HIIT me

High intensity interval training or HIIT is a bit of a buzz work right now in the fitness world, as it is claimed that it gets you fit faster and melts fat off your body in a short time. So I decided to look into it.

It really does work. I joined the gym three weeks ago so that I could get access to equipment that meant I could exercise harder without further damaging my back or knees. At that point I could just about manage 40 minutes brisk walking. My first workout on the cross trainer totaled 40 minutes at a low intensity. Three weeks on after incorporating HIIT on the cross trainer I now routinely complete a 90 minute workout four times a week in addition to my walking.

So here is how to do it. Find a cardio exercise you enjoy and get up to speed, you should be working at about  75% of your capacity for about 3 minutes, then for 30-45 seconds, go as far and hard as you can. At the end of the sprint, drop back down to your 75% for a couple of minutes, then repeat the sprint / active rest cycle for about 20 minutes.

Here is a quick bit of advice though, if you are new to fitness, then make sure you wear a heart monitor, learn your maximum heart rate and don't overdo it. This is a stressful way to work out, but you will improve quickly.

It works by creating an oxygen deficit in your muscles during the short bursts of high intensity work, this oxygen is replaced during the active rest periods. It keeps your heart rate up and both these actions require large amounts of energy. If you have reduced your calorific intake, your body has to burn up fat to provide the energy. A second way your body burns even more fat is through an effect called post-exercise oxygen consumption, or to give it it's nickname, Afterburn. This afterburn continues to burn fat for up to 48 hours as your muscles replace the missing oxygen and glycogen energy stores.

For those of you who don't have the time to spend hours in the gym, 20 minutes of HIIT 5 times a week, providing it's combined with healthy eating, is all you need to do. You can really burn through that lard, as you can burn more calories with a 20 minute HIIT workout, than you can by spending an hour on a treadmill. If you combine it with weights / resistance training, you will get even better results.

At the gym

I joined our local gym today. I was going to try to hold off spending the money, but pounding the pavements was starting to take it's toll on my joints. Whilst I was unfit, hauling my ass round our little town was exercise enough, but all that walking over the last eight weeks has improved my fitness quite surprisingly. I found that I wasn't able to push myself or my heart rate into the ideal fat burning zone by walking. The pace I need to reach now puts too much stress on my overloaded joints and spinal injury.

The cross trainer, pictured to the right, is a great bit of kit. It gives a whole body workout without the jarring impacts of a treadmill or pavement or the numb butt of the exercise bikes. The fluid elliptical movement of your feet is similar to running and works the same lower body muscles. The longer two pole handles are linked to the foot plates and allow you to push and pull working you upper body. You can also let go of the handles altogether and work your core muscles as you constantly adjust your balance whilst moving.

The machine also has several resistance settings, that mean you can use it as a warm up exercise, as your main workout or as a cool down machine. Personally I use it as my main workout as I walk to and from the gym as a warm up.

For my main workout I did 3 fifteen minute sessions. Each session I set the machine at a low resistance and pace myself so that my heart rate holds steady at 120 bpm for five minutes. I then double the resistance and pick up the pace for a minute, pushing my heart rate out of the aerobic zone, up to 150 bpm into the anaerobic zone for one minute, then drop the resistance and speed, so my heart rate drops back to 120. After two minutes at 120 bpm, I repeat the faster pace etc until I've completed 15 minutes. I take a short 3 minute break, grab some water and then repeat the exercise again.

I based the workout on interval training, although at a slightly more relaxed pace and intensity, as I'm guessing workout facilities in the local heart attack ward are a little sparse. You calculate your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220. The idea fat burning zone is 55 - 65% of your maximum, the anaerobic zone is between 65-75%. Shorter sessions of interval training has been shown to be more effective than spending hours plodding along on the treadmill. Ideally it should be one minute at high intensity, then two at a lower intensity for about 30 minutes. Although my fitness level has improved significantly, I'm no where need ready for very intense levels.

As my fitness levels improve, I'll up the intensity of the intervals to maintain the optimal fat burning effects. As my core strength improves I'll be able to add weights into the workout to push the muscles that don't get pushed hard enough on the cross trainer.

Does my bum look big in this?

My wife went after my favorite t-shirt the other day with a pair of scissors. It's now enjoying life as her night shirt instead of , as she refers to it, part of my badly dressed scarecrow ensemble. After losing a lot of weight, my clothes don't fit me very well. I know I've still got a long way to go, but it turns out, it took quite a bit of fabric to cover the 50lbs of lard I've shed so far. My jeans are only held up with a belt and the aforementioned t-shirt looked like I was a kid wearing his dad's shirt.

Whilst loose fitting clothes help conceal unwanted bulges, baggy clothes do you no favours at all. If anything they can make you look bigger than you actually are. They are also quite uncomfortable. My jeans had an extra 3 inches of fabric on the waistband, that bunched up under my belt and dug into me when I sat down.

I'm guessing I'm not the only (slightly less) fat bloke out there that has older clothes, in smaller sizes, that were grown out of, in the pursuit of ridding the world of pepperoni - one pizza at a time. So out came the storage boxes and we began mining the strata of clothes that had built up over time. At first I felt a little down by the thought that I had put on the weight in the first place. Thinking about each year that I added more clothes to the pile. But then remembered that I had managed to undo the last couple of year's excess in six weeks. In another couple of months I'd be down to the fashion mistakes of the 2010 layer or possibly lower.

It would be nice to go shopping for new clothes, but as we are on a budget this will have to do. The other thing I don't like about clothes shopping at my size, is that the high street shops don't cater for big chaps. You get dirty looks just approaching the door. There are a few specialty stores, but they know they have a captive market and seriously overprice their stock. I'll go clothes shopping in the new year when I'm back into sizes that don't need a number in front of the XL on the label.

After trying on many different t-shirts, shirts and trousers I felt great. I now have some clothes that fit properly and feel comfortable. My neighbour stopped my a couple of days ago and complimented me on how well I looked. The strangest discovery is that I feel thinner. I am aware that the main reason I feel thinner, is the weight I have lost, but now that my clothes fit me, it makes me feel thinner.

I have found that having clothes in a smaller size is a great motivator. I have another reason to stick to my plan and lose more weight. To renew this feeling I have by getting into a smaller pair of jeans.  

They only want to detox your wallet

How many times have you been told or read in a magazine that you have to detox to be healthy? Would you believe me if I were to tell you that cleansing and detoxifying are just a marketing terms to help detox your wallet?

