The “other” weight loss food log.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one… if weight loss is your goal, one of the most important things you can possibly do is keep track of everything you eat each day.

Nothing new there, right?

The reason you’d do this is because, as you know by now, the key to a successful weight loss diet is eating the right number of calories (and getting those calories from good sources) and keeping some kind of log, list, or journal of what you eat every day is the only real way of doing this.

While I fully agree with everything above, I feel there is actually a completely different weight loss food log that should also be kept.

Like I’ve mentioned other times in this blog, most people fail to lose weight because of the mental aspect of weight loss. Knowing what to do and deciding to start doing it is easy. It’s the motivation, dedication, and will power to keep doing it, and doing it correctly, that causes most of the problems.

Keeping the type of food log I mentioned above and knowing exactly what you’re eating every day is really one of the keys for making the physical aspect of weight loss happen.

But, it does absolutely nothing for the mental aspect.

That’s why I’m proposing that everyone who’s ever had a diet setback due to a lack of will power or motivation should start keeping a SECOND log…

A log of everything you didn’t eat.

Everything you wanted to eat that day, but didn’t. Every bag of potato chips, every candy bar, every french fry, every cookie, every fast food hamburger, every can of soda, every food you wanted to eat but didn’t because you know you shouldn’t.

Each food in that log is one victory for your will power. Looking at a daily/weekly/monthly/yearly log of every piece of junk food you were mentally strong enough to keep out of your body would be nothing but motivating.

The next time your favorite junk food is just sitting there calling your name, instead of eating it, write it down. Write them all down. If you’re up to it, you can even take the time to figure out the nutritional information of it (calories, grams of fat, etc.) just to get an even better idea of the junk you just avoided eating.

As motivating as that would be, it will be even more motivating when you watch this log become smaller and smaller over time as your desire and interest in eating these types of foods gradually fade away.

Not to mention, the actual act of writing/typing the food down rather than eating it could act as enough of a distraction to make the desire to eat it just pass.

So, while adopting this idea won’t actually cause you to lose any weight, it will serve as a way of improving your will power and keeping you motivated. And, without that, you probably won’t be losing any weight anyway.

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The big trans fat lie on your food’s nutrition facts label.

So, I don’t know how else to say this, but, food companies are lying to you. Yes, YOU. The really strange part is that they are actually allowed to lie to you… by law.

I’m not even joking. It’s plain old crazy.

The lying takes place on the nutrition facts label of whatever kind of box or package or container your food came in. You know, where the ingredients are listed, along with other nutritional information like how many calories or carbs there are per serving. All of that information is usually true and accurate. However, when you get to trans fat, that all changes.

First and foremost, for anyone who doesn’t know what trans fat is, let me give you a very quick and simple description. It’s one of the “bad” types of fat. In fact, trans fat is the baddest of them all, and that’s “horrible” bad, not “hip and cool” bad. How bad? Well, think of a health problem someone could have. Go ahead, any health problem. Got it? Ok. There is a very good chance that whatever you thought of is one of the many health problems and diseases caused by eating a diet high in trans fat.

See… bad.

But, most people are already aware of how terrible trans fat is for you. Most of these people became aware of this around January 1, 2006, which is the date that the FDA started requiring that trans fat content be included on the nutrition facts label of all foods. Yup, they meant business. Trans fat is borderline poison, and now we can feel safe knowing that all we need to do is take a peek at the nutrition facts label of our food to make sure we aren’t eating any of it.

Well, not quite. This is where the lying is happening.

See, there is a largely unknown loophole in the FDA’s trans fat requirement. Instead of telling you what this loophole is, I’ll let the FDA explain it for me. Here is a direct quote from a “question and answer” page on the official web site of the Food and Drug Administration.

Q: How will the nutrition label be different?

A: The FDA final rule on trans fatty acids (also called “trans fat”) requires that the amount of trans fat in a serving be listed on a separate line under saturated fat on the Nutrition Facts panel (see figure). However, trans fat does not have to be listed if the total fat in a food is less than 0.5 gram (or 1/2 gram) per serving and no claims are made about fat, fatty acids or cholesterol content.

Get all that? I bolded the important part for you. Basically, here’s what they’re saying. If a food has 1 gram of trans fat per serving, it will say “Trans Fat: 1 gram” on the nutrition facts label of that food. If that food has 0 grams of trans fat per serving, it will say “Trans Fat: 0 grams” on the label. However, if a food has exactly 0.49 grams of trans fat per serving, it will say “Trans Fat: 0 grams” on the label.

Let that one sink in for a second. Food companies are allowed by law to tell you that there is “0 grams” of trans fat in the food you are eating even though there actually IS trans fat in that food. Insane, isn’t it?

So now, the food you eat will mention trans fat ONLY if there is more than 0.5 grams of it per serving. If there are 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, or 0.49999999 grams, it will still say there is no trans fat in the food. There’s really no other way to look at that… it’s a lie. Plain and simple.

There is of course an excuse for this insanity. The FDA claims that anything below 0.5 grams is considered a “very small amount” of trans fat. So, by that logic, if a certain amount of poison will kill me, I’ll be just fine consuming 0.4 grams since that would be a “very small amount” of poison. Mmmm, fantastic.

ANY trans fat is too much trans fat, no matter what the amount. It’s one of the worst possible things you can possibly put into your body. 0.4 grams, 0.5 grams, or 10 grams, I don’t care. I don’t want any of it, and anyone who cares at all about their health shouldn’t want ANY of it either. Unfortunately though, food companies are telling you that you aren’t eating any, even though you are.

