I was recently asked an excellent question with respect to why I recommend caloric intake to be no less than estimated BMR when on a weight loss diet. Let me start out by saying my recommendation is in line with most other Nutritionists, Dietitians, and Personal Trainers. It is the best recommendation we can make based on current nutrition science. We genuinely want you to succeed with your weight loss efforts so the information we provide is based on scientific studies and the observation of what works.

First of all, we have a great amount of data/study results derived from controlled scientific research on metabolism. It is extraordinarily complex. I would be the first to tell you that I don’t fully understand all the complexities with respect to how it works. There are scientists who have a more complete understanding than me, however, even they do not have all the answers.

I wrote a series of articles on the basics of metabolism to help you have a better understanding of what we know:

It Must Be My Metabolism: Metabolism Part 1

How Many Calories Per Day Do I Need? Metabolism Part 2 (How to calculate BMR and total calorie needs for weight loss and otherwise. Keep in mind that BMR results are an estimate only. For individuals with more muscle mass than normal BMR will be underestimated. For individuals with less muscle mass than average it will be overestimated.)

Increase Your Metabolism: Metabolism Part 3

Although it may be a great simplification, you might want to think of overall metabolism as the sum total of energy needed by your body. This includes all of the many different biochemical reactions and physiological processes taking place in your body all of the time even when you are at rest plus the additional energy needed when you are in movement (walking, dressing, working, etc.). It also includes the energy needed for eating and digesting food.

Calories are a form of potential energy. The number of calories you need even while at rest is the number you want to be most concerned about when dieting for weight loss. This is what we call BMR or basal metabolic rate. (Resting metabolic rate or RMR is technically the most accurate measure but for everyday purposes BMR and RMR are often referred to as being one and the same.)

Your body needs a minimum number of calories to keep your lungs breathing, heart pumping, kidneys and other organs working all of the time whether you are active or resting. Because of this you want to make sure you are getting this minimum number of calories.

If you fail to provide your body with enough calories  to satisfy BMR needs, over a period of time your body will sense that it may be starving.  It won’t matter what else you might try to do. If you are not consuming enough calories to meet your BMR needs it is not enough no matter what you eat with respect to food choices or when you eat. Your body will begin to do whatever it needs to do to conserve the energy you have stored in your body to protect you from starvation. That stored energy is primarily fat.

Your body can only store a small amount of carbohydrates. These calories are stored in your muscles and liver in the form glycogen. Protein is not stored for energy but is it found in all the cells of your body and particularly in lean tissue such as muscles. If you do not provide enough calories in your diet, your body will begin to use up the stored carbohydrates and break down lean body tissue such as muscle to access protein for energy so that it can conserve your body fat.

Why does it do this? It would seem more logical to just use the stored fat. It is precisely what you, me, and most anyone else who is trying to lose weight can get exasperated about. It’s annoying to say the least!

Laboratory based research has determined that this is what happens but it can’t give us the reason why our bodies tend to preserve fat over other body tissue. That’s why scientists have a second way to come to an understanding of how metabolism influences body weight. They take a look at how human beings evolved over time. They also observe what happens with people today who are on very low calorie diets (diets that provide for less than the calories needed for BMR).

What you may have observed with yourself or maybe a friend or acquaintance is that weight loss can come to a screeching halt. The body can go into what is called a weight loss plateau. It seems to hang on to every calorie it can get to minimize any further weight loss.

Overcoming a Weight Loss Plateau: Part 1

Overcoming a Weight Loss Plateau: Part 2

Food was not available on a regular basis throughout most of human history. As a result, humans needed to have a way to adapt to food scarcity and times of starvation. In acknowledgment of that evolutionary adaptation plus the observation of people on very low calorie diets today, scientists speculate that the body has a way of slowing down metabolism as a survival mechanism. What that means is that you can get by on far fewer calories than before you began to diet. As you might imagine this puts a serious damper on achieving that slimmer more trim look we so badly want.

Sadly enough, there are still many people around the world in developing nations and a smaller but just as important number of people in developed nations who STILL experience food scarcity. But for the rest of us food is available all too often! It just doesn’t seem logical for our bodies to go to such extremes to conserve fat calories (stored energy) when we have an abundance of food! We just want to lose the excess fat!

Unfortunately, humans have not had enough time to change or evolve to adapt to the new existence, one of food abundance rather than scarcity. So we have to treat our bodies as if we still lived with food scarcity. That’s why you don’t want to take in fewer calories than what is needed for BMR. But don’t despair. You need calories for your other energy needs over and above BMR. If you reduce the total calories you need each day without going below BMR you will lose weight.

