Leaning Out

You don't see me with my clothes on often do you? Ha Ha!

I always get a little extra boost when I start getting to this point, I like to wear form fitting clothes, but I also like the "form" to be "fit"....

Here I am Tuesday after work, these are one of my Lucky brand jeans, soft and worn and they shall now be relegated to the "larger" end of the closet, they are size 2.

I have clothes arranged by size since it fluctuates so much throughout the year. I have 0's to 4's. I think I may have a couple 5's in there somewhere, but they must be "skinny" 5's if you know what I mean.

I can see how people go on a diet and get discouraged, it takes time! When I get to this point things continue rapidly so I have to be careful, and being careful means beef more often (it has more calories and slightly higher fat), and peanut butter! Yum!

Recently I wrote about the changes I made to my diet, but unless you follow me and have for a while, you have no idea what it was to start out! So, let me give you a run down of a typical day for me (now).

Keep in mind I am giving estimates and I am including the calories, carbs and proteins for the vegetables. Many people don't even count them.

4:15 am Supplements & Lean 1 meal replacement drink
       200 calories; 20 grams protein; 18 grams carbs

6:30 am Supplements & Endurox R4 Recovery drink (1 scoop only)
       135 calories; 6.5 grams protein; 26 grams carbs

7:45 am Homemade Waffles (egg whites, oats, flavorings)
       300 calories; 31 grams protein; 39 grams carbs (if you are counting only starchy carbs it would be 27 grams)

11:30 am Lunch #1 Supplements & 4 ounces chicken breast; 3 ounces lentils; 2 cups vegetables
       320 calories; 37 grams protein; 29 grams carbs (if you were counting only starchy carbs it would be 17 grams)

3:00 pm Lunch #2 4 ounces chicken breast; 3 ounces black beans; 2 cups vegetables
       320 calories; 37 grams protein; 29 grams carbs;  (if you are counting only starchy carbs it would be 17 grams)

Here is a picture of Lunch #1 and 2 the day before, I have a lot of it pre-measured and frozen, I assemble it the evening before.

5:45 pm Dinner Supplements & Homemade Curried Chicken and Cauliflower soup (I make a bunch and freeze it in bags)
      186 calories; 24 grams protein; 15 grams carbs  (if counting only starchy carbs zero)

8:30 pm Bedtime meal Supplements & 1 cup egg whites with 1 cup spinach
      160 calories; 29 grams protein; 14 grams carbs,  (if you are counting only starchy carbs, zero)

Add to this the nuts I eat, about 1/8 cup total (3 before each starch meal), using cashews as an example:

80 calories, 2.5 grams protein and 4 grams carbs (6 grams fat) Nuts add up!

9:00 pm Sleepy time tea.....
     

So grand totals:

Calories 1701; Protein 187; carbs 174 (but only 61 starchy).

The starches are very low but I make up for it in vegetables! The vegetables keep me full, provide fiber and energy and my muscles are super full despite the low starches. In this (rough) calculation I added the calories from any splenda too.

There are days when my starches will be much higher, and my calories might be also. For instance I occasionally have starch at dinner, the key is keeping it different so your body adapts to the variances.

Do not get in the rut of eating the same thing day in and day out, just like weight training, your body will make sure it adjusts to that and it will maintain it's weight, that's what it is designed to do. Your body was designed to survive quite well on what it gets, and survive with a layer of fat!

The Endurox R4 is a specially formulated recovery drink that is high in carbs. It is the preferred ratio of 4 to 1 (carbs to protein), studies show this is the best ratio of nutrients to ingest immediately after weight training. When not dieting to lose fat I will use 2 scoops of this.


I take a lot of BCAA (Branched Chain Amino Acids) and Amino Acids throughout the day. I will write more on my supplements at another time, because that's not where you start. That is why they are called "supplements", they are meant to be added to an existing good diet!


Add to this very low caloric intake my exercise today:


1 1/4 hours heavy weight training (it was leg day again!)
Stairs/jump rope at lunch, run up 300 stairs, run down 300 stairs, jump rope 300 times.

Tuesday is not a day I go to the gym after work.

Cutting Calories

Sometimes I cannot believe how some people manage to make it through life. I am referring to their lack of intelligence.

We all know smoking WILL kill us eventually right? Yet still thousands upon thousands of people smoke.

We all know that we need to eat right to maintain our health also, yet many people choose to ignore this and eat whatever they want. This one is a bit tougher, there are no warning labels on packaged foods, but I think there should be just like on cigarettes!

I understand that learning to eat properly does take time, but there are some very obvious choices that can be made that don't require the brain of a mental giant.

I love to read News Of The Weird by Chuck Shepherd. It's always a very small little tidbit of stupidity that either makes me laugh or shake my head in absolute wonder!

Here is one that made me wonder:

Tennessee, the second fattest state, according to a recent foundation report, continues to pay for obese Medicaid recipients to have bariatric surgery (at a cost of about $2,000.00), but to deny coverage for an overweight person to consult, even once, with a dietitian.

