Author Archives: Mike Lipowski

About Mike Lipowski

Mike Lipowski is an author, speaker, personal trainer, and professional natural bodybuilder who educates people on the science resistance exercise. Follow him @MikeLipowski

Competition Shape…Minus the Competition (Lisa’s Journey) – Entry 12

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[Lisa] This was my first Facebook post of the New Year: “Hello 2013. What’s that? You did not recognize me? Oh, that’s because in the picture 2012 gave you from last New Year’s Day I was 29 lbs. heavier.”  It felt fantastic to write that.  I want to share three things; first, I actually kept one of my New Year’s resolutions from 2012, losing weight.  Second, you CAN lose weight in December, I lost 4 lbs.  Third, I did enjoy holiday food and drink.  I took a look at my food journals from December; I had white wine, steak, pasta, honey balls and other treats.  However, all portions were reasonable.  I also kept my training schedule.

As did many of you, I saw friends and family, during the holidays, I had not seen in a while.  Several commented on my weight loss and asked how I did it.  I shared me secret, a crazy program called diet and exercise.  Who knew?  Now I head off into 2013.  Bikini by summer?  Mike, you have work to do!

[Mike] At this rate “bikini by summer” is almost a certainty!  I say almost because nothing is automatic and fat-loss is rarely linear.  Fat-loss does not happen without being strategic in your approach and then you need to execute the strategy.  It becomes increasingly more difficult to lose body-fat as body-fat gets lower because our bodies are highly adaptable and the metabolism slows down. 

We’re six months away so we have to set the milestones that must be met in order to make this goal a reality.  A continual loss of 4 lbs. per month would be ideal.  However as mentioned above your metabolism will adapt to your current caloric intake so an additional reduction of 100-150 calories may be necessary.  Consequently as your caloric intake lowers so too does your Leptin levels.  Leptin is the hormone responsible for controlling hunger and signaling your body to burn fat for energy.

The way to work around this conundrum is by adding a refeed day.  On your refeed day you would increase your calories above maintenance levels by 25-40% in the form of additional carbohydrates.  This restores Leptin levels back to normal and stimulates the metabolism to burn fat at a higher rate.

The day following your refeed you return to a caloric deficit but with the advantage of your metabolism operating more efficiently.  This is the pattern you will follow for the next six months to ensure your fat-loss efforts continue

Hidden Sugar

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Beth Colucci, IART Fitness Clinician

Many holidays goods are homemade, so even though we know they aren’t the greatest for us, at least we know what goes into them.  But what about all the processed foods we find lurking in cabinets, drawers, and secret stashes?  If you take a look at the ingredient list, I’m sure you’ll find sugar as one of the first ingredients, followed by a lot of words that the normal person can’t pronounce and/or has no idea what they are.  Safe rule: If sugar is one of the first two ingredients, or you can’t pronounce the ingredients, you probably shouldn’t eat it.

 “High-fructose” corn syrup (HFCS) and table sugar (sucrose) are actually composed of the same two molecules – glucose and fructose.  The glucose and fructose that make up sucrose are found naturally in many foods, and are not dangerous to the body.  Glucose, in fact, is one of the body’s preferred sources of fuel, and helps the billions of cells in our bodies to function.  Fructose, however, when consumed in excess, can cause a problem.  According to Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California, fructose is a, “chronic poison…it doesn’t kill you after one meal, it kills you after 10,000.  The problem is, every meal now is a fructose meal.”  Food production companies add extra fructose to nearly every packaged product, from ketchup to cookies and pretzels.

The dramatic increase in type-2 diabetes, and other metabolic conditions, over the past 20 years is undeniably connected to the increase in the production and consumption of processed foods.   The underlying culprit in metabolic conditions is the large amount of sugar found in processed foods.  Due to the recent hype and outrage over the use of high fructose corn syrup, companies are claiming to reduce its use in the making of food products.  However, now these companies are adding sugar monsters under different names.  They are becoming quite sneaky about adding sugar into their products, without actually using the word, “sugar.”  Use the chart to the right to learn the many names of sugar, and to help you decipher how much sugar is really in your foods.

Competition Shape…Minus the Competition (Lisa’s Journey) – Entry 11

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Lisa had texted this pic to me with following, “I’m wearing Melissa’s coat (her youngest daughter). Please note, it’s buttoned”.