The detox fad has gained a lot of ground lately and the list of products, plans and treatments you can buy is astounding, considering none of them are based on actual science. There is a medical term 'detoxification' which describes the treatments to rid the body of actual life threatening toxins such as lead and other heavy metals for example. The detox advocates would have you believe that you need to periodically cleanse your liver, kidneys and gut for optimal health.

Your body encounters all kinds of chemicals, both naturally occurring and synthetic. It does an excellent job of processing these chemicals, separating beneficial chemicals from the harmful ones. Your body then eliminates anything it doesn't want or need via the liver, kidneys, bowel and skin. Nothing gets stored for periodic cleansing by you. If you eat a balanced diet, don't over-do the booze and obviously don't smoke, your body will work fine. When you constantly barrage it with junk, your digestive organs need to work hard to process the food. Which is why cleanses and detoxes appear to work, for a week or more you live a virtuous life of pure detox water, detox treatments and other wallet lightening procedures. In turn for laying off the junk, your body responds by working normally. Two weeks after your detox, and you are eating the same junk as before, you feel like you need to detox again.

You will notice that the detox advocates and salesmen warn about all the harmful toxins that collect in your body, but fail to mention what these toxins are called. They just make sure that you know you shouldn't have them, because they have been linked with illness and cancer. If you do some research into detox therapy, you won't find a single clinical study that shows a link between a detox system, specific toxins and links to clinically demonstrable effects. It is all just the placebo effect. I'm not saying that this isn't good, we humans have an inbuilt belief that we accumulate badness in whatever form and need to make amends for it. The cleanse is just another way we 'pay' for our unhealthy lifestyle.

Try this free 'detox' system; for the next 10 days, you are only allowed to eat food in the following ratio. 50% vegetables, 25% carbohydrates and 25% protein. There are no bad carbs, no bad protein and no bad fats. You cannot drink alcohol for the next 10 days and limit your coffee and tea to just 2 cups, which can only be drunk before 6pm. For the rest of the time just drink water or sugar free soft drinks (without caffeine). If you still need to snack between meals, follow the same 50-25-25 rule, so if you have to eat that snickers, balance it out with some fruit or veg. Restaurants are off limits, without exception, they will add salt, fat and other unnecessary ingredients to your food to make it taste 'nice'. (Also avoid diet meals from supermarkets like the plague, low fat does not equal healthy, when they add sugar and salt to compensate for the flavour lost from removing the fat).  

After 10 days your digestive system will feel just as good, if not better then after your detox. Your wallet will not have lost weight, but you might have.

10% Benefits

I've done a bit of reading about the benefits of losing just 10% of your body weight and I thought it would make a great blog post.

First the medical benefits;

A healthier heart. With less you to lug around your heart doesn't have to work as hard, this can lower your blood pressure. Also to lose the weight, you will be eating healthier food, lowering your cholesterol.

You will reduce your risk for developing diabetes. Fat interferes with your bodies ability to regulate insulin.

A decreased risk of some cancers, studies have shown that reducing body fat can lower the risk for breast and colon cancer.

A healthier gallbladder. A diet rich in fatty foods puts a strain on your liver and gallbladder. Take it from me, when it goes wrong it can really hurt. Especially when the gallstones block your pancreas and you spend a week in intensive care.

Less pain. Our bodies were designed to carry a little fat to see us through the lean times, but not to waddle us into obesity. Reducing your body weight by 10% can significantly lighten the stresses on your joints.

Now for the other benefits;

Better sleep. Many obese people develop obstructive sleep apnea, and never know it. Every night your body fights for oxygen as your airway closes from the effect of fat weighing down your neck muscles, closing off your airway. Although you don't realise it, you wake up momentarily to gasp for breath. This broken sleep contributes to the lack of energy you may feel.

More energy. I thought this one was being over exaggerated, but having lost over 10% of my body weight now, I can vouch for the validity of the claim. I'm not going to be running the London marathon any time soon, but walking is becoming a pleasure rather than a source of pain. I wake up feeling ready to take on the world. I just need to build my stamina levels up to match the energy I feel I have.

And finally one for the guys, did you know that fat cells produce estrogen? The more fat you have, the more estrogen you can pump into your system.The more estrogen the lower your sex drive. So reduce your body weight by 10% to really kick start your body.

What I eat

I thought I would post what I ate on a typical day. Whilst I'm basically following the Slimming World plan, I do tweak it a little, and I'm happy with the weight loss. You may see different results if you eat the same as me.

I took a random green day and original day from my food log spread sheet. If you have read earlier posts you will know that I don't eat at set meal times, only when I'm actually hungry. I also typically eat smaller portions that the Slimming World recipes indicate. Once I feel full, I stop eating, if there is food left on my plate, I'll reheat it later for my next meal, or as part of leftovers in the next day's menu.

Green Day

I typically start eating between 10 and 11:30 am. On the day I chose 35g of porridge oats (B healthy extra) made up with 175ml skimmed milk  (1/2A healthy extra)  and 50ml water. I sweeten the porridge with some artificial sweetener and 2 tsp of golden syrup (2 syns). Whilst I wait for the porridge to cool down a little, I have a banana.

After a couple of hours, I had a large handful of grapes and a Muller light yogurt. I know lots people automatically reach for yogurts whilst trying to lose weight, but I actually like the stuff.

My next meal was a Batchelor's cheese, leek and ham flavoured Pasta 'n Sauce (1 syn). I add chopped leek to the packet and once it's cooked I add a handful of dry fried onions, 27g of chopped, well cooked bacon (3 syns - all fat cut off prior to grilling) and 15g of grated strong cheddar cheese (1/2A healthy extra) , with a liberal sprinkle of cayenne pepper.

My last meal of the day was a spicy tomato and bacon pasta. I chopped up an onion and yellow pepper and dry fried them in a sauce pan with a little crushed garlic. Once they were starting to brown, I added 100ml of passata and 55g of grilled bacon (B healthy extra). I also added a dessert spoon of hot sauce and the same of dried basil and simmered for 10 minutes. Whilst this was cooking I boiled up 75g of fusilli lunghi pasta. I garnish with 10g of freshly grated parmesan cheese (2 syns).