Weird huh? I can honestly tell you that the money I spent consulting with a nutritionist was the best money I have ever spent in my life, and I wish I had done it years and years ago!

I recommend consulting with one who specializes in the area of your needs, if you are obese, then seek a specialist who has had successes with obese patients, if you are an athlete, seek out one who works with athletes. 

Like a trainer, you need to carefully select your nutritionist or dietitian!

Three weeks of my diet

Things are moving along right on track! I have lost two pounds in three weeks, I don't have a lot to lose so I want to take it slowly. Losing it too fast results in a look that can be haggard, and your skin can look loose instead of tight and smooth.


Shoulders are looking good! I am starting to get a nice cap, but it will never be enough so I will keep working on them.

The abs are looking better and better as I lose the body fat, as I said before, I never let myself gain very much fat, I don't believe in the old theory that to gain lean muscle you need to pack on the fat. There is no reason to do that. Science has proven that you need to ingest more calories than you expend so you can gain, it has also proven that you don't need to ingest hundreds more calories that you expend resulting in a great deal of unwanted (and un-needed) fat. There is a happy medium, most people just like to use it as an excuse to pig out.

My V taper is looking better as my waist comes in, and I can see that I don't have as much fat on my upper back, an area where many women my age will start to store it.

 

I think the next thing I need is a new camera!

So, I have 12 weeks to go and honestly, I think I may be a bit too lean to start now, so it's a good thing I am going on vacation and plan to enjoy myself, I won't go crazy, but I will eat one of my favorite dishes that Dona Nica makes for me: Camarones empanizados con mayonesa (breaded, fried shrimp with mayonnaise) and a cold tecate!

And of course a few margaritas while watching the sunset on the beach.

Tortellini in Broth

Tortellini in broth, who doesn't love that?!

I am on a diet, so I am not eating this, but my husband and son are not on a diet, and they like this. First I made my dinner:

2 ounces sweet potato, pureed
4 ounces ground turkey, sauteed with chorizo spices
6 spears asparagus, steamed
1 cup mixed sauteed bell peppers

Then the boys wanted something and we hadn't really given it much thought so it's off to the freezer to see what we have.

I almost always have homemade chicken stock, it is easy to make and there is no comparison to the canned or boxed garbage.

I heated that up and then put in a bag of Barilla 3 Cheese Tortellini.

Take a look at the front of this package. It says in very BOLD letters:

Dinner for 2 in 10 Minutes

Well, this is quite alluring isn't it? I can toss this in the stock and the boys will have dinner in 10 minutes.

Let's just take a look at the nutritional facts on the side.

It says that each serving has the following:

230 Calories

8 Grams fat

500 mg Sodium

32 Grams Carbohydrates

8 Grams protein

About what I would expect, you know pasta is high in calories and carbs. Not really too bad for a meal...(if you aren't on a diet).

But wait a minute, there is something wrong here. Look at the very top of the label. It says the serving size is 2/3 cup and there are 4 servings in the container!

This means that based on what it says on the front, you and one other person have just finished eating this because it was Dinner for 2 in 10 Minutes, and this is what you really consumed:

460 Calories

16 Grams fat

1000 mg Sodium

64 Grams Carbohydrates

16 Grams protein

Not only did they fool you into thinking it was a lower  calorie dinner, but had you been serving more than 2 people, you probably would have bought more of this pasta based on the front label, say three bags for 6 people. They screw you twice! You consume too many calories based on their label and spend too much money too.

Sneaky marketing that's what it is. No wonder why most of America is obese and dying of heart related disease.

Damn! Should have gone out for a burger!

Oh, plus they had this:

Good thing they aren't on a diet, they would not be very happy with the results.

If you eat packaged foods, please be very careful and thoroughly read the labels.

Fat Loss

A friend of mine said to me "It's easy for you to lose body fat".  She was serious.

I want to publicly state for the record, that I never said it was easy to lose all your body fat. I am sorry if I ever implied it was easy or if I ever gave anyone the impression that it was no big deal.

It's hard as hell.

It's probably one of the most difficult things I have ever done. But I have done it many times and I am always successful. This doesn't mean it is easy though.

Anyone can lose body fat and get down to a ridiculously low figure, in the picture above I am fairly low, it's a week before a competition so I am about 6%. I am at the gym practicing my posing and laughing as one of the other members cracks a joke.

It takes will power, determination, patience and the desire to win. It also takes a huge amount of support from the people around you.

It means being hungry. That's hard, people don't deal with hunger very well. A lot of it is psychological, I mean, we are really an over fed nation, but we are greedy and want it all.

It means not partaking of meals with friends and family, you bring your own and are happy with it or you isolate yourself.

It means not having a great deal of energy at times, depending on where you are in your diet. You just want to give up.

It means learning to not be a whiner. No one likes to listen to you complain about your damn diet!  You chose to do this, so do it and shut up! (special dispensation is allowed for fellow competitors in the same boat, sometimes we need to chat each other to make it through the day).

