings from the study are published in next month’s Journal of Obesity.

It looks like this trend of ever increasing portion sizes has been with us for longer than many people first thought. Increasing portion sizes is a sure road to fat city, however. An easy way to fight fat is to eat smaller portions, and eat them more slowly. You’ll feel fuller, and end up actually eating less. Research also shows that if you size your portions by weighing them, instead of eyeballing them, you’ll have more consistent sizes and they’ll be smaller overall, as will your waistline.