Red Day

I prefer eating mostly green day foods, but I find I have a better weight loss if I throw in a red day or two. I do find however red days can be quite high in salt, so I make sure I don't have one too close to weigh in day, as I don't want to be retaining excess water from the extra salt I've eaten.

Yesterday was a particularly enjoyable red day as it included my current favorite food, chicken and bacon quesadillas. So after weigh in, there is a group meeting where the consultant gives us food tips, recipes and a pep talk for the coming week. Feeling peckish half way through, I had an apple and a banana.

I was hungry once I go home at 11:30, but had forgotten to get the bacon out of the freezer the night before. I had a fat free Greek style lemon yogurt (1/2 syns) some fresh pineapple and a banana.

By 2:30 I was ready for food, so I made my chicken and bacon quesadillas, to save a couple of syns I use 45g of cheese (1 A healthy extra and 3 syns). I've also started to add a chopped tomato to the recipe, to increase my veg intake a little. I count the wrap as a B healthy extra where the official plan says it's supposed to by synned. As I mentioned earlier, I tweak the rules slightly, but the tweaks work for me (38 lbs loss in 4 weeks) but this may not work for you.

After spending the afternoon in the garden hacking back the hedge, I had a Slimming World Hi-Fi bar that was given at the group meeting that morning (3 syns). I usually don't bother with these bars as they are quite small for the syn value, but it made a nice change.

By 7pm I was hungry again so I had bacon, syn free sausage, 150g baked beans (B healthy extra) and an omelet made with onion, sweet peppers, cheese (A healthy extra) and a large dash of hot sauce, 1 butter bud (1/2 syn) and a pinch of freshly ground black pepper.

I've also gotten into the habit of eating my last meal around 7pm so that I go to bed just as I start to feel hungry again. Your body uses a lot of energy to digest food, going to sleep on a full stomach means your body is working hard whilst it is supposed to be resting and repairing itself.

I know the plan says you can eat unlimited free and super free foods so you never have to feel hungry, but the plan is still basically a simplified way to limit calorie intake. I have taken the time to learn what my body is telling me and to tell the difference between hunger induced by thirst, boredom, emotions and actual hunger. I also make sure I don't over eat at a meal. I try to eat more slowly and stop once I feel full. Being properly hungry when you sit down to eat makes the food seem to taste so much nicer.

Making time for food

The events of the previous three days have been somewhat unexpected and really hectic. Getting healthy would have taken a back seat if I had been less prepared. Eating healthy does take a lot of work, planning meals, shopping, preparing ingredients and cooking. Unhealthy foods are easy, grab a ready meal and nuke it, or the nice people on the other end of my phone will bring me pizza.

We sit down once or twice a week and plan out meals for the next few days, where possible we cook large batches of freezable meals, so it doesn't feel like we spend hours on end in the kitchen every day. I also chop up a lot of the veggies we buy and freeze them in recipe friendly portions. That way when I don't feel like all the hassle of cooking or when I return home, ready to tear chunks off a scabby horse, a nutritious meal is only minutes away.

This week I've had little time to cook, so microwaving portions of chilli and spaghetti bolognaise have saved my sanity and diet. On the days where I have been able to cook fresh food, I found that chopping all the ingredients I would use for the entire day, in the morning before I got busy, meant that when I got hungry, I could pull all the ingredients out of the fridge and whip up a masterpiece in minutes, just like the TV chefs and their dozens of little pots of ingredients (you can guarantee they don't have to do the washing up afterwards).

Another tip for when you are too busy to buy healthy food, is to let someone else do the shopping for you. Here in the UK our main supermarkets allow you to shop online and have your food delivered. The delivery prices have dropped to just a pound for certain days of the week and in some cases free if you spend enough. I've found I can do a week's shop in about a third of the time on my computer, with the benefit of never having to go near the chocolate biscuit aisle.

I've not managed to get out and be as active as I would have liked this week, but I've still managed to stick to the healthy eating plan and am looking forward to getting my 2½ stone award and my precious sticker at tomorrow's weigh in.

Staying motivated

After this week's weigh in I found my motivation levels had dropped. I know that a four pound loss would be a dream come true for most people, but having done this all before and had excellent results I felt kind of cheated. So I looked back at my weight loss journal from 14 years ago to see what I did differently.

It turns out that my weight loss slowed on week three back then too, it accelerated in week four and then settled into a five to six pound average loss each week. I'm also fourteen years older, less active and have to be careful of a damaged disc in my spine. I'm feeling better about my perceived lack of achievement. This made me think about motivation and if I felt knocked back after this minor hiccup, then how would I cope if I were to not lose weight one week, despite doing everything right?

I know that weight loss is essentially a simple calculation, consume less calories than you use and your body uses the stored fat to make up the energy deficit. Your body however does some strange things and your weight fluctuates daily, so you could be unlucky and get weighed on the day your body decides it needs to hang on to some extra water for whatever reason. Knowing this doesn't help my comfort eating brain, so I decided to make a disaster recovery plan to boost my motivation.

• Recognise your progress. Last week I calculated my weight loss in cola bottles then went out and bought that many bottles and was amazed at what it felt like to carry them all at once. Today I would need to add another two liter bottle to that load.

• Visualise your goals. I have a spread sheet that I record my progress on, with intermittent goals marked on and a forecast of when I could reach my goal if I lose five pounds a week. I did a second calculation based on an average of four pounds a week. It wasn't that much different when I think about my ultimate goal. I'll only get there if I stick to it and the desire to not go back to how I felt last month is stronger than the need for a consoling chocolate bar.

• Take it one day at a time. I didn't wake up fat and unfit, I managed to get here by a tough regime of overeating, sofa bashing and carefully selecting exactly the wrong foods. Getting fit can take just a long, tough regime of under-eating, pavement bashing and carefully selecting all the right foods to eat.

• Don't think it, do it. Rather than just sit there worrying that I've eaten something wrong, or a new food I added to my menu was the cause of my lack of progress, I should get up off my arse and do something. Do some chores, go for a walk. I'm already feeling the benefits of my weight loss in simple things like walking, go enjoy these new feelings. Strangely once I start doing something and feel good about myself, I feel motivated to continue and this feeling persists for quite some time after. 

• Perspective. I need to remember that this is not a diet, this is normal life now. Sandwiches are no longer considered a staple food group. Chocolate is an occasional treat, not an essential source of calcium. As nice as pizza and junk food is, waking up each morning in less pain, with a clear head, higher energy levels is so much better.

