Tag: <span>Calories</span>

I picked up the term Empty Calories a few years ago when I was trying to lose weight by going to a slimming club. It was used to describe foods that are typically high in sugar and fat, but have little or no nutritional value.

When comparing foods and deciding what to eat, I find it important not just to look at the number of calories in isolation, but also check on what vitamins, minerals, protein, sugar, and fibre are in the food.

There are certain foods, like cakes, chocolate, ice-cream, sweets, crips, sugary drinks, and especially alcoholic drinks that are all high in calories, but have very little in the way of nutritional benefits. And these are the type of foods that I refer to as having ’empty calories’.

Given the choice between an avocado and a chocolate bar, it should be obvious that an avocado is much better for you. They have a similar number of calories, but the nutritional benefits of eating the avocado instead of the chocolate bar are much higher!

A bottle of wine typically contains around 635 calories, and a pint of beer is around 240 calories, and neither of them contain much in the way of nutrition. And as such they are some of the worst examples of empty calories!

Diet Surgery

This is one of the top questions that weight loss surgery patients ask, but it’s also one of the hardest ones to answer, because every bariatric team and dietician will have their own variation on this. And some people may need to follow a diet plan that is specifically tailored to their needs.

However, having said that, I thought I’d write down a few guidelines that seem to apply in most cases:

  • Portion size for each meal should be 85 – 170 grams of food. This is avoid stretching out the new stomach pouch. With this size of portion, people might need to have upto 6 meals a day. Some people might be able to eat slightly bigger portions, so might get by on 3 meals a day.
  • Calorie intake should be around 800-1200 calories per day. This is during the weight-loss phase.
  • Protein intake should be around 60-80 grams a day. This is to help guard against muscle loss, and help with feeling fuller and less hungry between meals.
  • Carbohydrate intake should be as low as possible. Some people suggest that the carbohydrate weight should be lower than the protein weight, but that can lead to a fairly restrictive diet.
  • Fat intake should be a minimum of 20 grams a day. This should be mostly unsaturated fats.

The main thing is to keep an eye on portion size. It’s actually really hard to judge the right size of a meal, so it might be worth using some scales or measuring spoons or cups. Also choose side plates to limit the amount of food on the plate.

Aim to have at least 50% of the plate as protein, and try to eat as many fruits and vegetables as possible. It’s OK to have a small amount of carbs as well, but these should be limited as they often high in calories but don’t provide much nutrition.

Order of eating

When eating a meal, it’s best to try and eat the different food types on the place in the following order:

  1. Protein
  2. Vegetables
  3. Carbohydrates (Potatoes, Rice, Pasta)

The order is important, as we want to consume the most important food types first, in case we get full and need to stop eating. We start eating the protein first, to feel fuller and protect our muscles. We eat the vegetables second, to get all the healthy vitamins and minerals. We then have the carbs last of all, that is if we’re not feeling full.

Tracking calories, protein, carbs, and fat

The easiest way to find out how many calories, protein, carbs and fat a food has is to check the packaging that the food arrived in. Some restaurants also publish the nutritional information on their menus.

Another way is to use a food tracking app like MyFitnessPal (or other similar apps) that have a huge database of foods and their related nutritional information. I like to use the barcode scanner to help find the correct product quickly and easily. The reports also let me know if I’m hitting my goals.

Diet Surgery

On top of all the free foods you can eat on Slimming World you’re allowed between 5 and 15 syns per day (and men get more!) to use on whatever you like – be that non-free ingredients in recipes, or treats such as chocolate.

Your Slimming World book lists the syn values for lots of different foods. However it’s not exhaustive, so the Slimming World website has an official Syns Online database of foods, where they have pre-calculated the syn values of loads of different brands.

If you can’t find a suitable listing in the database, then they also have a syns calculator where you can enter the nutritional information from the food label (calories, protein, fat, and carbs) and specify your portion size, and it’ll tell you the syn value.

Nutrition information for a packet of cooked rice

Slimming World also offer a service whereby you can send them photos of food packaging from the UK or Ireland, and they will calculate the syn value and add it to their Syns Online database – normally within a day or two.

Approximate calculation

If you don’t have the time or means to look up the exact syn values in your book or online, and you want an idea of the approximate number of syns in something, then the general rule of thumb is that 20 calories = 1 syn.

So, for example, my favourite can of Hufi beer is 140 calories – so that would equate to 7 syns.

This approximate calculation pretty good for non-free foods that don’t have much nutritional benefit (such as chocolate or alcohol). If you’re eating foods that have an amount of fibre or protein, for example, then the syn values will vary from this formula.

Slimming World

When I fall off the wagon, there’s often an alcoholic drink involved!

Most of the time I avoid drinking any alcohol at all, because it’s high calorie, and those calories provide little or no nutrition. Alcohol doesn’t fill me up, so in effect they’re just empty calories. And I’d rather use my calories (or syns) for food!

Having said that, on occasion I’ve been known to indulge in a small tipple, and when I do it can either go one of two ways. I either stay “good” and stay within my syns for the day, but feel like I’ve missed out on having a really good night. Or I go “bad” and go way beyond my syns (often not even counting them), and have a good night, but end up feeling regretful the next day. So either way, I end up feeling bad.

There’s also the problem that drink often lowers my resolve to make healthy eating decisions. So in addition to all those empty calories, I will often eat all the wrong types of food – and not just when drunk on a night out – but also the next day when I’m hung over.

So it’s best for me not to drink at all. At least that’s what I tell myself – often just before I reach for the wine bottle!

My Story Slimming World