If you want to speed up the process (lose more weight in less time) then you will need to consider doing more exercise. Take a look at the tremendous amount of exercise the participants on The Biggest Loser show have to do lose a lot of weight quickly.

Any kind of increased physical activity helps. Doing weight lifting or resistance training may be particularly helpful because it can help to increase your muscle mass and this in turn will increase your metabolic rate and help to increase your calorie burn even while at rest (BMR). Thankfully women do not need to worry about getting muscle bound. The exercise you choose to do can help to firm and tone your body instead and that’s sexy. Who doesn’t like sexy?

I hope this short lesson on basal metabolism helps! Take care of your BMR and it will take care of you. Does this make sense? Let me know if you have any questions.

Till next time get enough calories but not too many and eat healthy food!

[Oh by the way, I used BFD to mean a Big Frustrating Deal. What were you thinking? ]

In a previous post of mine (article) I discussed what to look for in a nutrition/meal bar. I gave you some guidelines to follow and promised to let you know the bars I like best. (See Best Nutrition Bars for Women) Today I’ll share with you what I’ve found to be the products I like most based on both taste AND nutrition.



I don’t think I’ve come across a single commercially made bar that meets all of my preferences for nutrition and taste! However, some do FAR better than others. If you’ve read my previous article you may remember that I singled out bars designed as meal substitutes and snack bars to be the kind of nutrition bars that will serve you best for managing your weight.

Basic guidelines for MEAL BARS:

1. Calories: 250 calories or less

2. Protein: 10-15 grams

3. Dietary Fiber: 3 grams or more

4. Limit refined carbohydrates/sugar (each 4 grams of sugar = 1 tsp.)

My favorites in no particular order of preference:

Luna Bars

Luna bars were designed as a whole nutrition bar specifically FOR women. They come about as close to meeting my ideal guidelines for a meal bar as anything I’ve found so far.

Although the Luna bars include supplemental nutrients needed by many women (calcium, folic acid, vitamin D, and iron), what I believe may be more important is what else they offer.

I like that the bars provide 9 grams of protein. That’s a little less than I would prefer but not bad. They also provide 3 grams of dietary fiber. And the taste is reasonably good. You get all this for about 190 calories.

You might supplement a Luna bar with a little cheese for additional calcium and protein or some nuts for added protein and healthy fat along with a piece of fruit to round out the meal.

Which Luna bar do I like best with respect to taste? White Chocolate Macadamia

Clif Mojo Bars (particularly the Peanut Butter Pretzel!)

I like these bars because they taste so good! They are sweet and salty tasting yet not too sweet (9 grams of sugar) and not too salty (230 mg of sodium). I also like that these bars are 70% organic.

In addition, the Peanut Butter Pretzel bars offer 10 grams of protein and 2 grams of dietary fiber with only 9 grams of sugar. All this for just 200 calories. Not bad. Could have more fiber but I’m not particularly fond of added functional fiber so what’s present is o.k.

Honestly, I can’t keep these by my office desk because it’s just too easy to resort to eating them at the wrong time. If you give this bar a try let me know if you like them too! As a substitute meal the bar is a good choice and can be supplemented with some cheese or nuts and some fruit.

Kardea Nutrition Bars (May be particularly good if you need to manage your cholesterol levels)

My understanding is that Kardea bars were designed to be heart healthy. I must say that I’ve found them to be a good choice whether you’re looking for potential heart health benefits, weight management, or nutrition.

Kardea bars provide 1 gram of plant sterols (plant sterols have been shown to reduce cholesterol levels) along with 7 grams of dietary fiber and 7 grams of protein. The protein comes up short for a meal bar, however, each bar has only 140 calories. That gives you plenty of room to supplement with cheese, nuts, or something else for additional protein.

The biggest drawback to these bars is that they are pricey. If cost isn’t an issue for you and you need a simple grab and go low calorie choice with some heart healthy nutrition these bars might be just be what you need.

Kardea bars are surprisingly tasty. My only hesitation is the slight aftertaste from the added soy isolate protein. It’s pretty hard to cover this up but I’d say these bars do reasonably well. There are four main flavors: Lemon ginger (my favorite), cranberry almond, banana nut, and chai spice.

(In the interest of full disclosure I must share that the Kardea Company provided me with a free box of these nutrition bars to sample. However, my impression of these bars and report to you was not influenced in any way. The truth is that I would not have been aware of these bars had I not been contacted by Kardea. I’m glad they found me.)