• Refocus. To anyone watching me walk through our village, I'd probably be dismissed as just a fat bloke walking about. I need to remember that if they stopped me and I told them what I had achieved in three weeks, they would be amazed, changing their perception of me. I need to change my perception too. 

As the quote in the picture says, it doesn't get easier, I just get better. The longer I stick with this, the more weight I will lose and the better I will feel. The cravings will subside, the old habits will be broken. I'll learn to replace comfort eating with better coping strategies and it will all seem easier because I'm better.

Week 3 weigh in

Went shopping straight after the group weigh in this week, so the post is later than usual. Woohoo a 4lb loss this week. That means another sticker for my collection.



I've now lost 31lbs in three weeks whilst mostly following the Slimming World plan. I know the experts say you should aim to lose a healthy 1-2lbs per week, but I'm eating enough food that I don't feel hungry. I'm eating a balanced diet, which typically sees me eating at least five portions of fruit and or veg per day. I've reduced my salt intake to an average of 3g per day, that's half the recommended amount. It's probably a little higher than that as I don't bother looking at the salt levels in the fresh foods, but all those trace amounts will add up.

As the weigh in is early in the morning and I don't typically eat that early, I tend to leave the house without eating breakfast and take some fruit with me in case the munchies strike during the group meeting. After the meeting I headed straight into town to pick up some shopping, we were running low on quite a lot of the fresh ingredients. I made the mistake of going food shopping whilst I was getting hungry. This made the freshly baked bread in the supermarket extremely tempting. This gave me the idea to post my tips on how I avoid buying less than healthy food whilst shopping.

• Never go shopping hungry, or if you know you will be getting hungry soon. Eat a healthy and filling meal before you leave the house.

• Make a list and stick to it. If you know what you want before you hit the shops you are less likely to be swayed by the special offers on foods that you don't really need or want. I find my resolve to get healthy is stronger at home, where I control my exposure to food etc. If I make up my meal plans on the fly, in the shop, I tend to overspend and don't always make the best choices.

• Supermarkets do us a favour for this next tip, they put all the nasty cakes, chocolates, sweets and crisps together in one or two aisles. That makes it easier to avoid temptation when the willpower is flagging. Walk past the danger zone, if you don't see it, you won't know what you are missing.

•  Plan your meals. I like to do one big shop a week, and one smaller midweek shop to top up the fresh fruit and veggies. Planning our meals is essential. I find there is nothing more dangerous to my weight loss, than being hungry and standing looking at the cupboards, wondering what to eat. I could still do some serious damage with the healthy foods I have in the house.

• Use the Internet to plan your meals. Most supermarkets allow you to browse their products and special offers online. The temptation to impulse buy is reduced as you can't just throw the items in your trolley. Find the offers that will let you make tasty but healthy foods and add them to your list.

Now I'm off to cook my favorite Red-day-all-day-grill-up-breakfast-extravaganza. Fat free sausages, bacon, baked beans and a cheesy omelet with onions and sweet red peppers.

Keeping you honest

Call it determination, strength of character or just plain old willpower, you need it in bucketfuls to succeed on any weight loss plan.

For pretty much all of us trying to lose weight, we got here the same way: Too much of the foods we like and the food we like are packed with calories. There will be times when you hear that lonely packet of cookies calling out to you for company, or you may be seduced by that dark, velvety mistress called chocolate. Avoiding temptation will only go so far, cravings can be a powerful foe.


So here are a few tips to help when cravings strike. 

• Write down all the reasons why you want to lose weight on post-it notes and stick them to the fridge and food cupboard doors. When you feel the need to over indulge, take a moment to read a couple of the notes. Will the cookie really taste as nice as reaching that goal you set yourself?

• Find a mantra or saying that you can say to yourself as you reach for the sweets. The old stalwart, 'A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips' is good, I like 'Short term gain, long term pain'. Find something that applies to you and use it. Don't just say it to yourself then munch the candy anyway. Think about what it means, how that little harmless sweetie couldn't possibly do you any harm, until you send the rest of the packet down as a search party.

• Identify your worse trigger foods and write down their calorie values, then next to each food, write down how long it would take to burn off those calories on the treadmill at the gym. For example to burn off the calories in one Snickers bar, takes thirty long and sweaty minutes on a treadmill. That tiny little bar contains 13% of the calories you need in an entire day. Ask yourself, would you be prepared to do the time on the treadmill before eating the chocolate?

• Studies have shown that willpower is linked to stress. The more stressed you feel, the weaker your resolve to make unpleasant decisions. So after a long stressful day you have little willpower in reserve to fight off the cravings. Fight the stress and you will strengthen your willpower. Find a way to relax and de-stress towards the end of the day. The endorphin release from exercise is a proven stress buster. A relaxing bath with some calming music, a walk in a park or play with the kids. Find something that works for you. 

• Apparently willpower is like a muscle, use it or lose it, they say. You can boost your willpower by using it more often. During the day find things you have been putting off doing, for whatever reason and do them. By doing tasks that you are reluctant to perform, you are helping yourself develop self discipline and in turn building up your will power.

• Try to break a habit. It might be something that has annoyed you (or your partner), or something simple like if you drink three cups of coffee a day, cut down to two. Changing habits is another way to strengthen willpower. 

You are not going to develop amazing will power over night, but it will get easier over time. Remember this is not a diet, this is you living a healthier lifestyle for the rest of your life.

Measuring success

I had a happy moment today, I had to do my belt up one hole tighter. That might not sound like a reason to most people but 2 weeks ago I didn't even need a belt to hold my jeans up. Last week I had to put a belt on my trousers and today it's on hole 2.

This made me think about times in the past when I have been losing weight and the scales have lied to me about my weight loss. I knew that my clothes were feeling looser, so I must have lost weight.

Your weight fluctuates all the time, if I had weighed myself the next day I might have been happier with the loss for that week. There are many other reasons the scales might not reflect an accurate loss, one new one I discovered is that if you have started a new exercise program, or seriously increased your effort on your existing fitness activity, your tired and stressed muscle's defense is to hold on to water. Sore muscles typically suffer from inflammation and can take a a day or two to release the water retained within the muscle cells, that it was using as protection during the repair process.

Tape measures don't lie as often as the scales, so it might be worth charting your progress with measurements as well as weekly visits to the scales. You don't need anything fancy the humble fabric tape measure does a great job.
Measure yourself at several points on your body, upper arm, chest, waist, hips, thigh and calf. You could do more points, but these points are where you will see the most obvious size reduction.