But you can do it, anyone can. I don't want anyone to fail because I made them think it was easy. It's one of the hardest things you will ever accomplish.

Take the journey with me, follow along and you will experience my hills and valleys along the way.

Ground Turkey Breast

I found this at Smart and Final. I have never seen EXTRA lean ground turkey breast!

Now, to most people this isn't a big deal, but to someone like me, who is just starting to diet for a Figure competition, this is a fantastic treat!

There is a huge difference between losing weight and losing body fat. I never want to lose weight, I only ever lose body fat.

When you lose weight, all you do is drastically cut calories, do way too much cardio, and you become smaller.

A "mini me"

So, if you have ugly saddlebags now, you will still have them when you lose weight, but they will just be smaller. (I guess this is a whole other post).

When dieting down to lose all your excess body fat, you retain the lean body mass and lose the fat only, so those saddle bags? Gone, like magic.

The trick is eating the right foods. And one of the "must do's" is limiting your fat intake. I didn't say eliminate, I said limit. You still need some "good fats" (and I suppose this is yet another post).

Fat has more calories per gram than protein or carbohydrate. It's really easy to be fooled by labels, so you need to learn to read them.

For instance, many people think "ground turkey" is fine. Well, it is not. Ground turkey is loaded with skin and fat. very, very bad, might as well eat a nice tasty piece of beef.

Ground turkey BREAST is what you want. But it comes in different fat percentages, just like ground beef does.

Usually I can find 93% fat free, but this is 99% !!!

You cannot always count on the label to give you the low down though, you need to know how to figure it out for yourself. Here is how:

Look at the label for the grams of fat and the calories. In the instance of this turkey, the fat grams are 1.5 grams and the calories are 120. Figure out the percentage:

Grams of fat x 9 = fat calories

divide by Total calories= % Fat

1.5x 9 = 13.50 fat calories
divided by 120 total calories = .11% fat


Ideally you want to eat foods that are 10% or less fat.

What did I do with my extra lean ground turkey? I made chorizo, and then sauteed it and mixed it with egg whites and spinach. Yum!

In a bog bowl combine (hands work great) the 20 ounce package of turkey, 2 Tbsps chili powder, 2 Tbsps chipotle powder, 3 Tbsp white vinegar, 1 Tbsp oregano crumbled, pepper and 3 cloves garlic crushed.

This is not science, use more or less, all one kind of chili, use garlic powder instead of salt. I then formed it into patties and froze them, except for the 2 ounces I had with my egg whites and spinach.

I Just Wanna Tone

What do you like to do in the gym? I am always stunned by people who say "I don't want to get really big and muscular".

Do you know how hard it is to get muscular? How hard you have to push yourself just to add some lean mass to your frame? How strict you need to be with your nutrition to add the lean mass and not the fat?

Seriously, most people cannot get big and muscular even when they try! You must eat lots of food, (the proper food), and lift heavy weights, over and over and over.


Women really drive me nuts when they say they want to "tone". I hate that phrase "I just want to tone".


There is no such thing as "toning", you need to build up lean muscle, period. Actually, I think Wikipedia does a great job describing "toning", they explain you need a combination of weights and cardio to "tone".

You can lift those itty bitty weights and burn through your cardio, but you aren't "toning" you are simply ensuring that you are a smaller version of your current self. Little weights won't produce hypertrophy, and that's what you need!

skinny=unhealthy and unattractive 

muscles=healthy and beautiful

Below is a funny video that is a bit critical of people who want "to tone" and are afraid they may "get too muscular" by lifting weights....(email readers must navigate directly to my blog).

I would love to have a gym like this near my home, I would be in there every single day! Actually, I am thinking of retiring in the not too distant future, and this is what I want to do with my time, open a gym just like this!

Not only would I toss people like this out in the snow, but along with them, perfume wearers, gum smackers and people who don't wash their workout gear and wear the same gym clothes every single day!

Christmas Treats, Diet Wreakers

My Christmas gifts from my husband, you can see I am thrilled! In case you cannot see everything, it is two small bags of Doritos, two Jo's Salt Caramels and a book called My Horizontal Life, A Collection of One-Night Stands by Chelsea Chandler.

Oh what fun! Smut and junk food!

I will most likely end up saving it all for vacation, our real gift to each other. We go to Mexico every February for a week on the beach. While folks here at home are dealing with wind, rain and cold weather, I am wondering which of my 12 bikini's to wear in the 85 degree sun and what to drink as I lay on my chaise lounge on the beach.

The point of this is really the Doritos though. Some people eat a bag of chips every day. Every...Single....Day.

I eat a bag after every competition and I have two at Christmas. Five bags a year, tops.

In case you haven't looked at the nutritional facts (or lack of) on the bag, let me show you right here why you shouldn't be eating these "snacks"

1 3/4 ounce bag of Cool Ranch Doritos

260 Calories
13 grams fat
320 mg Sodium
31 grams Carbohydrate
2 grams Sugars
3 grams Fiber
3 grams Protein

This is practically a meal in itself, a very, very bad meal. I will put it into perspective for you.

