10 nutrition mistakes you don't know you're making: hidden evils could be undermining the foundation of your lard-losing efforts. Here's how to fix them

Men's Fitness, May, 2003 by Jeff O'Connell

Imagine your car didn't come with instructions telling you to fill the crankcase with oil of a particular viscosity. Then imagine how far the car would go if instead you had only a vague sense that it required some sort of lubrication, leading you to try everything from Super Glue to K-Y jelly to the grease you drained from last night's pizza.

Unless you exited the womb with instructions tattooed on your stomach, what you decide to put in there can be nearly as random and ill-considered. To take some of the crap out of this dietary crapshoot, here are 10 mistakes people tend to make without even knowing it. Correcting them may well be the key to getting the body you want.

1 Taking "fat-free" at face value. Don't assume that the label "fat-free" gives you license to eat as much as you want of something without gaining weight, because in most cases you'll still be consuming a bunch of calories, many of them empty of other valuable nutrients. End result? Big gut, bigger butt. "You have to be careful of the word `nonfat,' because that usually implies more sugar," says Larry Krug, chief executive officer of the online nutritional-consulting firm Eatwize.com.

"Fat-free" means the product you just picked up contains less than half a gram of fat per serving. That's great, except that you'll often find that promise on cookies, cakes and ice cream, which are loaded with sugar. Instead of relying on a misleading label, simply avoid foods such as luncheon meat, cheese and whole milk that are naturally high in fat.

2 Fasting in the evening for fear of gaining fat. Doing so might make sense, for an obese, sedentary woman, but a guy who s pumping iron all week needs to be provisioning his body to build muscle during sleep. "People have these myths like `I shouldn't eat after 8,' or I shouldn't do this or that, but it's like, `Do I fill my car with gas at 8 a.m. or 8 p.m.?'" says Gary Foster, Ph.D., clinical director of the Weight and Eating Disorders Program at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia. "What matters is, how many miles did you drive?"

3 Considering fruit juices a better alternative to soda. "A lot of people don't realize the calorie content of beverages--not only soda but juice," says Laura J. Kruskall, Ph.D., R.D., an assistant professor of nutrition at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. "People assume that juice is healthier than cola, so they'll go ahead and drink a bunch of it. Yet your average half a cup of juice equals about 60 calories, and people will often drink half a gallon of orange juice a day."

One reason apple juice is less beneficial than an apple has to do with your body's insulin response. "There's a big difference in the way an apple is metabolized versus a glass of apple juice," says Kruskall. "It takes a lot longer to digest that apple than it does to drink that glass of juice." Unless you're midrace, when it comes to carb absorption, slower is better.

4 Eating too many nonfat carbs at lunch. That post-lunch energy crash you always seem to experience isn't merely a response to those mind-numbing 3 p.m. staff meetings. Carbs lead to insulin release, and insulin reduces the uptake of the neurotransmitters that govern alertness, while increasing the uptake of tryptophan, the brain chemical that promotes lethargy. This effect will be even more pronounced if the carbs have a high glycemic index, such as those found in white bread, croissants, french fries, white rice and soda.

To stay sharp into the afternoon, keep lunch moderately sized (less than 400 calories) and low in carbs (about the 25 grams you'd get from a plain baked potato).

5 Not eating a healthy snack as a bridge between lunch and dinner. You should already be eating five or six small healthy meals a day, but if you still insist on just three squares, you may end up compounding the ill effects of overeating at lunch and going hungry until dinner. When 7 p.m. finally arrives, you're likely to indiscriminately stuff yourself with too much too quickly.

Assuming lunch ended at 1:30 p.m., eat a small but healthy "bridging" snack between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. Choose something that contains lean protein and carbs, such as a protein shake mixed with a banana, some homemade trail mix (peanuts, sunflower seeds, Cheerios), or lean turkey and cucumber slices on wholewheat crackers.

6 Staying away from water to avoid bloating. Maybe you've heard your girlfriend talk about "retaining water" and "feeling bloated," and you're afraid that extra [H.sub.2]O might obscure your muscle definition. In reality, drinking plenty of liquids helps you burn fat, and tells your body to lose that layer of muscle-camouflaging water it holds between your skin and muscles.

Since the human body often doesn't sense its own thirst until after the fact, proper hydration requires drinking fluids preemptively. You also need to drink more water as you get bigger from weight training. "As you gain muscle mass, your body has more room to store carbohydrate for exercise," says Susan Kundrat, M.S., R.D., of Nutrition on the Move in Champaign, Ill. "Because you store additional fluid in your body when you've got more carbohydrate in your muscles, it's extra important to stay hydrated. I recommend a minimum of 12 eight-ounce glasses of noncaffeinated fluids per day, plus an additional six ounces for every 15 minutes of training you engage in."