What happens when appetizers at America’s top sports bar chains face off calorie to calorie… and fat gram to fat gram? FatFighterTV digs in to see which game day grub scores the most unhealthy penalties.

First up – the calorie champ:

1. Champps Americana: Champps’ Mile High Nachos w/Chicken scored 3600 calories and 224 grams of fat – Even I’m guilty of indulging in these, and I only shared them with one other person. I didn’t know they had as many calories as seven Quarter Pounders with Cheese. Yikes! Next time, I’ll invite more people!

FatFighterTV asked a Champps Americana spokesperson to comment on the Nachos’ first place ranking. “Our Nachos are an ideal item to share with 6-7 friends (easily),” says Rachel Phillips-Luther, Vice President- Marketing. “When you consider sharing that item with several friends, the calorie content per person is much more reasonable.”

*Second and third place high calorie honors both go to wings at The Greene Turtle:

2. The Greene Turtle: Smoky BBQ Boneless Wings – 25 of ‘em with Bleu Cheese dressing have 3180 calories and 199 grams of fat. They may be boneless, but they’re still fried.

3. The Greene Turtle: Smoky BBQ Chicken Wings – 25 wings with Bleu Cheese dressing have 2984 calories and 211 fat grams – as much fat as what you get in seven Big Macs. Seriously.

4. Buffalo Wild Wings: Parmesan Garlic Boneless Wings – 24 with Bleu Cheese dressing have 2872 calories and 222 grams of fat. Watch out if you’re winging it bone-free. The boneless wings rack up more calories than the traditional ones at both The Greene Turtle and BW3.

5. The Greene Turtle: Southern Chicken Sliders with Crab Imperial – Get the Double Play (2 four-packs) and you’ll get 2730 calories and 98 grams of fat. Eat too many of these fried chicken sliders and you may not be able to slide into your jeans!

6. Buffalo Wild Wings: Parmesan Garlic Wings – 24 with Bleu Cheese dressing add up to 2488 calories and 198 grams of fat. What? Wings made it on this list again???!

7. Ram Restaurant & Brewery: Ram Favorites Platter – 2464 calories, 48 grams of saturated fat. Potato Skins, Mozzarella Sticks, Mini Cheese Quesadilla, Calamari and Buffalo Tenders with a variety of sauces. Even if you share this sampler with a friend, you’re still getting a day and a half’s worth of saturated fat, based on recommendations from the American Heart Association.

8. Champps’ Sampler Platter – 2072 calories, 121 grams of fat. Mozzarella sticks, chicken fingers, potato skins and Buffalo wings served with a variety of sauces. As fried as it gets.

9. Ram Restaurant & Brewery: BBQ Chicken Quesadilla – 2066 calories, 54 grams of saturated fat. You’d have to run at a pace of six MPH for two hours just to burn off the calories from this mega meal. (based on someone who weighs 140 pounds)

10. Fox and Hound Pub & Grille: Grand Champion Wings/Hot Sauce - 1960 calories, 164 grams of fat – What’s up with all the wings on this list? Someone cry fowl!

Doing this research got me thinking – Why is it that we like to eat this kind of food when we watch sports, anyway? And while it’s nice to share appetizers, knowing that you’re going to share can make it more tempting to order more than one. Think of all the fat and calories you’re adding when you do that.

Oh, and while we were at it, FatFighterTV also compiled a list of the 10 Football Not-As-Fatties – appetizers with the fewest calories from the same sports bar chains, just in case you would rather order the lesser evils.

*Calories for an order of 25 boneless wings with bleu cheese dressing at The Greene Turtle range from 2649-3180, depending on the sauce. For the traditional wings, they range from 2452-2984.

Information Unknown
FatFighterTV contacted two other top sports bars. Damon’s Grill told us its nutrition information was not yet available but “please know we have placed this on our marketing plan as a high priority for our current fiscal year.”

Not Playing Ball
ESPN Zone said, “Unfortunately, we are unable to provide you with accurate nutritional information about our menu items. Much of that information depends on the condiments that we liberally add, along with the accompaniments that guests select.” Hmmm… the other sports bars use condiments and they didn’t have a problem coming up with the information.

How we did it
FatFighterTV determined the top sports bar chains based on information from Restaurants & Institutions’ 2009 Casual Dining rankings based on food and beverage sales. The nutrition information for both The Greene Turtle and Champps Americana was available online at each restaurant’s website. We contacted the other three sports bars as an average customer to see how quickly we could get the information. All of them – Fox and Hound Pub & Grille, Ram Restaurant & Brewery, and Buffalo Wild Wings – responded promptly. This report is based only on information available at the time of publication. Menus may vary by location.