Another bar you might like:

Kind plus protein bars (I like the Almond, Walnut, & Macadamia Nut)

Basic guidelines for SNACK BARS:

1. 100 calories or less

2. 2-4 grams of protein

3. 2 grams or more of dietary fiber

4. Limit refined carbohydrates/sugar (each 4 grams of sugar = 1 tsp.)

My favorites:

Larabars (mini bars)

You gotta hand it to this company for coming up with some all natural bars.  I’m not familiar with other commercial companies that make bars with ONLY whole food.

How about dates, almonds, and unsweetened cherries (the Cherry bar)? Cashews and dates (the Cashew Cookie bar)? Or unsweetened apples, walnuts, raisins, and cinnamon (the Apple Pie bar)? That’s it. Can’t get simpler or better than that. (I don’t know if this is true for all their bars. They have quite a few different flavors.)

So are Larabars a perfect choice? Not necessarily. But I give the ones I’ve tasted high marks overall. I have not included Larabars as a particularly good choice for a meal substitute because they come up short with respect to protein (about 5 grams per bar of 190 -230 calories or so). As a snack bar they fair better.

Here’s what I like for the three flavors I’ve tasted. The calories weigh in at 90-100 calories per snack bar. Protein ranges from 2-3 grams. Dietary fiber is 2-3 grams for the Cherry and Apple Pie (only 1 gram for Cashew Cookie). And the sugar content ranges from 8-11 grams but this is from real fruit so I’d say that’s good.

These bars taste good! I like that I can easily purchase a box of 12 snack bars with the three blends I mentioned at local stores such as Target and Walmart. They are somewhat pricey but I save them for occasional treats and keep one in my purse for when I’m out and I’m hungry for a healthy snack. This keeps me from buying or otherwise eating a high calorie less than healthy snack just because nothing else is available and I’m hungry!

Luna Bar Minis

You can get a box of Luna Bar Minis at Walmart and I believe Target. A box comes with the three flavors of White Chocolate Macadamia, Peanut Butter Cookie, and Lemon Zest. You get 18 mini bars in a box.

Each bar has 80 calories, 4 grams of protein, 1 gram of dietary fiber, and only 5 grams of sugar (that’s only a little more than 1 tsp.). These are chewy cookie type bars that I find to be reasonably tasty. Because you get more per box than the Larabars, they are a bit less expensive but I have to admit I like the taste of Larabars better.

Other possibilities:

1/2 of a Think Thin Brownie Crunch Bar

1/2 of an Almond Brownie Balance Bar

O.k. these are MY favorites. What meal and snack bars do YOU like and how do they stack up with respect to calories and nutrition? Let me know!

Till next time, watch those calories and eat healthy food!

[Disclaimer: The product links in this article are for Amazon.com. I am affiliated with Amazon. However, I only promote products that I personally like or that I have researched with the intention of trying myself. If you click through a link I provide and make a purchase I may receive a tiny commission that helps me pay for the time I spend to research, write, edit, and maintain this website. Thank you.]

I spend a good portion of each week testing easy, healthy, and HOPEFULLY tasty low calorie recipes to share with you. This past week I tried a variety of low calorie oatmeal recipes.

I have to laugh because I’ve tried some dreadful recipes; the kind of recipe that makes my husband frown when he realizes it’s an experiment! Haha! Fortunately for him and for YOU most test recipes never go beyond me unless it’s a hit or there is a reasonably good chance a dish might be improved with a few tweaks.

Well, with the weather cooling down where I live and fall in full swing with leaves turning gorgeous gold, yellow, and red, I’ve gotten back to eating oatmeal for breakfast. I find a warm bowl of oatmeal to be very satisfying and something that keeps me from getting hungry again all too quickly.

Given that I’m also watching my calorie intake to lose 2-4 pounds in the next month or two (too much recipe testing and tasting!), I thought I would share with you some of my adventures last week. Do read to the end because I have a fabulous recipe to share that I discovered quite by accident!

On Tuesday morning I tried making a Warm Oatmeal Smoothie. (Original recipe: Warm Porridge Smoothie. See photo)  The picture looked good. The ingredients sounded good: Oats, nonfat milk, plain yogurt, blueberries, and strawberries. The nutrition couldn’t be better with lots of calcium, protein, dietary fiber, and more. I had to try this!

I followed the original recipe quite closely. Just made a couple of small changes because of the switch from metric measurements to something I understand better. How did it turn out? Definitely low calorie and filling! Also, not too bad tasting because I added a little sugar! Only 304 calories for a serving with the additional tsp. of sugar.

