Calorie Awareness

A couple of days ago I expressed surprise that only 60% of women polled put ice cream on their brownie. However, it's true that if you are going to have a brownie, and you're trying to lose weight (as opposed to maintaining weight) - you should not add that extra icecream.

A few years ago, I worked as an editor on a book that a researcher had done about food studies among college students. A majority of students actually believed thtat if they had salad with their hamburger or other meal...the salad had no calories.

They believed that if they had ice cream, the hot fudge and nuts they put on it added no extra calories.

And in all cases, it seemed, these people believed that if they ate something "healthy" along with the hamburger, pizza or what have you, the entire meal had less calories than if they'd just eaten the hamburger or pizza alone.

In truth, of course, the opposite is true. Every single piece of food you eat has some calories, and there is no food that is a "fat burner", burning it off quicker than would be the case if you didn't eat that particualar food (along with everything else you ate that day).

Moderating your portions means just that. If you're going to eat peanut butter cookies for dessert, for example, dont' add chocolate chips to them and expect to only consume peanut-butter cookie calories. You've got to add in those chocolate chip calories as well.

When you're maintaining your weight, that's fine - when you're trying to lose weight - don't do it!