Each of my meals ranges from 200 to 350 calories total.

Each of my meals (other than post training) has 20 to 25 grams carbohydrates total.

Might as well suck on a spoonful of mayonnaise with all the fat in these beauties.

If you are really serious about losing body fat, you should not be eating things like this.  Don't close your eyes and mind and pretend that one little bag won't hurt, it certainly will.

If you are at a place where you can afford it, like I am when I am at 4% bodyfat, then it's not a problem. If your bodyfat is over 20% (women) and 15% (men), get your hands outta the bag for good!

Oh and our vacation spot? Hacienda Eden, on the Pacific Coast. This will be our 15th year there, room #4! It is quiet, secluded, has no discos, few tourists, and great food surrounds us.

I am looking forward to walking down the road to Marta's, on the small cove in the neighboring town of Majahua where we will sit in plastic chairs with our feet in the sand and eat fresh lobster as we watch the fishermen.

The Doritos? I will probably eat them in the plane on the way down.

Post Exercise Eating Part II

Excuse the funny face, I wear a mouth guard when I lift.

You know, the kind football players wear? (sorta) I know, most people think that's overkill, but when my dentist looked at my teeth a couple years ago he said I was clenching my teeth and cracking them, along with causing the gums to recede, only on the eye teeth! That was the give away, the gums are only affected on the eye teeth.

SO, he made a custom made guard for me. It fits on the upper teeth only, it's not a pretty sight.

"R" took this picture a couple weeks ago. She is very patient with me.

So, what to eat after training? I am going to discuss what to eat when trying to gain lean mass. If you are trying to lose weight, it's  not the right ratio for you. The concept is the same, but oh that fat loss is a whole other world!

Carbohydrates:

You need high glycemic load carbohydrates , so they can quickly fill your empty stores. A smaller amount of lower glycemic carbs are also good, to provide a longer, steady release into the blood.

Glucose is good for the quick high glycemic carbs. What is glucose?

It is the sugar in starchy foods such as potatoes, rice or grains.

Fructose is good for the slow steady carbs. What is fructose?

It is the sugar in fruit and fruit juices.


Protein:

You need amino acids for resynthesis of protein that may have been damaged during exercise. In an intense 1 hour workout, it is possible to use 30 grams of muscle protein for fuel.

Protein, especially sources high in branched chain amino acids should be taken in with your carbs.

The ratio should be 4 to 1 ( carbs to protein).

Ideally, a liquid form is best, as it is absorbed more readily and it begins the re hydration process.

You can buy a recovery drink, you can make your own, or you can eat whole food. It's not critical for the average fitness enthusiast, just make sure you don't wait to refuel!

I personally aim for about 40 grams glucose, 10 grams fructose and 20 grams protein. You will find many thoughts about this, people have lots of opinions. I aim for this ratio because I try to ingest whole food instead of liquid as I need the food to satisfy my hunger. Liquid just doesn't do it for me.

What you should notice is that I am taking in about double the amount of carbs that I normally would at a meal.

There is a recovery drink that does this already:


Pacific Health Endurox R4

It's great tasting, I like the tangy orange. It's not cheap though. If you need the specific ratio and are not prepared to make it yourself, this is great.

This is not to be taken if you are not training really intensely though, you will gain weight! If your training is less intense, you can cut the servings or just calculate it yourself. Endurox R4 was developed for an endurance athlete, so if you haven't really busted your butt at the gym, its probably a bit too much for you.

One serving of Endorox R4 is:

270 calories
52 grams carbs
13 grams protein


But, I can eat this:

As soon as I am done, I fill up my water bottle with a homemade mixture (L- glutamine, beta-alanine, amino acids, L- leucine).

I get home then have 1 cup egg whites with 3/4 cup brown rice mixed in, and a half a grapefruit (or some fruit).

Or, 3/4 of a bagel, 1 Tablespoon low sugar jam, and 1 cup of microwaved egg whites

Or, oatmeal with a small amount of fruit and the egg whites.

Or, my homemade oat/egg white waffles.....all in one.


There are many choices, just take the time to figure out the carbs and protein and feed your body!

Be very careful with dried fruit, for instance, 1/4 cup of raisins is not an unusual amount to add to some oatmeal, yet look at the nutritional breakdown:

130 calories
31 grams carbs
29 grams sugars

So if you have one serving of oatmeal and 1/4 raisins, you are getting way too many calories and carbs, double the numbers above and that's what you have...opt for a heaping teaspoon of the raisins at most.

There are many theories about post training feeding, most people will agree that this meal "doesn't count" meaning don't worry too much about the higher calories and carbs as your body really needs it. I chose to be a bit more conservative, I increase but I don't go overboard.

When I am dieting for a competition, I change it completely, no fruit, no dairy, no bread, very little fat, very little sugar.

Related articles

• Post Exercise Eating Part I (readyin5weeks.blogspot.com)

Post Exercise Eating Part I

Whoa Nelly!

One look here and you are thinking "Damn...she got big!"