Filled me up so thoroughly I wasn’t hungry for a LONG time.

I discovered after tasting it that drinking a WARM smoothie with oatmeal in it was a little disconcerting. It wasn’t a warm BOWL of cereal or a cold smoothie. Maybe that’s just my hangup? So I may or may not try this again. If I could just figure out how to modify the recipe to keep that filling goodness, this recipe could be a winner…

304 calories

17.9 g protein

4.8 g dietary fiber

515 mg calcium

1.9 mg iron

(About 1 ½ servings of milk, 2 servings of fruit, 1+ serving of whole grain)

I tried this on Wednesday morning.  The idea of adding pumpkin to an oatmeal breakfast seemed to be an intriguing idea. I DO like pumpkin pie so the recipe showed some promise.

1 cup quick-cooking oats

1 cup milk

½ cup canned pumpkin puree

¼ tsp. pumpkin pie spice

2 tsp. sugar

Cinnamon to taste

Makes 2 servings in less than 10 minutes

Mix together all ingredients in a microwave-safe bowl. Cook on high for 2-3 minutes to desired consistency. Add a little more milk or water if necessary.

It was quick and easy to prepare and quite tasty. The oats cooked up fairly well. They were chewy and definitely had a pumpkin pie taste.

Good nutrition and filling power.

I didn’t like the smell of the cooked pumpkin. But if you give it a minute or two to cool a little, the overly pumpkin/squash smell goes away. To avoid this, it seems that some people add the pumpkin at the end of the cooking just giving it enough time to warm up. However, I like the ease of adding everything in all at once. The less fuss the better!

220 calories

10 grams protein

5.8 grams dietary fiber

129 mg calcium

3.3 mg iron

This recipe is by far my favorite. It might amuse you to see what transpired to get the final result.

I had read a tip or two shared by dietitians that a favorite recipe for fast and easy oatmeal was to simply soak a half-cup of oatmeal in milk overnight in the refrigerator. The idea was to take it out in the morning and eat as is with some added dried fruit or nuts. Or heat up slightly if desired.

Here’s what it looked like right out of the refrigerator. Eat it as is????? With all due respect, I don’t think so…

So I decided to microwave the mixture with the added ingredients of craisins, honey, and ¼ cup pumpkin puree. I cooked the oatmeal mixture on high for 2-3 minutes.

The problem is that the container cover became stuck as a vacuum of sorts was created during the cooking. I had not fastened the top with the latches so the result caught me off guard! I spent nearly ten minutes doing everything I could to get the lid off the top including putting the whole thing in the freezer for a while so that it might cool down enough for me to handle it better!! (Would have made a great comedy piece in an I Love Lucy type show.)

Well, low and behold when I finally pried off the lid, I discovered the oatmeal had continued cooking and it was soft, creamy and utterly delicious! Ha! Here’s my new recipe.

½ cup old-fashioned oatmeal (Irish steel cut oats might be even better)

1 cup milk

2 tbsp. craisins

1-2 tsp. honey or brown sugar

¼ cup pumpkin

¼ tsp pumpkin pie spice (optional)

Cinnamon to taste

Add milk to oatmeal in a microwave safe container with a lid (choose a container that is at least 3-4x the amount of oatmeal and milk because the mixture boils up when cooking in the microwave.) Refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, add the craisins or raisins, honey or sugar, and pumpkin puree. Cook on high for 2-3 minutes. Keep an eye on it while cooking if your container is not that big to prevent boiling over. Also make sure the lid is loosely set on top and slightly ajar to prevent causing suction!)

When you take the cooked cereal out of the microwave, allow it to sit for about ten minutes with the lid on well enough to keep the heat in but not get stuck. Use the time you’re waiting to get dressed or fix your sack lunch or whatever else you need to do in the morning.

325 calories

14.2 grams protein

7.8 grams dietary fiber

236 mg calcium

3.5 mg iron

Everything in my humble opinion! Easy to prepare (Just requires thinking ahead and getting this started the evening before). Creamy, tasty, good. A complete meal in and of itself with the exception of pairing with a half a cup of juice or a small piece of fresh fruit for Vitamin C.

I know I said everything is good. The only thing I might add is that it is VERY filling. I actually have a hard time eating the whole thing. And it keeps me so full that I have no interest in eating a mid-morning snack. I guess that’s a good thing on a diet. It’s just that I actually look forward to my mid-morning snack. Oh well…

If you give any of these low calorie oatmeal recipes a try, please let me know what you think!

Till next time, watch those calories and eat healthy food!