Ok…I’m a decently active male, 34 years old, 6’2" 230 pound guy. I have a pseudo-sedentary job (I’m a teacher at a local liberal arts college) and I try and maintain an active life style…I’ve been limiting my carbohydrate intake and been eating plenty of protein and exercising as much as I can…however, I’m not losing any weight. I eat a lot of fruits…mainly oranges, peaches and apples…I also drink at least a glass of wine a night with dinner…on occasion I’ll have a Orange Juice and Vodka.
Am I dooming myself with the orange juice and raw orange intake? Are there too many sugars in oranges for my diet? Why is my homeostasis not shifting with dietary changes? *
**I used to weight lift daily…I even competed during college (10 years ago) then I stopped abruptly. Could this be my problem???
You’ll never lower your total carb/sugar intake to cause any drastic (Atkins Type) effect. Fruit is loaded with sugar. You can eat most vegetables but pretty much no fruit if you are trying to keep your sugars and carbs down. I think a box of dried raisins has as more carbs than a candy bar. An orange juice would be, I’m guessing, as harmful as a Coke.
The dietician I saw a few years ago told me to knock off the OJ. “You might as well drink a cup of sugar” is how she put it.
Get a copy of the new Atkins book. Not that I’m saying you should start doing Atkins, but because it will explain to you why the OJ and the alcohol are ruining your weight loss efforts.
actually I learned something odd about oranges.
Oranges are a citrus fruit as as such contain lots of citric acid. In my biochem class I learned that citric acid is the main regulatory molecule in fat synthesis. In short, lots of citrate makes you fat.
that said, your body obviously has many places to use citrate and it will be shunted off and used in other areas.
Another thing is… I have absolutely no idea if citric acid survives the digestion process. Drinking OJ might have nothing to do with what I say in the above. Anyone know? I’ve been wondering myself.
The main probelm with orange juice is that there’s just so damn much of it! If you drink a pint of OJ you’re getting all the sugar from about 8 oranges.
Wow! Thank you very much! I had no idea oranges could be as bad as they were for someone trying to lose 30 pounds…I’ll try a small experiment and cut them out of my diet completely and see what happens…Thanks all!
Just how much sugar does a pint of OJ have?
According to Tropicana… 8 oz of juice has 22 grams of sugar/26 grams of carbs.
In general for dieting, you might want to call the college library and ask if they have a copy of Bowes & Church’s Food Values of Portions Commonly Used, an invaluable reference for dieters. If I had my copy handy, I’d look up OJ. But I don’t.
:eek: Good God, no wonder I’m not losing anything!
My rule (which fits a more realistic way of life) is this:
Never drink your calories. Always eat them. Eat an orange? YES! Drink the juice? No! You don’t get satisfied that way.
You need the benefits of fruits and veggies. Didn’t you post in a thread about preventing cancer? Well, you can lose weight by doing all sorts of things…and that’s 1 third of the issue solved.
The other tow parts: how to maintain it for the rest of your life, and how to prevent illnesses. For Atkins and the rest of the low/no carb nuts, the jury is out.
What we do know is that the good carbs (fruits, veggies, whole grains) can be eaten in abundace (within reason, too).
Instead of alll this anecdotal evidence, or weak evidence, grab the latest Discover Magazine and read up on real studies from Harvard involving hundreds of thousands of people.
You need to eat the good carbs in life to lose weight, improve health…to maintain it and to prevent illness/stress/cancer!
Right you are Phil, right you are.
Related hijack:
Hey, Phlosphr, do I remember correctly that you have cats, and allergies to cats?
My naturopath told me that citrus (as well as dairy) exacerbates the allergic response. Since I gave up my beloved orange juice, my allergies have improved substantially.
Phl,
You’re 230 pounds. If you keep your daily caloric intake at 13 to 14 times your body weight and get some excercise… you’ll lose weight.
So 230 X 14 = 3220 calories per day. 230 X 13 = 2990
There are 110 calories in 8 oz.'s of OJ. How much do your drink? Half gallon a day? That’s 880 cal and a quarter of your total daily caloric requirment.
1st thing I cut when losing a few pounds is the amount of liquid stuff with calories. Skim milk is my “drug” of choice. I can easily drink a half gallon a day. @ 90 cal per 8 oz.'s that’s 720 cals and over 25% of my daily 2600 cals.
Alex - I drink usually a pint or two a day of OJ. I have not been counting too many calories as of late, but it appears I need to. It is the liquids I routinely forget about when it comes to unwanted calories from sugars. And yes, my wife and I drink lot’s of skim milk as well.
I’ve always thought it strange that while youth obesity prevention advocates are in ceaseless battle against the Demon Soda, they want these foul obesity-causing beverages replaced with fruit juice. Sometimes they even stipulate how much natural fruit juice must be contained in these drinks, which is along the lines of “I don’t want chemicals in my food!”
Now, there are ~150 Calories in 12 oz of Coke, ~170-180 Calories in 12 oz of orange juice and ~180 Calories and 7.2 g of fat in 12 oz of 2% milk. *
So, fruit juice is soda with vitamins. And, at least in my opinion (I’m not a nutritionist, but still) micronutrients are greatly overemphasized, especially for young people. Most youth will get enough vitamins from a regular diet without having to consume 6 glasses of Coca-Cola-produced fruit-style cocktail beverage in place of the same thing with less vitamin C. Or you could make them drink milk. Milk is soda with fat.
Basically, while a switch from soda to juice or milk might be wise to prevent youth malnutrition (which is probably not all that common in the US), it’s not really a great way to fight obesity. One argument might be that serving sizes for milk and juice are smaller than for soda (refer to a breakfast-cereal commercial for this). The major thing with soda – at least with Coke – is that it contains caffeine, and caffeine is a bad, bad thing for young people, and especially for their teachers.
*: I got this from http://www.calorie-count.com, which I Googled for. So I only gave 2 significant digits, hoping I’d be close to right.
Saw an interesting article just a few minutes ago:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/7763598.htm
I can’t wait until there’s a profoundly idiotic libel lawsuit from this; it’s been a while since I was freshly embarrassed to be from Florida. Maybe 6 weeks!
Interesting. What I’ve been doing (though not interested in “losing weight” per se, just trimming subcutaneous fat and building muscle) is: getting carbs from fruit and vegetables, drinking only water (except for milk after workouts) and getting lean meat and a little bit of starch with most meals. I train 4 days a week. I’ve been eating a great deal of fruit, but I’m training hard. Training is important.
Fructose sugar is different than sucrose sugar, and how it’s metabolized by the body - just as one promotes tooth decay and the other doesn’t.
If you can “fill up” on orange juice, you don’t just get folic acid, and vitamins including a lot of C, but a good source of water in your diet. Most people don’t drink enough water and real fruit juice is mostly that.
If you get good OJ, you’ll also get fiber as pulp.
As suggested by the previous colon.
You ain’t gonna get fat drinking Orange Juice. Drink your juice, damnit. (Is from MI, and not associated with the orange growers in any way, whatsoever.)
You can definitely get fat drinking orange juice, if you drink enough of it, on top of enough else.
It has calories in it, no matter what vitamins or what kind of sugar. Anything with calories can make you fat if you drink enough of it.