I just got back from Starbucks and I had one of the most revealing and shocking conversations with the Barista.

When I go to Starbucks I get a grande coffee misto with 1-pump of flavor shot.

Does this look more like a coffee or a milkshake

The flavor shot is approx 70 calories, and there is about 40-50 calories worth of milk, so overall my coffee is about 120 calories. That’s not bad and it’s a very satisfying morning creature comfort that I simply will no give up for any reason.

The interesting thing is that I have to specifically ask for 1-pump of flavor…the standard amount of flavor shots in a grande is 4-pumps…that means a grande with the ‘normal’ amount of flavor is approximately 300 calories (the venti usually has 5 shots for a total of 350 calories)

But that’s not the shocking part. I asked the Barista “what is the most flavor shot pumps you have put in a drink for someone?”…she told me that they have a regular customer who gets 10-pumps!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!

That is 700 calories in one drink!

They also have other drinks that come with a standard 7-pumps of flavor, that’s approx 500 calories standard without asking for extra shots.

The flavor shot pumps we’re taking about deliver approximately 18 grams of sugar per pump.

Obviously the 10-pump drink person is an outlier, but the Barista told me it’s pretty normal for people to get the regular 4 or 5 pump drinks with whip cream and some chocolate or caramel topping, and they’ve got regulars who ask for their drinks ‘extra sweet’ which means an extra pump or two.

If you went to starbucks and got one of these drinks with a slice of banana bread or some other food item on the side you could easily be consuming 800-900 calories (and that is just a morning stop for a coffee and a treat!)

For most people that is almost half of their daily BMR right there, and I guarantee most starbuck goers don’t even consider their morning coffee stop as a ‘meal’.

I’m amazed that people can handle that much sweetness. I think my 1-pump is plenty sweet enough, I couldn’t imagine 4 (let alone 10!…10-pumps!…that’s approx 180grams of sugar in one drink…seriously WTF?!)

It seems that places like Startbucks are simply ice cream parlors masquerading as coffee shops.

They are essentially the socially acceptable place to mass consume cups of sugar, caramel, whip cream, and chocolate without feeling like you’re doing anything ‘wrong’.

Think about it, how many times per week does the average person stop at Dairy Queen for a milkshake or blizzard. If you did this every morning you’d be labeled unhealthy, a junk food/fast food addict etc…it just wouldn’t feel right.

BUT it’s perfectly normal to stop into a coffee shop every morning for a cup of sugar and fat that is essentially no different than a milkshake from DQ.

(the Barista even told me that they have a regular who comes in at 5am for a venti frappuccino…for anyone unfamiliar, a frappucino is essentially a milkshake with a shot of coffee added…about 550 calories)

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not at all ripping on Starbucks, in fact I love the coffee and choices they have. They’re not forcing anyone to order or drink anything they serve…that is purely a free choice of each customer…they’re just serving what people want, and apparently people want milkshakes (but without the social stigma of ordering a milkshake every day).

What I am doing is trying to show you how easy the calories can add up when it comes to drinks like coffee.

On one extreme you can get a plain black coffee which has zero calories. On the other end you’ve got these multi-flavored cappucino and latte offerings with multi-pump flavor shots, whip cream and syrup toppings etc.

The Social Perception of “Coffee”

Socially a plain black coffee and a frappucino or latte or cappucino are all considered ‘coffee’ to some degree, but when you break them down to their parts one of them has zero calories and the other can have as many calories as big mac from McDonalds!

So can you lose weight while drinking coffee?

Well that depends on what your definition of coffee is. If you’re the frappuccino/cappuccino quadruple pump whip cream drinker I’d guess that you’re going to have trouble losing weight.

On the other hand if you pay attention to the amount of calories you’re adding to your coffee then you can easily add these tasty drinks to an effective weight loss program.

The disturbing point is that a 4-pump 350 calorie drink is ‘normal’ and my 1-pump 100 calorie drink is the exception to the rule.

John

I just read an follow up article about Mark Haub’s (the nutrition professor from Kansas State University) who is eating mostly junk food on his weight loss diet.

Mark Haub lost 27lbs and his health markers improved.

In summary he’s lost 27lbs in 10 weeks eating some form of junk food (mostly snack cakes you can find at convenience stores).

He is now in a normal body weight category AND his blood markers of health are improving.

This is just more proof that total calories are what matter for weight loss…and that being in a normal/healthy bodyweight range has more to do with ‘health’ than the specific foods you eat to be in that range.

This type of experiment is shows that the type of food really just doesn’t matter when it comes to weight loss. If you want to lose weight, eat foods that you can control and eat less of.

An interesting point he makes is that when he was eating so called ‘healthy foods’ he tended to overeat them.

This is something I’ve noticed that many people do. They somehow think that if a food is categorized or believed to be ‘healthy’ then they can eat as much of that food as they like without gaining weight.

I’m glad Haub’s did this little experiment because the obsessive compulsive health food marketing is getting out of hand and the population need a reality check…

My new weight loss program is going to be built around the principle that the calories are what matter and its up to you to decide what foods you want to eat while you lose weight. This sort of story just further helps with the acceptance of my way of doing it.

You can read his full article here: Twinkie Diet

I’d appreciate if you could comment here on my site.

John

Today we’re going to cover the “Can do without” list.

