Totally new to this, need help reading labels

Trying to lose a solid 10 pounds per month. Generally what should I look for on food labels? I don't know the difference between a carb and a protein etc. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Slow down!

Ten lbs/month is not healthy for anybody. The healthy way is about 1-2 lbs/week. The reason is you don't want the bounceback effect after you lose all the weight. You want to stay at your new slimmer weight. The more quickly you lose weight, the more likely it is that you will suffer a rebound effect and gain it all back and then some. Now, it's not uncommon, at first to lose more weight because some people retain water like crazy, so once they start eating properly, the water comes off too, making it look like they were losing a lot of fat quickly at the beginning. They weren't, it was just excess water retention.

Get a medical check up and make sure you are tending to any health issues you have with a Dr's supervision.

Losing weight is about evaluating your relationship with food. Here are a couple of areas of food relationship to explore:

Are you an emotional eater? I.e., do you live to eat or eat to live? There's a difference. If you are an emotional eater, you will have to work to process your emotions in other ways besides with food -- talking to friends, journaling, exercise and stress reduction.

Do you have food sensitivities or allergies? It's common to crave foods we, ironically, have reactions to. I, for example, am sensitive to wheat. Not only does it upset my tummy, but the more I eat it, the more I want it: pasta, bread, any baked goods really. Crazy. So, I don't eat it that much, maybe 2-3 times/week. My tummy is much happier, and I don't think about pasta all the time. :crazy: Other common allergies/sensitivities: nuts, dairy foods, chocolate, wine. soy products (tofu and soymilk) It's much easier to control your calorie intake when you aren't craving foods.

Bottom line: explore any food issues you might have. Then can you put together an eating plan (not a short-term diet) that will work for you, minus the problem foods (at least initially. You might be able to reintroduce them occasionally as you reach your goal weight). This includes the amount of calories you should be eating per day. You want to eat foods that your body really needs, not what makes it ill or perform poorly.

Food labels: What is it you are asking here? Are you not sure about what amounts of these nutrients you should be eating? Or what they are? Food labels are broken out by carbs (fiber, sugar,), protiens, and fats, and sodium. For the most part, the science breaks out this way:

protiens, carbs = 4 calories/gram

proteins = all meats, all fish, soy "meat" substitutes, tempeh, which is a wheat-based meat substitute.
carbohydrates are mostly everything else that isn't a fat or an oil: all vegetables, all fruits, all grains and all the products that we derive from them.

Nuts are a great snack and a blend of protiens, fats and fiber.


fats = 9 calories/gram

Fats are all animal fats, all plant fats like olive oil, avacado oil, all cooking oils. Stay away from anything "hydrogenated." That means they added chemicals to it so that it stays solid at room temperature. It produces the dreaded transfats that will shoot your triglicerides through the roof.

Generally speaking, it's better to eat whole foods in their natural state, rather than processed, in the box stuff, for example:

#1 It's healthier to make a quick stir fry with fresh meat/tofu and fresh veggies from the produce aisle, rather than pop a frozen dinner in the microwave. No matter, if it's from one of the better product lines like Healthy choice. Lots of processed, ready made foods have too much salt, or sugar, or fat, or preservatives. And watch labels like a hawk. Often times a "per serving" label looks OK nutritionally, but a "serving" is so small that most people will eat 2-3 times that amount!

#2 If you eat bread, it's better to eat a hunk of an artisanal loaf from the gourmet aisle rather than Wonder bread. The gourmet bread has been allowed sufficient time to rise and develop its proteins. Even better, you can make it yourself for pennies a serving. I haven't tried it but the Cook & Baking Group swears by this recipe:

NY Times No-Knead Bread: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

#3 Eat a piece of fruit rather that grab a glass of fruit juice. You'll get fresh vitamins, fiber and a slow release of the sugars in that fruit. If you grab the fruit juice, it's little more than glorified sugar water. Again, read the nutritional label on fruit juices. The amount of sugar in those things is horrifying. If you must have it (and you're not diabetic), then 1/4 part juice to 3/4 water is a good substitute.

#4 If you must have carbonation, drop the Coke and Pepsi in favor of sparkling mineral water. You get all the fizz and none of the sugar. I can buy a case of the stuff at costco for about $6.50. A splash of lemon or lime juice is very refreshing. You can go European and the little splash of fruit juice above. ;-)


Wow, didn't mean to run on. Hope I answered your questions. These are just things I've learned over the years. Feel free to keep up this thread, this is a very supportive group. :-)

Check for High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) on every product you pick up. I'm willing to bet that you will discover it's in nearly everything now! Avoiding HFCS is a very good idea, to the greatest extent possible. It is widely believed that the skyrocketing rates of diabetes here in America are directly related to companies replacing regular table sugar with HFCS in many products because it's "cheaper". Our bodies will, over time, be harmed by too much of any simple sugar, but white table sugar is still much easier on the system than HFCS.

But then you might be asking yourself: "How do I avoid it when it's in so many products"? The answer to that is to learn to cook at home as much as possible, and to grab a banana or apple to satisfy your sweet tooth rather than cookies or ice cream.

If cooking is a problem due to time constraints then think about buying a slow cooker for yourself. That way, you can turn only a few minutes' worth of prep time into a lovely soup or stew which will be cheap, delicious and healthy.

Because I'm very close to completely vegetarian I love checking out the recipes on vegweb.com. You can use those recipes as a base, and add some lean meat if you just gotta have it. There's a wealth of easy ideas there, and they're arranged by category and rated for taste by other users of the site.

I hope these ideas are of benefit to you, and I hope you'll become another of our "regulars". We are a very supportive bunch and are always ready and willing to offer advice or answers to questions. :)

about HFCS. It is literally in everything.

2nd tip about ingredient lists: Ingredients are usually listed somewhere below the nutritional label. It tells you what the product is made of. And not only that, the ingredients have to be listed in order of their relative amount in the product, from biggest to smallest. So the first thing listed is what the product is primarily made of. The second listed ingredient is the second biggest thing the product is made of, and so on down the line.

For example, if you buy a jar of tomato/spaghetti sauce, you want the first ingredient listed to be tomatoes. And the second, perhaps, to be mushrooms or onions, ... additional veggies IOW. The last thing you should see on the list for tomato sauce is salt (sodium), or HFCS (run away!)

You really should speak to your health care provider and maybe even see a dietician. There are many terrific plans out there so perhaps you need to ask yourself what kind of changes you are able to commit to on a long term basis. Go to the library or check out some on line sites like Sparkpeople.com that can provide you with diffent options. Losing weight is a long term committment and involves major changes in your eating habits which are difficult to sustain if you don't find a plan that fits for you.

I didn't know anything about labels when I started either. My only rule at first was to not eat anything with over 30% fat. Watch for the serving size. They can be really misleading. You will see a small can of something and it will be 3.5 servings. Yeah right!

I was at this for a few months, when I checked out http://www.sparkpeople.com/

It's really intimidating at first, there is so much going on, but it's free. It doesn't take too long to track your food. They figure out the nutrition on everything. It's been a real eyeopener for me. They will even plan your meals if you want. (I don't)

I've lost 70# since March and I think spark helped keep me on track a lot.

Bonus! The have an "I'm for Obama" team!