[Lisa] Hello December.  The holidays are upon us.  I will start this entry by saying, “Yes Virginia, you can lose weight during the holidays.”  Five months down and 21 lbs. gone.  I lost 3.8 lbs. in November.  I did enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner that included stuffing, pumpkin ale and a piece of apple pie for desert.  However, I woke up the next day and realized Thanksgiving was over, time to get back to my food plan.  I also need to mention that, although I did have the aforementioned treats on Thanksgiving, I had small portions and still recorded everything in my food log.  Last year I continued eating like it was still Thanksgiving straight through until Christmas when I transitioned into eating like it was Christmas through the New Year.  The tears set in on January 2 right after I stepped on the scale.  I am determined NOT to start 2013 the same way.  Mike is doing his part, adding new methods of torture; I mean training so I am never bored!  I am enjoying being able to wear mediums instead of large size clothing.  My daughter Melissa recently told me that she does not care how much weight I lose she will not allow me to wear a bikini.  Hmmmm, sounds like Mom has a new goal.   Might be just what one needs to stay focused.

[Mike] I think it’s easy to see that 2013 will not start off for Lisa the same way 2012 did.  It can’t!  And that’s because Lisa finally has the two things going for her that everyone needs to be successful at transforming their body…and I am not talking diet and exercise.  It is a goal and a plan for completing it.

Just look at the difference this has made between last year and this year.  Last year: no goal, no plan and Thanksgiving turned into a six week free-for-all and an inevitable backslide forcing her to have start all over in January.  Depressing.  Yet this is how it will be for an unfortunate majority of people.  This year: a goal and a plan for navigating through the holidays without depriving herself and a New Year in which she’ll start around 25 lbs. lighter than she was this past July.

Oh and to address the “add on” goal of getting into a bikini…I love it.  What better goal than to make your children uncomfortable about what you will wear in your 50’s that you couldn’t wear while they were growing up.

Competition Shape…Minus the Competition (Lisa’s Journey) – Entry 10

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[Lisa] Been a while since our last post – Sandy had everyone busy. I lost another 3.2 lbs. in October, bringing my total to 17.2 lbs. I’m sure many of you shared the lovely experience of being without power for an extended period of time. My family and I were out for 9 days. We are fortunate to have a generator. Since my refrigerator was in working order I did not have to eat all the ice cream because it would have melted. On the heels of the hurricane we were visited by a nor’easter. My car got stuck in ice on my street not far from my house. I got a good workout shoveling ice and my weight training served me well when I helped push my car uphill into my driveway. (How many calories do you think I burned Mike?) Most of us were out of our routine for at least a few days. Businesses were closed and traveling was challenging. The first time I went to the A&P, after they got power back, fresh food choices were limited as they struggled to restock. Being stressed and out of my routine, it was tempting to take a little break from my eating plan and fill in with some cookies but, I did not. I kept thinking about something a co-worker told me about when she went back to Weight Watchers. She met a woman who had lost and put back on 70 lbs. My friend asked her what caused her to slip; the woman said it started with one Oreo cookie. Heading into the holiday season, it is not an Oreo but a butter cookie that has the possibility to lead me down the wrong path. Mike, how about some tips to get us through the holidays without undoing progress made.

[Mike] The holidays are always a tricky time for people. The average weight gain between Thanksgiving and New Year’s is a whopping 8lbs. It’s no wonder “weight loss” is the number one New Year’s Resolution.

My best solution for avoiding the holiday weight gain is to start dieting and training BEFORE the holidays start. But since some of you may not have been doing this then I’ll lay out a few other options to lessen, and ideally eliminate, the potential damage done during the next 6 weeks.

• Plan your “cheats”. I like Pumpkin and Apple Pie as much as the next person but these high sugar, high calorie foods can wreak havoc unless you consume them strategically. For one you need to predetermine how much you are going to have. One small piece won’t kill you but when one leads to two, or three, or is accompanied by cookies and ice cream you’re in trouble. Ideally the amount of calories you consume from your “cheats” should still work into your daily totals as explained in previous blogs.

