Jeremy's Fitness News - Drink Yourself Thin Or Drink Yourself Fat

Drink Yourself Thin
OR
Drink Yourself Fat

I am often surprised at how few people take into account things they drink toward their daily Calorie consumption. What also surprises me is how warped our understanding of calories in liquids can be.

The biggest shocker by far is our understanding of fruit juices. Because they are fruit and considered "healthy" people sometimes think of them as a calorie free food. Even though I am overly aware of calorie amounts in foods it still surprised me to look at and compare fruit juices to other possible beverages.

I'm not doing this to say that any one drink is better than another or that you shouldn't drink a certain beverage. I'm just doing this to help pass on some interesting information that will help you make more informed decisions.

Just for fun let me compare a starbuck's coffee to orange juice. Two possible morning beverages. Let's compare 8 oz. to 8 oz. At starbuck's 8 oz. caf� mocha non-fat, no whipped cream contains 118 Calories. The same amount of orange juice contains 112 Calories. They are quite comparable as far as Calorie amount. Of course that means you would have to get no whip and non-fat milk. If you don't it's going to be some extra calories. It is rare that someone only has 8 oz. of either. I know I usually drink through 8 oz. like it was nothing.

These Calories from beverages add up. It's common when I sitdown with someone in the first session to discuss nutrition I will ask them about what they eat on a typical day. They will tell me that they skip breakfast and don't eat until lunch. More often than not there is a beverage in their morning that does contain some calories. If you get the largest sized coffee (some mocha something) it could give you around 500 calories for the day. That could be bigger than lunch. A fast food cheeseburger only has 300 calories in it. This means your weight loss could be put in serious jeopardy because of what you drink.

Comparing drinks further 8 oz of soda and 8 oz of beer contain about the same number of calories. We all know the effects beer can have. There is even a name for the enlargement of an anatomical structure due to excessive beer consumption (i.e. the beer gut). We don't often hear about the soda gut but the calories have the same effect. Excessive intake of soda can gain you a belly just as fast as beer.

One of the biggest surprises I found in my comparisons was Gatorade. It is by far the lowest calorie beverage. If you had a 20 oz soda per day and you switched it to 20 oz of Gatorade you could lose 12.5 pounds over the course of a year. Wow.

Here is a small chart of some of the comparisons I made:

Beverage                                8oz serving
Coca-cola Classic                  97 Cal
Orange Juice                     112 Cal
Gatorade                       50 Cal
Budweiser                         98 Cal
Milk (2%)                            122 Cal
Starbuck's Caf� Mocha
Non-fat milk no whip        118 Cal
Water                                   0 Cal

Of course all these drinks seem to contain Calories. Well there is one that doesn't. Water!! Water still manages to be manufactured Calorie free all these years. Water is an amazing resource for our body. There are even diets based solely on drinking water.

My advice to you is:
Eat your fruit don't drink it - one orange has about 60-70 Calories.
Save the sugar for a treat don't drink it in your soda or coffee. - one bottle coke has same grams of sugar as over 12 Oreo cookies (a bit more fat though).
Wake-up with water - one of the first stages of dehydration is fatigue.
Make your water ice cold and you could burn 60 additional calories per liter as your body warms it up to 98.6 degrees.
Weight loss isn't only about exercise and food...what you drink can help also.