Jeff sent me this picture a couple weeks ago and I was way impressed. I told him he should post it, but I couldn’t wait to show you all. He also sent along a description of what you see below.

“Here are my next 35 lunches. I usually eat 2 of these a day for lunch and afternoon meal, but miss a couple on weekends when we eat out so I now cook about every 3 weeks. It is a total of 9lbs of chicken breasts, 16 lbs of mixed vegetables and 18 cooked cups of basmati rice.”

Let’s break it down into calories for you. The chicken breast in each meal is 3 oz and about 150 calories per meal. The rice is a half cup which is just over 100 calories per meal. And finally the vegetables are a cup and a half and account for 150 calories per meal, give or take a few calories. This is 400 calories of clean eating.

This is what it looks like to prepare meals in advance. Jeff is living the lifestyle that we talk about on the show. He’s prepared meals for 3 weeks in I’d guess an hour, two if he was really slow. He doesn’t have to think about where he’s going to get lunch from, or if he runs out of time the night before to prepare a lunch. A quick trip to the freezer and he’s out the door. Sure that freezer is bigger than my whole kitchen apparently, but it’s easy none the less.

How could you make your life easier by preparing meals in advance? You don’t have to prepare this many meals in advance, but what about a weeks worth of lunches? How about boiling a dozen eggs for breakfast for the next couple weeks? Even the smallest effort in advance in the kitchen will make it easier throughout the week to stay on track toward your goal.

Make the time to prepare yourself good foods in advance and the weight will take care of itself.

It is true that you will burn calories at a faster rate if you run, but whether you cover a 3 mile distance in an hour or a half hour, when you get to the finish line your body did the same amount of work energy-wise.

The scientific way to look at Work is the formula: Work = Force X Distance. It takes energy to move your body over distance. If your body burns 10 calories to move a certain distance, going 5 times farther will burn 5 times the calories regardless of your speed.

The biggest factor in how many calories you burn is your weight. The heavier you are, the more energy it takes to move your body.

The Technical formula to figure this out is: Kilograms X Kilometers X 1.036

Here is the Imperial version: 0.76 Calories X Lbs X Miles

Here is the Combination version: 0.47 Calories X Lbs X Kilometers

For example, here is the Imperial formula for a 150 lb person who walks/runs 3.1 miles:
Total Calories = 0.76 X 150 X 3 = 353 calories burned

Here is the combination formula for a 150 lb person who walks/runs 5 kilometers:
Total Calories = 0.47 X 150 X 5 = 353 calories burned

Don’t get me wrong, there are benefits of moving your body at a faster rate. You won’t get a cardiovascular workout by moving slowly, and you won’t get any “after-burn” effect from a casual stroll, but if your concern is getting in some activity that will burn extra calories, walking works!

So if you are watching tv at home and using a treadmill, you can easily walk 5 K or 3 Miles in an hour without dripping in sweat and burn the same calories as a run.

Here is an example. Does a 95-year-old woman physically look the same as when she was 16 if she weighs the same amount? Of course not, and I’m not just talking about wrinkles. If you compared her arms and her legs, there would be a huge difference in tone and shape. The older person would also be larger and softer – they would not be able to fit into the same clothes even though they weighed the same amount.

Here is the reason: After age 30, you lose 6 lbs of muscle every decade. If you weigh the same at age 30 and 40, you will be fatter at age 40. You would have 6 lbs less of muscle and 6 lbs more of fat. A pound of fat is many times larger in volume than a pound of muscle. A pound of muscle also naturally burns 30-50 calories per day, whereas a pound of fat only burns 3 calories.

The fact that people naturally lose muscle as they age is also the reason that people put on weight as they age. Here is an example that will show you how the average man can gain 60-100 lbs in his lifetime without ever over-eating. I will round some numbers to make it easier to follow.

Here is an average man.

30 years old, 5’10″, 180 lbs and moderate activity. He will burn about 2,500 calories per day to maintain his weight.