Measure yourself once a week and record your progress, on weeks where the scales take a disliking to you, looking over your shrinking measurements will boost your will power no end.


Ideally we would all own a set of those expensive fat monitoring scales or the evil looking fat calipers, so beloved of the sadists personal trainers at your local gym. In reality a set of bathroom scales combined with a cheap tape measure will do an excellent job of charting your progress.

One final tip I read today, keep a pair of your big trousers when you shrink out of them. In a couple of months time when you need a boost, try them on and feel happy when they won't stay up.

A rewarding experience

After rereading my post about why I joined Slimming world, I thought about the different motivations I have for losing weight and getting fit. I was surprised as to how important the weight loss award stickers, they stick on my book for each half stone loss, have become. I chatted to friends and they too are motivated by setting goals and targets. Some even suggested setting rewards for each target they reached.

Previously I have always celebrated with food. Drink has never really been my thing, although there are large gaps in the 1990s that can be attributed to vodka, sambuca and on one regrettable occasion tequila. Celebration and rewards for me have been eating out with friends, celebration cakes, the list goes on. So I thought I would set some targets and a few non food related rewards.

I tried to look into the science behind using rewards to encourage behaviour and found compelling research that indicates that it works, as well as persuasive research showing it doesn't. So that kind of cuts this post short really. From my own personal experience and the new obsession with my award stickers, I feel that positive reinforcement with rewards does work. The thought of how much weight I need to lose and the timescale involved seem insurmountable, but by dividing it into smaller way points the goals become more tangible. I know when I'm going full tilt on this plan I can lose 3-5 lbs a week, so setting goals every stone would diminish the sense of achievement. I have set a couple of goals on my weight loss chart as follows.

Reward 1: Lose 10% of my body weight. Most healthcare professionals agree that dropping just 10% of your body weight, when overweight has many positive benefits to your health. From lowering blood pressure and cholestrol to giving you more energy and a clearer mind. For this milestone I'll reward myself with a new book.

Reward 2: Lose 25% of the weight I need to loose. This is quite a big number and will take a couple of months, so I'm going to reward myself with a new video game. The one I want is due for release in November, so I also have a deadline to spur me on.

Reward 3: Halfway to my goal weight. This loss should plant me firmly in the feeling healthy, active and full of carrots department, so I'll reward myself with a PC upgrade.

Reward 4: Beat my previous best. I know I'll be feeling great by this point and will want to do something active. Not sure what kind of reward, but I'd love to do something like a balloon ride, kayaking, horse riding, flying lesson or other outdoor activity.

Reward 5: Goal weight... I suppose hitting target will be reward enough but a milestone like that requires some celebration. I don't have anything planned yet, but I am planning on putting one pound in a savings account for every pound I lose. Then when I hit target I will smash the piggy bank open and have a spending spree.

Overwhelmed by the need to eat

Did the photo on the right stir up instant cravings? I know it is a bit mean to post a picture like this, but some days it doesn't take much to trigger the junk food junkie inside us.

You want to lose weight and get healthy, you have been eating well, losing steadily and suddenly you NEED junk. Well that's not your body telling you that you are missing out on certain nutrients only found in a burger, but your addiction to dopamine kicking in. I've mentioned before that this chemical is your brain's way of reinforcing behaviour. Junk food is high in easily stored energy in large amounts. As we evolved in an environment where it was hard to find regular food, our brains have developed the ability to encourage us to eat energy rich foods when we find them. Nowadays however food is rarely scarce in our society and despite most of us growing up without experiencing famine, nobody told our brains this.

What we need to do is unlearn your response to high fat, high sugar foods.Some of this is habitual some is neurological. Research has shown that habits are formed through a process called ‘context-dependent repetition’. In other words, You wake up in the morning and reach for the breakfast cereal, it is a habit you have been taught by your parents. The though of a roast dinner for breakfast for most people is just wrong, but when you think about it a roast isn't much different from a full English breakfast fry up, meat, veg and some form of carbohydrate. Breaking the link between your brain and junk food is achieved by forming new habits in situations where you would normally indulge.  

Beating the chemical high is a little harder, but once the habitual aspect is broken, the chemical trigger weakens as your brain reprograms your behaviour by using dopamine to hook you on the healthy foods you are eating now.

So how do we break the junk food addiction?There are several tools available, some will work better for you than others.

Location: If you can't drive past a fast food outlet with your car magically turning in to the drive thru lane, find alternate routes. This might be difficult as fast food companies spend a lot of time choosing the best locations to lure you in. You can also avoid locations with fast food restaurants when you are feeling hungry or the old will power is flagging. Eat a healthy meal and make sure you feel full, hot dogs and chicken wings are harder to eat when you can't stuff them in. If you are eating out with friends, explain you are trying to lose weight and you would rather choose a place that has healthier choices.

Distraction: Make a list of activities that you enjoy doing and keep any resources needed for the activity to hand. When the urge strikes, pick something from the list and do it. Sometimes talking to someone can distract you, make sure you have someone who knows you are dieting and can call or talk to them in times of burger crisis. It sounds daft, but arrange a code word of phrase with your friend that you use at the start of the conversation that lets them know you need to talk about anything else apart from food. This might sound overkill, but if you are with people you don't know and the first thing you say is, 'Nobody mention burgers, ok?', the first question you will get asked is, 'Whats wrong with talking about burgers? They are soooooo nice.'

Comforting strategies: Many of us eat to feel better. Without wanting to sound dramatic, comfort eating might be masking a larger problem. It might be worth speaking to a sympathetic doctor, however not all doctors are so enlightened and you might be just told to stop eating so much and grow a pair. Whether or not you need or get help from a professional with comfort eating, you can help yourself by identifying the times when you feel the need to eat when you are not hungry. If you feel the need to eat, take a moment to write down what you want to eat, is it a specific food? Next write down what made you think about eating, was it something you were doing? Something you were thinking about or something someone said to you. Next write down how you feel about it, be honest here, write down the emotion, describe how it makes you feel. Next write down a solution that doesn't involve food. It doesn't have to be realistic, achievable or resolvable, but just something that would make you feel better. Now pick an item off your distraction list and do it, indulge yourself in something that makes you feel good, that's not food.
The point of all the writing is that some psychologists think that the act of writing helps your subconscious mind deal with issues your conscious mind refuses to. Over time you might find you are more willing to face the problem than mask it with food, if the writing doesn't work for you, then at least you should have substituted the comfort eating response with a healthier activity.

