It’s the unknown that kills a good diet plan.
The little treats here or there that can derail months of work.
And the underestimations of calories in a food, well…that’s just UNBELIEVABLY AGGRAVATING!
Over the summer we had a Baskin Robbins move into our neighborhood.
As a treat, my family would go once a week for ice-cream. Sometimes twice a week of the grandparents were around.
I’m a chocolate mint kinda guy, so I normally get the chocolate mint ice-cream in a waffle cone – about 500 calories…but occasionally, I’d order the chocolate milk shake.
I figured, “It’s a treat, besides it’s probably about 750 calories, I can handle that”
You can imagine how mad I was when I saw this:
1300 Calories!
Almost Double what I thought.
Brutal.
Luckily, I wasn’t trying to lose weight this summer, so it wasn’t a giant deal, but this is where the “I didn’t change a thing, but gained weight” stories come from – forgetting or underestimating the calorie content of foods.
Eating responsibly means being aware.
You can still have chocolate milk shakes from Baskin Robbins if you are trying to lose weight, you just need to be aware that the darn thing has 1300 Calories.
Being aware – it’s the key to weight loss.
BP
PS – The secret to losing weight while still occasionally having a large chocolate milkshake? Share it with a friend!
.
Other posts you may enjoy
Filed under: Weight loss, weight loss success
Trackback Uri
28 Comments.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
-
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by craigballantyne and Brad Pilon, Andrea Page. Andrea Page said: RT @craigballantyne: RT @bradpilon – weight loss and milkshakes => http://tinyurl.com/yfmkkwu [...]
-
[...] Original post by Brad Pilon [...]
-
[...] Weight Loss and Baskin Robbins IceCream | Brad Pilon.com [...]
Brad I have a burning question to ask you! This is off the topic but I was wondering if fasting helps when a girl is on their pre-menstrual cycle, because I get bloated and feel so fat and I notice i have water weight because of my cycle. So will fasting help me when im on my cycle?
I had the same thing happen to me after eating a Sonic Blast. Got home to discover the calorie count was much much higher that I thought. After that I went back to their $1 teaser menu.
wow, sometimes I wonder how they manage to pack so much sugar and fat into these things. that’s some quality food engineering.
I know this isn’t the substance of your post, but I’ve generally found that pretty much across the board, milkshakes will completely nuke a diet. I think most of the time we assume that a milkshake can’t be that much worse than a couple scoops of ice cream, but I guess there is just a lot more ice cream in there than we think.
I love milkshakes but boy oh boy will they destroy your calorie intake.
Yeah and not even real ice cream. Solid HFCS and soybean oil garbage.
I know it’s not your thing, but I’m also a very happy/satisfied paleo eater. I had a large Banana Cream Pie Blizzard a two months back on a Sunday. I had acne breakout by tuesday.
Pretty sure BR has one shake that is 2,300-2,700cal range. Watch out for that one!
Totally agree Justin, a BIG scoop of icecream in a WAFFLE CONE, and it’s still only 500 calories…manageable….
But a milkshake…who would have thought?
B
If you were homeless, or really tight for money, You could meet your daily calorie needs by spending 4 bucks on a Chocolate Milkshake and a 1.50 on a coffee with some cream and sugar!
B
I think that PLANNING the milkshake is important, too, at least for someone like me . If I know that “on Saturday, I will have a 1300 calorie milkshake,” I am more likely to make good choices on the other 6 days of the week. It’s when I do things on the fly that I become less accountable, and then I also suffer guilt and beat myself up for being weak, etc.
I also religiously read up on nutritional information whenever possible. After I found out how many cals were in a blizzard, I stopped craving them entirely.
As an aside: I’ve lost 22 lbs. since early September using the advice in “Eat Stop Eat.” Thanks so much, Brad!
Very interesting and amusing subject. I read with great pleasure.
It’s definitly all about perception too. A couple of weeks ago the Starbucks i hang out at gave away all of their icecream for free, because they decided not to sell it in the store any longer. So i had a quart, what was funny was one of the girls that work there couldn’t believe i ate the whole thing, i pointed out that it only had 480 calories, and all of the majority of the frapuccinos that she sells and drinks herself on a daily basis had a lot more calories, but she hadn’t ever thought of that. Ha Ha. It’s funny nobody would think of having a giant sundae every day but it a frapuccino, hey that’s completly different
I reckon milkshakes and pizza have to be the two worst choices if you’re looking to lose. With pizza it’s practically impossible to predict calories.
Gotta admit though, I reckon I could do a 24hr fast and finish it off with a pizza every day of the week. And then just eat clean on weekends.
The key to making pizza work in a diet plan is to make it at home. That way you know exactly what, and how much, went into it.
