[jillnicole03]

Per Discovery Health

Ten Weight-Prevention Tips Every Woman Should Know

1. Make sure to eat a healthy breakfast no later than 9 a.m., even if it means placing a bowl of oatmeal on your dressing table to eat while you put on your makeup. Some options: nonfat milk/yogurt smoothie with fruit; toasted English muffin with fruit spread; whole-grain cereal or oatmeal with raisins and skim milk, egg-white omelet and whole-wheat toast.

2. Eat a small midmorning snack approximately three hours after breakfast. It will tide you over until lunch. Suggestions: a piece of fruit, a small fat-free yogurt, low-fat cottage cheese, or one or two pieces of low-fat string cheese.

3. Try to eat lunch no later than 1:30 p.m. Lunch should include a healthy balance of high-quality, low-stress protein, fat and carbohydrates (see pp. 172-174 of Fight Fat After Forty for details).


4. Three hours after lunch is usually the beginning of the "CortiZone," when stress hormones plummet along with energy and mental concentration. It's also the most popular time for stress-induced eating, when you gobble a candy bar for a quick energy boost. Instead, eat something that provides high-quality, low-stress energy. Combinations of protein and carbohydrates are ideal, such as low-fat or fat-free yogurt or cottage cheese, along with a piece of fruit.

5. Dinner should be started anywhere from 6 to 7:30 p.m. It should include soup or salad, vegetables and a source of protein, such as poultry, lean red meat, fish, legumes or veggie burger. Mixed fruit could be served as a dessert item.

6. Try to have dinner completed by 8 p.m. at least four to five days a week. Dr. Peeke's favorite saying is that if "you eat after eight, you gain a lot of weight!" If you must eat dinner after eight, eat lighter and eat before you go to dinner. (Remember, the CortiZone and your vulnerability to eat mindlessly extends through midnight.)

7. Women over the age of 40 do not require dense complex carbohydrates (pasta, bread, potatoes or rice) after 5 p.m. These foods are rich fuel sources and should be consumed in moderation, primarily during the day. At dinnertime these starches should be considered as occasional treats (once or twice a week, in small portions). The goal is to strip your dinner of the dense calories from complex carbohydrates. These foods, which were once considered a staple, should now be an infrequent dinner treat.

8. Dispose of all fat-free desserts and snack items in your kitchen. They are riddled with low-quality, high-stress refined, processed sugars.

9. Typical restaurant portions are man-sized. At lunchtime, remember to eat only half of any restaurant portion of starch, and try to eliminate it at dinner. At lunch, one piece of bread is appropriate. Remember: The later you eat complex carbohydrates, the more weight you gain.

10. Water should be consumed throughout the day. Often when we think we're hungry, we're actually thirsty. Eight 8-ounce glasses should be drunk during the course of the day.

http://health.discovery.com/centers/.../ten_tips.html

[MariaMaria]

Oh, good lord.

Are we still stuck on the idea that there's some magic in when we eat, and not what?

[paperSkin]

great tips.. thanks..

[Thighs Be Gone]

MariaMaria,

You are spot ON! I am an evening eater and always have been. It matters NOT when you eat. Eating little bits through the day can keep up your metabolism but as long as you under your daily calorie intake, you will rock it.

[mandalinn82]

I have to agree with those who say that WHEN you eat is way, way, WAY less important than WHAT you eat! If you get the "What" under control, the "When" is irrelevant.

That being said, the "When" can drastically affect the "What" - ie, not eating breakfast can set you up for hunger the rest of the day, which can result in overconsumption later. That can get your "What" out of control, which can affect weight.

I don't follow ANY of these rules, except the one about drinking water.

[artchickadee]

I agree with Jillnicole's tip but of course you must be eating the right things and stay in your caloric intake range. When I had a personal trainer, she said that everyone should be eating every 2-3 hours, no refined sugars but proteins and veggies are easy to grab and go. Cliff bars are my favorite, the oatmeal ones, it's like having a cookie...almost.

[mizski]

Hmmm...I never thought about not eating starches later in the day. I do try to have my smallest meal for dinner though and I think that helps.

[janworkman]

How about decaf coffee??

[saef]

Originally Posted by jillnicole03

7. Women over the age of 40 do not require dense complex carbohydrates (pasta, bread, potatoes or rice) after 5 p.m.

If you're 41, and it's 5:15 PM, and you disregard this advice & have a mouthful of brown rice pilaf along with your grilled chicken breast, well, let me tell you, woman, you are just going to be LIVING IN A WORLD OF HURT when you stand on the scale the next morning.

[/alt sarcasm]

What kind of job does this advice presume we have? What about when I'm leaving work at 6 PM & have an hour-long commute home? What about shift workers? Mothers with babies or very young children? We're all doomed because running our lives requires a different time table?

[dragonlady1978]

LOL @ Saef

I agree, that advice is more than a little ridiculous. I find it REALLY hard to believe that my metabolism is watching a clock, and that it magically turns on and off based on the numbers on a clock. I think my metabolism is affected by a much larger range of events, like how much exercise and how many calories did I average this WEEK.

Frankly, I think we listen to too many doggone studies. One proves that we will be fat if we eat after 8 or eat carbs/eggs/milk or whatever they think will scare people at the moment. The next proves otherwise. Where does that leave us? None the wiser, and with a large groups of people touting a whole lot of misinformation as the gospel.

Ya know alot of this advice is good-watch portions, for example...but if they bury it under a bunch of rules that make no sense, have no scientific basis, and are extremely difficult to follow (how many of us can fit our lives around our diet, rather than the other way around?) it only makes losing weight seem that much more unattainable.

[NewLifeNewMe]

The point is that when you eat complex carbs later in the day, your body has less time to metabolize. For those of us who go to bed at between 9 and 12pm, the advice makes pefect sense. Try having pizza at 8 pm and yes, your scale will tell the tale tomorrow morning.

[Nola Celeste]

The scale will tell the tale because of unprocessed food and water weight, not because of fat gained from eating too late at night--and you'll see the same jump if you eat a steak or a plate of roasted vegetables, not just pizza.

Digestion occurs more slowly while we sleep, but it still occurs, and it picks right back up again when we awaken. There is (fortunately) no truth to the notion that when you eat matters from a fat-gaining standpoint. As Mandalinn said, though, when you eat can make a huge difference from a hunger standpoint. I can no longer go without breakfast within two hours of waking up, for example, and I used to wait all day to eat.

If you prefer not to eat late at night to avoid seeing the uptick on the scale, that makes total sense. I do the same thing for the same reason. But I know that on nights when I do eat within a couple of hours of bedtime, I'm not wrecking my diet and the extra pound or two I see on the scale will disappear as soon as I fulfill the other purposes of a bathroom aside from weighing and bathing, so to speak.

[NewLifeNewMe]

Ok re: water weight but it usually takes me a couple of days of strict discipline to get rid of weight gained from late-night carbs (not talking about proteins and a plate of veggies). And what about the gut that you gain from habitual late-night carbs? Just askin' cause that's been my experience: all carbs in by 6pm and tummy goes down... any good advice is appreciated as I'm struggling with this carb addiction. Thanks and roll on with your bad selves