I walked into a Mexican restaurant the other day and saw they had a lo-carb menu item that they were promoting at the restaurant. Seriously, are people still on the lo-carb kick? Or are restaurants behind the times?

Of course people will lose weight on a low carb diet because how much meat can you really scarf down before you start gagging? A 3 ounce piece of chicken only has 120 calories. So of course folks lose weight because they are consuming less calories and getting full fast.

My fiance and I eat pasta almost every day and I have been at my lowest weight at 121 pounds for the last 5 years. The problem for many is that pasta is easier to eat then chewing a piece of meat 100 times before you swallow, allowing your stomach to feel full quicker. So since it’s easier to eat carbs and only takes a few chews, we tend to eat many more calories than eating meat.

Before I became a dietitian, I read plenty of wrong information. I worked as a personal trainer and took advice from fellow employees. I ended up being a calorie counting junkie. At the time I also worked at an office job and remember spending half of my time sitting in my cubicle keeping track of every calorie I put into my mouth. It even got so bad I was including each tic-tac I would eat to the calorie daily total. I’d even take my Atkins bar and split it into 4 pieces to savor throughout the day and obsess about the next piece I’d be eating.

My normal weight was always 140 pounds through high school and college. After getting hungry by not going over my calorie intake number (which I can’t remember, I think it was around 1150) I’d go crazy craving sweets. I thought if I bought a cake and just tasted it, but spit it out, that would be OK. I guess eating half a cake without swallowing is probably like eating one piece.