Another key thing to keep in mind here is the term “serving size.” Food companies only need to report how much trans fat there is in one serving of there food. Did you ever pay attention to what “one serving” of most foods is? For example, for most cereals, one serving is usually 3/4 of a cup. Chances are there is at least double that amount in one average sized bowl of cereal. Another serving size might be “3 crackers.” How many people only eat exactly 3 crackers? Not many.

My point here is that most people eat more than “one serving” of most foods. And since trans fat only needs to be mentioned on food labels if there is 0.5 grams or more trans fat per serving, that means that if the food contained 0.4 grams, and you eat 4 servings of it, there’s 1.6 grams of trans fat. 1.6 is well above 0.5, yet the label will still only say 0 grams per serving. And, if you eat 4 servings of that food, 4 x 0 still equals 0 grams of trans fat. You continue to think you didn’t eat any, when in reality you ate 1.6 grams. How wonderful.

And don’t think food companies don’t take complete advantage of this loophole. I’m sure there are plenty of foods that are now purposely made with exactly 0.49 grams of trans fat per serving for the sole purpose of being allowed to put “Trans Fat: 0 grams” on their nutrition facts label. I’m also sure plenty of foods have seen a reduction in their serving size. If one serving used to be 1 full cup, and that contained 0.8 grams, all they need to do is change their serving size to half a cup, and the trans fat per serving drops down to magic number 0.4, which to them translates into “Trans Fat: 0 grams.”

Now that you fully understand this nonsense, let me show you how to spot it on your foods so you can avoid being tricked, and avoid eating that food. I actually mentioned this briefly when explaining another lie, 100% whole wheat bread. The key to finding out for sure if there is any trans fat in your food even when the label reads “Trans Fat: 0 grams” is by reading through the list of ingredients of that food.

The keywords you are looking for in those ingredients are “shortening” and the MUCH more common “hydrogenated.” If you see either of those words used in any way, there is trans fat in your food. Hydrogenated is used to describe an oil, as in “hydrongenated soybean oil” or “hydrogenated vegetable oil.” A lot of times it may use the words “partially hydrogenated.” As in, “partially hydrogenated soybean oil.” Partially hydrogenated or not, it’s still trans fat just the same.

Oh, and in case anyone thinks I’m making this stuff up, here’s another quote from the FDA web site:

Q: Is it possible for a food product to list the amount of trans fat as 0 g on the Nutrition Facts panel if the ingredient list indicates that it contains “partially hydrogenated vegetable oil?”

A: Yes. Food manufacturers are allowed to list amounts of trans fat with less than 0.5 gram (1/2 g) as 0 (zero) on the Nutrition Facts panel. As a result, consumers may see a few products that list 0 gram trans fat on the label, while the ingredient list will have “shortening” or “partially hydrogenated vegetable oil” on it. This means the food contains very small amounts (less than 0.5 g) of trans fat per serving.

How lovely.

If any of those words I mentioned above make an appearance in your food’s ingredient list, then it contains some amount of trans fat.

So, there you go. You’ll still be lied to about the trans fat in your food, only now you’ll be able to catch it and avoid it.

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Weight Loss Rate Per Week – How fast should you lose weight?

Now here’s a topic people seem to be absolutely obsessed with… the ideal weight loss rate per week. Meaning, how fast should you lose weight?
And it’s pretty obvious why people are so interested in getting this question answered. Quite simply, knowing how slow or fast you should lose weight will allow you to estimate when you can expect to finally reach your goal and have the body you want.
People are super obsessed with reaching that point (especially early on), so it would only make sense that they’d be obsessed with figuring out when they will finally be there.
So, let’s answer that question right now.
To do this, I want to take a look at the two recommendations I give most often when it comes to the ideal weight loss rate per week…
This right here is the most basic and common weight loss speed recommendation you will see. Losing 1 pound per week is basically the textbook definition of safe, simple and healthy weight loss.
It’s not too slow (which is discouraging) and it’s not too fast (which is unnecessarily hard and potentially dangerous). This is right smack in the middle, which seems to be just right for most people.
In addition to being the most commonly recommended weight loss rate per week, it’s also the most generic. It really doesn’t take any outside factors into account at all (like you, your body, your preferences, your situation, how much weight you need to lose, etc.).
It’s just a solid universal recommendation for how fast the average person should lose weight. I like it.
However, despite the fact that I do like it and I have given this exact recommendation countless times before, it’s no longer the first recommendation I give. This is…
That’s right, I think your ideal weight loss rate per week should depend on you.
What I mean is, I think someone who has more weight to lose should lose it faster than someone who has less weight to lose, and vice-versa.
This makes sense for a ton of reasons. For example, people with more fat to lose are less likely to lose muscle due to the higher abundance of fat on their body. Therefore, they can handle losing weight faster without the same risk of muscle loss.
On the other hand, people who are leaner or just have less fat to lose are at a higher risk of losing muscle. Because of this they SHOULD have a slower rate of weight loss.
Plus, this also takes into account how easy or hard it will be. Meaning, it’s a lot easier for a person with 100lbs to lose to lose it faster than someone with 10lbs to lose. They should take advantage of that fact, especially early on.
Let me throw some numbers out there to show you exactly what I mean…
A person with an above average amount of weight to lose (example: 100lbs) should lose it at a rate of 2lbs (or more) per week.A person with an average amount of weight to lose (example: 30lbs) should lose it at a rate of 1-2lbs per week.A person with a below average amount of weight to lose (example: 10lbs) should lose it at a rate of 0.5-1lb per week.
I explain these recommendations in much more detail (along with the best way of actually making them happen) in The Ultimate Fat Loss Program.
So, while the standard “lose a pound per week” recommendation is still a perfectly fine middle-of-the-road goal to aim for, I think how slow or fast a person loses weight should depend more on them and be a little more personalized based on the exact amount they need to lose.
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