Week 6 Progress Report: Eat the Barbecue!

Image source: Wikimedia Commons.

Start Weight:	281.0
Original Target*:	291.8
Adjusted Target:	279.2
Actual Weight:	276.0
Loss/Gain:	– 5.0
Total Loss:	– 26.6
% of Goal:	19.2%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 4.4
*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

About six months ago, my brother Ted decided to buy a new gas grill to replace one that had done yeoman service for close to a decade but was slowly falling apart. However, between one family crisis and another, plus his normal workaholic ways, it sat in its box by the back sliding door to the porch. Finally, this last Friday and Saturday, Ted made the time to put it together.

Friday night, we discussed what we would make for Sunday evening’s dinner to inaugurate the new grill. My initial suggestion was to try a recipe I’d found for a variety of chicken we had got from Central Market in Southlake the previous week. Ted thought about it and replied, “You know what I haven’t had for a long time? Barbecued chicken. I really enjoy it, but for some reason, I just haven’t had it or made it.”

He had me at “barbecued.” So I spent some time on Saturday looking up low-calorie barbecue sauce recipes. They’re out there.

But for some reason, only one sauce recipe appealed to me, and the recipe called for a little adobo. Now, I do have a little Mexican ancestry (“Spanish,” my great-grandmother would have insisted), but I haven’t got yet to the point of digging deep into authentic Mexican cuisine. I’d made fish tacos with Arroz Verde (literally, “green rice,” made with blended poblano chiles and cilantro) the night before, and I just wasn’t in the mood for another meal involving a lot of prep. And it seemed a waste to buy a can or bottle of adobo to get one or two tablespoons; I’d already bought bottles of peanut oil and chipotle hot sauce we’ll be months going through.

So bring in the bottled barbecue sauce! Right?

Well, one of the most basic ingredients of barbecue sauce is brown sugar. Brown sugar gives the sauce not only its sweetness but also its consistency and caramelization when subjected to high heat. But while brown sugar contains a few essential vitamins and minerals that granulated table sugar doesn’t, it doesn’t contain enough of them to justify calling brown sugar “healthier” or “better for you.” Also, a lot of bottled sauces contain high fructose corn syrup. Both processed sugar and HFCS contain unnaturally high doses of fructose, which the liver has to convert into stored carbs (glycogen or fat) before it can be used as fuel. And HFCS doesn’t even have the modest nutritional value of brown sugar.

However, I’m of the opinion that keeping track of one’s calorie intake and output presents enough of a challenge to people on a weight-loss program, at least at the very beginning. Reduce your processed sugar intake, by all means, but you don’t have to eliminate every single gram! I don’t recommend eating any particular dish too frequently, if for no other reason than because you get tired of it if you have it too often. Barbecued meat a couple of times in the summer is hardly going to destroy your diet so long as you treat it with the same respect and attention you treat other dishes.

First, understand and limit the amount of meat you eat at a barbecue meal. Properly sauced, the meat itself will still provide the vast majority of the intake calories. A half rack of original baby back ribs from Chili’s, for instance, is 460 kcal. per serving; from Famous Dave’s, 570 kcal. per 6 ribs. Second, understand and limit the sauce you put on your meat — it’s supposed to enhance the taste of the meat, not cover it up. A chicken breast or leg quarter, for instance, should require no more than 2 – 3 tablespoons of sauce for proper coverage.

For Sunday night’s chicken, I chose Stubb’s Original Bar-B-Q Sauce. Of the three brands I researched, Stubb’s had the least calories per 2-tbsp. serving: 25 calories in their Original recipe, with 0g fat and 6g carbs (4g sugars). The leg quarters themselves I calculated to be 441 kcal.; even generously overestimating the sauce at 4 tablespoons (1 fluid ounce) put it at just slightly over 10% of the total calories. The sodium, at 240 mg., is a little high but not intolerably so.

The overall point is this: Eating well does not mean eating as much as you want; it means eating as much as you need — which is not at all the same thing. But that does not mean eating can’t be enjoyable. You can have some processed sugars, so long as you keep them within fairly strict limits (< 8.33% of your total caloric intake). Down the road, I may try out a low-sugar sauce recipe that will work. Otherwise, if you do your research and plan your meals right, you can still enjoy a good barbecue!