Making Low Carb Substitutions

Making Low Carb Substitutions
By: Chef Cristian Feher
www.tampabaychef.com

While there are many people around the world who's biggest problem is not having enough to eat, sadly, we have the opposite problem. North Americans run into the issue of being over-fed! Our food supply is bountiful, cheap, and we have too much of it. Even the poorest of our clan can get 1000 calories for less than $3. And it shows. We're fat!

I won't go into a big dissertation on how we gain weight. All I will say is that every time you eat refined carbs your body sends massive amounts of insulin into your blood stream and turns all but some of the sugar into fat. Add to this, late night eating, lack or exercise and some high fructose corn syrup to wash it down with, and you're well on your way to winning first prize at the Virginia Fair! OK, I'm lecturing again..

The good news is that you can do something about it. It just comes down to willingness and some work on your part. But you can do it. And I'll give you some tips below on how you can cut down on those pesky carbs so that hopefully you can get to feeling energetic and looking thin again!

Now, before I go and give you a list of substitutions, there are some magic rules to follow. Well, they're not actually magic at all, more like common sense (if you want to lose weight). 1. Your body needs water to move fat around. So if you want to move fat out, you gotta drink lots of water. Try 1.5 litres per day and work your way up to 2 Liters. 2. You don't need fuel when your car is parked. And you don't need to eat when you're not really using your body. So don't eat at night. Stop eating four hours before going to bed. Yes, you might be really craving a snack but you're going to have to suck it up tubby! 3. (And this one I've learned many times from experience and from my client's experiences) Diet alone fails most often. You're going to have to dust off those gym shorts from the bottom of the closet. Do at least 30 minutes of light exercise every day. Lucky for you, walking does wonders for weight loss. And it's also relaxing and lifts your spirits. Make time to go for a walk every day. Following these simple rules will enable you to get results.

Now for the low carb substitutions:

Gotta have your gravy? Sauces really liven up a boring meal. And although most thickeners are high in carbs, there is one thickener that works wonders and has a 0 net carb count. Xantham gum. Yes, it sounds like something Batman shoots at bad guys, but it's actually a common thickener used in everything from salad dressing to hydraulic coolant in factories. But don't let that scare you. It's made from friendly bacteria who like to eat corn. It's available in most health food stores and online. You can thicken up gravies, make ketchup and even cream sauces! It's similar in consistency to corn starch and you can thicken just about any liquid with it.

TIP: Xantham gum tends to clump up when in contact with liquids, so it's best to use a hand blender (or regular blender) to mix it into liquids smoothly. And better yet, it does not require heat to thicken. It will thicken a cold glass of water just as well.

But what about bread? It seems like we are surrounded by a never ending supply of bread. It's everywhere!Sandwich shops, fast food chains, the grocery store and in our kitchen. All kinds of breads, buns, rolls, crackers, wraps. So how do you go around that? Well, next time you make a burger or sandwich, try using two large portobello mushroom caps instead of a bun. Heat them in the oven or microwave until they begin to soften. You can do the same thing with two thick-cut slices of eggplant. What about wraps? Certain health food stores sell low carb tortilla wraps that yield only about 5 grams of carbs per serving. You can also wrap your cold cuts and cheese in fresh, green lettuce leaves for a fresh, leafy wrap. Try a BLT wrapped in L! And if you just had to grab a burger because "you were in a hurry", then just eat the insides and toss the bun in the trash. No excuses.

What do I drink? Don't drink anything that has sugar or high fructose corn syrup in it. It's as bad a putting a couple of sandwiches in the blender and drinking that. Sugary drinks will make you fat faster than anything else because the sugars go right into your blood stream very quickly. This includes beer, fruit juice, sodas, energy drinks and anything else that has sugar in it. So you should be drinking water, club soda (my favourite) or at the very least, diet soda. But try to drink lots of water.

Is there any happiness left? Yes there is! You don't have to give up carbs completely. In fact, carbs are good for you so long as you use them as fuel. Just don't have too many and don't eat the wrong types. Eat carbs that are high in fiber and will take your body longer to break them down. Sweet potato, steel cut oats and pearled barley should become your new best friends. Instead of pasta you will eat Tofu Shirataki noodles or Dreamfields pasta once in a while (Use Google to find out more about these options). They now sell low carb ice cream which you can have on Sundays before going for a long walk. The best time to eat carbs is at breakfast. That way you can assure that you burn them during the day. You don't need carbs for lunch or for dinner. Unless you are an athlete or a runner or a person that does very heavy physical work during the day. In which case, you are reading an article which does not apply to you.

