Complex carbohydrates are, well, a bit more structurally complex. These carbohydrates make the body work just to digest them, therefore burning more calories even in the digestion process. Complex carbohydrates also have many added benefits and include other nutrients as well.
One of the most important subcategories of complex carbohydrates is fiber. Ahh, yes, fiber! This is a hot topic in our culture, and there is good reason for that. Fiber plays a huge role in our overall health. Fiber has been proven to benefit the body in many ways, most notably its role in lowering cholesterol and decreasing the risk for certain types of cancer. There are two types of fiber, as illustrated in Appendix A. The recommendations are to consume between 25 grams (for women) to 38 grams (for men) of fiber each day. For Americans, the average intake of fiber is 12 to 15 grams — not even half of the upper recommendation!23-24
To identify complex carbohydrates, think brown — brown rice, wheat bread, bran cereal, etc. Fruits and vegetables are also great sources of fiber, especially the peelings, which are generally full of fiber. Did you know you can even eat the peel of a kiwi? (Not the most palatable way to get your fiber, but doable, nonetheless.) See Tool 4: Subtract by Addition and Appendix A for ways to increase fiber intake.
Protein
Protein breaks down into building blocks for the body. Think of a box of Legos. You can build any number of structures from all of the different types of pieces. This is like protein. When you eat protein, your body breaks it down into tiny pieces called amino acids.
The body requires over 20 types of amino acids. Once it has all of these tiny pieces, it can then go to work building different components, such as immunoproteins, enzymes, and hormones.
Protein also helps the body by providing structure, helping to build cells and muscles, enabling fetal growth, repairing wounds, and aiding the immune system. Nine of the 20 amino acids are called essential amino acids — the body cannot produce them, they have to be eaten in different types of protein rich foods.23
Many people think that eating protein will automatically make you bulky and muscle-bound, but the intake of protein is only one side of the equation — you must work the muscles to be able to put the protein to work and help muscles grow.
The current recommendation for protein intake, by some sources, is to eat about .8 g of protein for each kilogram of body weight.25 Roughly translated, a 150-pound woman should take in 54 grams of protein a day. Other sources recommend an average intake of 46 g per day for women and 71 g for men.26
Complete protein foods (those which have all of the essential amino acids) are meats, eggs, and dairy. Complimentary foods each have some essential amino acids, and can be paired together to provide complete protein. These pairings include: beans and rice (or tortillas), peas and toast, pasta and cheese, peanut butter sandwich, and Hummus and pita bread. (See Appendix B for more information on protein.)
Fat
Yes the body needs fat. It just doesn’t need very much of it. Fat has many functions in the body. It provides cushion for the organs and bones, it transports some of the vitamins (vitamins A, D, E, and K), and it provides insulation for the body.23
Many food groups give the body ample amounts of fat. It’s one thing that you do not have to search for each day. Don’t worry, it will find you. The recommendation is to keep fat calories below 20 to 35% of the overall intake of calories (no more than 10% from saturated fat).23
There are three main types of fat: saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated. The saturation level mainly describes the bonding of hydrogen in the fat molecule. In saturated fat, every available carbon-hydrogen bond is attached to a hydrogen molecule. In monounsaturated fat, there is one double bond. In polyunsaturated fats, two or more bonds are double bonds. (See Appendix C for pictures of fat molecules).
The worst form of fat for the body is saturated fat. This is the type of fat that leads to atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and increased cholesterol levels. Transfat is a man-made fat through the process of hydrogenation to provide a more structurally stable fat molecule (this helps with shelf life, but not with health!). Although it is more stable in food, transfat is no better than saturated fat in its effects on human health.27-29
Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat, although they provide a lot of calories for the body, don’t directly increase cholesterol levels.
Vitamins and Minerals
The body needs a whole slew of vitamins and minerals to function efficiently. Vitamins and minerals don’t supply direct energy (calories) to the body; they act as catalysts for many functions of the body and are vital to survival.
Vitamins and minerals are organic compounds found naturally in foods (and in some cases in the soil in which the food is grown). Most vitamins and minerals can’t be synthesized by the body and, most importantly, cause a specific deficiency syndrome when they are absent from the body.
See Appendix D for a list of common vitamins and minerals and their functions.
Water
The function of water is simple: if you don’t have it, you die. It makes up 60 to 80% of body weight. Pretty much everything that happens in the body requires the use of water. It aids in body temperature regulation, digestion, metabolism, and nutrient transport, just to name a few.
The current recommendation for water intake is at least 8 to 10 cups of water every day. (See Tool 9: Drink Lots of Water for tips on how to increase your water intake).
Principle 3: Get Enough Sleep
Sleep is one of the lesser-known principles for weight control. Simply put: get
In our culture, people use their lack of sleep almost as a bragging right as they talk about who needs the least amount of sleep. What they don’t realize is that lack of sleep sabotages weight loss.
Studies on sleep show that many hormones become imbalanced if the body is not allowed the right amount of sleep (for most people that figure is seven to nine hours a night). Ghrelin, the hormone that causes hunger, actually increases in sleep-deprived individuals, and Leptin, the hormone that tells your brain it’s time to stop eating, decreases.30-44
What’s more, when people are tired they are less likely to hit the gym, and more likely to grab a quick snack or cup of coffee to stay awake or to slump on the couch reaching for comfort foods.41
Principle 4: Exercise
Our bodies were created to work. In our modern society, we are constantly
The principle of exercise is very basic: you’ve got to move it to lose it.
Here is a simple scenario: as discussed in Principle 1, it takes a deficit of 3,500 calories to lose one pound. To reach that goal in a week, you would need to cut back on 500 calories every day. To lose two pounds, you’d have to cut 1,000 calories every day. That’s a lot of calories to cut.
However, if you add exercise, you can alter the amount of calories you need to cut, or, even better, you might not have to cut any calories at all. Sixty minutes of walking (at 3.5 mph) for a 200-pound person burns 346 calories, so if you did this activity six days a week, you would burn 2,422 calories. That would allow you to meet your goal of losing one pound a week with a cutback