• Plan your workouts around the days you know you might be eating more or having foods that could be more calorically dense. As I’ve written about before, eating foods that are higher in carbohydrates and/or sugar can be good thing when they follow a high intensity workout. If you don’t need to be in the kitchen cooking 2 hours before meal time be in the gym weight training or outside performing a High Intensity Interval Workout.

• Drink lots of water. Many people notoriously mistake hunger for dehydration. Keeping your water intake high (64 oz. or more per day) can help to satiate you and keep from overeating (or over-drinking at the next office party).

• Prepare your own meals. If you’re hosting the party then there’s no reason you can’t put together a healthier version of the proposed meal or at least have healthier options available. Truth be told, most holiday meals do tend to be healthy…that is until you start adding mass amounts of butter, oil and sugar to the mix.

• Measure your intake. There’s no reason that a holiday needs to be different than any other day as far as your total food/calorie consumption goes. If you’re intent on keeping the holiday pounds off then treat them like every other day and be sure to keep your food scale and measuring cups handy.

These are just a few of many ways to keep your fitness—or fatness—in check throughout the holiday season. If you have some other ideas or suggestions then please post them in the comments box below for others.

Competition Shape…Minus the Competition (Lisa’s Journey) – Entry 9

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[Lisa] Since it is October, it is only right that I pay homage to Satan’s favorite holiday, Halloween. The challenge here is obviously candy. I must point out that, most of the time, candy is not a huge problem for me. But for some reason once I see the spooky decorations around town the Halloween candy displays at the A&P seem to call out my name. There are several choices. First, do not buy any candy. Second, buy candy that I do not like. Third, buy candy that I like and work it into my daily diet. Choice three brings up something interesting. Now, if I were a smoker, drug addict or alcoholic I would say, “I can never have another cigarette, drug, drink again.” Since food is my addiction never having it again is not a great choice for the long haul. I am supposed to confront, in small portions, the very thing that is a problem. How ‘bout I tell a drug addict you can only have a little bit of crack. Now, you may say never have foods with sugar or white flour or whatever again. Is that realistic? For me, I don’t think so. Back to choice three; I bought candy that I like, Kit-Kats a big bag with mini servings. One piece isn’t too bad, 75 calories 4 g fat, 10g carbs. The question is; can I stop at just one? I will turn it over to the Prince of Darkness himself for advice.

[Mike]  If I were a psychologist I might try to associate Lisa’s candy fixation at Halloween with her need to relinquish responsibility as an adult and connect with her childish side. Wait a second…she hasn’t stopped being childish…so that can’t be the answer.  Hmmmm.

Anyway!  I’m no psychologist so let me first lay out the most obvious and easiest solution—don’t buy it.  Sure you’ll need some for Halloween but you can wait to purchase it the day before or the morning of.  You might not wind up getting the most desirable candy for the kids but think of it as doing them a favor.  Besides, you’re goals are more important than a day of giving away candy to your neighbors kids.

Is it realistic to never have candy or sugar again?  No.  However there is one way you can occasionally have your sugar fix without it hindering your progress.  Have it as part of your post-workout meal.  Following a hard resistance training workout your glycogen (sugar) levels are low since glycogen is the primary sources of energy utilized during this type of exercise.  Rapid replenishment of your glycogen stores helps to expedite your recovery from the workout and nothing can replenish them quicker than sugar.  However you must be very careful not to overdo it as too much sugar—above what is needed—will end up being converted and stored as fat.

Exactly how much sugar is necessary depends upon the individual and his/her sensitivity to insulin, how well they metabolize glucose, whether or not they are in a caloric deficit, and the intensity of their workout.  That being said, since Lisa is in a caloric deficit, is training at a high intensity (because I make sure she does) and has improved her insulin sensitivity (via fat-loss) then a small piece of candy after her workout, once in a while, along with her protein shake will not do any harm but it’s imperative she not consume too much fat along with the sugar and this “pass” is not taken to the extreme.

Competition Shape…Minus the Competition [Lisa’s Journey] – Entry 8

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[Lisa] September, done! Three months in 14 lbs. and one size down. As the math shows, I have been chugging along at about 1 lb. per week.  Now that I have that established, I shall title the rest of my portion of this blog entry, “A Tale of Two Pretties.”