Did you ever see this post ==> http://bradpilon.com/healthy-ramblings/the-ultimate-pizza/
I think I’m making pizza tomorrow night (fasting tonight)
B
I didn’t see that post Brad, but thanks for pointing it out… I’ll be sure to give that pizza a try. Looks awesome…
I made a pizza at home last night!!! It’s the only form of pizza I eat now but I have no idea how many calories were in it. This is the biggest stumbling block I have, how many calories are in a meal? Those calorie counter books show individual food content but do you really have to start measuring everything you eat?
As far as the milkshake goes, there was a story on our local TV just recently about this and those iced coffees. Once iced coffee has just over 2000 calories!!!
A 32oz milkshake is huge! I have a huge sweet tooth, but I don’t feel too swell after one of those (swollen yes, swell…no). For a normal sized milkshake in the 16oz range, your estimate of 750 would have been right on target and is generally what I figure medium sized ice cream treats to be. I believe a DQ Peanut Buster Parfait (my personal weakness) is about 700.
Your point about people misjudging calorie intake is spot on though.
-Ian
oops, lol… Ok, I’m math challenged today. your 750 estimate would have been a bit high for a 16oz shake (although guessing high is a good idea).
-ian
Many people trying to lose weight are unsuccessful because they actually slow their own metabolism down by eating too few calories and exercising excessively, threatening their body so that it goes into defensive starvation mode. Fuel, first thing in the morning (even if you work out early), is critical for jump starting one’s metabolism. When you eat in the morning, you get hungrier throughout the rest of the day, which is a sign that the metabolism is in high gear. To lose weight, it’s important to eat enough of the right food, at the right time, to speed up the metabolism.
The reason I approved this comment is for two reasons
1) Hopefully you see just how convincing this type of crap info SOUNDS or LOOKS
2) Hopefully you noticed that EVERY SINGLE SENTENCE is false.
This is why people are confused.
So if you see this type of info in magazines or on other websites make note, the people are not better than this spammer.
B
I wondered why there was a comment that was so contrary to the ESE philosophy!
Unfortunately, I have to hear these kind of comments from people ALL THE TIME when I tell them about flexible intermittent fasting. They ask how I’ve lost weight so quickly and I tell them the truth: I eat less, I move more, and I fast two days a week. Even though they were probing for the secret of my success, they gasp and look appalled. “How can you not eat for 24 hours? You’ll ruin your metabolism!”
Brad, one day I would love to see a post from you that offers some advice on how to deal with people when they make comments like this! You yourself are a walking demonstration of how fasting doesn’t make you fat or ruin your muscles, but I’m still at 200 lbs., so my body is less convincing right now, haha.
Hey El,
Tell them to buy brad’s book…..
Hey guys, I have a question. Even though I’m totally sold on Eat Stop Eat having read the book and numerous others etc. Someone I know isn’t and being a Chemistry Student she doesn’t believe me even when i show some of the references from ESE and she still doesnt believe it. Does anyone know of any papers from the top i.e. Cambridge, Oxford, Yale etc. to actually convince her that fasting is not bad for you and that you won’t lose muscle mass if you take resistance training.
Thanks for any input, especially for the Big Cheese himself (Brad Pilon).
Kind Regards Daz
I think that persons post brings up a basic limiting factor of human beings in general since the dawn of time,{ not to sound melodramatic ha ha} which is that people just don’t like their beliefs challenged. It doesn’t matter if it’s nutrition or fitness or politics and religion, or any other subject, people will literally fight over these things, Hell, the guy that suggested that doctors wash their hands between surgeries and child birth and visa versa, was ostracised from medicine and eventually killed himself.
I think one thing that stops people from trying Eat Stop Eat is more the preconception that they’ll be ” Starving” if they don’t eat. Where i found since it was something i planned and didn’t believe it would be an issue, it hasn’t been.
Dazza,
I’ve long since realized that my job is to help people who want to be helped, and not to ‘convince’ people that don’t want to be convinced.
Let your friend beleive what she wants to believe.
Sadly, people who are looking for someone to ‘change their mind’ typically aren’t ready to have their minds changed.
B
But if you really want to battle with her, just give the references from the Advanced Audio File Transcripts
B
Yea good point Brad, thanks for the input. Its just the amount of times I have to explain myself to so many different people when im fasting. I bet you guys and girls have probably experienced it yourself. It’s all good when they accept it, but when they go on about ‘oh its bad for you’, ‘you’ll slow your metabolism’ it drives me crazy how ill educated they are over health and fitness. Shes going to her chem lecturer to ask; i think only then will she believe me. If not out come the Audio Transcripts. I’ll have to remember your point for next time Brad.
Thanks again
Daz