Spicy Promises

Bedside Astrologer? Sexy weight loss tips tailored to your star sign.

Wimmin's magazines are known for their TEN MILLION TIPS TO MAKE YO MAN GO MONKEY CRAZY IN BED lists, but a close second is their advice to lose weight. One piece of advice that tends to be repeated is:

The extra kick of hot sauce or a chopped jalapeno can make even the most bland diet food more palatable, causing you to be more likely to stick with your weight loss plan. In addition, they may jack up your metabolism. Studies show that the main compound in chilies, called capsaicin, has a thermogenic effect and may cause the body to burn bonus calories for 20 minutes post chow-down.

Is there any truth to this? Will adding cayenne and siracha to all my dishes make the pounds melt away?

It is theorized that the active ingredient in heat, capsaicin, evolved to prevent fungus growing on peppers in moist environments. It is only by luck that mammals experience heat by eating it -- in fact, all non-mammals do not have the receptors to experience the pain of hot pepper. Capsaicin works the same pain pathways as fire: we literally experience the same heat as if our tongues were aflame, only without the consequence of, y'know, being cooked alive.

No other mammal likes spicy food -- spicy is technically not a flavor, but a feeling of sustained heat. Some people seem to dig it because they're masochists, others because they add some variety and interest to otherwise boring food. South American cuisine's staple crops are corn and rice, which can be awfully dull, but with the right finesse of spice and it's a whole 'nuther thing.

Evidence tends to support the idea that there might be a slight advantage to eating spicy to help lose some chunk.

A 1999 study published in the "British Journal of Nutrition" investigated the relationship between hot pepper consumption, appetite and caloric intake. Subjects were fed a breakfast and lunchtime appetizer that included red pepper. Caloric intake and appetite were measured before and during consumption of lunch and an afternoon snack. The researchers concluded that consuming hot peppers suppressed the appetite and decreased total caloric intake of Japanese females and Caucasian males. A 2006 study published in "the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition" showed that chili pepper consumption improved blood sugar and insulin regulation after a meal. Both studies suggest that consumption of hot peppers contained in spicy foods might be helpful for treating obesity.

Food that delivers a certain amount of pain might be consciously enjoyable, but perhaps there is some mechanism in the body or brain that recognizes painful food as poisonous and works to prevent more of it from entering the system?

Note that many studies have been conducted that point to other health effects of spicy food -- lowering blood pressure, protecting against microbial infection, increasing heart health, boost in serotonin, preventing cancer....why, it sounds a bit like green tea! However, every study that has any credibility points out that these effects are very minor, and even if you were to be blowing out your pain receptors at every single meal, you're O-ring would blow out before you experienced significant positive health effects.

Too much spicy food.

So what about the "thermogenic effect" of spicy food that "may cause the body to burn bonus calories for 20 minutes post chow-down"? After a little Internet-thinkin', evidence points to "yes". As this contradicts my assumptions, I will dedicate the next post to it.
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On Thursday morning I began my work out with an honest attempt to do one. damn. pull up. I psyched myself up in the lead up, and I had my wifey witness my attempt. Started from a prone position, I was able to lift myself about half way with a loud grunt, though Mrs. Wifey said it was more like 3/4 of the way. Though not a success, it's the closest yet, and considering when I first started I could not budge from the prone position, it marks progress in the right direction.
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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2328

Thursday's school dinner messed me up, with a scoop of mashed potatoes sending me into a carb spin in the evening. Still, all in all a good eating week and I feel good.

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MONDAY COUNT: 2395

Started using resistance bands in my pull-ups. Had to use all three bands in the kit just to do 4 or 5 assisted pull-ups. I guess when I can do 20, I'll take away a band.

Had sugar cravings in the evening. Rode them out, and it kinda turned into honest hunger, so I had a 2nd evening snack. Busted my budget, but felt right.

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 10:45am, steel cut oatmeal, 250 cal

PM SNACK: 12:15pm, momma salad, 100 cal

LUNCH: 1:45pm, scallops, string beans, jodhpur lentils, 490 cal

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, apple/carrot/beet/kale/ginger/celery/cucumber/cayenne juice, 155 cal

DINNER: 9pm, stir fry with velveted chicken, shirataki noodles, broccoli, shitaki mushrooms and black bean paste, spinach poppa salad with miso tahini, water, 800 cal
Haven't velveted a protein since c-school, but it's such a tasty way to treat meat -- unfortunately, it's basically deep fried. I did it in peanut oil at a high temp, so I guestimated an additional 150 cal -- next time I do it, I'm gonna measure all-through to actually determine how much oil gets picked up by the meat when fried at the correct temps.

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, Fritos, 300 cal

EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, Cheesy Poofs, 300 cal

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TUESDAY COUNT: 2065

Woke up with slight soreness in my upper arms, chest, back and even a little in my lower arms. Seems yesterday's introduction of resistance bands have made itself known.

