Hi! I'm a careful calorie counter with a tendency to cheat BIG on my cheat days. I have a weakness for sweets like ice cream and chocolate, but I think I may have found my savior -- fat-free, sugar-free Jell-O pudding! I can eat the whole box (four servings) and only take in 160 calories. But am I fooling myself? Is it okay to binge on fake foods (the jello is entirely aspartame and skim milk). Otherwise I eat about 1000-1200 calories a day with a 20-20-60 breakdown. I also work out regularly and feel pretty fit and happy. Is my pudding indulgence okay?

--girlish

Girlish,

Come back in time with me to a favorite line from a children’s fairy tale: “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who has the biggest sweet tooth of them all?”

OKAY, so that’s not EXACTLY how the saying goes, but if you were to talk to nutritionists and diet experts, they’d tell you that many of their clients claim to be unmatched in their cravings for sugary substances. These clients want counseling on how to improve their will power or, like you, they want to know the lowest calorie items they can binge on. They feel guilty about their cheat days but thank their lucky stars for low-cal food substitutes.

What suggestions are they given, you might ask? Firstly, the urge to finish off every syrupy thing in sight has been shown to be related to not eating enough calories throughout the day. Feeling a binge coming on may be the result of having given your body less energy than it requires for survival or not balancing calorie intake over breakfast, lunch and dinner.

In your case, we suspect the former. (Stress may also play a part for some individuals, but we don’t get the sense that this is significant for you). Your girlish figure probably needs more than 1000-1200 calories a day. In fact, the American Dietetic Association (ADA) does not recommend regimens requiring less than 1500 calories a day. Instead of worrying about the effect of fake foods, let’s strategize about nurturing your body so that you feel little temptation to grab empty calories (food that supplies calories but no nutrients).

By the way, aspartame is the most thoroughly studied artificial sweetener. It is found on shelves as Equal and NutraSweet. Although research is inconclusive, aspartame has been approved by the FDA as safe at levels less than 50 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day. For a 132 pound person that would be equivalent to 80 packets of Equal or 15 soft drinks sweetened only by aspartame. I don’t think your Jell-O jigglers come close to that, but to be safe, check the nutrition information of your food, including beverages. Claims of side effects include headaches and seizures, and aspartame can be very dangerous for people with an inherited metabolic disease known as phenylkenatoria.

Plan G (for Girlish)

• Calculate your daily calorie needs for your body type and exercise style. Use this formula:
  1. Multiply your body weight by 15 (or 13 if you don’t move around all that much during a typical day). This number represents your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) -- that is, the minimum number of calories your body needs to function.
  2. Then for every minute of exercise you perform per day, multiply by 3.5 (moderate intensity) to 5.5 (high intensity).
  3. Add this number to your BMR for total calories needed to satisfy your body’s energy demands.
• For example, a reasonably active person weighing 120 pounds would need a minimum of 1800 calories per day for basic physical maintenance (120 x 15). If that person exercises for 30 minutes a day at a moderate intensity, they would need an additional 105 calories (30-minutes x 3.5) for a total of 1905 (1800 + 105) calories per day. If weight loss was a goal, this amount could be reduced to 1500 calories/day (but not lower!).
• Spread your calorie intake evenly across a 24-hour period by eating small consistent meals throughout the day. Your ratio 60:20:20 of carbs/fats/proteins is in line with Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs) -- assuming that the 60 percent refers to carbohydrates!
• Keep a food log for at least three days. Monitor what and how much food you eat. Note how you feel after consuming different foods, including your sugar-free Jell-O pudding (some studies have indicated that aspartame in food actually makes you hungrier after eating than sugar does). Record what, if any, events trigger overeating or bingeing. Pretty soon you’ll have a clear picture of your nutrition style and habits.
• Don’t cut yourself off from sweet foods entirely if that’s what you crave. If you try to banish them from your diet entirely, sooner or later you’re going to go crazy and eat everything you can get your hands on that contains even a single granule of sugar. If that sugar-free Jell-O pudding satisfies your sweet tooth, great. But if leaves you wondering if that’s all there is in life, it’s OK to indulge occasionally by having a small serving of a full-sugar, full-fat dessert. Studies show that many people actually eat fewer calories when they eat the real thing because they feel satisfied more quickly. And remember sugar free (and fat free) do not mean calorie free. In some cases the sugar-free or fat-free version of a treat has only one or two fewer calories than the real thing.
• Stick to a well balanced diet of foods that leave you feeling satisfied and in a good mood. Continue to watch calorie intake and make wise choices. Controlling your sweet tooth will become as easy as pie (that’s chocolate pudding pie). Those Big Cheat days will become a thing of the past, or at the very least, reserved for special occasions.

We also recommend Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook.

Got a question or comment for Liz? Post it on the Fit by Friday message board!