These are occasions, items, situations and anything that you currently do that you’re not 100% attached to and you could likely do without in order to lose weight.

For the most part I can do without these

For some people it’s as simple as avoiding cheese and crackers while watching tv. For others it might be skipping a second helping at dinner.

It might be the difference between going out to watch the game (where you know there will be pizza and wings and beer) or staying home and making some food that you can better control the calories with.

Whatever it is this is the list that will define what you can get rid of and lose weight on your terms.

For me it was chicken wings and pizza when I’m out with my buddies watching the game.

I still go out, but I limit the amount of chicken wings to once every 2 weeks or so (chicken wings are my hot button food, once I start eating them I just can’t stop)…the other times that I find myself out I choose other options that I know I can control and won’t overeat.

One of my other things is sharing entrees when I got out to eat instead of ordering an entree for myself. This essentially cuts the calories in half but the event and satisfaction of the occasion is maintained.

What are things that you can do without?

John

Last week we were talking about what causes overeating and it was pretty obvious that there is no single cause. We know it has something to do with your genetic make up as well as your social environment, your psychology and many other factors.

It seems that the social situational eating is a factor that many of us cannot avoid and is the demise of many weight loss systems.

This is definitely on my "Can't do without" list

On a daily and weekly basis you will be faced with multiple social situations that don’t fit with many of the popular weight loss dieting programs.

Most of the common dieting dogma is incompatible with the social structure of modern society.

I challenge you to take any 3 common weight loss ‘rules’ like:

eat breakfast every day

eat every 3 hours

have protein at every meal

do cardio in the morning before you eat

avoid sugar and ‘simple’ carbs…

…blah blah, pick whatever you like.

Now try to apply just 3 of them for two weeks in a row…Odds are you’ll likely have to break all of them at some point, OR you’ll have to skip out on social situations in order to stick to these rules.

You’re basically put in a position of choosing between following the ‘rules’ of weight loss or living a normal life. This is what leads many people to believe that weight loss isn’t possible because they simply cannot follow the ‘rules’ they’ve been told are necessary.

The truth is there aren’t as many rules as you think, and weight loss is entirely possible while still living a normal feeling social life. As soon as you learn how to fit weight loss into your life it becomes a much easier path to follow.

The first step is realizing that most of the ‘rules’ of weight loss that you’ve heard about are nothing more than marketing tactics designed to get you to buy a product or service.

Effective and lasting weight loss is entirely within your reach, the key is finding a way to fit the weight loss into your lifestyle instead of overhauling your life to lose some weight.

Yes you have to make some changes, no you don’t have to retool everything and carry around a tupperware container full of steam veggies and plain chicken breast everywhere you go.

The key is eating less total calories but in a way that fits your lifestyle. The simpler the program the higher chance of success.

I suggest starting with the things you can’t do without and work back from there.

This list can include foods you like to eat and you don’t want to give up, social events you don’t want to give up and daily comfort items (like a morning coffee) that you don’t want to give up.

The items that don’t end up on this list are the things you can work on changing to get your weight loss on track.

For now the first step is the ‘can’t do without list’.

We’ll talk about the “can do without list next’.

John

Yesterday we had thanksgiving dinner (canadian style). Everything is more or less the same as american thanksgiving except it happens in October.

Of course this means a big day of eating, but how big depends on your regular eating patterns.

Baselines are always Shifting

If you’ve been following my weight loss advice you may have noticed that eating lower calories for extended periods of time get you accustomed to that calorie level.

In other words lower calories start to feel normal.

If you can get yourself to this point then any big eating day will feel bigger than it really is. In other words you can go all out and eat what feels like a lot of food but in reality you might just make it up to your calorie maintenance or just over for the day.

For me maintenance (meaning not gaining or losing weight) Is likely around 2000 on a really low movement zero exercise day and maybe 2500 calories on a higher movement day including a good workout.

Lets just use my numbers as an example:

You can actually train yourself to make 2000 calories FEEL like 3000 calories.

This is a matter of a ‘shifting baseline’…what does that mean you ask? Well read on…

Baseline Calorie Level

Your ‘baseline’ of calories is the amount you regularly eat on a daily basis. You will quickly become accustomed to your daily baseline calorie level and it will feel ‘normal’ to eat at this level most days.

If you’re baseline daily level of calories is 1300-1500 every day then 2000-2500 feels like a lot. But if you regularly eat 2000-2500 you gotta eat 3500-4000 for it to really feel like a lot.

In both cases the feeling of ‘a lot’ is similar, but the total amount of calories consumed is different, and only the second case would cause me to gain weight.

Eating low calorie every day can get tedious and is somewhat unrealistic for the long term. You’re going to want to splash in some higher calorie days…BUT the definition if ‘higher calorie’ is what can change.

Redefining “High Calorie”

If you can train yourself to perceive calorie maintenance as “high calorie” then you’re well on your way to sustainable long term weight loss/maintenance while still enjoying all the social gatherings and holiday eating events that come up throughout the year.

It’s not necessary to eat 4000 calories at thanksgiving dinner in order to enjoy it. Likewise with any other holiday, wedding, cookout or special event. Keeping your calories lower during the week and bewtween (before and after) big events like thanksgiving is what will shift your baseline lower and allow you to enjoy any big eating event without even thinking of how much you’re eating.

John