It's all about planning, it will probably be a long time before the cravings goes away, but if you plan ahead you might be able to stop yourself from succumbing every time. The other thing to remember is that if you do slip and eat something bad, don't beat yourself up about it. It happens to everyone, don't feel guilty as that will only trigger more inappropriate reactions and then food related solutions. Just mark it down as a learning experience and see if you can figure out how to strengthen your crisis plan.   

All you can eat

The good thing about the Slimming World plan is that you never need to go hungry. Some diets let you have a set amount of food or points worth of food. Some limit your calorific intake. This plan is good because there is always free food to eat or snack on.

After writing the HALT post about thinking about why you are eating, my wife suggested I post about my eating habits on this plan.

Probably the biggest difference from my fellow slimmers in group, is that I have gotten back in to the habit of only eating when I am hungry, rather than at set meal times. This means that some days I don't eat for several hours after waking and some days, which I call hungry days, I eat every couple of hours. The advantage of only eating when I actually feel hungry is that I find I eat less food.

Not eating at set times is a little strange at first, you see lunchtime roll round on the clock, but I have a drink, wait a few minutes and figure out if I feel hungry or if I just feel like eating. Usually it was just the habit of eating that made me think of food.

I know there are a lot of people who say skipping meals, especially breakfast, is all kinds of wrong, but I'm betting that as my body is the product of millions of years of evolution, it has a better idea of when I need to eat than a clock does. The other factor in my favour is that I'm not going to starve to death any time soon. One pound of fat contains 3500 calories worth of energy and my basal metabolic rate is somewhere around 3200 - 3700, which gives me in excess of 200 days worth of fuel stored in my wobbly bits.

The second thing I do differently when eating is stop when I feel full. It's not unusual for me to leave food on my plate. I can hear my gran giving me earache for wasting food. I just box up the leftovers and reheat it later when I get hungry, or use it as a snack the next day. To try to counter this problem I have switched to using smaller plates, I know I can go back for seconds if I am still hungry.

I try where possible to avoid social eating in the same way alcoholics avoid pubs until they get their heads around their problems. Even when your friends and families know you are trying to lose weight, they can sabotage your will power without realising it. Imagine the situation where you are eating in a restaurant, with friends and you feel full after half the meal. You know you will get comments like 'Is there something wrong with your food?' or 'It's so nice, it's a shame to waste it.' We have been brought up to be polite, leaving food or causing a scene is not worth the bother over half a plate of food, so you just eat it.

I don't completely avoid social eating, but I make sure before I go, the people I'm with know that I might not eat much, I might leave food, or ask for a doggie bag. I also suggest places I know will provide food that is compatible with the plan. I also limit my Syns on the day before and day after so as to minimise the impact of the restaurant's chef's love of adding oil and sugar to make food taste that little bit better. 

I know this kind of eating won't work for everyone, especially for the more sociable folks out there, but the tips can be tweaked to work for you. Think about when you eat, try to wait until you are hungry then only eat enough food to satisfy your hunger. Remember that every forkful of food you eat after you feel full is another 10 minutes on the dreaded cross trainer.

I'd rather freeze than run a marathon

I have found some new research into something I had suspected for a long time, being cold uses up more calories than living life in our centrally heated houses.

Ex NASA scientist Ray Cronise along with his co-authors Dr. Bemer and Dr. Sinclair, are looking into the effects of cold on metabolism. The research started when Ray struggled with losing weight after reaching the 'plateau' stage many of us are familiar with. He had tried a lot of the different diets out there with the same results, initial loss up to the plateau, when he would lose focus and regain the weight.

By chance he heard about an Olympic swimmer who ate 12000 calories per day. Swimming burns about 500 calories per hour, which meant that the swimmer would need to swim for over 18 hours per day, which is impossible. He wondered where all that extra energy went. Ray then realised that the swimmer spends a lot of time in the pool and that water is 24 times more thermally conductive than air. It occurred to him that the cold water was draining heat from the athlete and his body had to consume the extra calories to maintain normal body temperature.

He started his own personal research into whether his own weight loss would be affected by low temperatures. It turns out from his findings that by limiting his calorie intake like any normal diet and exposure to cold worked better than calorie restriction alone.

There is a point before we start shivering that our metabolism ramps up internal heat production to maintain our core temperature. Lowering our house or office thermostat and leaving off the layers till we feel chilled will trigger this response. Over time you can train your body to acclimatise to feeling comfortable in cooler temperatures. Turn down your shower and don't take hot baths. If you want to go to extremes, take the occasional cold bath for a boost. He does stress though that it should never be painfully cold and always protect your extremities.

He calculated that when runners complete a marathon they will have burnt an extra 2600 calories. Most of us have 2000 calories of energy on tap, stored in our muscles and liver. Once this energy has been depleted, our bodies fire up the fat burning process to free up more energy. That is a lot of running to burn up 2600 calories or 3/4 of a pound of fat. His tests showed that just immersing the body in water, significantly increased the metabolic rate and the increase lasted for  30-40 minutes after leaving the water.

If you can get used to living at 15 degrees, you can boost your metabolism by around 20%. Lose the duvet and sleep with just a sheet or PJs and the boost works out at 2800 calories for the average man and 2100 calories for the average woman. You could burn up more calories than a marathon runner and save money on your heating bill at the same time.

Ray says that if you slowly ease yourself into the lower temperatures, your body will adapt very quickly and people can live very comfortably at lower temperatures once they have acclimatised.

HALT!

Whilst researching about food addiction and obsessive eating, I found a mantra adopted from Alcoholics Anonymous.

H.A.L.T. Are you Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired? Whilst emotional eaters will use food to help answer any of these questions, eating really only cures the first one.

Next time you reach for that biscuit tin ask yourself these questions?

'Am I actually hungry?' Hunger builds over time and comes in waves. Feelings of hunger build over time and go away when you eat. Your body also tricks you into eating if you are dehydrated. If your blood contains too much salt, your body needs water to balance it. It does this by making you thirsty. It also knows that food contains water so it triggers the hungry feelings as well. If a drink doesn't solve the problem, eat a healthy snack. I know cookies are so much nicer, but you can consume a large amount of calories in a couple of mouth fulls. Ask yourself, if I'm hungry enough to eat would I eat a piece of fruit? If the answer is no, then you ain't hungry enough to open up the biscuit tin. If you really want the nice stuff, make a healthy snack, eat that first then have one treat. Fill up on the healthy stuff, then enjoy the treat.

