Health Tips

Weight Loss For Summer

February 3, 2010
By Ryan Price

Summertime can sometimes mean all your health commitments go out the window in favour of other favorite pastimes. One particular favorite that can be catastrophic to successful weight loss is the summer pastime of firing up the barbie and cracking a few ice cold beers. However, did you know that consuming 3 or 4 beers while your waiting for your snaggas to cook is the liquid equivalent of grabbing a quarter pounder burger before you get to the barbie?

With an average of 135 calories per full strength beer those 4 beers plus a steak and sausage puts your total caloric intake at 1,406 calories – This is many peoples caloric requirement for an entire day! Your body can not use up that amount of food in just one sitting, thus most of it will be converted to fat for storage. A few bbq’s over summer and at the end of the season many people find they have packed on the pounds. So what is the solution, how can you avoid these gorge-fests without missing out on the fun?

Firstly try cutting back on the alcohol level. Be simply switching from full strength beer to low strength you can save 50 calories. Add that up over 4 beers and that’s a saving of 200 calories plus you’ll be getting less calories from alcohol with low alcohol beer so your metabolism won’t be slowed down as much, slowing fat oxidation. Remember, a higher percentage of the energy from food eaten during the day may be converted and stored as fat while alcohol is in the bloodstream. Plus less energy from body fat stores can be used while alcohol is in the bloodstream.

The best solution is not to drink on a fat loss program. While you can drink and lose weight if you diligently maintained your calorie deficit, it is certainly not ideal nutrition. Try replacing alcohol with low calorie or diet beverages or better yet drink iced water or iced green tea (non-sweetened).

Second is controlling the food consumption, especially the meat consumption. BBQ’s mean a large choice of meat packs, sausages, t-bone steaks, lamb chops, satay chicken sticks and that’s all before we pile our plate high with potato salad and creamy coleslaw. It is easy to cut calories here – remember you won’t starve, we are just aiming to eliminate over-eating. Cut down on meat by only cooking what you will eat. Its too tempting to grab another steak or a few sausages for seconds if we have cooked the whole pack. Just cook what you would eat for one serve and freeze the rest.

Pile you plate high with fresh salad, which is less calorie dense rather than potato salad. Choose quality meats over quantity, i.e. pick lean cuts of premium beef instead of cheap bulk cuts, you will buy and cook less but you will eat less calories and less fat. It will probably be more enjoyable too since the premium cuts have less fat and gristle.

For more tips on nutrition for summer see summer weight loss goals.

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