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I first heard there was a pumpkin shortage from Lori over at Finding Radiance. Now, I keep seeing stories about it everywhere, like this one that says people in some parts of the country may have a hard time finding Halloween pumpkins.

The report says harvests are down significantly in some areas from last year. That might mean shortages or higher prices for pumpkins to be shipped in from other places with better crops.

This news has me a bit anxious because I love pumpkin almost-anything and look forward to having it in the fall – pumpkin bread, pumpkin seeds, even pumpkin tea. Love it all! Besides being so tasty, pumpkins are also packed with nutrients – beta carotene, potassium, and Vitamin A. Plus they’re high in fiber and low in calories. And did I mention how much I love to eat them??!

Anyone out there noticing any pumpkin shortages or higher prices in stores where you live?

[Photo Credit: stock.xchng]

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Pregnant women may want to get moving. New research finds regular exercise during pregnancy can lower a first time mom’s chances of having an overweight baby. The report shows working out at least three times a week cuts the odds of delivering a newborn that weighs too much (more than 8 pounds, 13 ounces), by about one-fourth.

Other pregnancy studies have linked a mom’s weight to an increased risk of birth defects.

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• The weigh we were

1. People don’t truly understand the risks of being overweight. Why do most want to lose weight? Most would say to look better. Looking better certainly is a benefit of losing weight, but this shouldn’t be the sole reason to lose weight. There is a 1000 pound gorilla in the room and it’s often ignored. Being overweight for a long period of time kills thousands of people each year. Thousands of studies have show and proven without any doubt that losing body fat will improve and lengthen your life. This eBook will give you a picture of the dangers of being overweight. Knowing the dangers of being overweight is a tremendous motivator to not only lose fat, but to keep it off.
2. People don’t commit to permanent lifestyle changes. So many people think of a “diet” as something temporary. When they are on a “diet” they restrict themselves so much that they are miserable. Sooner or later failure is inevitable because of the unreasonable demands of most “diets.” Some of these diets force you to only eat certain foods (e.g., no carbs, special soups etc…) You, like myself, have probably tried them before. The key to losing weight long term is to make gradual lifestyle changes you can stick to forever.
3. Most individuals are not provided the truthful facts of losing weight and becoming healthier. With the conflicting information in the media, and all of the different lose weight quick fad diets, it’s understandable why so many people really don’t know the truth about losing fat and keeping it off long term. We will go over the no-nonsense truth.
4. Most people don’t understand they are constantly either gaining fat, or losing fat. There is no in-between. Some people justify binging or giving up because they hit a small road-block. This isn’t an all or nothing game. For example, when I was overweight, if I ate an unhealthy lunch, I’d go ahead and eat an unhealthy dinner since I already “messed up” the day. Or I’d say, I’ll start eating healthy on Monday since I’ve already eaten poorly this weekend. Every person at times eats too much. The successful people will not let a road bump completely derail their entire lifestyle change. If you are not implementing positive lifestyle changes and losing weight, you are gaining weight. Again, there is no “in-between.”
5. Most people don’t realize what they consume each day. So many overweight people eat thousands of extra calories and fat without realizing it. It’s tough to know if you are gaining weight or losing weight each day unless you are keeping an eye on what you’re consuming. Later in the eBook you will be given an easy way to keep track of your consumption.

3 Ways to Lose Weight that Don’t Work!

1. Fat Burners: Boosting the metabolism by artificially stimulating it is a quick way to create an overall weakened metabolic response that become dependant upon these supplements. The right kind of natural fat burners can help help boost metabolic functions such as matcha powder, but synthetic or naturally concentrated methylxanthines which is another label for caffeine will create more problems than its worth.

2. Fad Diets: Acai, Banana and all the rest. The question is one will be you staying on this diet forever and two why would you do a diet that’s entire effectiveness is based on testimonials provided by the same people selling it? Overall they get talked about but like the saying goes talk is cheap, lets see some results.

3. Low Calorie Diets: You might be surprised to see this one here. Unlike the others low calorie diets can work. Here’s the thing though you must be ready to stay on it for life because it will not correct the real reason you can’t lose weight, a sluggish metabolism. The most important point however is that these diets will drop weight quick but have it come back on immediately once you finish as they train your metabolism to slow down. You effectively train your slow metabolism to become even slower as a lowered daily calorie consumption will also lower the speed at which your metabolism burns fat.
Weight loss

The only true solution to weight loss is to target the cause of the problem. A slow metabolism. Exercise helps to stimulate it in periods, however it isn’t ongoing. There is however a new diet that trains your metabolism to burn more fat than usual. It’s known as calorie shifting and best of all the results stay with you and keep coming even after you stop!

