Tag Archives: calories

Why Calorie Counting Fails and How to Burn Fat Without It

Which of the following statements are true?

a. A pound of feathers weighs the same as a pound of lead.
b. We have to consciously decrease calories in or increase calories out in order to burn fat.
c. All triangles have three sides.

If we believe what we’ve been taught, A, B, and C are all true. However, it may come as a surprise (or not, considering the dramatic rise in obesity) that biologists have known for a long time that B is false. We do not need to consciously eat less or exercise more in order to burn fat.

How’s this possible?

There are at least three major biological missteps with calorie counting:

1. It assumes calories out is fixed.
2. It assumes we can calculate calories out.
3. It assumes fewer calories in or more calories out requires the body to burn fat.  (more…)

Posted on October 3, 2023 by GuestBlogger

McDonald’s Posting Nutrition Information on Menus Nationwide, but Will it Do Any Good?

Ever wonder how many calories are in a McDonald’s meal? If you do want to know just how nutritionally void that Big Mac is, you would have to pull up the information on the restaurant’s web site. Until now!

Today, the corporation announced that they will list nutrition information on restaurant and drive-thru menus nationwide. President Obama’s new health regulation requires restaurant chains to post calorie information. McDonald’s move comes ahead of federal government regulation that could require major chains to post nutrition information as early as next year.

Jan Fields, president of McDonald’s USA, said in a press release that the company volunteered to give out their nutrition information. “We believe it will help educate customers.”

I asked our resident dietitian, Mary Hartley, what she thinks of McDonald’s providing their nutrition information, and she said, “It’s good publicity and they (McDonalds) know it really won’t make a difference, but who knows what will happen over time. Many people have no idea of how many calories they need and so the information is meaningless.” She points to the fact that New York City has required calories posted on menus for several years and it’s done little to change buyer behavior there. (more…)

Posted on September 12, 2023 by Samantha

Overweight Teens Eat Fewer Calories Than Their Healthy Weight Peers, Study Suggests

If you think overweight teens are in their state of health because of their out-of-control calorie intake, think again. A new study from the University of North Carolina of Medicine suggests that older children who are overweight may be consuming fewer calories than their peers at healthier weights.

To conduct the study, researchers analyzed the diet reports of more than 19,000 children ages 1 to 17. They categorized the children based on weight, and children under the age of 2 were categorized based on weight-for-length percentile.

Researchers then looked at the correlation between age and weight category on calorie intake. What they found was that younger, overweight children consume more calories than their healthier peers. However, in the case of older children, those who are overweight actually consume fewer calories than their healthier peers.

These findings led researchers to believe that children who become overweight at a young age tend to remain overweight, regardless of calorie intake fluctuation.  (more…)

Posted on September 10, 2023 by Dana

World’s Biggest Cheeseburger Breaks Records and Calorie Limits

There are some pretty crazy, weird and interesting records in The Guinness Book of World Records. This past Labor Day weekend, a ridiculous world record was broken when Minnesota’s Black Bear Casino made the world’s biggest hamburger. Why did the casino decide to make a colossal hamburger? They would say, just for the fun of it.

As reported by Eater.com, Jerry Bayerl – Black Bear Casino’s executive chef – recently decided he wanted to make the world’s biggest burger.

At first, he thought the record for the biggest burger was 200 pounds, but after some extensive research he found out the previous record for the world’s biggest burger was 881 pounds. In order to secure the new title, Jerry made sure his bacon cheeseburger clocked in at an amazing 2,014 pounds!

Cooking the cheeseburger was no easy feat. It required a crane, parking lot, and a gigantic homemade oven.

The diameter of the buns and meat patty measured up to a total of 10 feet. It took seven hours to bake the bun and four hours to cook and flip the meat patty. Stacked on top of the patty was even more ingredient madness. There were 60 pounds of bacon, 50 pounds of lettuce, 50 pounds of sliced unions, 40 pounds of pickles and 40 pounds of cheese.  (more…)

Posted on September 5, 2023 by Samantha

Almonds Contain Fewer Calories Than We Thought, Study Shows

If almonds are your favorite snack but you’re conscious of eating too many for calories’ sake, a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition may provide some relief. Scientists now believe almonds contain fewer calories than we originally thought. 

As reported by NPR, the study was conducted by USDA food scientists who found that almonds contain fewer calories than were previously calculated.

Findings determined that there was close to a 30 percent margin of error when it came to the calories in this popular nut. USDA researcher David Baer said he and his team were just as surprised as anyone about the findings.

To conduct the study, researchers split 18 healthy participants into three groups and tracked their diets for 18 days. One group was put on a controlled diet that included 84 grams of almonds per day, another was prescribed 42 grams of almonds per day, and another was instructed to eat a diet completely free of nuts. (more…)

Posted on August 7, 2023 by Samantha

Walden Farms Products Allow for Calorie-Free Indulgence

With countless types of diets buzzing around these days, women are eliminating some of their favorite treats from their diet, including chocolate. But as a result, this actually makes them desire those guilty pleasures even more. A lot of diets, such as the re-feed diet, suggest a cheat or reward meal in order to keep on track with your diet plan. And now, there’s another option for guilt-free indulgence.