Question two, 'Am I angry?' Eating a whole sharing bag of M&Ms because someone pissed you off, won't make the situation any better. If anything you will just end up feeling guilty about binging, which might fuel your anger. The solution, find a way to redirect the anger. Exercise is one of the best stress busters, sex works too (don't forget you can 'exercise' alone). If you don't have the opportunity to work out the stress physically, writing it down in a journal or letter might work for you. Just remember that anything written that was fueled by anger should never be for public consumption. Don't rant on Facebook or Twitter, rather write it all down, then shred it. Watching the words get chewed up by the mechanical teeth can be quite cathartic.

Question three, 'Am I lonely?' It can be easy to confuse the lonely, empty feeling with hunger. But no matter how good that burger tastes, it won't fill you up. Phone a friend, go visit your folks. The secret here is to just go talk to someone. If you are in a situation where you are apart from friends or family, join a club. If you are trying to get fit, sign up for a fitness class and see if you can make a couple of new friends.Join a slimming group, a lot of the other members will have similar food issues. Groups like these are great for talking to understanding people.

Question four, Am I tired?' If you are feeling tired, you tend to make poor food choices. Brush your teeth and go to bed. You can't eat when you are asleep. The benefit of brushing your teeth, is that not much junk food tastes good with that fresh minty toothpaste hit.

One additional  question to ask yourself is, 'Am I bored?' But adding a B to the mantra doesn't really work. The question is still valid. Once you start feeling bored, food obsession can kick in. The brain's pleasure / reward system kicks in. Your brain rewards you for eating with a kick of the pleasure chemicals. Once you develop an unhealthy relationship with food, the craving for more of the reward chemicals becomes a real addiction. Distraction is the key here. Change your location, change the task you are doing. Make your brain think about something different. It can be as simple as going for a pee, or if you are at work, find a task that will take you away from your desk for a few minutes.


 So next time you reach for food, HALT(B) and think why you are about to eat.
 

The home gym you never knew you had

Being the biggest person in the gym is difficult. To be honest most of the other people in there don't give you a second glance, but in your own head it seems like they are judging your every movement. And lets not start with the public changing rooms.

So what's the alternative? Walking? With the glorious UK weather, the ability to exercise outside when you are lacking in motivation is less than ideal. Did you know you already have the makings of a basic home gym?

Stair-master: Unless you live in a single story house, you have a flight of stairs. These can be used in two ways. Haul you ass up and down the stairs for a medium intensity workout, just be careful on the down journey. Aside from slipping, your knees are under more pressure on the downward journey. The second method is to use just the bottom step as a step class. Put on your favourite high energy music and left up with the left foot, then step up with the right one, step down with the left and then with the right. To break up the routine, you could pause, then start with the right foot and repeat. Another variation would be to step up left, tap your right toe on the step, then down right, then down left. Once you get good at it and your balance has improved, add some over head two hand claps to work your upper body.

Weight lifting: One litre of water weighs 1kg, so plastic bottles filled with water make good free weights. The bigger the bottle the heavier the weight. When you get stronger supermarkets sell 5 litre bottles of water with handy handles.
When using free weights, you need to make sure your stance is good, back straight and feet shoulder width apart with your knees slightly bent. You can use the bottles for bicep curls, side lifts, forward lifts, over head chest press. Breath in on the lift, breath out on the way down.

Treadmill: Put the telly on, but don't head for the couch, stand in the middle of the room and walk in place. At first just concentrate on getting each foot off the floor, but as your strength improves, lift your knees higher on each step. You can also lift the opposite arm as if marching. When you get really good at it, hold a bottle of water in each hand as you march.

Tai Chi: If you are reading this on the net, you have access to Google. search for online tai chi video. The Tai Chi Wizard offers a free online course that's worth checking out. The good thing about tai chi is that it is very low impact and will work wonders for your core and balance.

Extreme Vacuuming: Find two strong and large plastic bags. Fill each with 1kg (or more) of rice, lentils or similar stuff. Seal the bags and wrap the bag round your ankles, securing with a scarf or something like it. The ankle weights will turn your cleaning chores into a workout. If you have a backpack you could put a couple of water bottles in to add more resistance. Make smaller weights for your wrists. You might want to avoid using flour or sugar, just in case the bag splits. Rice and lentils are much easier to clean up.

With a little imagination lots of things you already own can be used as fitness equipment.

As with any exercise, stop when you feel pain. As you get fitter you will learn what is just muscles having a bit of a moan and when your body is telling you to stop. If you can't remember the last time you exercised, you might benefit from a quick once over from your GP. Let them know your plan to start exercising and they will advise you how to proceed safely. The best advice is not to go mad the first day, little and often is the best way to start. Restarting exercise after injury is even harder than starting in the first place.

Go enjoy your new home gym.   

Look before you eat

You have heard the saying your eyes are bigger than your stomach, well there is some truth to the phrase. We are conditioned from an early are to eat up everything on our plates, and the larger the plate, the more we eat.

So the obvious solution is choose a smaller plate. But it is not that simple, studies have shown that when people were given the same sized meal on large plate and then on small plates, the people who ate the meal on the small plates reported feeling more satisfied than those who ate off the larger plates. This is due to our perception, a meal will look smaller if served on a large plate, and we feel that we should be hungry as we didn't eat a full meal, whereas the subjects who ate the same amount of food, off the small plate, perceived their plates to be full, and therefore a complete meal. The research went on to show that when people were given smaller plates containing less food, they still reported the same level of satiation after eating.

We also think we have a larger drink when it is served in a tall glass, so if you have to have a non diet friendly drink, either soda or wine and beer, try a smaller drink in a tall glass, you will trick your mind into thinking you had more. This goes for deserts too, you will feel more satisfied with your sundae in the tall dish over the squat wide one.

The research also went on to discover that the colour of your plate and also influence your choice when serving up your food, and then eating it. Dr Wansink's research showed that when people served up food on plates with little or no contrast to the colour of the food, they chose to load the plate with more food. When given a plate that had a strong contrast with the colour of the food, they typically chose to serve up a smaller portion. As we can't all have a range of plates to colour match to each meal, dark blue tableware was deemed to be the most effective in reducing serving sizes.