At age 40, if he has now lost 5 lbs of muscle, he will need to eat 2,300 calories per day to maintain his weight. (5lbs of muscle X 40 calories per day average = 200) He can easily gain 10 lbs per year, if he continues to eat the same amount of calories that he could eat at age 30.

At age 50, he has now lost another 5 lbs of muscle. He will now have to eat 2,100 calories per day to maintain his weight. He can continue to easily gain another 10 lbs per year, if he continues to eat like he did when he was 30.

So what is the point? If at age 30, you eat the perfect healthy diet and maintain a healthy weight, in the future, you will gain weight on that same healthy diet.

So, what can I do? You can either eat less an less as you age, or you can maintain and hopefully gain a little muscle as you age. Resistance training is now known to be very important at all ages. You don’t need to become a hardcore bodybuilder, you just need to do enough to maintain what you have. Isn’t this a good reason be active?

When you are trying to lose weight, the goal is to eat food that is low in calorie and keeps you full for a long time. Of course you should always have some lean protein with every meal as well.

There are three problems with oatmeal. The first, is that the pure, healthy oats take time to cook. The second, is that if you choose to eat the instant oatmeal, it is generally full of sugar and you lose most of the benefit of eating oatmeal. The third problem, is that when you cook oatmeal in advance, it can be very unappetizing to eat the next day!

On an earlier show of Fat2Fit Radio, Jeff discussed his method of preparing oatmeal ahead of time. He cooks his oatmeal in a large batch and then divides the servings into containers. He then adds in scrambled eggs full of vegetables on top of the oatmeal and then keeps it in the fridge. His breakfasts will last for two weeks without spoiling. In the morning, they are microwaved together and then mixed together. With a little ketchup on top, it is a very filling breakfast. It will not win any awards for presentation, but it actually tastes better than it sounds.

We recently received two other suggestions from listeners to the show:

#1 – Fried Slices of Oatmeal! – from Ellen

“I listened with interest about your experience of cooking oatmeal for later & here’s how I do it. I cook a large batch of steel-cut oatmeal & put the leftovers in a cake pan. Then, I cover & refrigerate it, so it solidifies into a loaf. When I’m ready for breakfast again, I slice off a piece & sauté it in a little bit of butter or olive oil. You can also pour some maple syrup or honey on it. It tastes so much better this way than trying to re-create the porridge texture for the leftovers.“

#2 – Make Your Own Instant Oatmeal! – from Gail

“Here’s a recipe for instant oatmeal packets, so you can control the sugar and salt.
Makes 8 packets
3 cups quick oats, salt, sugar (or sweetener)
8 zip sandwich bags

Process 1 cup of oats in a blender, 1/2 cup at a time, until it is as fine as flour.
In each sandwich bag measure 1/4 cup oats, 2 tablespoons oat flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 T sugar or equivalent sweetener

To prepare:
Mix a packet with 3/4 cup boiling water, stir, and let set 2 minutes.

Variations:
Apple Cinnamon: add 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and 2 tablespoons chopped dried apples to each packet.
Cinnamon Spice: ad 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and a scant 1/8 teaspoon of nutmeg to each packet
Raisin Brown Sugar: replace white sugar or sweetener with brown sugar or sweetener and add 1 tablespoon raisins to each packet.
Wheat germ: add 2 tablespoons wheat germ to each packet”

Enjoy Everybody!

This is a re-post of an article that I wrote earlier at Fat2Fit Radio. There are some great comments and more oatmeal recipes in the comments there. Here is a direct link to those comments.

When one looks for the scientific studies and evidence of effectiveness for these products it is very slim indeed. Some may show some temporary short-term weight loss, but none are proven for any significant or long terms weight loss. Many of their ingredients are proven harmful and stressful to your body. For example, Zantrex 3 has the equivalent amount of caffeine of 30.6 cans of cola in its daily dose. It is common knowledge that caffeine can cause severe headaches and a poor night’s sleep.

You will be very hard pressed to find a competent Pharmacist who would recommend any of these products, so why do the Pharmacies sell them?