As you may remember, Mike ran a special back in August, if a friend wanted to check out Pure Physique he/she would get one week of classes and two training session, free! I decided to ask my friend and favorite Barista, Sacha if she wanted to come and join the fun.

Some background, like Mr. Lipowski, I have an addiction to Starbucks. Each day that I train with Mike I stop at Yorktown Starbucks to get fuel for myself and a tall black eye for Mike (yes, it is a suck-up, I will do anything to possibly lessen the pain). Over the past year or so I have shared with Sacha, and the crew at Starbucks, tales about Mike aka: Satan. I had them writing “Satan” on his cup. At this point a tall black eye is also known as a “Satan.”

Ok – back to Sacha. So she decided to take me up on the offer. She went to every class that week and to both training sessions. At the end of the week she had lost 2 lbs and decided to sign up. As of this writing she has completed 6 weeks and has lost 17 lbs. As you can see she is clearly losing quicker than I. Please do not misunderstand; I am thrilled for her but at the same time annoyed with myself that I am not losing as fast.

This has happened to me before. I have gone to Weight Watchers numerous times with a friend and have always lost slower. I am doing everything I am supposed to be doing and yes it is working, but it can sometimes feel that I am not doing well because others lose faster. Take shows like “The Biggest Loser” each week each of the contestants usually loses weight, but someone who has lost say 5 lbs. feels defeated because another person has lost 10 lbs. Mike, do you recommend lowering my caloric intake and increasing exercise in hopes of ramping things up, trying to change my mindset or something else?

[Mike]  Am I addicted to coffee…yeah; I guess you could say I am. Taking it a step further I have an intense likeness for extremely bold coffee hence the Starbucks with 2 shots of espresso Lisa uses as a brown-nosing strategy….If only it worked.

Before addressing Lisa’s dissatisfaction with the fleetness of her fat loss I want to first publically acknowledge how proud I am of her and Sacha for the progress they’ve made. So many people talk about what they want to do, what they want to achieve, but don’t take the necessary actions or do the little annoying things that make a big difference. These two are doing it all which is why they’re finding success where so many others fail.

I have to admit this is one of the easier questions Lisa has had for me up to this point however the simplicity of its answer will either be met with reassurance or increased annoyance. The reason why Sacha has lost at a faster rate than Lisa can be answered with one word, individualism.

There are several genetic, lifestyle, exercise and nutrition related factors that determine fat loss.  The similarities between Lisa and Sacha pretty much begin and end with them being women who train at PURE PHYSIQUE and follow a calorie restricted diet.  Here’s a list of some of their differences and how they affect fat loss.

  • Age – there is a natural decline in a person’s metabolic rate as they get older.  (This decline is exacerbated in individuals not engaging in a weight training program to help maintain muscle mass.) With there being a 20 year plus difference in age it is only rational to assume that Lisa’s metabolism is not functioning at the same rate.
  • Work/ Daily activity – Sacha’s job has her on her feet all day, moving around while Lisa is confined to a desk.  While it’s difficult to quantify how many calories burned this accounts for its safe to say Sacha is probably burning a few hundred extra calories that Lisa is not.  Sacha also attends 2-3 group exercise classes each week which also accounts for extra calories burned.
  • Hormones – At 50, Lisa is experiencing hormonal changes that Sacha won’t have to concern herself with for years.  Whether female or male the natural slowing in hormone production after the age of 35 directly affects metabolism.
  • Muscle – Here is one area where I know Lisa is not lacking. The more muscle a person carries the more calories they burn at rest.  However people who tend to lose weight fast—as they do on the Biggest Loser—also lose a lot of muscle (especially if they don’t weight train) which accounts for a large percentage of their weight loss.  This in turn wrecks their metabolism and leaves them weak and susceptible to join problems.  A loss of 1-2 lbs. per week is the ideal rate of weight loss to insure against muscle loss.
  • Metabolism – As you can see from the above there are many factors that affect metabolism, some controllable others inherent. Two inherent factors not yet mentioned are body type and food assimilation.  Food assimilation is how efficiently your body breaks down, distributes, and utilizes the food consumed.  Body types can run the spectrum of being excessively slender with little to no muscle, to muscular with little body fat and rotund with little to lots of muscle.  A more in-depth discussion of body types can be found in my book PURE PHYSIQUE: How to MAXIMIZE Fat-loss & Muscle Development.

