THE FATTIEST FOODS IN AMERICA

6. FAT OFFENDER #6: A BURGER : Ruby Tuesday Triple Prime Bacon Cheddar Burger

1,333 calories, 101 g fat, 1,892 mg sodium

New rule: The more syllables in a menu item's name, the more fat there's likely to be in the dish. Less than 3 percent of the beef produced in this country earns the USDA's "prime" rating, and that's not a bad thing. Prime beef, as it turns out, is the fattiest beef you can sink your teeth into. If you really want a burger, you're better off heading elsewhere. Not one of Ruby's has fewer than 700 calories. Go with the Plain Grilled Top Sirloin and earn all the beefy protein without the superfluous calories.

EAT THIS INSTEAD!

Plain Grilled Top Sirloin

290 calories, 12 g fat, 420 mg sodium

5. FAT OFFENDER #5: A STEAK: Chili’s Flame-Grilled Ribeye with broccoli and mashed potatoes

1,460 calories, 106 g fat (44 g saturated), 3,700 mg sodium

For a healthy diet, the USDA recommends you cap your daily saturated fat intake at 20 grams. This meal more than doubles that, and it's only 12 ounces of meat. Sure, ribeye is a notoriously fatty cut, but it's primarily the bath of butter that pushes this steak's fat count to such unhealthy heights. Switch to the Guiltless Grill Classic Sirloin and save an astounding 1,090 calories.

EAT THIS INSTEAD!

Guiltless Grill Classic Sirloin with steamed veggies

370 calories, 9 g fat (4 g saturated), 3,680 mg sodium

4. FAT OFFENDER #4: MEXICAN FOOD: Chili’s Bacon Ranch Chicken Quesadilla

1,650 calories, 107 g fat (39 g saturated), 3,450 mg sodium

Traditional Mexican food is big on seasoning and light on cheese, but with this quesadilla, Chili's takes a different approach. Trying to appease palates primed for indulgence, the restaurant layers on the fat in four ways: cheese, ranch, bacon, and sour cream. Go with the Margarita Grilled Chicken and you'll cut the overall fat content by more than 80 percent.

EAT THIS INSTEAD!

Margarita Grilled Chicken

550 calories, 14 g fat (4 g saturated), 1,870 mg sodium

3. FAT OFFENDER #3: A 'HEALTHY' SALAD: IHOP Chicken and Spinach Salad

1,600 calories, 118 g fat (32 g saturated), 2,340 mg sodium

Chicken? Good. Spinach? Good. IHOP’s Chicken and Spinach Salad—downright deplorable. You'll need to i-hop for four hours to burn it off. This salad is exactly what makes restaurant food so questionable and potentially unhealthy. The name makes it sound like a paragon of nutritious eating, yet the numbers reveal it to be just the opposite. The chicken here is actually fried chicken, and the spinach is little more than a small bed for bacon and cheddar cheese. You could snarf down six pancake short stacks and still take in less fat. Save yourself the waistline damage and opt for the Simple & Fit Simply Chicken Sandwich instead.

Click here for all of today's nutrition, health, and fitness news!

EAT THIS INSTEAD!

Simply Chicken Sandwich with fresh fruit, side salad, and reduced-fat Italian dressing

565 calories, 12.5 g fat (3.5 g saturated), 1,085 mg sodium

2. FAT OFFENDER #2: 'HEALTHY' FISH: Applebee’s New England Fish & Chips

1,930 calories, 138 g fat (24 g saturated), 3,180 mg sodium

The American Heart Association recommends eating fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids at least twice a week. By doing so, you lower your risk of such chronic diseases as heart disease and cancer. But if you prepare fish by deep frying it in a tub of bubbling fat—like Applebee's does with this artery-clogging monstrosity—you reverse all those benefits. Opt for Applebee's Garlic Herb Salmon instead. It offers 109 fewer grams of fat, nearly two-thirds fewer calories, and a heap of flavor that will still leave you satiated.

EAT THIS INSTEAD!