Profit – simple as that. The corporations that run the large chain pharmacies will all claim that it is a question about choice and they are in the business of promoting health.

That argument falls flat on its face for all of the Pharmacies that sell cigarettes. Have you ever gone to your Pharmacist and asked which cigarette is the healthiest for you and will promote your active and healthy lifestyle? Of course you haven’t because it is clearly obvious that they are not healthy. For that matter, you could ask the same question about the candy and junk food that they sell…

Products like cigarettes are commonly known to be bad for you, but when Pharmacies sell questionable weight loss supplements so near to “real” medicines, it adds a legitimacy to them, and I think that is morally wrong. People should have an expectation that “medicine-like” or “medicine-looking” products that they purchase at a Pharmacy are backed by scientific evidence, are quality controlled, and proven effective.

The weight loss supplements that look like medications should stay in the health food and supplement stores, because they are “food supplements” and not quality controlled medicines.

For more information, we discuss this in detail in Fat 2 Fit Radio Show #18.

Most things that seem too good to be true usually are – except this one. This is True. So let me explain why.

Humans cannot digest cellulose in plants, so vegetables and fruits with a high cellulose content are not efficiently digested. Think of a cows or horses that eat grass. They can thrive by eating grass, but as humans we would starve to death.

All foods have calories in them. An 8 inch celery stalk has about 6 calories that we can digest. When you subtract the amount of energy that our body takes to digest the celery, the net caloric effect may turn out to be nothing at all. This is why celery has turned out to be a dieter’s staple food.

By eating a sensible diet that includes several of the “negative calorie” foods, you can lower the net amount of calories that you are eating. As well, if you are eating a calorie reduced diet and are finding that you are not satisfied with the amount of food that you are eating, you can eat more of these “negative calorie” foods to add more bulk to your food, and this should help you feel a little fuller from your meals.

Keep in mind, in the same way that you can’t survive on grass, you can’t survive on just these foods alone. You still need to be eating other quality foods for the nutrients, minerals, vitamins and calories that your body needs.

Here is a list of some of the more common “negative calorie” foods.

Vegetables – asparagus, beets, broccoli, cabbage (green), carrots, cauliflower, celery, chicory, chili peppers, cucumbers, endive, garlic, lettuce, onions, papayas, spinach, turnip, and zucchini.

Fruits – apples, cranberries, grapefruit, lemons, mangos, oranges, pineapple, raspberries, strawberries, and tangerines.

I’m sure that I left some out. If you know some more, leave us a comment and let us know.

Over the last few years, the diet industry realized that they can make more money after selling a diet program, than they made from selling the diet program in the first place. They started making and selling their own diet supplements – everything from meal replacements, vitamins, nutrition bars, fiber supplements etc.

Take a look at the Atkins Diet. You can buy Atkins Vitamins and Atkins meal replacement bars. The same is even true for diets such as the Zone and South Beach diets. Even the regular “Diet Centres” such as Nutrisystem and Jenny Craig sell their own supplements and vitamins.

This is such a lucrative business that companies are now creating supplements and meal replacements and then creating the diet program in order to sell them.

The most well known diet that did this was “Body For Life” by Bill Phillips. Bill Phillips is the owner of the giant supplement company EAS which makes the meal replacement called Myoplex. It is no surprise that the suggested menus in this program all list 2 meals per day of Myoplex.

In almost every instance, it is better to eat “real food” instead of a meal replacement shake or bar. To digest real food, your body burns calories in the digestion process, so your net calories are lower than the actual calories that you just ate. This is great if you are concerned with losing weight, not to mention that real food isn’t as painful on your pocketbook!

Many of these diet programs that are based on a supplement product are not necessarily bad though. If the program suggests a balanced diet, there is nothing wrong with an occasional supplement product once and while. There is also nothing wrong with eating a sensible balanced meal instead of a suggested supplement and still have success on any program.

Unless you are planning to continue to take all of these extra supplements and meal replacement products for the rest of your life after you reach your goal, it would be wise not to become used-to or dependent on them for long term weight loss.