Competition Shape…Minus the Competion (Lisa’s journey) – Entry 7

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[Lisa]  This past week many either went back to school or have children who went back to school.  In my case I added teaching 3 college courses to my schedule.  As I sat at my computer, all day last Sunday, preparing lessons I felt the familiar tug of sweets calling my name.  I was not hungry, but eating has always been the way I have dealt with the stress of a deadline or the stress of anything for that matter.  The blog saved me once again.  I admit, even knowing I was going to be writing an entry for the blog, I was still tempted.  Two months in and 9 lbs. down I worry that I won’t be able to stay motivated for the long haul.  Years ago I lost 50 lbs. in a little less than a year.  I remember the excitement as the numbers went down.  I was able to stay focused and get to my goal.  Since then I have attempted to lose the weight I had gradually let creep back on numerous times.  I would last a few weeks maybe a month or so and then it was over.  I’m thinking I need some additional ideas.  Mike, I know competing is the motivator for you but is there anything else that keeps you on track?

[Mike]  It’s not important what motivates me, what’s important is discovering what motivates you.  In my book, PURE PHYSIQUE: How to Maximize Fat-loss & Muscular Development I wrote about this topic at length.  In short, everything we do—everything—is to achieve pleasure or avoid pain.

Nothing is more gratifying than looking in the mirror and knowing your present condition is a result of your own doing.  Conversely nothing can make you feel worse than looking in the mirror and admitting your present condition is your own doing.  You see there comes a point when external motivators (like fitting into a certain dress or winning a contest) are not enough and it is your values and standards that move you towards your goal or keep you from slipping backwards.

If you’ve been accepting sub-standards for yourself then it becomes easy to justify eating things you know you shouldn’t or when you shouldn’t, as well as skipping workouts or avoiding activities that are critical to your success.  Raising your standards and holding yourself to them is the key to staving off temptation.  If the thought of not achieving your goal does not elicit negative feelings that you would do anything to avoid rather than harbor inside then it might be time to assess what you value most.  Similarly, if achieving your goal does not elicit excitement and make you want to take proper action then it might be time to assess your values.  Namely your value of self.

Competition Shape…Minus the Competition (Lisa’s journey) – Entry 6 pt. 2

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[Mike] Let’s back track for a moment.  The reason why I recommended Lisa do high-intensity aerobic exercise is because it is less aerobic. I won’t get deep into the science of exercise, I know you just want answers but allow me to quickly explain that the more intense an exercise becomes the more anaerobic it becomes.  The primary difference is, aerobic exercise relies on oxygen to produce energy whereas the anaerobic exercise does not.  Anaerobic exercise burns more calories per unit of time and has a greater effect on the metabolism.

While it is also true that aerobic activity uses fat for energy compared to anaerobic exercise which uses glycogen (carbohydrates stored in the muscles) the belief that aerobic activity will help you burn more body fat is inaccurate.  To put it perspective, the most aerobic activity you can do is sleep.  As you go from sleeping to waking to walking to jogging to sprinting, the energy systems involved in fueling each of these activities moves from varying degrees of aerobic to anaerobic.  As you might guess, jogging burns more calories than walking because of the level of effort required.  At the end of the day it is the total number of calories burned compared to what is taken in that determines fat loss.  So although aerobic exercise uses fat for energy it does not burn more fat compared to higher intensity activity.

One of the most effective and time efficient forms of high-intensity aerobic exercise is what’s known as interval training.  High Intensity Interval Training (H.I.I.T.) is characterized by periods of maximum effort followed by periods of low to moderate effort.  For example, if we were to relate it to running, a person could sprint for 20-60 seconds and then jog or walk for, 20-60 seconds—repeating this process for say fifteen minutes.

You could do the same by jumping rope or doing other calisthenics such as jumping jacks, squat thrusts, hop-overs, mountain climbers, or lunges.  Another option is to walk (or run) hills like the steep one down the street from Lisa.J  If you do like biking or the elliptical you could do intervals by either increasing the resistance for the high-intensity interval and then dial it back for the low to moderate interval or keep the resistance consistent and alternate between sprints and slow paced intervals.

