HOUSTON – Do you know how many grams of sugar are in a teaspoon? How many cups of pasta in a serving? What's a normal body mass index (BMI)?
These are just a few of the questions Dr. Steffanie Campbell with Kelsey-Seybold asked hundreds of women, and the results from the participating ladies were surprising.
First, she says people think BMI should be lower than it actually is.
“Everybody thought it should be about 15 to 20 and I was like ‘that's pretty thin.’” Campbell said.
In fact, it should be between 20-25. Check out a BMI calculator online to determine yours.
Campbell was also surprised to learn only 38 percent of people have tried a fad diet recently like keto, Weight Watchers and Atkins.
She was not surprised that people don't know how much one serving of pasta really is, which is half a cup dry.
Campbell also said most of us have no idea how much sugar is in a teaspoon. The answer is four grams.
Which brings us to the biggest mistake you're probably making.
“They have no idea how much sugar is in everything that they do eat which is also shocking to me too. The other thing is they always assume that if it's labeled as healthy or low fat or low calorie that it's good for them. So they don't even think of looking at those labels,” Campbell said.
If your goal is weight loss, you need to pay attention to calories and grams of sugar on food labels.
Both men and women should aim for less than 30 grams of sugar per meal.
Keep in mind, foods like yogurt, fruit juice, salad dressings and spaghetti sauce can hide lots of sugar that can easily put you over the limit at mealtime.
The difference between men and women, Campbell said, is that she finds women are more carbohydrate-sensitive.
When women limit sugars and carbohydrates, we get headaches and fatigue and irritability. Meaning, men may have an easier time limiting carbs but they do need more protein in general because they typically have more muscle mass.
