2612568276918. Weight Loss Bootcamp Extreme

Weight Loss Bootcamp Extreme

Weight Loss Bootcamp Extreme

Step Seven. Dealing With Sugar

Now, let’s talk about sugar. I said at the beginning that the main cause of obesity is not so much what people eat but how much they eat. And this is generally true. ‘

But there’s no point in making life more difficult for yourself than it needs to be. You’re going to be hungry; we’ve established that. And we’ve also established that you’re going to bear your hunger with fortitude and resilience because you are definitely going to make this work.

One of the things that’s going to make your life difficult is sugar and one of your tasks is going to be to wean yourself off sugar. You probably don’t realize how much sugar you actually consume. You’re not alone, hardly anyone is.

Breakfast cereals, fizzy drinks, and many prepared meals all contain huge amounts of sugar.

Ask any of the multinational food corporations who produce this stuff about all this sugar and they will maintain that they’re making great efforts to reduce it.

Well, they seem to be taking a hell of a long time about it. They’ve been saying that for at least ten years. So why the delay? It’s because sugar is addictive, that’s why. If you eat a whole lot of breakfast cereal with sugar all over it, when it runs out, you’re going to want to get another packet. And another.

It’s beneficial for the companies to include plenty of sugar in their products because it makes people go out and buy more of it. You get the idea.

Now, I said that you’ll need to wean yourself off of it. And that really is the best way to go. Don’t try cutting sugar out of your diet all in one go, it’s just going to be more difficult that way. Just try to reduce the amount you eat day by day.

The main areas to watch are: 

Fizzy drinks – one 225 ml can of cola contains about 25 grams of sugar – that’s about 100 calories. Switch to the zero sugar varieties or, better still, cut fizzy drinks out of your regular diet altogether. They’re not grown-up drinks anyway, they’re for kids (although, thinking about it, they’re just as bad for kids as they are for you, so I wouldn’t encourage them to drink them either).

Fruit drinks – Beware fruit drinks! Don’t think you can escape the sugar by switching to fruit juice instead. Many fruit drinks contain pretty much the same amount of sugar as cola. They might seem healthier, because, after all, they’re made from fruit. But there’s still a lot of sugar in there. Just look at the label on the bottle and see.

Burgers – I’ve just checked the website of a well-known international burger company. It shows their most popular burger as having 8 grams of sugar. Now, to be honest, that’s somewhat less than I was expecting, so maybe they are making progress in the sugar-reduction department. But that’s still 8 grams that you can do without. And we haven’t even mentioned fat yet. I’ll come back to that in the next section.

Cereals – Breakfast cereals can contain a lot of hidden sugar. Even unsweetened cornflakes are about 9% sugar. The frosted type is 37% sugar. Over a third of their weight is pure sugar – sounds an awful lot to me – I’d avoid them at all costs.

Canned foods – many canned foods, especially baked beans and soups contain much more sugar than you’d expect. Check out the labels before using them.

Now, here’s an interesting fact, and one that, if you’re not aware of it, could undo all your good work of cutting out sugar. You might look on a food label and see that the sugar content is quite low. You might think that might make it a product that you’d want to buy if you’re trying to lose weight. But look a little closer.

You might also see another ingredient on the list: corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup. If you see either of these, watch out!

Here I’m going to quote directly from Wikipedia:

“Its major uses in commercially prepared foods are as a thickener, a sweetener and as a humectant – an ingredient that retains moisture and thus maintains a food’s freshness.

In the United States, cane sugar quotas have increased the price of sugar; hence, domestically produced corn syrup and high-Fructose corn syrup (HFCS) are less expensive alternatives that are often used in American-made processed and mass-produced foods, candies, soft drinks and fruit drinks to help control cost.

Glucose syrup was the primary corn sweetener in the United States prior to the expanded use of HFCS production. HFCS is a variant in which other enzymes are used to convert some of the glucose into fructose. The resulting syrup is sweeter and more soluble.”

HFCS is an ingredient in a huge number of processed foods, including many savory foods that you wouldn’t expect to contain a sweetening product at all. The bad news is that recent research suggests that a) HFCS is highly addictive and b) it’s our addiction to HFCS that is largely responsible for the continually increasing obesity levels in the US and in other countries too.

You need to treat HFCS just as you would sugar. You need to be aware of its presence in what you eat and work on cutting it out of your diet if possible. It’s addictive nature makes it especially dangerous.

Alcohol – Now, I don’t want to stop anyone from enjoying a drink now and again, but too much alcohol is bad news if you’re trying to lose weight. For two reasons.

Firstly, of course, there’s the calorific value of alcohol itself. Now this is surprisingly high. The calorific value of pure sugar is about 4 calories per gram. Pure fat is 9 calories per gram and alcohol comes in at about 7 calories per gram.

Surprised? Not many people realize just how calorific alcohol is. Now, a 5 oz glass of wine, or a 1.5 oz shot of whisky or a 12 oz glass of beer all contain one serving of alcohol, which is about 13.7 grams. This equates to about 98 calories – about the same as a chocolate bar. Think about that next time you have a few beers.

Secondly, and possibly more importantly, alcohol dulls our senses, impairs our judgement and is very likely to weaken our resolve. It’s easy to visualize the scenario where you roll out of a bar having had several beers (several hundred calories) and across the road is a burger bar. You’ve been sticking to your plan all day so you’re just that bit peckish. I can see the Burgermeister rubbing his hands already.

Take Away Message from Step Seven

Simply, be aware of how much sugar and HFCS there is in many common foods. Become a label reader. Take action to cut it down or cut it out of your diet. These are addictive so you’re going to find this difficult. Beware of booze too.

Weight Loss Bootcamp Extreme

Weight Loss Boot Camp Extreme

Regards, Coyalita

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