The combinations and forms of exercise are countless as is the amount of time you perform your hard and easy intervals.  The only “rule” is that you push the upper limits of your conditioning during the hard periods.

Sample of a 10 minute H.I.I.T. workout:

Warm-up – 2 minutes of light Jogging in place

30 seconds Squat Thrusts (hard) followed by 30 seconds Jumping Jacks (easy-moderate) repeat 2x

30 seconds Mountain Climbers (hard) followed by 30 seconds Hop-overs (easy-moderate) repeat 2x

30 seconds Jumping Jacks (hard) followed by 30 seconds Squats (easy-moderate)  repeat 2x

Cool down – 2 minutes light Jogging in place

Competition Shape…Minus the Compeition (Lisa’s Journey) – Entry 6 pt.1

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[Lisa] You may not have noticed but Mike snuck in, “We will also look to address her activity level by adding 10-20 minutes of high-intensity aerobic exercise on 1-2 non-training days” on an earlier blog entry this month.  Here’s my conundrum, I have not found any aerobic activity that I sincerely like.  Hence, I stop doing it at some point.  Treadmill, bicycle, elliptical – BORING.  Yes, I have listened to music and watched TV.  Running, jogging – no good can come of that.  Mike even mentioned in this month’s newsletter that 72% of runners get injured.  I have made it to 50 with both knees intact and I would like to keep it that way.  Tennis, softball, sports in general, ummm no.  Nonetheless, I made a deal, I would follow Mike’s instructions.  So far this month I went to kickboxing and boot-camp, one time each.  In addition, I walked on the tread-climber a few times.  Not that I need more excuses, but hey I’ll throw one in, I do better with exercise earlier in the day and the classes are at night.  I posted this on Facebook last week, “How am I supposed to survive boot camp when my get up and go got up and went?”  Mike, the ever helpful personal trainer, commented, “You simply suck it up :)”  Other than that “motivating” advice, what else have you got Mr. Lipowski?

[Mike]  Aside from our political views and love for ice cream, another thing Lisa and I definitely have in common is our disdain for aerobic exercise.  Check out my blog post Lean without Aerobics.  I too find treadmills, ellipticals, bikes, swimming and stair climbers incredibly boring and it’s true that in the August issue of the PURE PHYSIQUE member’s newsletter I cited a statistic revealing that 72% of runners get injured.  About forty-percent of the injuries suffered by runners are knee injuries.  Not something you want to be dealing with at any age let alone fifty.

The fact remains fat loss is predominately a byproduct of diet, not exercise.  Calories in and calories out is the name of the fat loss game.  So why would I suggest Lisa add 10-20 minutes of aerobic exercise a couple of times a week?

Well first, I didn’t recommend low-intensity steady state aerobic exercise I recommended high-intensity aerobic exercise.  Like resistance training high-intensity aerobic exercise can give our metabolism a boost which enhances our ability to burn more calories at rest.  Lisa, like many people, works at a desk most of the day and being this sedentary can lull the metabolism to sleep.

By adding just 10-20 minutes of high-intensity aerobics on her non-training days she will be better able to keep her metabolic rate about the same each day.  There is a limit to how low she could feasibly bring her calories (without risking muscle loss) so adding this little bit of activity to keep her metabolic rate up will help ensure that she is burning nearly the same amount of calories each day and remain in a deficit.

I also did not suggest that this be a long-term strategy for fat loss.  Occasionally you need to shake things up to expedite the process and with fat loss beginning to slow this could potentially be the change that gets her back on track.  I also prescribed just a small amount of this activity which can be done first thing in the morning and not interfere with her work schedule.

Yes, we do offer kickboxing and Boot Camp classes at PURE PHYSIQUE on some evenings and yes they are longer than 10-20 minutes (45 minutes), but the only reason why we offer these types of classes is because they are intense and provide the same metabolic effect as our resistance training.  In effect they are an alternative means to the same end while providing variety and a cost effective substitute for those who can only train with us once or twice a week.

In part 2 of this entry I’ll provide Lisa (and you) with some suggestion for high-intensity aerobic exercise that won’t wreak havoc on the joints.

