Is what you're drinking helping or hindering your weight loss efforts?

What you drink does impact your calorie intake. The average American currently derives 21% of their caloric intake from beverages, which adds up to a whopping 464 calories a day! The majority of those are empty-calories coming from sweetened beverages.[i]

For a little perspective, decades ago, the earliest soft drinks were sold in 6.5-oz bottles (78-calories) and were a very occasional treat. Today the average soft drink serving is 21-ounces (up from 13.6 oz. in 1977), and clocks in at a whopping 252-calories. Not only that, but over the same time frame servings per day increased from 1.96 to 2.39.

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How to Lose Weight 101: Understanding energy balance

If you're trying to lose weight but don't understand how your body works, your odds of success aren't good. However, learning accurate information about how your body works isn't an easy proposition! That's because (no kidding) most medical professionals don't know either. The (magic) diet book and other weight-loss-gurus don't care (they're interested in your money, not your success). So it's fair to say that too often we have a case of the blind leading the blind. Is it any wonder that so many find it so hard to lose weight, and even harder to keep it off? Sadly, not.

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Would your food log look like a crime scene?

 If you want to lose weight, but are avoiding keeping a food journal you may need to ask yourself why you’re avoiding that task? What you’re eating can all be healthy, while at the same time the amount you’re eating and drinking can be adding up to way too much.

Without keeping a food record it’s easy to not be fully aware of your portion sizes, and it’s easy to forget the extra calories in side items, between meal snacks, and beverages.

For example, years ago when I was a rooky health educator, a patient from the hospital-based weight maintenance program I was working in came to my office asking for help.

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We know cake isn't diet food--but 1,600 calories in a slice!?!

Aside from burning off more calories through physical activity, the only other control you have over calories lies in the food you eat and the beverages you drink.  

Amazingly, most of the thousands of books and programs on weight loss do a very good job of avoiding teaching you anything useful about calories. Most don’t address the subject at all. Worse yet, some tell you that calories don’t matter… that some special combination of foods, nutrients, etc., is the secret to weight loss. Understanding the calories in food however, is fundamental to weight management.

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What would you guess is the #1 predictor of keeping the weight you lose off?

That would be Physical Activity. I know, I can almost hear all the groaning! Here’s the deal. No sugar coating. You can fight gravity all you want, but that won’t change it. There are a few Weight-Loss-Mastery-Skills that do indeed need to be mastered to get and keep weight off. We know that you need to burn a minimum of 2,000 calories a week in physical activity. The good news is that physical activity is like a magnet behavior. When you’re active you will tend to also follow your healthy eating plans and do better with the other factors that support your weight loss.

For more see: How much physical activity is needed for successful weight management?