First, you should figure out how many calories your body needs to maintain its current weight. There are helpful Web sites such as this, that have calorie calculators available for you to use. After you know how many calories your body needs every day you should try to create a 500-calorie deficit. By reducing your daily caloric intake by 500, you will lose one pound every week.

Exercise is also important if you want to lose weight fast. The key to losing weight through exercise is getting your heart rate up for an extended period of time. Running every day is a great way to lose weight fast. There are tons of great gyms like Gold’s Gym that you can become a member of to help you lose weight fast.

Calorie reduction is important, but eating the right type of foods is more important. After you work out it is important to eat protein to help rebuild muscle fibers. As a girl it is important to eat protein so that you can lose weight fast and develop a sexy toned look.

As a girl it is important for you to find a way to motivate yourself to run so that you can lose weight fast. When you feel like quitting just keep your goal of losing weight fast engrained in your mind. Just think about how great you will look when you are thin and wearing your new clothing! I did it and you can do it too!

What works for one person does not necessarily work for another. Therefore, the trick is to find what works for us individually. The fat loss workout that worked for your friends or family may not be the right workout for your body.

The best way to find out is to experiment. That is the simplest way to find out which fat loss work out plan will work for you.

Exercise for fat loss rather than weight loss should be the aim of any person aiming for health. If they want to lose the fat and truly keep it off they must aim for real fat loss, not just how much weight they have lost.

However, knowing which type of fat loss will work best for you is a personal decision. What usually works best is picking out exercises that you personally feel comfortable performing.

Start with a personally chosen workout plan that incorporates these favorite moves. Then follow that plan and add more as you feel comfortable.

Be sure to follow the plan you have set forth, as compete follow through daily is the only way to achieve any amount of results. After 4 to 6 weeks, if you have not noticed any change then it might be time to change the plan.

Is Nothing Working?

If you continually are following basic dietary guidelines along with good eating habits and are performing at least moderate amounts of exercise daily and after some months nothing seems to be working, then it might be time to consult a family doctor.

Unless there are underlying medical problems, there should be no reason why a healthy person could not find a plan that works for them. What usually happens is that people tend to go back to their old patterns of eating and old activity levels.

This can either take place suddenly, or gradually. Sometimes this happens over and over, and for some people, it takes the form of what is terms yo-yo dieting. Yet, few ever take the responsibility for their actions, or, rather, in actions.

There are very, very few instances where someone actually puts in a large effort to lose weight over a long period of time and nothing does happen.

At this point is would be a good idea to set up some appointments with a family physician. They should perform a few tests to see if there is any real reason why your body is preventing weight loss from occurring.

While the doctor is performing tests for malfunctions they may advise some methods and eating plans to help with the fat loss. You may feel frustrated at this point, but don’t give up yet.

Even if you have tried fat loss exercise plans and dietary changes and nothing has seemed to work, there is still hope. Simply follow along with your doctor and try out what he suggests.

There are many excellent effects brought by natural herbal Chinese treatments. They work on various levels of the organism and help people to lead a normal, healthy life. Chinese medicine promotes the importance of physical activity, a balanced diet and encourages the use of natural slimming products. Herbal medicine has a lot of things to offer on that subject and recent discoveries have shown the multitude of benefits such products have.

Teas, capsules and tablets help the organism to eliminate toxins and remain healthy. They reduce the body’s percent of fat and increase the level of energy. The digestive system works betters under the constant care of slimming products, made from natural ingredients. Vitality is essential for any healthy organism and natural herbal medicine is ready to aid in that matter also.

Lots of people are having a hard time in reducing the calorie intake and they also have to face the stress of everyday life. Herbal slimming treatments are famous for reducing ones appetite, boosting the immune system and improving various other functions of the organism. People are able to participate in a weight loss program and perform their daily activities, forgetting all about issues such as stress or anxiety.

The most important thing about the products promoted by Chinese medicine is that they are 100% natural and thus they have no side-effects. Many people feel comfortable using such treatments and declare they have managed to lose weight effectively, in a short period of time, without increased effort. The herbal ingredients seem to have a wonderful effect, especially when mixed with natural slimming teas.

When it comes to teas that have the amazing ability to help in the weight loss problem, Feiyan is one of the most popular products. Made from natural Chinese herbs, Feiyan is advertised online as a tea made particularly for people with slimming problems, having unbelievable effects. Herbal teas are renowned worldwide for their effects, including the improvement of metabolism and reducing the appetite.

