How to Lose Weight with Eating Fast Food

Gone are the days when fast food meant fat-filled food. As we, the consumers, have become more health conscious, fast food chains have responded by adding healthier alternatives to their menus. So you can add fast foods to your diet without necessarily running the risk of putting on lots of weight. If you don't feel like cooking sometimes or just don't have the time and need something quickly, you can go to a fast food restaurant without feeling guilty.

The movie "Super Size Me" might have put some people right off going to places like McDonalds. For those of you who aren't familiar with the movie, the guy in it ate nothing but three McDonalds' combo meals a day. This is about three times as many calories as the average person requires each day. Now, that's definitely overdoing it!

But you can eat fast food and still restrict your calorie intake. Even if you choose one of the less healthy burgers, you can keep the calories down by skipping the fries or drinking water instead of soda. Mayo in sandwiches is another big calorie adder that you can probably survive without.

While eating fast food on a daily basis is still not a good idea, it can be incorporated into a healthy eating plan. LIVE's Nutritional Plan can show you ways that you can add fast food to your diet and still increase your metabolism. The key to maintaining a good metabolism is to eat five small meals a day.

Below is a list of some of the fast food chains and a few of the more healthy choices they offer.

McDonalds

1. Grilled Chicken Classic Sandwich (no mayo)
2. Plain Hamburger
3. Bacon Ranch Salad with Grilled Chicken
4. Side salad instead of fries

Wendy's

1. Jr. Hamburger (no mayo)
2. Ultimate Chicken Grill Sandwich (no mayo)
3. Plain baked potato with a small plain chili on top
4. Fresh fruit bowl
5. Low fat strawberry yogurt

KFC

1. Honey BBQ Snacker Sandwich
2. Honey BBQ Sandwich
3. Chicken breast without skin or breading
4. Sides of green beans, seasoned rice, or corn on the cob

Burger King

1. Chicken Whopper Sandwich (no mayo)
2. BK Veggie Burger (no mayo)
3. Fire Grilled Chicken Garden Salad

Baja Fresh

1. Baja Style Tacos: Charbroiled Chicken or Shrimp
2. Baja Ensalada: Charbroiled Chicken or Shrimp

Subway

1. 6" Ham
2. 6" Oven Roasted Chicken Breast
3. 6" Roast Beef
4. 6" Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki
5. 6" Turkey Breast
6. 6" Veggie Delight

As you can see, there are lots of healthy fast food choices. Just take some time to look at the menu next time you go in and see exactly what's in each option.

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Three Big Rules for Eating and Reaching Your Fitness Goals

Whether your fitness goal is weight loss, athletic performance, more energy, better health, or just simply toning up, it is vital that you pay attention to your nutrition and food intake to reach this goal. In my experience as a personal trainer, working with thousands of clients over a period of 16 years, I observed that the role that food intake plays in a person reaching his or her fitness goal is paramount. In fact, it makes up for more than 75% of the influence of whether or not a person is successful. The challenge for me was that people who would be working very hard in the gym expected to see results and couldn't understand why they weren't getting them, even after all that work. I would always say to my clients and anyone in the gym that would listen, "You can work out �till the cows come home, but if you're not eating well, your body won't change, at least not cosmetically, period." Frequently, that statement would be met with some confusion and the response that they had been eating well, and things just weren't working anyway. Well, upon further review of the actual diet and food intake the clients actually had, it usually wasn't difficult to see what could be improved with them so they could start seeing the results (typically weight loss) that they desired.

What I found was that people who want to lose weight believe that the only way that is going to happen is if they eat less food, which in many cases is actually counter to what the person actually needs. They have been eating a certain way for awhile and they are dissatisfied with their appearance, so they take the food intake they have been eating and they reduce the calories while they come to the gym and work with a personal trainer. They get sore and maybe see some change in the beginning of their program, but it isn't long before they are at a plateau and frustrated, because this plateau certainly isn't the result of a lack of effort.

Here is where a basic knowledge of the way that food intake actually influences weight loss is a tremendous help. It takes some of the mystery out of the equation and allows a person to make some intelligent choices that will help them reach their fitness goals. There are three big concepts that I find have really helped people get a grasp of the basics.

The first is to EAT ENOUGH! As I said before, the tendency is for people to really restrict their food intake in an effort to lose weight. If a person comes into beginning a fitness program having truly been an overeater, then a reduction in calories is appropriate. However, the culprit with most people who are overweight or overfat is not that they eat too much, it's that their metabolism is shot from a lack of exercise and bad eating habits. So, ironically, one of the things that has to happen with a person who wants to lose weight is that they frequently have to increase their overall intake of food somewhat to keep up with the demands of the new exercise and keep from starving, allowing the metabolism to rise naturally.

The second is to EAT OFTEN. Rule #1 doesn't do any good if all the calories you might be taking in come at dinner after starving yourself all day. This is the biggest single reason people have trouble with their physiques, this lack of regular eating. Regular eating throughout the day never lets the body get too hungry or too full, and the body responds by raising the metabolism and burning more fat. The ideal number of meals and snacks combined throughout the day is from 4-6, spaced evenly starting with breakfast as soon as you get up in the morning.

The last rule is to EAT BALANCED! I once had a client who said that she was eating 5 times a day like I had suggested, yet upon further examination I found that she was eating a handful of Cheerios for three of those meals. The result was that she wasn't eating enough food overall to fuel her body, and she was missing some key necessities in her diet, like adequate amounts of protein, that kept her from reaching her fitness goals. Eating balanced means getting adequate amounts of protein, carbohydrates, fats, fruits and vegetables spaced evenly throughout the day with each meal, if possible. This controls appetite and keeps the body feeling well fueled throughout the day, contributing to fat loss.

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