If we're not willing to settle for junk living, we certainly shouldn't settle for junk food. Sally Edwards
If we're not willing to settle for junk living, we certainly shouldn't settle for junk food.
Sally Edwards
No, we haven't lost our minds here at Beachbody. We don't actually want you to eat fast food. It's terrible for you. It makes you fat. It destabilizes economies and nations. It kills the environment. Read Fast Food Nation. See Super Size Me. If you're really serious about getting or staying in shape, fast food restaurants are not on your path to success.
However, sometimes fast food is the only option other than starvation. Long road trips, coworker lunches, the only place your child or childish companion will eat—these are all situations where you may be forced to enter one of these fluorescent dens of gluttony and decide which of their evilly delicious menu items you'll be naming your newly enlarged buttocks after.
While the fast food companies have generally shown an appalling disregard for their customers' health, they have lately been shamed by our nation's obesity epidemic into offering some menu items that have some nutritional value. They still can't resist adding a little unneeded fat or extra high-fructose corn syrup just to spice things up, so it's wise to take a buyer-beware approach when ordering your meal. Here are some tips to make healthier choices and some suggestions about the healthiest (relatively speaking) things to order at some of the major fast food chains.
One of the biggest problems with fast food is that the food is incredibly dense in calories, fat, sodium, and bad carbohydrates. They pack a lot of unhealthiness into a small package. So you think you're just having a quick bite, but you're really getting most of your day's requirement of fat, sodium, and calories. This is where we get the term "gut bomb." Paying extra to ruin your health makes no sense. Ordering the small size may not be as cheap per pound of food, but it will save a fortune when working off pounds of fat later.
All hope isn't lost, though. You can almost find something healthy to eat anywhere. Here are the best bets at some of the most popular fast-food chains. (Unless specified, salad calorie counts do not include dressing.)
Most misleading item: Chicken Selects Premium Breast Strips. Premium chicken breast sounds good on the surface, certainly better than the mysterious McNuggets, but the 10-piece version will run you 1,270 calories, and that's before you dip it in the sauce! You could eat two Big Macs and get fewer calories.
Most misleading item: Tendercrisp Chicken Sandwich. At 780 calories, half of which are from fat, don't think you're cutting calories with this batter-fried, mayo-slathered doozy. It has 110 more calories than the grown-up Whopper!
Most misleading item: Homestyle Chicken Fillet Sandwich. Apparently, "Homestyle" is code for "mayonnaise." At 540 calories (only 40 calories better than the Big Bacon Classic) you're better off with the more decadent-sounding, but healthier, Ultimate Chicken Grill.
Most misleading item: Fiesta Taco Salad. At 860 calories, this may be the most highly caloric item on Taco Bell's menu. You can shave off over 300 calories by not eating the deep-fried tostada shell it's served in, but still, a pretty hefty calorie count for a "salad."
Most misleading item: Meatball Marinara. What's in these meatballs? A six-inch sub is 560 calories; a 12-inch sub has 1,120 calories, and if you double the meat, you can get a single 12-inch sandwich with 1,920 calories and 84 grams of fat. On the bright side, I believe the defibrillation is complimentary.
If you'd like to ask a question or comment on a newsletter article, just email us at mailbag@beachbody.com. Check Steve Edwards' Mailbag for his responses to reader comments.
For Steve's views on fitness, nutrition, and outdoor sports, read his blog, The Straight Dope.
Nutritional information obtained 07/2006 from www.mcdonalds.com, www.burgerking.com, www.tacobell.com, www.wendys.com, www.subway.com.
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It's no secret that the U.S. is one of the fattest nations in the world: 66.3% of Americans over 20 years old are overweight or obese (about 140 million); 32% are obese (67 million); and almost 5% (9 million) are morbidly obese. Of adolescents 12 to 19 years old, over 17% are overweight (over 12.5 million), 16% of them girls, and 18.2%, boys. But what exactly do the terms "overweight," "obese," and "morbidly obese" mean, and why should these distinctions matter to you?
The standard definitions as used by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the World Health Organization (WHO) (and most social science and medical journals that rely on the data from those organizations) are based on body mass index (BMI) levels. This is a calculation using your height and weight.
Data from the National Center for Health Statistics, based on 2003–2004 estimates from National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES), and from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
Although body mass index is the most commonly used measurement of obesity, it doesn't distinguish between fat and fat-free mass, like muscle and bone. Bodybuilders and other athletes with lots of muscle (which weighs more than fat) may have high BMIs, and so would be classified "overweight" or "obese," though they're more likely to be healthy and fit, not fat. And older people who lose muscle mass through the aging process and then replace muscle weight with fat may still have the same height and weight, and so, BMI number, though they'd actually be "fatter."
Because of such concerns, some researchers are pressing for more accurate ways to assess body fat, including using body fat percentage, while others argue that it's the location of body fat that's most important, not simply how much of it you have. Excessive deep abdominal fat is far worse than fat around your hips and thighs, as it is linked to increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and other serious medical conditions. Your waist measurement, then, is also a gauge of your health (over 35 inches for women and over 40 inches for men is associated with higher disease risk).
But because BMI is so easy to determine, and because most of the research on the medical risks stemming from obesity is based on BMI data, your body mass index is a number worth knowing.
If you're reading this, chances are you've bought a Beachbody product and are on your way to a long-term healthy and fit lifestyle. Good for you! And if right now you happen to be one of the 140 million Americans who are considered overweight or obese, just keep exercising—Keep Pushing Play—and keep eating right, and here's what you can look forward to:
And if you're one of the 9 million morbidly obese Americans—take heart. Have a look at the Beachbody 100 Club, a group of dedicated individuals who've lost more than 100 pounds each, proving that regular exercise and a healthy diet can dramatically alter your life for the better. As Jenn B. says, "I'm so much happier and healthier and I have more confidence, better posture . . . heck, I've got my life back! My medical conditions (constant back pain, leg pain, asthma) have fixed themselves." Amazing what you can do if you're committed.
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