Don’t Count Calories, Count Fat
Life at the Lisco Superette hasn’t been the same since Lucille Cooper lost 50 pounds. That’s because Cooper, who owns the only grocery store in Lisco, Neb. (population: 90), turned her livelihood into a platform for successful weight loss.
She convinced the locals who would drop by for ice-cream sandwiches to purchase fat-free fudge bars instead. A few years ago, the superette sold only a couple of gallons of skim milk a week; now it sells more skim milk than whole. And in the deli, sales of turkey breast are outpacing bologna and ham. What’s more, Cooper offers unsolicited nutrition tips to travelers who stop in her store.
It’s that time of the year when every indulger realizes the party is over. Resolutions are made to ban all meat balls, rum balls and high balls, any food that is unnaturally red or green is off limits, and most importantly, calories are carefully counted.
But Cooper knows that approach won’t work. Like many professional dieters, she’s gone on low-calorie weight-loss plans only to lose and gain the weight back again, often an extra five or 10 pounds. Now, she counts fat.
“It’s a lot easier,” said Cooper, whose four employees are also following a fat-counting regimen.
Fat budgeting has gained popularity in recent years as health organizations repeatedly recommend that Americans cut their fat intake. Several books detail how to keep track of fat consumption, and various health organizations have developed their own approaches.
These plans determine how much daily fat to eat based on ideal weight, age, sex and caloric intake. (Each plan has somewhat different weight, calorie and fat parameters, some more restrictive than others.) Then, you choose what you want to eat, provided you stay within a fat budget.
For example, if your daily allowance is 60 grams of fat, and you want a bacon cheeseburger at 37 grams of fat, you must balance out the rest of the day with low-fat choices.
Lucille Cooper took classes sponsored by the Volunteers of America based on the “Choose to Lose” system. The book and weight-loss plan were developed by Ron and Nancy Goor of Bethesda, Md., and Baltimore dietitian Katherine Boyd. The Goors are also authors of “Eater’s Choice: A Food Lover’s Guide to Lower Cholesterol,” and Ron Goor was the first coordinator of the National Cholesterol Education Program at the National Institutes of Health.
As Nancy Goor put it, “It’s fat that makes you fat.” Scientists used to think that all calories were alike, Ron Goor said, but research has shown that the body burns calories from carbohydrates much faster than it burns those from fat. People can eat an ample amount of food and still lose weight so long as the food is high in carbohydrates and low in fat, he added.
That’s why Cooper feels she’s latched onto a plan for life. “You can eat a lot of food. You’re never hungry,” she said. Instead of snacking on ice cream, she’ll grab some fat-free pretzels, fruit--or low-fat cake.
Here are a few sources for learning how to budget fat:
* “The Choose to Lose Diet,” by Ron and Nancy Goor and Katherine Boyd (Houghton Mifflin, $17.95). The book will be out in paperback at the end of the month. Call (301) 897-9360 for more information.
* “The American Heart Assn. Fat and Cholesterol Counter,” a 102-page booklet, details AHA’s dietary recommendations, how to calculate fat allowance, and lists nutrition information for 450 foods. Available at local bookstores, or by calling the American Heart Assn. at 1-800-733-3000. Cost is $3.50.
* “The Eating Smart Fat Guide,” a pocket-sized slide chart that lists recommended fat intakes by age and sex and includes the total fat, saturated fat and calories in 300 foods. Write Center for Science in the Public Interest, 1875 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 300, Washington D.C. 20009. Cost is $3.95 plus $1 shipping and handling.
* “Healthy Dividends,” a fat-budgeting program developed by the National Dairy Council. For information, call Kathleen Peterson at the Dairy Council of Greater Metropolitan Washington Inc., (301) 986-9113.