Ode to Fast Food

Fast food does not make you fat.

Take that statement in for a moment. Process it in your well oiled mind.

Fast food does not make you fat. You will not gain weight simply by eating fast food.

Think about that for a moment.

I know what you're thinking. What do you mean it doesn't make people fat. It's covered in grease, cheese, and oils!

Yes it is. And it tastes good. But think about calories in and calories out for a moment. Whether you're following a 1200 or a 2000 calorie diet you can eat fast food. Is it healthy? Well it depends on how you create your meal. But as long as you have calories for it you can eat it.

As a general rule of thumb, I like to stick to around 400 calories for a typical meal that I eat out. This includes breakfasts out or lunch a Burger King. You can put your limit more around 500 or 600 depending on how many calories you are allotted.

Let me repeat this one more time and add something a little extra.

Fast food does not make you fat your choices are what make you fat.

That's right. Remember when those girls tried to sue McDonald's because they claimed it made them fat? Did McDonald's forced feed them burgers and fries? Did they make the girls come into the restaurant and buy their food? Was McDonald's the only source for food for them? Let's stop right there. What if it was? There are two well known documentaries that focus on eating McDonald's for a month, Supersize Me and Fathead. Each documentary approaches the subject of nutrition at McDonald's a different way. In Supersize me Morgan Spurlock ordered everything on the menu at least once during the month. If he was asked if he would like to supersize it he did. There are a number of scenes where he throw up because of they quantity of the foods is too much for his stomach. At the end of his experiment he not surprisingly gained weight and had some other side effects.

Let's look at the case of Fathead now. Just like Morgan Spurlock, (he) ate McDonald's for a month, but with a few modifications. He ate within his calories and reduced his carb intake to just 100 grams. He exercised as well. At the end he "magically" lost weight, During the documentary he interviews people on the street seeing if that know that a certain burger was high in calories. All most all of them did.

With out doing any further, Fathead highlights that eating fast food is a choice and with that choice comes with the choice of what you choose to eat there. In this day and age healthy choices and restaurants are everywhere. So if you eat within a reasonable amount of calories for your fast food meal you won't gain weight. Yes this does not mean you can go out and order two Whoppers with fries, but you can treat yourself to something indulgent and not worry about it.
Take the case of my Rodeo burger on Monday. I know that Whoppers in general are bad news. If I had previously known that I was going to ride my bike I would have allowed myself to eat something more caloric because it would fit into my calorie budget. Fast food meals appear in my weekly food about twice a week. And even if I didn't know I would be eating fast food my 400 calorie rule is a really good rule of thumb for me.
Four hundred calories can get me various combinations from Burger King. Entrees for example:
Rodeo burger
Bacon Cheeseburger Deluxe
Whopper Jr (with & without cheese)
Cheeseburger (and the double)
Hamburger (and the double)
Tendergrill Sandwhich w/o mayo
Chicken Nuggets 6 pc
Chicken Tenders 3 pc
Big Fish Sandwich w/o mayo
Veggie Burger w/o mayo
The salads are great too. Just watch the dressing and try to use only half the packet. For sides I suggest a side salad or if you're splurging a value or small fry. So my lunch for Monday was a Rodeo burger with a side salad and about 1 tbs of the apple cider vinaigrette dressing. The total calories came to a little over 400 according to the nutritional calculator on their website. The side said supposedly was 70 calories because of the cheese, but their was only about a tablespoon on there.
Fast food can be apart of a healthy diet. Just know what your options are to fit into your caloric intake and you wont gain weight. When it comes down to it the choice is yours to make if you rather eat wisely.

Counting Calories vs. Points Plus

In one cornerrrrr... calorie counting! And in the other cornerrrrr Points Plus. It'll be quite a showdown!
First off, as I shared in my previous post I counted points plus for years and have a sentimental attachment to the program. Please remember that I did not follow the plan 100% because I never really aimed for all of the healthy guidelines. I don't believe that sticking to the guidelines helps you at all with your weight loss. Or at least I don't believe in including 2 tsp of healthy oil into my diet everyday will. But there are other benefits to that, but I digress.
I believe that Points Plus is absolutely great when you are first starting out on your weight loss journey and you do not want to restrict yourself. There are two types of programs they offer with your membership of around $20 a months plus the initiation fee, if it's applicable at the start of your journey with them. The first in the much beloved points program in which you use points to track your food. The points are based on fat, carbohydrates, fiber, and protein. You can eat as many fruits and vegetables as you wish. You are required to fit into your points 2-3 servings of dairy depending on weight, age, and whether or not you are breastfeeding, 5-8 servings of fruits and veggies, 2 teaspoons of healthy oil, a multivitamin, and at least 30 minutes of exercise per day. It seems a little demanding. On the lowest points you can be given (I believe it's 27 now), 6 of those points would have to go towards healthy guidelines leaving you with 21 daily points and your 49 weekly points. The points sound reasonable until you realize that a Whopper Jr is 8 points and you can forget about the fries unless you want to dip into your weekly points.
The weekly points are another troubling thing. Understand that 1200 calories is the lowest someone should keep their calories. However just because your points are kept at 27 doesn't mean your sticking to 1200 calories. Several times I have tracked both points and calories. Very rarely do they come out the same. I usually eat less than the amount of points that I am given when following a 1200 calorie intake. So this leaves to question about the 49 weekly points you are given. I've never spend my whole allowance, but most people recommend that you eat all of your points, even the ones that you earn through exercise. Wouldn't this be more like a maintain?
Their second program is a lot more reasonable. You eat as much as you want off the list of power foods which includes your 2 teaspoons of oil with not point cost. You receive 7 additional points a day in order to eat items that are not included on the power foods list PLUS 49 weekly points. This is more reasonable, but if you have trouble with portion control this could be a disastrous.