So now we have the perfect small, dark blue plate, what should we be putting on it? To maintain a healthy balanced diet, we need to get a good ratio of protein, carbohydrates and vegetables. The simple rule is half of your plate should be vegetables and or fruit, one quarter protein and one quarter starch or carbohydrates. If you are struggling with knowing how much you should be eating a simple guide to remember is one serving of protein is the the size and thickness of one palm of your hand for a woman, and 2 palms for a man. Once you know this, the rest of your meal is served up in relation to your protein.

Finally presentation is also worth the effort, top restaurants and advertisers know that we eat first with our eyes and imagination. If a dish looks sumptuous and delicious we have already decided that we will enjoy the meal before we have tasted a single bite. Look at the image below and decide which meal looks like it would taste nice.

Take a few minutes to make your food look nice on the plate, your taste buds will thank you for it.


The Science:
Wansink, Brian (2006), Mindless Eating – Why We Eat More Than We Think, New York: Bantam–Dell.

Don't cry for me

Forget the tears, onions are another great health food, often overlooked as just an ingredient. Onions not only contain high levels of vitamin C, but they also improve how your body handles vitamin C, so you get more benefit from the vitamin C in your other food, which improves your immune system.

The unsung hero of the kitchen not only adds flavour to your cooking, but it can prevent some forms of cancer, coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cataracts amongst other common diseases. It even contains antibiotic chemicals that can reduce the risk of food borne illness from microbial contamination.

The onion is however one of the calorie heavyweights in the vegetable world, with 40 calories per 100g. In reality this isn't that high when compared with a take away pie and chips with gravy, but it is worth remembering if you are calorie counting. Onions however, like most veggies contains no fat and very little sodium and 100g will provide you with 1.7g of fiber, 12% of your RDA vitamin C as well as some calcium, iron,B-6, magnesium and chromium which helps your bodies insulin work effectively.

There are several varieties of onions and below is a list of the most common and ideas on how you can use them.

Yellow Onions (every day onions) are full-flavored and are a reliable staple for cooking almost anything. Yellow onions turn a rich, dark brown when cooked and give French Onion Soup its tangy sweet flavor. It works well raw in salads, and is delicious dry fried with burgers, pulled pork or any meat.

Red Onions, with their wonderful color, are a good choice for using raw or grilling and roasting. They taste great in salads and on kebabs.

White onion, not very well known in the UK, but they have a sharper taste and more pungent aroma. They are the traditional onion for classic Mexican cuisine.

Spring onions are a salad staple, but they can also be used to add a subtle flavour to coleslaw, Chinese recipes and can also be eaten raw with dips as they have such a mild flavour. 

Sweet Onions lack the sharp, astringent taste of other onions and really do taste sweet. They are great thinly sliced and served in salads or on top of sandwiches. They can range in colour from white to yellow and often have a flattened or squashed appearance.

Finally a couple of tips on how to cut onions with less tears.

Use a sharp knife as it will cause less damage to cell walls, and fewer irritants will be released.

Cold onions release less propanethial S-oxide, as it is this chemical irritant that causes tears when it evaporates.

The video from Chow also shows you the 'right way' to chop onions, this works as most of the onion's cut surfaces are not exposed, reducing the surface area from which the irritants can evaporate.

Dietary Fiber: The important non food

We know we should eat whole grain cereals, wholewheat bread and the magical five a day, as they are a good source of dietary fiber, but what is it and what does it do for us?

Fiber is the the part of plants our digestive system can't break down and use, so in reality it passes through us and provides no nutritional value, essentially a non food. There are two types of fiber in our diet, soluble and insoluble. Pectin and gum are water-soluble fibers found inside plant cells. Cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin are fibers found in the plant's cell walls are water insoluble. Each type of fiber serves a different purpose in our gut.

Water soluble fiber dissolves in water to form a gel-like material. It can help lower blood cholesterol and glucose levels. Soluble fiber is found in peas, beans, citrus fruits, carrots, barley, oats and apples.

Insoluble fiber helps ease the movement of material through your digestive system, a diet without enough fiber can result in diarrhea or constipation. Whole-wheat flour, wheat bran, nuts, beans and vegetables, such as cauliflower, green beans and potatoes, are good sources of insoluble fiber.

Current research indicates that for optimal benefits you should eat around 14g of fiber per 1000 calories, reducing this slightly if you are over 50.

	....	Under 50	Over 50
Men		38g	30g
Women		25g	21g

Tips for eating more fiber

Considering a fist sized, 250g baked potato has five and a half grams of fiber, consuming 38g a day can be quite an effort. Here are a few tips for how I try to cram in the fiber.

Whole grains, this is the obvious one, eat whole grain cereal and bread.

Add flax meal to your food, as one table spoon contains nearly two grams of fiber. I add it to baked beans on toast, soup, bolognese and chilli, by stirring in one or two tablespoons just prior to serving. You can also stir into things like yogurt and coleslaw, but I haven't tried these yet.

A glass of citrus fruit juice with your breakfast, a typical 200 ml glass of OJ gives you and extra half a gram of fiber plus counts towards one of your five a day.

Add chopped fruit to a yogurt, not only does it add fiber, but add a little extra bulk to your snack, which will keep you full longer.

Porridge is not only a good source of fiber, but add in a table spoon of sliced almonds, a table spoon of raisins and some flax meal sweetened with a little honey, gives you a filling low calorie breakfast with nearly four and a half grams of fiber.

Don't peel fruit and veg with edible skins, rather just wash and eat whole.

Lentils or split peas can be added to stews, bolognese or chilli in smallish amounts without effecting the taste, and will add a fiber boost. Or just try split pea soup, maybe with a little lean ham chopped up for added protein. 

Beans on toast is a 'classic' British dish, but this humble staple of student life, when made with wholewheat or wholemeal bread, contains over 16g of fiber. Add a spoon full of flax meal and you can get well over half your daily fiber in one meal.

One word of caution, add fiber to you diet slowly over a number of weeks. Don't just jump from a low fiber diet of burger and chips to wholegrain everything with a side salad over night. Your gut won't have time to adjust, leading to cramps, gas, diarrhea or constipation.


The Science:
The Mayo Clinic: Nutrition and healthy eating
Food and Nutrition Board: Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids. September 5, 2002