To say that people are concerned by their appearances and
their weights and their shapes is probably an understatement. To say that
people are always trying to learn methods and techniques to lose weight is
probably a bigger understatement (in my research for this article, a friend
provided me with data that monthly search for keyword weight loss on Google is approx.
2 million times and if you put fast or rapid as a prefix to it, things get
really crazy!).
Probably, the biggest understatement of them all is
considering
weight loss as a simple
process of creating an energy imbalance of losing more and gaining less. Yes, this
simple statement is absolutely true and fundamental but unfortunately this is
the point where all the simplicity ends as how this imbalance can be created
and sustained is as complex as the human body itself is. A testament to this
complexity is the fact that after 100’s of years of scientific research on the
subject, the only validated agreed upon consensus is that one needs to lose
weight to become healthy!
The truth is that lose weight is a very individual
phenomenon and requires tailor made routines and efforts as everything doesn't
work for everyone. Think of it as a battle in which you have to use everything
small or large to your advantage. Whether its portion control, calorie
distribution, exercise, switching to natural raw veggies and fruits etc., every
action counts and creates an impact and this compound impact basically will do
the job in the end.
One of the little things that we can use to our advantage is
the choice of cooking methods for food preparation. The purpose of this article
is to present a simplified approach to cooking methods that will help you
understand how to cook intelligently and use cooking to your advantage for losing
weight.
How cooking effects
food and weight loss?
Whenever food is cooked, there will be some loss of
nutrients in the food and secondly, caloric value of the food changes. For
purpose of simplicity, we will ignore the changes to the nutritional make-up of
the food and focus on the caloric changes that cooking incurs.
Basically, we
can divide cooking methods into following categories:
1. cooking with oil like frying.
2. cooking with dry heat with roasting, grilling.
3. cooking with wet heat like steaming.
The effect of cooking on 100 grams of skinless chicken breast
What has happened?
What happens during cooking is that calories are added to
the food in form of fat as the cooking material. Fat has the most calories
among the food groups so much so that 1 gram of fat gives 9.2 kcal that is
twice more than carbohydrates and proteins give at 4.1 kcal/ gram. So it’s not
at all surprising that cooking method involving the most usage of oil is giving
the maximum number of calories. This clearly shows that best method of cooking
is steaming.
How this will impact
weight lose?
Let’s do some maths:
100 grams of skinless raw chicken has 116 kcal.
100 grams of steamed chicken has 150 kcal or 34 more
calories.
100 grams of fried chicken has 198 kcal or 82 more
calories.
Average consumption of chicken in USA in a year is 27.50 chickens.
Average consumption of chicken in a month is 27.50/12=2.2
chickens.
Average weight of a chicken is 850 grams.
Calories in 1 chicken skinless raw is 986 kcal.
Calories in 1 steamed chicken are 1275 kcal i.e. 425 kcal more.
Calories in 1 fried chicken are 1683 kcal i.e. 697 kcal more.
Calories from raw chicken in a month is 986x2.2=2169 kcal.
Calories from steamed chicken in a month is 1275x2.2=2805 kcal.
Calories from fried chicken in a month is 1683x2.2=3702 kcal.
Calories saved just
by cooking chicken intelligently every month is 3702-2805=897 kcal.
People never like statistics but irony of life is that they
do make sense especially when one considers
weight loss diet plans.
This was calorie saving for one edible only. Imagine if you
start cooking all your food by steaming, you will save tons of calories
eventually losing weight and getting fitter will become inevitable.