Feiyan is a natural herbal tea that has a very old tradition. The legend says that is was named after a model of beauty in the Chinese history and that her figure was unique. Today, people from every corner of the world drink this tea and enjoy its many benefits. It doesn’t have any caffeine, it helps one with detoxification and it successfully eliminates the additional fat. The organism feels a lot better after taking the recommended dosage and the effects are truly seeable.

As it is commonly known, Chinese medicine is today used globally for the treatment of terminal diseases and various other ailments. People use it because it has many advantages and it promotes the concept of healthy living. There is a strong connection between the body and the soul, not to mention the natural balance of the body. Herbal products maintain this balance and help with diverse problems it may face, including weight loss. Teas made from Chinese herbs are seen as valuable help for slimming and Feiyan is one of the best choices possible.

All the products used by the traditional Chinese medicine are great. They are recommended only by specialists, who are well aware of the wonderful effects of medicinal plants and who offer only natural ingredients. The fact that there are so many choices online is outstanding, as people have an effective way to learn about this kind of medicine and how it can be put to good use.

We do not pretend to understand the problems a person may encounter when trying to lose weight. Our aim is to offer you the best natural products that Chinese herbal medicine can provide and explain how to benefit from them. With the help of such products, such as Feiyan tea, slimming becomes an easy process and the results are prompt!

F.I.T.T is a principle that you should follow if you want to achieve your fitness goals. These principles are not hard to follow and if they are followed, you definitely can get your dream body.

How to exercise and lose weight is one the most popular question thrown at all personal trainers and fitness consultants around the world. The reason behind this is that there is many people out there that exercise vigorously almost daily and get zero results! It may sound funny if you are not the one that is not getting results. You can just stand and laugh and make fun of that guy who tried so hard and yet get no results.

In reality, it is very depressing for that person because that individual pours in all his hopes, his dreams, time and money into his or her exercise program and only to find out that he is going no where. This article is to address this issue. By reading this article, you would now know what it takes to lose body fat and look good. If you can satisfy all the principle in this article, you are guaranteed to achieve you fitness goal. For those who started already, it is not to late to apply these principles now.

The principle that I want to talk to you is this, the F.I.T.T principle. If this principle is followed exactly, you definitely can exercise and lose weight. But if it is not followed, you are just wasting your time. You can get some results, but not significant.

F.I.T.T is the ultimate guideline for all exercise programs. This concept stands for frequency, intensity, type and time.

Frequency

We always give excuses when it comes to something painful. Exercising for example. We can give all sorts of excuses like work, traveling, studying and many others but the fact is, you have to ask yourself why are you reading this article is the first place? If you want to lose weight and it is really something you want, be prepared to invest 3 to 5 hours of exercise session per week. Yes, there is no way around it and your body will not be sympathetic to your excuses.

According to the American Council on Exercise, you need to exercise at least 3 times a week to get minimum results and 5 times a week to get optimum results. In order to lose 1 pound of body fat, you need to burn 3500 calories. Do you think you can achieve that with just 2 hours of exercising per week?
Intensity

There are people who go to the gym daily. It is like their second home. They will do cardio and weight training religiously but yet, they get no results. Why? They don’t get results because their exercise intensity is not high enough to utilize the fat in the fat cells! This is especially important during your cardio session. You have to hit at least 75 percent of your maximum heart rate. You cannot get lean abs by just walking 5.0 km/h for 45 minutes!

Type

The type here means the type of training. In order to maximize your body fat loss, you need to combine weight training, cardio training and stretching. Weight training can help build muscle, which in return speeds up your metabolism. An additional 1-pound of pure muscle can burn extra 50 calories by doing nothing. The extra calories are there to keep the muscle alive. Cardio training will help by making the body to use the fat in the fat cells, thus burning body fat and preserving muscle!

Do not look down on stretching. With a better flexibility, you can run further and not only that, your muscle function better thus producing better results.

Time

Time here refers to the time you need to invest in your training per day. Regarding weight training, an intense weight training session should be around 45 minutes. We are talking about a rest period of 1 minute between sets. For the cardio sessions, in the beginning you should try to train for 30 minutes. When you are fitter, you need to build up to 45 minutes. In my experience, most people lose loads of body fat when they can run for 45 minutes at the heart rate of 80 per cent of max heart rate.

These principles of F.I.T.T are very important. These principles are not just simply developed. They are created by researches and observations. If you can follow these principles properly, you definitely can lose the body fat that you wanted in no time at all! Think about it, these principles are so easy to follow you just make exercising your priority. You have to really want it!

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What is the most efficient way to burn fat? The never ending debate. Should we do cardio in the target heart rate zone or not? Is intense exercise more beneficial? Here I put in my 2 cents.