So now that you know how to do it, here comes the hard part - you actually have to do it. The only hard part about being healthy and fit again is having the self discipline to do it. And to help you with it I will leave you with these words of wisdom. "Don't think about it. Just do it."

Calorie Counting Is Not For Rocket Scientists Anymore!

Calorie Counting is Not for Rocket Scientists Anymore!
By: Chef Cristian
http://www.tampabaychef.com/

The basic tools of losing weight are actually quite simple, as long as you understand the mathematics of weight loss and weight gain. I have written this article to show you how you can use the mathematics of calories to reach and maintain your ideal body weight.

A calorie is a unit of energy. Simply stated, each food will furnish your body with a different amount of energy. We measure this energy in units called Calories. For example, a small apple will have less calories than a big bacon cheeseburger. Your body needs a certain amount of food energy each day to stay healthy. If you feed your body too many calories, it probably gains weight. If you don't feed your body enough calories, your body loses weight. So how many calories do you need each day?

Thanks to Scientists with horn-rimmed glasses and dateless Friday nights, certain formulas were invented a while back. And although they were invented by smart people, these formulas are easy to use. You will use this formula to figure out how many calories your body needs in order to stay the same. This is called the BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate). The BMR is just the amount of calories that your body needs to eat in order to stay the same weight (not gain or lose weight) each day. Once we figure out the BMR we can then plan how many calories you will need to eat in order to lose weight, gain weight or maintain your current body weight. I would like you to keep in mind that one pound of fat is made up of 3500 calories. This will become useful to you in a moment.

Here are both BMR formulas for men and women:

• Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )
  


• Men: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) - ( 6.8 x age in year )
  

Now that you know what your BMR is, you will need to go a step further. Different people do different types of activities throughout the day. Some of you are athletes and some of you are couch potatoes! So if both of you have the same BMR, you will still need different amount of calories to have your bodies stay the same weight.


Here is the activity level formula:

• 
  If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
  


• If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
  


• If you are moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
  


• If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
  


• If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9
  

Now that you know a more exact BMR, we can go on to the weight loss part. So let's say that your BMR was 2000 calories, and after doing the activity formula you found yourself being lightly active and your BMR is now calculated to be 2400. Now you know that if you want to stay the same weight, you eat 2400 calories per day. But I know that most of you want to lose weight, so this is how you do it.


Doctors recommend that a safe rate of weight loss is 1 to 2 Lbs of weight per week. They also say that you should not cut out more than 1000 calories from your BMR. Always consult your doctor before beginning a calorie restricted diet. With that being said, let's do a plan for you to lose weight.

We will use the example of a Larry who has a BMR of 2400 calories per day. We know Larry wants to lose 2 Lbs per week. We know that each pound of fat is made up of 3500 calories, so two pounds of fat would be 7000 calories. This means that Larry would have to eat 7000 calories less for the week if he wants to lose 2 Lbs. This can be done by having 1000 less calories each day. So the daily amount of calories that Larry would need would be 1400 calories. If Larry finds that it's too hard to cut out 1000 calories from his diet each day, he can eat more calories BUT he must now exercise more. For example, he could cut only 500 calories per day from his food intake (instead of 1000), and go to the gym and burn the other 500 calories by running on the treadmill. It's actually recommended that you mix diet and exercise together for best results. If you cut too many calories from your diet, your body goes into starvation mode and slows down your metabolism. You do not want your body to do this, so you should balance exercise and diet.

Now that you know how many calories you will need to eat in order to lose weight, how do you calculate the amount of food to eat? Luckily for you, almost every food product comes with nutritional information printed on the package which tells you how many calories per portion the food is worth. For example, a can of tuna might say 240 Calories per Cup. And your bag of rice might say that it's 140 calories per Cup. You will need to start calculating food portions, and although it may get annoying, it will ensure that you reach your weight goals. There are calorie guides you can buy at you local bookstore, and there are a great many resources that can be found on the internet which tell you the caloric values of each food.

Although the formulas are all laid out for you, some of you still may find it too tedious to keep track of how many calories you are eating every day. In this case, I recommend hiring a personal chef that will be able to measure out your food portions to create your ideal calorie diet. I have helped many clients with their weight loss goals by saving them time and providing them with carefully portioned meals. I hope that you have found this article helpful!