Competition Shape…Minus the Competition (Lisa’s journey) – Entry 5

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[Lisa] Yorktown, are you intentionally trying to thwart my weight loss efforts?  Within the last few months not one, but two frozen yogurt shoppes have opened, Twist and Luvin Spoonfuls (both have delicious frozen yogurt).  In addition, two new ice cream shoppes, JJ’s Scoop House and Victoria’s Confections, have opened as well.  I have not visited the latter two yet but I am sure they too are yummy.  So what’s the big deal?  I’ll tell you, this stuff is my addiction.  Can I have it?  Yes.  Limiting the intake amount and figuring out the nutritional content accurately is the challenge.  The other night I enjoyed a 5 oz. cup of non-fat frozen yogurt.  No problem I’ll just figure out the carbs, fat and protein.   I even had the owner print out the nutritional breakdown.  I went home and did the math.  Carbs 29g fat 0g, protein 3g.  Not so bad.  I eagerly reported my findings to Mike the next morning.  Apparently, Mike and I use different math.  He started explaining serving size, grams, ounces divide by the circumference of the moon multiply by the number of minutes in a month, blah, blah, blah my eyes rolled back in my head.  The only thing I know for sure is that I underestimated.  I probably do this when eating out too.  It is hard to know for sure what a serving size equals or how exactly food is prepared.  Was my egg white omelet fried in butter?  Was more than steam used to prepare my steamed asparagus?  Mike, some tips on how to deal with this please.

[Mike] What Lisa failed to mention in the above is that I am an ice cream FREAK!  I get almost as excited talking about ice cream as I do training. So when Lisa came in the other morning talking about her frozen yogurt escapades, I was quick to compare notes as I had been on the same escapade the previous week hitting up Twist and Luvin Spoonfuls.

As I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts and articles: The most important part of fat-loss is making sure you take in the proper amount of calories, carbs, proteins, and fats relative to your individual needs.  Is frozen yogurt okay while dieting?  Yes.  So are Pop Tarts but I don’t like them so they’re not in my diet.

Seriously…there is a major difference between eating for health and eating for fat-loss. While most “healthy” foods tend to be less calorically dense per volume and provide nutrients you can’t get from sugary, fat laden foods, occasional consumption will not affect your fat-loss efforts as long as you remain in a caloric deficit.

Now onto the serving size conundrum.  I looked up the nutrition info for several self-serve frozen yogurt joints and noticed an interesting trend.  Each provides their nutrition content based on every ½ cup serving or 83 grams.  Seems pretty straight forward but in fact is very misleading.  Let me use a personal example to illustrate.

I go and get my favorite Cookies n’ Cream Fat-free frozen yogurt the other day.  According to the store’s nutritional info, every ½ cup has 22 grams of carbs and 3 grams of protein equaling 100 calories.  I throw my cup up on the scale and it reads 8 oz.  Perfect…since a ½ cup is 4 oz. I just need to double the above numbers to figure out how many calories, carbs and proteins I just took in.  But in doing so I would be dramatically underestimating what I actually took in.

Here’s why:

When they list the serving size they provide two means of measurement—size (½ cup) and weight (83 g).  Since I am not showing up to the store with a measuring cup I can only rely on the scale at the register to tell me how much frozen yogurt I’ll soon be enjoying.  In this case it’s 8 oz. of creamy goodness.

However I do not want to know how many ounces I am consuming I want to know how many GRAMS so that I can figure out the actual number of servings.  What comes next is some very basic arithmetic that breaks down like this:

There are 226 grams in 8 oz. (I found a conversion calculator through Google).  Divide 226 (the amount consumed) by 83 (the listed serving size) and we learn that I had 2.7 servings.

To assume my 8 oz. serving equals two servings instead of 2.7 would be an honest mistake since a ½ cup in FLUID OUNCES is 4 fluid ounces.  But we’re talking frozen yogurt not fluid which is why we must go by weight to understand how much we are actually taking in.  This was the mistake Lisa made and is a common one amongst those who are doing their best to track their food intake.

Nutrition labels are written in a way to intentionally confuse and deceive people into thinking they are taking in less than they actually are.  Companies are well aware that a portion of their market is calorie conscious so they do their best to not scare off potential customers by positioning their product as being healthier or lower in calories than it actually is.  As the consumer it is up to you to understand this and take the extra initiative to make ensure that how much you are consuming is actually how much you are consuming.