Fast and Good: Trimming Fast Food to Suit Your Size

The jig is up. Obesity rates in the industrial world have grown to epidemic proportions over the last 20 years. The International Food Information Council explains the reasons this way: “Fundamentally, weight gain results when calories consumed are greater than calories expended. Complex societal changes have led to an imbalance in calorie intakes and expenditures including decreased physical activity, increased sedentary behaviors and altered eating habits.”

What are those societal changes? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the effects of drive-thru fast food joints providing ever larger portions, coupled with the triumph of technology over physical effort, and video games and niche TV over the after-hours pick-up game. Meanwhile, there are fewer leisure hours available to most adults than ever to fit in a regular trip to the gym on top of all your other stretched-too-thin responsibilities. Let’s face it, we’re all heart attacks waiting to happen.

Don’t despair. The American Heart Association (AHA) and the American Dietetic Association (ADA) agree that even a 10% decrease in body fat will add years to your life. That can be achieved with a simple food plan that includes a variety of fruits and vegetables; a variety of grain products, including whole grains; fat-free and lowfat milk products, fish, legumes (beans), skinless poultry and lean meats; and only fats with two grams or less saturated fat per serving (such as liquid and tub margarines, canola oil and olive oil).

It’s important to note that a week’s “variety” of different foods does not mean a Big Mac on Monday, a Whopper on Tuesday and a Bean Burrito Especial on Wednesday. All these meals weigh in at around 600 calories per wrapper, not counting the fries and the soft drink, which double the number. But you can find something on the menus of all the fast food chains that will suffice.

Choose It to Lose It

Compare these choices: McDonald’s Big Mac Combo (including medium french fries and a medium soft drink) leaves you with a whopping 1,260 calories for one meal. Substitute a diet drink and you only bring it down to 1,050, about half a man’s recommended daily allowance for calories. Along with those, you’re getting 31 grams of protein, 107grams of carbohydrates and 33 grams of fat.

But, if you order the Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad instead—even with salad dressing—and a sugar-free drink, you’re only swallowing 390 calories, with the same 31 grams of protein and only 11g of carbohydrates and 9.5 grams of fat. If you want to increase the healthy complex carbs and pack in some green vegetables to boot, you can add a side salad for an additional 15 calories and 8 grams of carbs, still keeping your calorie count well within the range of 1/3 your daily allowance. See the chart below for more nutrition comparisons.

However, says David Heber, MD, PhD, FACP, FACN, nutrition consultant for NBC TV’s hit reality show The Biggest Loser, a diet of fast food is not the answer to either weight loss or balanced nutrition. Instead, he offers over a dozen quick recipes in his book, The L.A. Shape Diet (Harper Collins 2004), for on-the-run meals that promise both, designed for every individual’s unique body type, “matching the protein of the diet to the protein of the body.” One size does not fit all, he says. “What we found in our research is that people who have more muscle—like a big, heavier person who might be an EMS provider—would need more protein to satisfy their hunger…and support their muscle mass.”

A professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) and director of the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition, Heber developed his medical research-based plan for his surgical obesity patients, but used it himself to lose 28 lbs. of fat in six weeks, while adding 10 lbs. of lean muscle using simple dumbbell exercises also included in the book.

Heber’s diet is a hybrid of today’s two competing diet models, offering both high protein for some body types, as well as complex carbohydrates for others, minimizing the use of fat and refined carbohydrates like sugar and flour for everyone.

Heber’s best answer to fast food for busy EMSers on crazy schedules? Soy- or nonfat-milk-based protein shakes twice a day instead of two out of your three meals (saving time and providing fully balanced nutrition) plus a protein bar (or a handful of almonds and a piece of fruit) kept in your rig or jump bag for those on-the-road “food emergencies.” For that one meal you’ll have to cook (but actually get to chew), he says even low-fat microwaveables are okay on busy schedules.

“It really helps when people buddy up together,” says Heber, who points out that changing your lifestyle of eating habits and exercising can be difficult, bringing up all kinds of emotional issues which interfere with motivation. “It’s amazing how much contests help, too. It’s that whole idea of making the resolution and getting started on it. Within two weeks you can start seeing a change.”

Adding a word of caution, from experience with 24-hour shifts, “Don’t eat to wake yourself up if you’re tired on a long shift. Better to drink one cup of coffee with nonfat milk and a teaspoon of sugar for a quick pick-me-up. That’s only about 15 calories. But skip the 300-calorie donut—you’re not gonna get more energy, you’re just gonna get fat.”

The main thing is to make sure the sum of all you eat adds up to the number of calories that you burn in a day’s work (that’s estimated at around 1,500 calories for women and 2,000 for men, according to the ADA) or you will gain weight. To lose weight, you need to burn more than you consume.

Resources

American Dietetic Association. Quick serve dining can be healthy. Tip of the Day Archive. www.eatright.org/Public/index_16493.cfm.

American Heart Association. An Eating Plan for Healthy Americans. www.americanheart.org/downloadable/heart/4102_EatPlan2000.pdf.

International Food Information Council. https://ific.org.