Yes I did thank you very much, and that was and still is my goal. It's all a cycle, just like life itself. There is a starting point, changes, backslides, moving forward, nothing is constant.

In the sport of figure, you have to get very, very lean. You also need to sport some pretty impressive muscle. You cannot stay on a diet all the time or you start to look haggard, you lose muscle and you look old and tired.

You may also be interested in doing this even if you don't compete.

So life goes in cycles. Gain and lose, gain and lose.

You bulk up part of the year. You don't have to get fat, in fact, that's not a good idea at all, but with muscle gain comes some fat gain, they sorta go hand in hand, but you can control how much of each if you eat properly.

Eating post exercise is critical because your body is better prepared to receive and store carbohydrate that at any other time during the day. I shudder when I hear women (mostly) talk about how they exercise on an empty stomach, then they don't eat anything for hours, just to make sure they have "burned off all those extra calories".

What they have done is ensure they will look like helpless, skinny, emaciated waifs for a long, long time. Yuck!

Timing is critical. At no other time during the day is your body as receptive to nutrient intake as it is immediately after training. Research shows that the restocking if the muscles' carbohydrate stores is two to three times as rapid immediately after exercise as it is a few hours later.

In the same way, other research shows that the repair of muscles damaged during exercise is more effective if protein is consumed immediately after exercise.

Tomorrow, exactly what and how much to take in?

Bigger and Bigger

I have been eating and lifting, lifting and eating.

You know what happens when you do that? You get big, real big. I have been fluctuating up and down a couple pounds, all depends on what I ate the days before.  I haven't yet hit the 130 mark though and I think it's a bit odd, seems I should have by now.

The heaviest I have been in recent years is 132 and that was December of 2009, exactly a year ago. I want to get as much muscle as I can, and to do so I need to lift heavy and eat enough calories to gain weight, but every time I see that back fat start hanging over my bra top, or a jiggle around the waist, I get a little skitterish and seem to back off.

Its a simple process, I tell others all the time "Embrace the process", "You must go through this to be successful", yet I have a difficult time listening to my own advice.

Sunday morning and I am standing in front of the fridge so you can see how big I have gotten.

The glutes look great still! I think the fact that I run up and down 300 stairs, 4 days a week helps, but then that is a form of cardio and that makes me burn more calories. I only spend a total of 20 minutes though, so not too much.

And the shorts? I love em! They are actually underwear, but when I wore them to the gym today, I got a "cute shorts" from one of the most conservative women there, so I know I am OK.

These are Under Armour Mesh Series Boyshorts, and I am going to get them in the other colors too. Blue, Black and red/white splash. Not only do I like the way they sit low on my hips, they are super thin and feel like wearing nothing!

So I realize these aren't very great pictures, or in fact, very complimentary at all. I guess after spending two and a half hours at the gym I could have taken a shower and put on some make up first, maybe even done something with my hair, but do you really care?  This is what I am looking like now, and what I will look like for a while as I try to get bigger and bigger for the next two and a half months.

Bottoms up!

Sandwiches

I love sandwiches. Ask my family, I always tell them that some left over piece of their meat will make a great sandwich, it's kind of a running joke around our house, especially because I really cannot eat them very often.

Why?

Simple: If you are trying to be lean, bread doesn't belong in your diet. It is processed empty calories for the most part.

However, I am not preparing for a competition right now, in fact, I am trying to gain weight. I don't really like adding fat to my frame, but it's a necessary evil if I want to add muscle.

I am sure you have read people telling you that they have the secret to add lean mass (muscle) and lose fat all at the same time. Don't believe it, if they had that secret, they would be multi-millionaires and wouldn't need to be selling their "revolutionary system" over the Internet for $129.99.

So the way you get bigger is you eat more calories. They should ideally be healthy choices and not garbage though. My current diet allows me to eat more breads and pastas and I am enjoying that part quite a bit.

I am very excited that I discovered a new bread on Friday. I have already had two sandwiches in two days too!

This bread is made by the same company that makes the great whole grain bread I buy, Alvarado Street Bakery. This bread is the Essential Flax Seed bread and it has 100 calories for TWO slices and 18 grams of carbs for TWO slices! That's half of what most breads have! I am in heaven.

Here is what they say about this wonderful organic bread:

Our “Essential” Flax Seed Bread is a great source of Omega 3 and 6. This “Essential” bread has the lowest calories of all our breads, as well as the lowest fat, lowest sodium and lowest carbs. This great tasting bread is available through our on-line store, as well as in supermarkets and natural food stores throughout the country.
 

Ingredients:
Sprouted Organic Whole Wheat Berries, Filtered Water, Wheat Gluten, Sprouted Organic Whole Flax Seeds, Oat Fiber, Cultured Wheat, Organic Dates, Fresh Yeast, Organic Raisins, Soy Based Lecithin, Sea Salt 

The nutrition facts for two slices are:

100 calories

18 grams carbs

5 grams fiber

1 gram sugar

6 grams protein

100 mg sodium

It's almost too good to be true!

