Eat for Life

On the tail of mysoap-box rant over the weekend, I thought I would follow up with some more tips.

Many peope who decide they are going to eat better and reclaim their health use some sort of *system* ie Weight Watchers, etc, that has a plan based loosely on your caloric intake vs your output. I think any of these programs(that do NOT require you to purchase their food, or offer it as an option, not mandatory)are pretty good as they teach you portion control, have you *counting down* your servings of food throughout the day, and you get bonus points for exercise. The downside of these programs is, as far as I know, they are not run by anyone with any medical or nutritional knowledge. Therefor if you have ANY sort of medical condition, dietary restriction, etc they cannot adequately advise you. Nor can they recommend any sort of exercise program. But, for the average person, they are ok, as long as one follows that up with their own research and awareness of nutrition, exercise, etc.The only downside is there is usually some sort of fee. Eh, I don't know how I feel about that. If you need that to hold your feet to the fire, ok. But, if you are genuinely going to make lifestyle changes that are permanent, you need to do this for you, not because Jenny Craig is watching...

Another option that is not only free but I have used it and I think it is fantastic it a site called Fitday. http://www.fitday.com This site allows you to plug in everything you eat and it gives you a nutritional breakdown of ALL foods. The reason I like this site(actually there are several) is because it tells you the actual nutrition content of your food, your carbs vs protien vs fat, etc, it also allows you to plug in all your stats INCLUDING your measurements and has a way for you to track them, AND it gives you a base calorie expenditure for the day, and will add to that any calories spent exercising. You can pick your activity and even add in things like cleaning your house(which I don't, I sort of count that under my daily activity level)

The bottom line is in order to lose weight your input must be less than your output. Then when you have reached your goal weight your input must equal your output. It really is as easy as that.  This site makes that VERY easy to figure out, AND allows you to see what you are eating, how you are balancing things nutritionally and know what is working and what isn't. For example....I have entered that I am 5'6' and weigh 130lbs. I have listed that I am moderately active before adding in my exercise. This gives me a base calore requirement of 2300 cals/day that I need to eat in order to maintain my weight. If I add in a run, that brings me up to over 3000cal/day I need to consume. So, if I wanted to lose weight, I would need to either burn more calories or eat less. If I was moderately overweight, I would probably take my base requirement and deduct from there, and I would say it would be safe to reduce by 500 cals, which equates to 1lb a week. Add to that any exercise I do and that is how I would lose weight. Healthy diet staying within my caloric requirements, exercise, results. Period. Realistically, if I stuck to a clean, whole foods diet of 1800 calories, plus my running which averages 700+ calories burned per day I could lose 2-3lbs a week  of WEIGHT, not water, which is a healthy weight loss.

Right now, I need to use this site for the opposite reason, lol, as I do not consume 3000 cals a day and I should really monitor my intake as I am fairly certian I am not eating enough. I really love this site as the research geek in me loves to be able to see the ENTIRE nutritional breakdown in my foods including vitamins and minerals, and was able to use this to prove that a raw vegan diet is as healthy if not moreso than a standard american diet :) I put my food intake in for yesterday and came in under 2000 cals which is definitely not enough. I was also very busy, and when I am busy I tend to not eat. I did not feel hungry, but I really do need to consume more calories. I also like the fact that with this site, you can customize your own nutritional goals. So, if I wanted to do the raw 80-10-10 eating plan, I could set it up that way. Yesterday, I ate half carbs, half fat and a fraction of protien. Now, I don't typically eat that much fat in a day, but I had run longer/harder the past few days and so I ate extra fat(nuts) to keep my weight from dropping. Raw food, and a vegan diet that consists of whole foods is, by nature, very low in calories but high in nutrition. Despite the fact I did not consume enough calories, based on what I ate I was WELL over the RDA in almost everything except B12, D and Calcium. I ate 84% of the RDA for protien(and with not a lick of meat! Go figure!) and whatever was not OVER the RDA came close to 100%.  Think if I had eaten more calories! I would have been BURSTING with nutrition, lol! 

So, I highly recommend this site, bottom line. It offers the biggest bang for your buck(which is awesome as it is free) and is very user friendly, and seems to me to be fairly accurate. Even if you aren't going to use it regularly, try it for a week or 2 and HONESTLY add in everything you eat vs. your exercise and see what it shows. It can give you a great starting point, as you can see where you are at and what needs improvement. It gives you a better picture of your overall nutrition, which should be right up there with the reason you are trying to lose weight/be healthy anyways. Even if you are NOT overweight, this is a fantastic tool to fine tune your diet for better health. Check it out. :)