Had an eventful day, able to grab lunch with the wifey (and then she ate half my sammich!), catch a movie in the afternoon and trade in my beef jerky for some popcorn (and +/- 10oz of a 32oz "small" diet coke) and indulged in some comfort food out of a box for dinner.

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 10am, Fage whole yogurt with agave, vanilla and almonds, 300 cal

LUNCH: 1pm, half an almond butter & grape jelly on whole wheat sandwich, momma salad, 295cal

PM SNACK 5pm, popcorn and about 10oz diet coke, 310 cal

PM SNACK: 8pm, spinach poppa salad with miso tahini dressing, 100 cal
Unlike the first spinach salad, this round was made with savoy instead of flat -- the bigger, crinkly leaves. Found it to be much more bitter, and surprisingly a tad sandy. I washed it 3 times until sand started come out, but I guess that wasn't enough. I think next time, I'll chop it up a little, and soak it in a bigger bowl a few times before spinning it.

DINNER: 8:30pm, Stouffers French Bread Pizza, 860 cal

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, Fritos, 300 cal

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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2035

x

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 10am, fruit smoothie, 400 cal

LUNCH: 1pm, mahi mahi, roasted asparagus, roasted cippolini onions, black beans, kimchi, momma salad, 580 cal

PM SNACK 4pm, apple/carrot/beet/ginger/cucumber/celery/kale/cayenne juice, 165 cal

PM SNACK: 8pm, spinach poppa salad with miso tahini, 100 cal

DINNER: 8:45pm, chicken sausage, string beans, madras lentils, 590  cal

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, Fritos, 300 cal

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THURSDAY COUNT: 3170

Funny, it didn't feel like such a huge bust over the budget, but upon reflection, that one scoop of buttery mashed potatoes set my whole system up to crave carbs n' calories. I didn't beat myself up for it because a) the cravings were out of line and b) I was going to ride all day tomorrow, so in theory this was "carbo loading", though usually things this enjoyable but justifiable are usually BS. Perhaps for a future post.

AM SNACK: 7:15am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, steel cut oatmeal, 250 cal

LUNCH: 1:15pm, chicken meatballs, roasted brussel sprouts, tomato soup, spinach poppa salad with miso tahini dressing, 720 cal
Different brand of boxed soup, way too salty, only ate half my portion.

SCHOOL DINNER: 7:30pm, grilled chicken breast, mashed potato, kale & caramelized onions, water, +/- 900 cal
Ate extra chicken, minimized the potato and had a decent scoop of the kale, which I formulated to make over 50% caramelized onion to appeal to the kids. The scoop of potato was relatively reasonable, but I'm assuming it was 500 or more calories in it. There were only full-sugar sodas to drink, but I resisted. Made me realize because I'm not keeping diet soda in the house, I haven't had any since the weekend and it's been OK. Huh.

EVENING SNACK: 9:15pm, Fritos, 300 cal

EVENING SNACK: 10:15pm, cheesy poofs, 300

EVENING SNACK: 10:45pm, pb&j on whole wheat, +/- 400

EVENING SNACK: 11:30pm, cheesy poofs, 300

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BIKE CREDIT: 1860

FRIDAY COUNT: 1975

A good day on the bike. Honestly took in about the same as I expended, which doesn't account for my allotment of lunch calories, so I had a big pasta dinner which hit the spot. Only 4 oz of pasta (double the recommended serving size) which was my original go-to portion when I started restricting, now seemed really generous.

Very happy with my granola bars. They're dense, moist, and deliver maximum calories with minimal bulk, not too sweet and a good nutty taste. I store them in the freezer, so they don't have weird gums, stabilizers, preservatives or excess sugar to keep them shelf stable. My next round I'm going to add caffeine extract so I won't need to drink any diet coke on future rides.

AM SNACK: 6:45am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 7:15am,  Fage whole yogurt with agave, vanilla and almonds, 300 cal

BIKE SNACK: 9:15am, granola bars, 465 cal

BIKE SNACK: 12pm, digestive biscuits, 520 cal


BIKE SNACK: 1:45pm, 20 oz diet coke, 0 cal

BIKE SNACK: 2:15pm, granola bars, 465 cal

BIKE SNACK: 4:30pm, falafel sandwich, +/- 650 cal

PM SNACK: 6:15pm, apple/carrot/beet/ginger/cucumber/celery/kale/cayenne juice, 155 cal

PM SNACK: 7pm, momma salad, 100 cal

DINNER: 7:30pm, whole wheat pasta with boiled shrimp, roasted broccoli & cippolini onions, dressed in olive oil and romano cheese, 875 cal

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, cheesy poofs, 300 cal

Oh mah lord, someone read to the bottom last week! So this week the secret password is "shmeggy mgeggy"!