David had a sandwich and liked it enough that he said he can eat it all the time.  I am heading out to the store on Monday and getting one more loaf of this great bread. You can order it online if your store doesn't carry it.

What are my favorites? Scrambled egg whites with romaine lettuce; tuna with sprouts and avacado; and peanut butter with no sugar jelly. 

Galeo's Miso Caesar Salad Dressing

A friend of mine just posted this on Facebook and I had to share it with you.

Lab Tests: Galeos Caesar Dressing Not What it Claims to Be
Mitch LipkaMitch Lipka RSS Feed
Nov 18th 2010 at 7:30AM


Editor's note: This is the first in a periodic series of stories in which Consumer Ally will commission laboratory tests to verify food label claims. If there's a food you think is too good to be true, let us know at ConsumerAlly@WalletPop.com.

Galeos Miso Caesar Dressing, a supposedly low-calorie and low-fat product hyped on NBC's reality show "The Biggest Loser" and endorsed by trainer Jillian Michaels, among others, is neither low-cal nor low-fat, lab tests commissioned by Consumer Ally found. Testing showed the actual calories per serving is almost 10 times what the label claims.

The dressing, sold at Whole Foods stores and other health-conscious grocers nationwide, is comparable in fat and calories to such non-diet brands as Marie's Caesar, and has more fat and calories than Kraft's Creamy Caesar.

The Galeos label claims 14 calories and 1 gram of fat per tablespoon serving. That's where the problems start. The serving size required by federal law on dressing labels is 2 tablespoons, creating the illusion - even if those numbers were accurate - that the dressing outdoes other diet dressings.

The laboratory showed the label should properly read: 120 calories, 11 grams of fat and 390 mg of sodium. The actual label claims 56 grams of sodium. Federal food labeling laws give companies a 20% margin of error.

Labels are frequently in error, but typically within that margin. A Consumer Ally reader suggested we test Galeos dressing.

Company owner Andrei Leontieff acknowledged to Consumer Ally the serving size could be an issue, but added the one tablespoon serving would be OK if it was considered a marinade. It isn't.

He didn't dismiss the lab findings nor express surprise. Upon further questioning, Leontieff explained tests he has commissioned backed up his label's claims.

"What I have is totally different," he said.

He declined to further discuss the results obtained by Consumer Ally, which paid for testing done at Specialized Technology Resources' food laboratories. Consumer Ally purchased Galeos dressing at a Whole Foods Market and shipped an unopened bottle for testing.

On the Galeos' website, Leontieff takes full responsibility for how the dressing is made.

"Under the watchful eye of Chef Andrei, Galeos Miso Dressings are prepared and bottled on site, insuring quality control from start to finish, every drop, homemade in America."

Quietly, among those promoting low-fat, low-calorie foods, there has been a buzz that this was a product that was too good to be true. Galeos has enjoyed strong support from healthy living devotees, including Michaels, based on what is written on the label.

Here is what she said in an interview earlier this year:

"But a salad dressing that I'm obsessed with ... - this is our one product that we joke has been around and stayed around since Season 1 of the Biggest Loser -- is a salad dressing called Galeo's and it's G-A-L-E-O apostrophe S, 17 calories a tablespoon, all natural and it tastes amazing and it comes in, you know, five or six different flavors."

Lisa Lillien, better known as "Hungry Girl" to the million followers of her observations on eating, told Consumer Ally this is good example of what health-conscious eaters should be wary of.

"If something tastes too good to be true it often is," she said. "So, be careful. I've seen this many times and am not surprised."

UPDATE (Nov.22): Here are the actual laboratory results before being broken down by serving size for Galeo's World's Best Miso Caesar:

    * Carbohydrates, g/100g – 7.8013
    * Fat, g/100g – 38.32
    * Moisture, g/100g – 46.39
    * Protein, g/100g – 4.1387
    * Saturated Fat, g/100g – 6.0
    * Calories, g/100 g – 392.64
    * Total Sugars, g/100g – 7.35
    * Sodium, mg/100g – 1306

10 Commandments of Getting Cut Part 3 of 3

Part III of The 10 Commandments of Getting Cut
Losing Fat, Not Just Weight

by Chris McClinch
  
Food Logs & Formulating a Cardio Plan

6. Thou shalt keep a food journal.

No matter how good your plan is, the only way to make sure you're following it exactly is to keep a record of everything that goes in your mouth. Is that a pain in the butt? Yes, at first. Is it essential? Absolutely. Why? Two reasons. One, you're trying to create a consistent caloric deficit, which is tough to do if you don't know exactly how many calories you're consuming in a given day. Two, most of the eating plans that control insulin and help you lose weight are very specific about the ratios of carbohydrates, protein, and fat that you're consuming. Writing down what you eat is the best way to make sure that your ratios are correct.

The best way to set up your food journal is whatever way makes it the most painless for you. You need to keep track of how many calories, grams of protein, grams of carbohydrates, and grams of fat you're taking in at what time of the day. That's the bare minimum. It's even better if you also track hunger levels, energy levels, and mood. This will help you fine-tune your diet to include more of the foods that fill you up and make you feel good.

