July/August weight loss thread

[txred9876]

243.2

Woo hoo.... 40 lbs lost total!

[GLC1968]

243.2

Woo hoo.... 40 lbs lost total!

Wow, awesome!! Congrats!

[Reesha]

Haha ugh 158 still.

[Biciclista]

you guys can shoot me for writing on this thread but there's an article in the NYTIMES right now that i found very profound; here's two excerpts:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/ma...tml?ref=dining

Consider some recent research on the links between cooking and dietary health. A 2003 study by a group of Harvard economists led by David Cutler found that the rise of food preparation outside the home could explain most of the increase in obesity in America. Mass production has driven down the cost of many foods, not only in terms of price but also in the amount of time required to obtain them. The French fry did not become the most popular “vegetable” in America until industry relieved us of the considerable effort needed to prepare French fries ourselves. Similarly, the mass production of cream-filled cakes, fried chicken wings and taquitos, exotically flavored chips or cheesy puffs of refined flour, has transformed all these hard-to-make-at-home foods into the sort of everyday fare you can pick up at the gas station on a whim and for less than a dollar. The fact that we no longer have to plan or even wait to enjoy these items, as we would if we were making them ourselves, makes us that much more likely to indulge impulsively.

Cutler and his colleagues demonstrate that as the “time cost” of food preparation has fallen, calorie consumption has gone up, particularly consumption of the sort of snack and convenience foods that are typically cooked outside the home. They found that when we don’t have to cook meals, we eat more of them: as the amount of time Americans spend cooking has dropped by about half, the number of meals Americans eat in a day has climbed; since 1977, we’ve added approximately half a meal to our daily intake.
Cutler and his colleagues also surveyed cooking patterns across several cultures and found that obesity rates are inversely correlated with the amount of time spent on food preparation. The more time a nation devotes to food preparation at home, the lower its rate of obesity. In fact, the amount of time spent cooking predicts obesity rates more reliably than female participation in the labor force or income. Other research supports the idea that cooking is a better predictor of a healthful diet than social class: a 1992 study in The Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that poor women who routinely cooked were more likely to eat a more healthful diet than well-to-do women who did not.

“Easy. You want Americans to eat less? I have the diet for you. It’s short, and it’s simple. Here’s my diet plan: Cook it yourself. That’s it. Eat anything you want — just as long as you’re willing to cook it yourself.”

[nolemom]

My husband and I totally agree with the information in the article. We go weeks without eating out. We are both very sensitive to salt and it is not unusual for us to gain several pounds (temporarily) after eating what appeared to be a healthy meal at a restaurant. That is why I am concerned about my upcoming trip. I will be eating out almost all of my meals. I do a lot of my food prep on the weekend and then we put meals together from our reserves during the week.

[GLC1968]

Mimi - there is definitely something to that...we have absolutely become a 'fast food' nation (fast food meaning pre-prepared items...not just McDonalds).

Unfortunately, I can guarantee that the diet he proposes won't work for me! I didn't get fat solely by eating out and I won't get thin simply by eating in...not when my favorite way of using up zucchini is in zucchini bread!

[txred9876]

I eat out quite frequently and I am still loosing weight. I think it all has to do with ones choices, food and otherwise. I have cut out any and all soy (unless it was hidden and I didn't know it). I have lost quite a bit the last two weeks. I have also tried to stay active. I had to join the gym because its just been to hot to do much of anything.

tracking everything I eat on livestrong.com and if I know where I am going out to I look to see if their nutritional stuff is online so I can make better choices.

tina