Applebee’s Garlic Herb Salmon

690 calories, 29 g fat (8 g saturated), 1,460 mg sodium

1. FAT OFFENDER #1: PASTA: Cheesecake Factory Fettuccini Alfredo with Chicken

2,300 calories, 103 g saturated fat, 1,517 mg sodium

Cheesecake Factory prefers to keep its nutritional stats hidden, but a law in California forced it to reveal saturated fat. Total fat is still a mystery, but this meal breaks through the 100-gram ceiling on saturated fat alone! The culprits here are the oversized portion and the thick, fat-riddled alfredo sauce. The typical restaurant recipe for this sauce relies on some combination of cream, butter, oil, and cheese, and there's no reason to believe that Cheesecake's version strays from the norm. Unfortunately, the chain offers no single pasta dish with fewer than 1,100 calories, so keep yourself safe by sticking to the new Skinnylicious menu.

The Truth About Soda!? (Selling Diabetes In A Bottle)

Would you eat a stack of 16 sugar cubes?

This website breaks down the sugar content in common things you eat and drink.


http://www.sugarstacks.com/

WHY ARE BANANAS GOOD FOR WEIGHT LOSS?

If there was a food that was low in calories and low in fat while high in fiber and vitamins and could help you lose weight, chances are you would eat it. The truth is, this nutritious food can be eaten with breakfast or as a snack, or can complement a nice dessert. Bananas are one of the most nutritious and natural foods that help promote weight loss, and can make a convenient addition to your daily diet.

Calories

Bananas are best known for containing large amounts of potassium, magnesium and vitamin B6 and are surprisingly low in calories. The average large ripe banana, which ranges from 7 to 8 inches long, contains only 105 calories, the Discovery Health website and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Nutrient Database agree. Based on a 2,000-calorie-per-day diet, eating several bananas a day can provide numerous nutrients and account for only a fraction of your daily caloric intake.

Fat

Like most fruits, bananas do not have much protein, but they are very low in fat. The USDA database reports that a large, ripe banana has less than half a gram of fat. Considering there are 9 calories per gram of fat, you can eat several bananas a day and not take in any bad fat that could lead to weight gain.

Fiber

Bananas are high in dietary fiber, which makes you feel fuller longer so you won't overeat at your next meal or reach for an unhealthy snack before it. A large banana contains 4 grams of dietary fiber per serving, which can help you reach the recommended daily allowance of at least 25 grams.

Glycemic Index

Aside from its many nutrients and convenient packaging, bananas also have a low glycemic index, which can help you with weight loss. The glycemic index is a ranking of how quickly carbohydrates from food are released into the body. Foods that have low glycemic index scores release carbs slowly into the body. This prevents drops and spikes in your blood sugar levels as fluctuations signal your body to eat more than you should. The Glycemic Index Foundation's website lists ripe yellow bananas with a glycemic index of 51 --- a low value on a scale where anything above 70 is considered high and anything under 55 is low.

Misconceptions

Eating bananas is only part of an overall lifestyle change--- including a healthy diet, cardiovascular exercise and strength training --- that can result in effective weight loss. Eating bananas should not be the sum of your weight-loss plan, but rather one small part of it.

2 year anniversary!

Today makes 2 years since I started this blog. I've had my ups and downs, but I'm still focused. My BMI is now 34.6. Continue to follow my progress.

More Than Half In 39 States Will Be Obese

We Americans already know how fat we are. Can it get much worse?

Apparently, yes, according to an advocacy group that predicts that by 2030 more than half the people in the vast majority of states will be obese.

Mississippi is expected to retain its crown as the fattest state in the nation for at least two more decades. The report predicts 67 percent of that state's adults will be obese by 2030; that would be an astounding increase from Mississippi's current 35 percent obesity rate.

The new projections were released Tuesday by Trust for America's Health with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Trust for America's Health regularly reports on obesity to raise awareness, mostly relying on government figures.

The group's dismal forecast goes beyond the 42 percent national obesity level that federal health officials project by 2030. The group predicts every state would have rates above 44 percent by that time, although it didn't calculate an overall national average.

About two-thirds of Americans are overweight now. That includes those who are obese, a group that accounts for about 36 percent. Obesity rates have been holding steady in recent years. Obesity is defined as having a body-mass index of 30 or more, a measure of weight for height.