I like keeping my journal in a physical notebook--I use a Mead composition book--but others use Excel spreadsheets or Web journals like the one available at www.fitday.com. There is no best way: whatever makes it most convenient for you is the proper way to go.

7. Thou shalt do smart cardio. Eating properly is only half the battle in losing body fat. The other half is physical activity. Most people understand that some type of cardiovascular activity is a good idea for fat loss, but unfortunately most do their cardio in a way that actually sabotages their chances of making progress.

What do you think of when I mention cardio? An hour-long jog? A long, steady session on the exercise bike? Sweatin' to the oldies? If it's any of those things, you're doing cardio, but you're not doing smart cardio. There are lots of things you can do to burn calories, but if you're reading this article, you know that you want the calories you burn to come from fat, not lean mass. Traditional long, slow distance cardio burns muscle and fat pretty indiscriminately. In fact, if you do enough, you may find that your body burns muscle preferentially to ease the demands of doing so much aerobic work. That's exactly the opposite of what you want.

So how do you do cardio without sacrificing precious muscle? The answer is interval work. Definitely get yourself cleared by a doctor before jumping into intervals, though, because the whole idea is to rapidly and repeatedly raise your heart rate, alternating the high heart rate work with brief recovery periods. The optimal way to do interval work is probably to do walkback sprints. Sprint all-out for 15 seconds, then turn around and walk back to where you started. It should take about 45 seconds to walk back. Once you're back where you started, sprint for 15 seconds again. Do seven sprints your first week, and add one sprint per week until you're up to 20 sprints per session.

If you're not up for sprints, you can approximate them on an exercycle or an elliptical machine. Simply go all-out for 15 seconds, then pedal or walk at a recovery pace for 45. The same build-up pattern applies.

Finally, if neither of these ideas appeals to you, you can try boxer-style cardio. Pull on a pair of bag gloves and pound the heavy bag for a minute, rest for a minute, jump rope for a minute, rest a minute, hit the heavy bag for a minute, etc. for the duration of your cardio session.

Cardio should be done 2-3 days per week, preferably on days when you don't lift. If you have to do cardio on lifting days, try to do cardio in the morning and lift in the evening. If you have to do them in the same session, lift first. Under no circumstances should you ever do cardio before lifting, as you will be dramatically weaker.

Weight Training for Fat Loss

8. Thou shalt train hard and heavy with the weights.

Time to explode another old training myth. For years, people have been saying that you need to use heavy weights and low reps to bulk up, and lighter weights and higher reps to get cut. This is just plain wrong. Getting cut has much more to do with how you eat than how you train. Ditto for bulking up. With that said, you want to train in such a way that your body will retain as much muscle mass as possible; just like you can't flex fat, you can't look ripped without muscle.

So what do I mean by hard and heavy? During this time, you want to be doing primarily compound exercises that involve a lot of muscle: squats, deadlifts, bench presses, bent-over rows, pull-ups, power cleans, snatches, military presses, dips. And you want to be training for strength. This is not the time for doing three sets of 12. Bump up the weight and go for five sets of five or even 10 sets of 3. Hold your rest in between sets to about a minute, and make the weight heavy enough that you're struggling to finish that final set.

9. Thou shalt not fall victim to the myth of spot reduction.

This is the big one that seems to get people who want to lose weight or see their abdominal muscles for the first time. Doing a billion crunches won't do a thing to burn the fat obscuring your abdominal muscles. The abductor/adductor machine (the "leg spreader") won't do a thing to reduce the size of your thighs. Step-ups will firm up the muscles of the butt and upper hamstrings, but they won't burn the fat there. Fat is burned by creating a caloric deficit and training the entire body with resistance exercise and smart cardio. That's the only effective way to deal with your "problem areas," whatever areas they may be.

10. Thou shalt keep a training journal.

A training journal is never as important as when you're trying to lose body fat. Your training journal is going to provide some of your most valuable feedback on how well your diet is working for you. You're not likely to get a lot stronger while dieting down unless you're relatively new to lifting weights, but if your training journal shows that your lifts are going down, it's a pretty good indication that you're restricting calories too severely and possibly burning muscle as well as fat.

Again, you can keep your training journal in a variety of formats. The most important information to record is the time of day, the exercises you do, the poundages you use for those exercises, the number of sets and reps you complete, and how it feels. This information will provide you with valuable feedback not just about your diet but about how your body responds to exercise. It's also the beginning of a continuous log that will show you how much progress you've made since you started working out and let you see at a glance what your most effective workout programs have been.

These commandments aren't glamorous, and they call for a good deal of hard work, but if you follow them religiously, you just might find that they'll lead you to the promised land of a lean, sexy physique.

Chris McClinch is an Arlington, VA-based bodybuilder and personal trainer. He won the middleweight title at the 2001 International Natural Bodybuilding Federation's collegiate national championships. As a trainer, he specializes in physique transformation and sport-specific strength training preparation, and is an active member of the IronOnline bulletin board.