BMI stands for Body Mass Index and is the latest measure of what an ideal body weight should be. It is technically your weight (in kilograms) divided by your height (in meters) squared. There is no distinction between men and women. Here is an online BMI calculator from the NIH.

Here are the BMI categories:

• Underweight = <18.5
• Normal weight = 18.5-24.9
• Overweight = 25-29.9
• Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater

Don’t just rely on BMI and an indicator of your health and fitness because there are some major problems with BMI. First of all, there is no distinction between men and women. Men naturally have more muscle than women and are heavier. A man and a woman at the exact height and weight would have the same BMI, but the man could look very skinny and the woman quite overweight. Secondly, people with a high body fat composition and low weight, may seem healthy according to BMI, but they may be just as unhealthy as a much larger person.

The BMI is a good measure for looking at populations as a whole, because all physicians have height and weight data. For example, you can compare average Americans to Canadians to see which country on average is heavier. As an individual, we vary too much to have a “one size fits all” approach. However, if you are out in the extremes of BMI, either underweight or obese, it is obvious that you are in a poor health category.

So how much should you weigh? The bottom line is, it doesn’t really matter. Body fat percentage is the true measure of obesity, not weight.

The good news is that it is fairly easy to find out your own body fat. There are regular scales that can now tell you your weight and body fat on a daily basis, and their prices have come down quite a lot in that last couple of years. When you stand on the scale in your bare feet, a very small current goes up one leg and back down the other (You can’t feel it) to measure your body fat.

Body fat percentage is now considered the most important factor, because that is a fair measure for everybody. According to “Shape up America”, which is the former Surgeon General’s (Dr. Koop) anti obesity initiative, it issued an advisory stating that one’s body fat percentage is superior to the currently accepted body mass index (BMI), as a measure of healthy weight.

For more information and specific body fat percentage guidelines, here is the link to Shape Up America’s advisory against using BMI and rather to use body fat percentage.

The hardest part is actually getting started exercising and then keeping it up. It takes a little while before you get hooked and the benefits come on gradually. However, after only a few weeks most people begin to feel healthier, happier and more energized. When you stop exercising on a regular basis, most people start to feel lethargic or “blue” for no obvious reason. It isn’t that you are more depressed, it is just that you have gotten used to feeling good from exercise.

Here are some ideas to get started and keep it up:

- Make a commitment for 30 days and stick to it. After, make another 30 day commitment.
- Write down specific goals – when, where, how long etc.
- Plan ahead – Don’t just say that you are going to workout tomorrow – put it as an item in your schedule.
- Record your progress – your weight, measurements, number of push-ups, distance on a treadmill, or anything that you can measure that you can improve upon – it will all motivate you.
- Take progress picture of yourself – this will motivate you to get working out, and it will also encourage you to keep seeing results. (here is an example of me)
- Start small and gradually improve every workout – try to make every workout just a little bit harder, but don’t start out too hard either.
- Make yourself the number 1 priority – this is your health and well being. Make your workout a priority to get done if at all possible. Have you ever been too busy to not use the bathroom for more than 24 hours?
- Find a workout partner – this helps most people and makes you even more accountable to show up.
- Do a variety of workouts – don’t just do the same thing every day. Do different cardio, weight lifting and fitness classes to keep from becoming bored.
- Distract yourself – bring some music that you love that gets you moving or even podcasts that you enjoy on an MP3 player. Why do you think all fitness classes have music?

The simplest way to keep exercising on a regular basis, just might be the most obvious. Once you start, you get a lot of momentum, and it is easier and easier to keep going. Just do it!

1. Prepare most of your meals in advance and have healthy snacks on hand.

2. Try to eat every 3 hours.

3. Do not eat until you are full.

4. Have a lean protein with every meal.

5. Eat natural foods from Mother Nature, not a box.

6. Do not drink your calories.

7. Give yourself one cheat meal per week.

Click here to read the full article with all the details.