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Tasty Treats!
Add a little flavor to your love making! |
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by Frank Occhipinti: NFPT certified personal
trainer
 Nutrition
remains a fundamental element in the never-ending struggle
to lose weight and keep it off. Why is it a struggle and why
do so many people fail at reaching their weight loss goals?
Many factors may be involved but a couple of main reasons
include misinformation and lack of determination and accountability.
A Few Facts About Nutrition
To successfully lose weight,
you must have accurate realistic information that you can
relate to, be willing to commit yourself as well as be accountable
for your eating habits. Don't let this discourage you. It's
really not hard once you understand a few facts about nutrition.
What if I told you that there was no such thing as a bad food
and that you could eat anything you wanted? Now we're
talking, you say. In this article and in others we will explore
deeper into exactly what I am talking about.
A Little Knowledge is a Powerful Thing
People fail at dieting, not because they themselves fail but
the diet fails them. Healthy eating habits need to become
part of a lifestyle change. The clear importance of nutrition
on one's health and its implications must be clearly understood.
To help you understand what a sound diet looks like, let me
explain why fad or quick-fix diets fail. They have the right
idea, they apply the first law of thermodynamics but anyone
can just stop eating and lose weight. Here's what happens
when you lose weight and you don't keep track of your body
fat percentage.
Chances Are...
Chances are that when you reduce your caloric intake and you
don't have enough of the right amount of calories and nutrients
coming in to support your lean body mass your body will do
what it is programmed to do. It will rid itself of the materiel
that is consuming the most calories. That material is muscle.
Since muscle burns more calories than fat, the body will preserve
the fat because it takes fewer calories to maintain fat than
muscle. When your body rids itself of muscle in this manner
you actually slow down your metabolic rate hence the term
yo-yo diet.
Unless you create a lifestyle change with respect to healthy
eating habits and consume the correct number of calories to
deplete fat and increase lean muscle mass for your body, you
inevitably will return to your old eating habits. When this
happens your body will now burn less calories and you'll put
the weight right back on plus more. Even if you did not go
back to your old eating habits, you would still not have the
desired results-a firm toned body. Whether you weigh 200 pounds
or 110 pounds your body fat will still be high and it will
show. Your arm will still wave back when you wave at someone
else.
Build Muscle—Lose the Fat!
Have you ever known someone for a long time, perhaps even
yourself, whose body hasn't really changed in size over the
years but is not as firm as before. This has happened because
the body composition has changed. It has more fat and less
muscle, and the only way to change it back is to build muscle
and lose the fat!
To be successful in achieving your weight loss goals and rid
yourself of excess fat you have to be honest with yourself.
I have heard many of my clients say that they are eating really
well and following my meal plans. They are actually excited
to do measurements but when they find that there are no changes
they become disappointed and discouraged. After probing a
little deeper, however, little discrepancies start to come
out about their eating habits. I've discovered that most people
tend to eat well throughout the day but blow it at one time
or another, usually in the evenings and they do this consistently.
This is why results are not forthcoming.
Be Consistent in Staying Within Your
Caloric Intake
You don't have to be super anal about it but if you eat a
whole bag of chips or go out to a restaurant and clean off
your plate and your partners you just blew your whole caloric
deficit for the day. You cannot make it up the next day by
not eating or going to the gym for an extra hour and try to
burn it off. If this concept worked, why are you reading this
article? Determine what you are willing to do and set some
realistic goals. Start with small changes, which remarkably,
make a big difference. Remember that consistency is the key.
Develop some determination and keep reading this article.
How To Read Labels
Food labels can be very confusing and appear to hide information
if you don't know what to look for. Look at the calories first,
then the number of servings in a food item, and then figure
out how many servings you are actually eating. For example,
let's say that there are 190 calories per serving in a bag
of chips but the serving size is nine chips, how many chips
did you eat? If you ate the whole bag then you must multiply
the number of calories per serving by the number of serving
you actually ate! Are you getting the picture now? And don't
be fooled by FAT FREE this and FAT FREE that, it's sometimes
a marketing gimmick. The difference between fat free and regular
tortillas is only a matter of 20 calories. Not enough to worry
about. Because you consume fat free foods here and there does
not mean that you can now consume more calories and still
lose weight. When reading labels, determine how many servings
the item actually has and eat only the desired number of calories
you want. Understanding how to read labels accurately will
help prevent you from being misled into eating more than you
anticipated.
Helpful Label Information to Keep in
Mind:
A simple calculation to determine what percentage of the total
calories is coming from what nutrients:
First, the Facts
- 9 calories per gram of fat
- 4 calories per gram of protein
- 4 calories per gram of carbohydrates
A Sample Label
- Serving size: ½ cup
- Servings per container: about 6
- Calories: 120
- Total fat: 1.5 grams
- Saturated fat: 1 gram
- Total carbohydrates: 23 grams
- Dietary fiber: 3 grams
- Sugar: 15 grams
- Protein: 3 grams
Formula to determine fat percentage:
Multiply the number of grams of fat in the product by 9. In
this case the total grams of fat are 1.5. Divide this number
by the total number of calories in a serving. For this product,
11% of the total calories are coming from fat.
(grams of fat) * (# of calories per gram of fat) / (total
# of calories per serving) = (% of fat calories)
9 *1.5 = 13.5 / 120 = 11%
Formula to determine the carbohydrates
and protein percentages:
Multiply the grams by 4 instead of 9. 76% of the calories
are coming from carbohydrates and 10% from protein.
(grams of carbohydrates or protein) * (# of calories per gram
of carbohydrates or protein) / (total # of calories per serving)
= (% of carbohydrates or protein calories)
Carbohydrates: 23 * 4 = 92 / 120 = 76%
Protein: 3 * 4 = 12 / 120 = 10%
According to ADA guidelines, your total fat intake should
be between 10 and 30 percent of total caloric intake. Protein
should be between 15 and 25 percent and carbohydrates between
45 to 75 percent.
So Where Should You Be?
Well, everyone's body is different and has different nutritional
needs. Determining how many calories one needs to reach weight
loss goals is based on a variety of factors including current
weight, how much you want to lose and current body fat percentage.
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