Have you ever stood in front of your fridge and stared down that bottle of Hersey’s chocolate syrup thinking “Just a little bit won’t hurt,”  but deep down you knew you’d indulge in way more than you said you were going to? Ladies, it’s time to take the word “guilty” out of the phrase “guilty pleasure.” (more…)

Posted on July 31, 2023 by Danielle

Joey Chestnut Starves Himself Prior to Winning Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest

July 4th means fireworks, cookouts, and for some the annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. Every year on July 4th, Coney Island holds Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest where participants eat as many hot dogs as possible in 10 minutes. On Wednesday, Joey Chestnut won the hot dog eating contest for the sixth consecutive year. The man ate 68 hot dogs… sounds appetizing right?

I could barely finish the five BBQ chicken wings I had last night at our family’s Fourth of July cookout. I can only imagine where this man puts his food!

Well, fortunately this morning on the TODAY show Joey offered his secrets to scarfing down 68 hotdogs and buns. Joey’s girlfriend makes him 70 hotdogs and he tries to eat as much as he can within 10 minutes. And he tries to eat a little more each day than his previous attempt. Three days before the big hot dog eating contest Joey does not eat anything to prepare himself for all the hot dogs he will devour. (more…)

Posted on July 5, 2023 by Samantha

NutritionRank Assigns Nutrition Scores to Food to Make Healthy Eating Easy

In today’s world it’s very easy to obtain nutrition information about the food we eat. From websites to mobile apps or simply the package label, the calories, fat, and any nutrition data about a particular food is readily available. The issue is that the market is so saturated with sites, apps, and info that it’s hard to tell which is the best or even most accurate. How can you know if your food is actually healthy for you based on this information? The founders of iFood.tv believe they have the ultimate answer for those wanting to know if their food is healthy.

Alok Ranjan and Vikrant Mathur are the founders of the popular food and cooking video channel iFood.tv. The site is the most trafficked site in the food-video industry. The duo’s newest project is called NutritionRank. They have launched the nutritional database and search engine in hopes of making it the web’s number one resource for dietary health information. (more…)

Posted on July 2, 2023 by Lacy

Do Calories Count for Olympians?

By Rachel Berman RD, Director of Nutrition for CalorieCount.com

DietsinReview recently interviewed the dietitian team of the Olympics and they found that many athletes aren’t aware of the amount of calories they are consuming. Calorie counting is not just relevant for weight loss. The more strenuous a sport, the more calories an athlete needs to refuel their bodies and muscles properly for the work they are doing. In addition, it’s not as though an athlete can just copy the diet of someone else on the team. Calories burned at rest and during exercise depend on age, height, weight, body composition, among other factors. Therefore, it’s important for an athlete to get an idea for the amount of calories they burn off personally so that they can consume that much in their diets. If not getting enough or proper nutrition, athletes can definitely put their energy, endurance and game at risk.

We know of at least one Olympian who is well aware of the calories he is consuming. Gold medal swimmer Michael Phelps has been reported to eat as much as 12,000 calories per day to match the 50 miles he swims per week during training. It is more than calories that count – getting enough complex carbohydrates from sources such as grains, legumes, and starchy vegetables help give athletes the energy they need during strenuous activity. (more…)

Posted on July 2, 2023 by Calorie_Count

How Many Calories Do We Really Need?

By Mary Hartley, RD, with Dana Shultz

All of the diet and health advice we’re fed today can be confusing. But some have suggested that what it really all comes down to is eating the right amount of calories and staying active most days of the week. While this may sound like a simple solution, ‘how many calories we really need’ can be rather elusive.

There’s a whole slough of online tools that promise to accurately calculate the amount of calories we require. But how many of us really know if we’re ‘moderately active’ or ‘vigorously active?’ What’s the difference between the two. And are we also to assume that all women 5’5” tall and 130 pounds have the same resting metabolic rate?

To answer these sometimes baffling questions, DietsInReview.com’s Registered Dietitian, Mary Hartley, RD, weighs in to help us find the truth about what we really need to know when it comes to calorie requirements. (more…)

Posted on June 28, 2023 by Natalie K

American Pizza Chains Band Together to Hide Their Calorie Contents

This seems like a case of, “deal with it, you big rich babies.” The nation’s pizza giants are banning together to fight the proposed law requiring all chain restaurants to provide calorie contents on the menu. And the reason they’re stating as to why they won’t make the change? It will just be too difficult for them.

Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Papa John’s, Little Caesars, and other large pizza chains have joined together to form The American Pizza Community. Together they are arguing that pizzas are so varied from order-to-order that providing calorie content on their menus would be too taxing, and that their calorie content boards would be much larger than their actual menu board.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has heard similar complaints from other customizable restaurants. Their response was to provide the consumer with a calorie range. The American Pizza Community has an answer to that, too. They are stating that there can be a calorie swing of more than 1,000 calories based on people’s individual orders of extra cheese or meats. Again, it’s apparently just too much to ask out of these pizza players. (more…)

Posted on June 21, 2023 by Lacy