The Hemp Connection:
calories

I've encountered several websites recently that seem to have the calorie number"300" on a pedestal, as if this is what we should aspire to as a total count for a meal. So much so that a current bestselling book out there has used this premise to get you to buy it.

Let's do some math.

A 30 year old, 5' 5" woman aspiring to be 135 lbs, not accounting for being moderately physically active, can eat about 1800 calories a day. Even if breakfast is only 60% as big as lunch and dinner, that works out to about 400 calories. I've found that having a large breakfast makes it easier to avoid bingeing later in the day, so my preference in this situation would be to recommend 500 calories at each meal, which leaves room for a 300 calorie snack.

If you're not hungry first thing in the morning, it may be that your blood glucose dropped overnight and triggered a blood sugar surge. The best remedy for this is often to be sure that 300 calorie snack comes before bedtime and includes protein. One of the first signs that you're actually resolving your insulin resistance seems to be that you find yourself hungrier, earlier in the morning.

Somehow, somewhere, 300 calories has been some kind of magic number to aim for. But I also see, time and time again, that women who choose this number as their goal, experience more cravings and are more likely to binge.

When it comes to calories, it's not always that less equals more. It's about making sure you have enough calories at the right times of day so that you are not hungry for too many at the wrong times of day.

For most women, a meal size of 500 to 600 is just about right. Try it, even once and see if it makes a difference in your cravings and urges to binge.

Need help finding 500 calorie breakfasts? I did a post awhile back on this topic that is consistently one of our most read. I encourage you to check it out.

http://www.incyst.com/2009/03/four-500-calorie-breakfasts.html

This announcement comes to us from inCYSTer Stacey Whittle in Santa Monica, California!

RMR TESTING SPECIAL — SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009
7:00 am — 12:00pm

We have 10 time slots available at the discounted rate of $99, regular price is $150.

Stop guessing about how many calories you should be eating. This simple, 15 minute test will determine the exact number of calories you need for weight loss.

To learn more and to sign up for a time slot, give us a call at 310-828-6100.

Most of us assume that every calorie we eat goes directly to being metabolized by muscle and fat. Did you know that over half of the calories you burn are used to maintain your body temperature? When you severely restrict your calories, your body temperature drops. If you know anyone who is super lean, or anorexic, they are often wearing more clothing than others with regard to the ambient temperature, which illustrates this fact.

If you've been on a restrictive diet, and you are afraid to increase your calories, for fear you're going to gain weight, try this:

Take your body temperature. If it is less than 98.6 degrees, chances are, the main change you will see if you increase your calories, is an increase in your body temperature. It's usually best to increase your calories in 100 calorie increments at a time, and sit there for a week to evaluate the effect. If your weight stays stable or drops, but your temperature increases, your problem with weight may be that you're eating too little food. Try adding 100 calories a week until you get to 98.6 degrees and see where you land.

The only condition where this experiment may not work, is if you have a thyroid that is not working the way it should, as the thyroid directly affects your metabolism.

It's a very common sense tool to look at what you're doing vs. what you may need to be doing.

Try it. You may be surprised at the results.

A few years ago I stumbled on a website that is a great resource for people wanting to learn about the relative health benefits of individual foods.

This website, www.nutritiondata.com, provides some PCOS-pertinent information in addition to the the traditional calories/carbs/vitamin content most other websites provide:

1. Fullness Factor: An indication of how physiologically full a food is likely to leave you feeling. For those of you who are trying to lose weight, the closer to the upper right hand corner you get, the more supportive of your weight loss goal that food is likely to be.

2. Caloric Ratio Pyramid: If you've been advised to eat a certain percentage of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, this section will tell you how closely you are meeting that goal.

3. Estimated Glycemic Load: Gives you an idea how your food choices are promoting…or discouraging…good insulin function.

4. Inflammation Factor: Since PCOS is a disease of inflammation, your goal is to have as anti-inflammatory of an eating pattern as possible.

You can keep your food diary here and see how a daily total adds up.

It's important to remember when using a tool such as this, there is no perfect way of eating, and no good or bad food. A food that is more inflammatory or less filling isn't bad, it's just one that needs to be eaten in smaller quantities in order to not throw your daily nutritional value in the pro-inflammatory direction.

I italicized the word physiological above because this tool does not work with emotional hunger. If you're using food to cope with depression, in response to negative pregnancy tests, or as an outlet for feelings you may have about PCOS-induced appearance issues…it's important to ask for help in learning outlets with less potential to be self-destructive.

Our"Food of the Week" feature is designed to help encourage a variety of foods, since many women dealing with PCOS have been on so many restrictive diets and yo-yoed back to an even higher weight, they often find themselves in a place where they don't even know how to get started on truly healthy eating. We can't possibly tell you every single food that will work, but we can trigger some ideas. With a tool such as this website, you can hopefully take the information you've learned here and apply it to your entire daily intake.

Have a great week!

We had a really interesting inquiry from a lactation consultant, who had been trying to find information to give her new mothers of multiple births, regarding how much they need to eat to maintain their own nutrition AND produce enough milk for multiple babies.

We have a great resource for that, inCYSTer Chris Wittmer, in Dayton, Ohio. Chris works for a medical practice that manages high-risk pregnancies. Chris' great answer is posted below. I wanted to share it with our readers, so that others looking for this information don't have to work so hard to find it. Enough of you are undergoing procedures that increase the chances of multiple birth, I wanted to be sure that from beginning to end, mother and babies are well fed!

I linked to the book in case anyone wanted to find it without an inordinate amount of hunting.

Thanks so much, Chris, and I hope this helps!

There are very few"official" recommendations for nutrition for mom while breastfeeding multiples, but Barbara Luke, who is the"guru" of nutrition for pregnancy with multiples has extrapolated some numbers/recommendations for a singleton mom to multiples. They are included in her book:"When You are Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads", 2nd edition, chapter 10.

The overall caloric recommendations are
--1000-1200 calories additional for twins (500-600 calories per baby),
--1500-1800 additional calories for triplets and
--2000 to 2400 additional calories for quads.

For twins her recommendation is 3200 calories/day and 160 g protein/day, keeping the distribution of calories approximately 40% carbohydrate, 20% protein, and 40% fat. Elizabeth Noble recommends about 3000 calories/day for twins (400 extra per baby The calcium needs are the greatest-increasing by 50%, so that would be in the range of 3000 mg/day.

Other important nutrients include Omega 3 fatty acids, Zinc, and Iodine. It is extremely important for mom to eat adequately or her milk supply will be diminished. Eat nutrient dense foods frequently to help get in the needed calories and nutrients and continue to drink adequate fluids-preferably milk, juice or water. I don't know if any of this will be helpful, but as has been said before, it is a subject that has not been addressed adequately in the literature. There is a need since the incidence of multiples is rising.