| When it comes to weight loss, most of us would | | | | weight, how do we choose what we do or don't |
| like to engage in what psychologists call "magical | | | | eat? Well, sometimes, our choices are haphazard. |
| thinking." We'd like to believe that some easy trick | | | | A useful analogy concerns shopping. How in the |
| or ritual would allow us to shed pounds while | | | | world could we do a good job of shopping without |
| eating anything we liked. Wouldn't it be nice if | | | | knowing the prices of the items we're putting in |
| consuming all our food before 6 p.m., doing yoga, | | | | our shopping carts? Without knowledge of the |
| or hopping on one foot for five minutes would | | | | prices our choices in merchandise could easily |
| allow us to chow down with all our favorite | | | | exceed our budgets.The same holds true when it |
| goodies and still lose weight?Unfortunately, despite | | | | comes to eating. If we wanted to budget our |
| what legions of people with a book or a product | | | | calories, how in the world could we make good |
| to sell might claim, it's just not so. Yet it really is | | | | choices if we didn't know the calorie count of the |
| possible to come up with a system for losing | | | | foods we eat? We just couldn't do a good job. |
| weight. The real secret is this: It's all about the | | | | Our calorie intake per day would probably exceed |
| calories.Most of us have heard that sensible | | | | our break-even point for maintaining body weight, |
| weight loss involves some combination of diet and | | | | and we would gain.So, in order to make sensible |
| exercise. As a physician, I'm surely not going to | | | | choices, it's crucial to know the approximate |
| tell people to avoid exercise. For most people, | | | | number of calories in the foods we eat. An easy |
| exercise is a very healthy thing to do. But when it | | | | way to do that is to buy a paperback book in the |
| comes to losing weight, unless we're training for | | | | check-out line of your grocery store that lists the |
| the Olympics, the effect of exercise is minor. | | | | calorie content of usual portions of commonly |
| What matters most is how many calories go | | | | consumed food and beverages. (Or look them up |
| down the hatch.This bears explaining. Our bodies | | | | online.) We don't necessarily need to check the list |
| use the calories we consume to fuel our basic | | | | each time we sit down to eat, but knowing typical |
| life-processes. The heart needs lots of fuel | | | | figures for our favorite foods will enable us to |
| (calories) to beat its usual 100,000 times in 24 | | | | know if we're keeping or exceeding our daily |
| hours. The brain, liver and kidneys also require lots | | | | calorie budget.This is not as awful as it sounds. In |
| of fuel to perform their many chemical reactions | | | | fact, there can be pleasant surprises. Suppose I |
| and metabolic tasks. Most of the calories we burn | | | | typically get the munchies in the evening, and I |
| in 24 hours (about 1500 for women and 1800 for | | | | roam the house in search of goodies to snack |
| men) we would still burn even if we were in a | | | | upon. Here is where knowledge of calorie contents |
| coma.It's true that working the muscles in our | | | | can pay off. If I satisfy my munchies by eating |
| arms, legs and trunk requires fuel (calories) as | | | | cookies, French fries, potato chips or candies, |
| well, but you'd be amazed how long you would | | | | then I'll blow my daily food-budget in just one |
| have to row, jog, swim or walk to burn off the | | | | sitting. But what if I substitute pretzels or |
| calories in one slice of cherry pie. (Answer: In | | | | unbuttered popcorn? They might be just as |
| order to burn the 486 calories in a slice of cherry | | | | satisfying, yet contain fewer calories. So these |
| pie a 175-pound person would need to row for 35 | | | | alternative choices might spare my daily calorie |
| minutes, jog for 37 minutes, swim for 41 minutes | | | | budget at no loss of satisfaction.As a physician I |
| or walk briskly for 63 minutes.) For most of us it | | | | often encourage my patients to lose weight. Being |
| would be more practical to just not eat the | | | | overweight can increase blood pressure and |
| pie.Each of us has a calories-per-day figure for | | | | cholesterol which, in turn, increase the likelihoods |
| maintaining body weight. If, on the average, we | | | | of heart attacks and strokes. Heart attacks and |
| eat that many calories, then we will maintain body | | | | strokes are the number one and number three |
| weight, neither gaining nor losing. If we | | | | causes of death in the U.S., respectively, and |
| consistently eat more calories than our | | | | strokes are the number one cause of disability. So |
| break-even number, then we will gain weight. The | | | | we're talking about real conditions that afflict real |
| unused calories have to be stored somewhere, | | | | people. Moreover, our overweight bodies put |
| and will probably go into our body's fat cells. If we | | | | more stress and strain on our spines and our |
| consistently eat fewer than our break-even | | | | knees, making them wear out earlier, hurt more, |
| number of calories, then we will lose weight. The | | | | and interfere with quality of life.Some patients |
| body will get its fuel somewhere, and will burn off | | | | with whom I have this conversation look at me |
| calories that have been put into storage in fat | | | | like I'm crazy. They're eating barely enough food |
| cells.This is how it is. We just can't get around the | | | | to keep a small bird warm, they say. |
| basic biology and physics.So, if we're trying to lose | | | | |