10 Commandments of Getting Cut Part 1 of 3

I read this a while back and enjoyed it so I wanted to share it with you. Chris approaches fat loss with humor and solid, good information. Follow his advise and you will not go wrong, I guarantee it!

The article is long, so I am spacing it over the span of three days.


The 10 Commandments of Getting Cut
Losing Fat, Not Just Weight by Chris McClinch


Everywhere I go, people seem to be trying to lose weight. They're hitting the exercise bike, cutting fat out of their diets, and doing hundreds of sit-ups. Unfortunately, an awful lot of what they're doing isn't terribly productive, and some of it may actually be holding them back from reaching their goals. Losing fat isn't tough, but there's a lot of bad information out there. What follows isn't technologically advanced, and I don't have an infomercial or a 1-800 number for you to call and send me just $149.95, but it's solid information that will help you lose weight.

1. Thou shalt create a caloric deficit. Just like you need to take in more calories than you burn if you want to gain weight, you need to burn more calories than you take in if you want to lose it. You can adjust your caloric balance from both ends, of course: by eating fewer calories and by burning more. If you're not burning more calories than you're taking in, you're not losing weight. Period.


So far, so good, right? Wrong. Ever see what happens when people go on crash diets? They lose plenty of weight, but at least half of it is muscle. At best, they weigh less and have the exact same shape. At worst, their body fat percentage actually goes up. Because you're reading this, I'm positive you don't want to be one of those people. You want to lose as much fat as possible while holding onto the muscle.

2. Thou shalt not try to lose the weight too quickly.

The first thing you can do to make sure you hold on to your muscle mass is to make sure you're not losing more than two pounds a week. Unless you're obese, a loss of more than two pounds a week virtually guarantees that you're losing muscle as well as fat. Remember, you want to create a caloric deficit, but you don't want to create a deficit so large that your body mistakes it for starvation. If you're within 20 pounds of your ideal weight, shoot for a deficit of about 500 calories a day, which should mean a loss of a pound a week. If you're more than 20 pounds overweight, shoot for a deficit closer to 1000 calories a day, which will have you losing more like two pounds a week. As a rule of thumb, the more you have to lose, the quicker you can afford to lose it.


3. Thou shalt eat six meals a day. All too often, people try to lose weight by skipping breakfast, having a salad for lunch, and having a normal dinner. These people rarely look better after their diets, though. Don't become one of them. Every time you eat, your metabolism spikes for the next two hours or so while you digest the food. Given the exact same intake, split into two meals or six meals, you'll burn significantly more calories in digestion if you eat them as six smaller meals.

4. Thou shalt eat according to a plan.

Even when eating the right foods, eating at random is no good. You're less certain of creating a caloric deficit, you're less likely to get the right number of meals, and you'll frequently overdo it on the carbs, underdo it on the protein, or find that there's no real consistency from day to day. I can't recommend highly enough that you follow an eating plan.


Chris McClinch is an Arlington, VA-based bodybuilder and personal trainer. He won the middleweight title at the 2001 International Natural Bodybuilding Federation's collegiate national championships. As a trainer, he specializes in physique transformation and sport-specific strength training preparation, and is an active member of the IronOnline bulletin board.

Chorizo

I love Chorizo, who doesn't?

It certainly is not a healthy food group, no matter how you slice it.

The one you see above is a healthy choice, not the best, but if you need to eat chorizo, it's really the only one I have found that fills the bill.

It is also a very good example of how we can read labels and not completely comprehend what the label actually means. 

It is generally accepted that if you are adhering to a "low fat" diet, all of your foods should contain approximately 20% or less fat.  This is not as easy as you think if you eat any animal or packaged products.

 
I  eat this chorizo on occasion, never when I am competing (and I was in competition prep for 8 months this past year because I had three competitions, so I was on a non stop diet that entire time, no chorizo).

Here is the back of the package that shows the nutritional facts:

It looks totally healthy doesn't it? Only 2 grams of fat per serving.

 

But that's not quite the whole truth. You need to be able to interpret what this label is telling you, and it is only telling you what it must according to the law.

You need to look at two keys factors here:

Grams of fat and Total calories

One serving of this chorizo has only 2 little grams of fat. But each gram of fat is worth 9 calories.

2 x 9 = 18 Fat Calories

A serving is a total of 60 calories.

Divide the calories by the fat calories (18 divided by 60) = .30

This "healthy low fat" turkey chorizo is 30% fat......

Not such a healthy choice is it?

So what is that 3% fat they show on the back of the label anyway? That's the percentage of the daily value of fat according to a 2000 calorie diet. I can guarantee you that it is not a diet written for anyone who is attempting to lose body fat and look ripped either. 

So learn to read your labels, don't let them fool you into thinking you are eating healthy. 

Make your own chorizo, I do. In fact, I will be making chorizo turkey cutlets for dinner sometime this week and I will post the recipe. I have done it on a whim before, and posted it but it was a spur of the moment dish. I will put some effort into this one and it will surely be a keeper.

Keep following- it will be soon!