Even though Weight Watchers has developed a fabulous program that is easy to follow, most claim that weight loss is a simple equation of calories in and calories out. The process is simple. Either using a calorie counting app on your phone/computer or writing your food intake down on paper you add everything you ate up and subtract that with the calories you expand during exercise to get your net calories. There are many places of the web that can help you count calories. Many people enjoy using MyFitnessPal(MFP), but there is also FitDay and Sparkpeople just to name a few, They do the math for you so you don't have to. By far I believe that MFP has one of the best food databases out there surpassing the Weight Watchers database, which is controlled by them. Users can add their own food which can sometimes get confusing because of those foods being custom. For example, you'll see a Whopper Jr. then you'll see another Whopper Jr. that is lower in calories than the first. In this case the user probably opted out of the mayo. Your calories burned during exercise is also calculated for you, but it doesn't take into consideration if you were to walk up a hill (this is also a issue with WW). However, it is always good to bear in mind that any calories that you track are an estimation at best. This is not just because companies can be about 20% higher or lower in the calories they claim, but because the technology to really determine calories is not there yet.
The amount of calories that you can consume is based on your height, age, activity level, gender, and how much weight you need to loss. Weight Watchers uses the sort of the same formula but bases it on age, gender, height, and weight. The least anyone should eat, as mentioned before, is 1200 calories.
Even though Weight Watchers is very flexible and allows you to eat anything as long as you stay with in your points, you often find yourself very restricted because of how they factor in each macro-nutrient. A serving of almonds becomes 5 points instead of 160 calories. So if you are eating 27 points a day 5 points is a lot to spend on almond which are full of good fat and minerals. But a 150 calorie piece of fruit which is high in sugar (like bananas or mango) become free. In calorie counting and calorie is a calorie and it's up to you to choose the right thing to eat. Somehow I feel less restriction with calorie counting than I did with Weight Watchers probably because eating fast food is demonized by many of the followers. I'll get into this topic with another post but not all fast food is bad. If you can fit it within your calories you can eat it even if you have to walk 30 minutes to help burn some of the calories.
To make this a fair fight, keep in mind that I've lost 100 lbs following Weight Watchers. But by following Weight Watcher for so long you learn how to cheat the system. When you're weighing out peanut butter 14 grams is 2 points while 15 grams is 3. An ounce of cheese is 3 pts but half an ounce is 1. This is the dark side that to be successful you should never know about.

In Medias Res

Me a few week after starting Weight Watchers

It was there in Burger King that I faced the wall. Not out of shame or defiance but because I wanted to know how I could spend my allotted 400 calories for a meal out. Chicken was an option, but who goes to Burger King for chicken? I was on the hunt for nice beefy broiled burger. To the delight of my salivating taste buds I spotted the rodeo burger. Being a fan of BK since I was young by eating countless meals of their chicken tenders (before they changed them) I knew the traditional options very well. But I wasn't here for traditional. I was here for a burger worth its taste in calories.
Upon my first bit I knew this was a different bred of burger. A not so greasy patty on a fluffy sesame seed bun with three onion rings and a healthy dollop of sweet and spicy bbq sauce. All for 310 calories. And of course I had a side salad with a trickle of apple cider vinaigrette. After the first bite of my burger I took a picture and sent it to me weight loss buddy, Kelly.
I've come a long way since the days of eating a bowl of ramen four years ago in February. I feel horrible. I'd binge eat just about anything, even things I did not like. If it was sugary and starchy it was guaranteed to go into my mouth,
This is when I started my live changing experience with weight watchers. I got on board with the program a few weeks after they launched their innovative Points Plus program. It was a fat girl's dream. All you can eat vegetables and fruit as long as you counted everything else and were within your point range. And so began my four year long love affair with weight watchers. We had good times and bad times together. We went to birthday parties and dates. Weight Watchers was always holding my hand while I crossed the street of weight loss. Never had she miss guided me as long as I confided in her about my deepest most darkest foods that I ate. I'd whisper into her ear that I ate cake and she'd tell me all wasn't lost and magically make me lose weight that week.
Our break up started about two years ago. Young and having recently gotten my associates degree I was off to Germany for two weeks. She begged me to take her with me. She traveled light she had said. "No, this is vacation. I'm taking a three week break from you." Weight Watchers was not happy. Our friendship was falling about. I went from a hefty 292 pounds so a nicely sized 182 pounds back to around 198 pounds.
Germany was fun. Booze. Pastries. Mystery fatty meats. And oh my goodness the coffee! Everything was full fat and not a point was counted. It's true that I walked a great deal and saw so many things. When I arrived back home I could feel something was different. I gained about five pound (but totally worth it!). I came groveling back to Weight Watchers and begged her to work her magic.
It took going through my first semester at a four year college to finally achieve something close to the 182 pounds that I was before.
As soon as I stopped abiding by Weight Watchers advice (which took until September) I gained what I jokingly called my Winter weight. I'd whisper sweet nothings in Weight Watchers tracker hoping she would magically give me weight loss. She probably surely thought I was joking the day I binged on cookies or when I told the doctor I walked daily.

Me after losing weight with Weight Watchers the second time

By April I tried to woo her back. But she was tired of my shit and packed up heading home with about $1,000 more in her pocket.
The years with Weight Watchers was great. I wouldn't give them back for anything except more the times when I should have even what I really wanted.
This is when calorie counting walked into my life. Simple, Straight to the point. No gimmicks, And she's a cheap date! Dang! We've been together for two weeks and we've really hit it off.
And this is where my story begins, in medias res (in the middle of things).