Trust for America's Health officials said their projections are based in part on state-by-state surveys by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 1999 through 2010. The phone surveys ask residents to self-report their height and weight; people aren't always so accurate about that.

The researchers then looked at other national data tracking residents' weight and measurements and made adjustments for how much people in each state might fudge the truth about their weight. They also tried to apply recent trends in obesity rates, along with other factors, to make the predictions.

Officials with Trust for America's Health said they believe their projections are reasonable.
And New York City's health commissioner agreed. "If we don't do anything, I think that's a fair prediction," said Dr. Thomas Farley whose city banned just supersize sugary drinks to curb obesity.
Trust for America projects that by 2030, 13 states would have adult obesity rates above 60 percent, 39 states might have rates above 50 percent, and every state would have rates above 44 percent.
Even in the thinnest state — Colorado, where about one-fifth of residents are obese — 45 percent would be obese by 2030.

Perhaps more surprising, Delaware is expected to have obesity levels nearly as high as Mississippi. Delaware currently is in the middle of the pack when it comes to self-reported obesity rates.
The report didn't detail why some states' rates were expected to jump more than others. It also didn't calculate an average adult obesity rate for the entire nation in 2030, as the CDC did a few months ago. But a researcher who worked on the Trust for America's Health study acknowledged that report's numbers point toward a figure close to 50 percent.

CDC officials declined to comment on the new report.
Whichever estimates you trust most, it's clear that the nation's weight problem is going to continue, escalating the number of cases of diabetes, heart disease and stroke, said Jeff Levi, executive director of Trust for America's Health.

By 2030, medical costs from treating obesity-related diseases are likely to increase by $48 billion, to $66 billion per year, his report said.
The focus of so much of the ongoing debate about health care is over controlling costs, Levi said. "... We can only achieve it by addressing obesity. Otherwise, we're just tinkering around the margins."
___
Listed are 2011 obesity levels followed by the Trust for America's Health projections for 2030. States are listed in order from the highest to lowest projections in 2030:
Mississippi, 35 percent, 67 percent
Oklahoma, 31 percent, 66 percent
Delaware, 29 percent, 65 percent
Tennessee, 29 percent, 63 percent
South Carolina, 31 percent, 63 percent
Alabama, 32 percent, 63 percent
Kansas, 30 percent, 62 percent
Louisiana, 33 percent, 62 percent
Missouri, 30 percent, 62 percent
Arkansas, 31 percent, 61 percent
South Dakota, 28 percent, 60 percent
West Virginia, 32 percent, 60 percent
Kentucky, 30 percent, 60 percent
Ohio, 30 percent, 60 percent
Michigan, 31 percent, 59 percent
Arizona, 25 percent, 59 percent
Maryland, 28 percent, 59 percent
Florida, 27 percent, 59 percent
North Carolina, 29 percent, 58 percent
New Hampshire, 26 percent, 58 percent
Texas, 30 percent, 57 percent
North Dakota, 28 percent, 57 percent
Nebraska, 28 percent, 57 percent
Pennsylvania, 29 percent, 57 percent
Wyoming, 25 percent, 57 percent
Wisconsin, 28 percent, 56 percent
Indiana, 31 percent, 56 percent
Washington, 27 percent, 56 percent
Maine, 28 percent, 55 percent
Minnesota, 26 percent, 55 percent
Iowa, 29 percent, 54 percent
New Mexico, 26 percent, 54 percent
Rhode Island, 25 percent, 54 percent
Illinois, 27 percent, 54 percent
Georgia, 28 percent, 54 percent
Montana, 25 percent, 54 percent
Idaho, 27 percent, 53 percent
Hawaii, 22 percent, 52 percent
New York, 25 percent, 51 percent
Virginia, 29 percent, 50 percent
Nevada, 25 percent, 50 percent
Oregon, 27 percent, 49 percent
Massachusetts, 23 percent, 49 percent
New Jersey, 24 percent, 49 percent
Vermont, 25 percent, 48 percent
California, 24 percent, 47 percent
Connecticut, 25 percent, 47 percent
Utah, 24 percent, 46 percent
Alaska, 27 percent, 46 percent
Colorado, 21 percent, 45 percent
District of Columbia, 24 percent, 33 percent

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