For years, it was common knowledge that you had to stay in the target heart rate zone to efficiently burn fat. However, the last few years have seen a rise in the popularity of shorter, intense cardio workouts to burn fat.

Training in your target heart rate zone came about when it was revealed that lower intensity exercise (like walking) burns a greater percentage of fat calories during the activity. More intense work on the other hand burns predominantly carbohydrates. So people would try not to train too hard, because if they did, their body would switch from burning fat, to burning carbohydrates. What most people don’t realise though is that you cannot rely on calories burnt during an activity to lose weight.

Calories burnt during the activity do little to help us lose fat. The critical component of successful fat loss relies on our metabolism and certain hormones flowing through our body. This is why shorter more intense workouts are much more efficient.

Training at a lower intensity burns calories only during the activity. As soon as you stop you will stop burning calories. This is because this form of training hardly raises your metabolism. Also longer, less intense cardio sessions hardly stimulate our body to release hormones which will help our fat loss progress. If done long enough though, you can actually stimulate a hormone that works against us…cortisol. Cortisol is a catabolic hormone which actually eats away at muscle. This is obviously a bad thing!

On the other hand, shorter, more intense cardio workouts release certain hormones, most importantly Growth Hormone. The amazing thing about growth hormone is that it helps us build muscle, and does its best to stop fat from storing on our body. We could eat as much as we want and we won’t put on any fat. (However if you got an absolutely voracious appetite, you might, at worst very slowly put on some fat.) That’s why if we got the hormones flowing in abundance in our body, an occasional pig out day, or binge isn’t going to hurt our progress.

Another great benefit of intense training is that it raises our metabolism substantially, for up to 48-72 hours afterwards. Seeing how it keeps the metabolism elevated for up to 3 days afterwards, imagine what would happen if you did these cardio workouts every other day. Your metabolism would be like a fat destroying furnace!

A good real world example is to compare the difference in physiques between marathon runners and sprinters. Which physique would you prefer? How do you think they train? Marathon runners do hours upon hours of long distance running, whereas sprinters train intensely and explosively. No matter what training we do, our body works by adapting to the stress and making it easier.

So with all the training marathon runners do, cortisol will be running rampant in the body, destroying muscle. This is simply the body adjusting to the workload and making it easier for itself. Too much muscle will only hinder the athlete’s performance (and joints mind you!). That’s why marathon runners have very little muscle.

On the other hand, if we trained like sprinters, with short explosive bursts our body will actually want to keep muscle and burn fat. This is because we need our muscles to better perform the workouts we are subjecting the body to. Also, the body, when exposed to this type of training actually wants to rid the body of its excess fat. This is because the fat on the body is simply hindering its performance. Hence, this is why short, explosive training stimulates hormones like growth hormone which help us build muscle and burn fat.

Well then how should you train? It depends on your goals. Do you want to look like a marathon runner or a sprinter?

If you want to be as thin as a rake, go running for hours on end.

However, if you want that lean, muscular physique much like a sprinters, here are a few suggestions:

30-100m sprints: Set out a distance and sprint all out for the set distance. For recovery, walk back to the starting line. As soon as you get back, sprint again. I wouldn’t do more than 8 total sprints in a workout. For example you could do 6 x 60m sprints.

Intervals: Pick an exercise you like, (running, swimming, cycling, boxing, skipping etc.) and give a near maximum effort (80-100% Max) for 20 seconds, followed by 40 seconds of rest or light exercise (40-60% of max). Repeat 5-6 times. No more than 10 reps is necessary. If you can do 10, focus on going more intense in each interval. I personally like doing these with shuttle runs over a distance of 10-20m.

10 minutes constant max effort: Pick an exercise (running, swimming, cycling) and go as hard as you can for approximately 10 minutes. Try to outdo yourself. You could do 10 minutes every time and try to beat the distance every time you do it OR you could have a set distance and try to beat the time every workout. I personally go down to the oval and time myself over 8 laps of the track.

In finishing, for maximum fat loss, I would recommend doing no more than 4-5 sessions a week. That equals, at most to 60-70 minutes of training time a week. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but if you spend every single one of those minutes going as hard as possible, your metabolism as well as those hormones will melt the fat off your body in no time.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Luke Johnstone is a former long time yo-yo dieter who has struggled with his weight ever since he was a little kid. Fed up with dieting he decided to devise a plan which enabled him to eat more food everyday, eat whatever he wanted, ‘pig out’ a few times a week and exercise a total of only 90 minutes a week. He managed to get in the best shape of his life and now has a website to help others struggling with diets to lose weight. You can check it out at www.lukesfatlosstips.com

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