Tracking Caloric Intake

Do you know how many calories you are intaking daily? Do you know how many calories you need to consume to reach your targeted weight goal or to maintain your current weight? Such information is crucial for effectively reaching your body weight goal.  Here is a link for helping you track your caloric intake for weight maintanence, loss or gain http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm.

To use this tool effectively, you will have to input age, gender, height, weight, and level of activity data. Once entered, the calculator will give you a breakdown on what your caloric intake should be to maintain your weight as well as to lose weight in both a slow and extreme basis.

If you use this tool let me know. Also, do you know of any other tools that helps track caloric intake? Please share.

Tips for Eating Healthy and Losing Weight

1. Eat smaller meals more often (eat 4-6 small meals a day)
2. Give up or reduce significantly caffeine and alcohol.
3. Cut back on salt as it facilicates water retention
4. Drink lots of water, which has Zero Calories.
5. Take a multi-vitamin/mineral tablet each day.
6. Watch your portions.
7. Purchase and use measuring cups, spoons, scales and tape measures.

Serving Size of Grains

The USDA recommends that we consume grains on a daily basis. The RDA varies based on our total caloric intake. In considering how much grain to eat daily, it is neccessay to know what constituents as a serving. The list below shows what a serving of grain would be for numerous food types.

• 1 slice of bread
• 1/2 hamburger bun
• 1/2 English muffin a small roll, biscuit or muffin
• 5-6 small crackers
• 3-4 large crackers
• 1/2 cup of cooked cereal, rice or pasta
• 1 ounce of ready-to-eat cereal
• 1/2 Hamburger or 1/2 Hot Dog Bun
• 4-inch pita bread
• 1/4 cup cooked rolled oats
• 2 Tablespoons of uncooked grit
• 2 Tablespoons of Cream of Wheat
• 9 animal crackers
• 1 seven-inch flour or corn tortilla
• 1 four-inch pancake
• 2 corn taco shells
• 1/16 of two-layer cake
• 4 small cookies
• 1/2 medium donut
• 1/5 of a 10-inch angelfood cake
• 2 pretzel rods
• 2 cups popcorn
• 12 tortilla chips

(Source)

Do you have any other examples of what a serving of grain would be? If so, please share.

Serving Size for Fruits and Veggies?

In the quest to stay on track with your ideal weight loss goal, it is necessary to track caloric intake. To effectively count calories, it is also necessary to know what the protein, fats and carbo percentages are in each food type. Here is a source for determing how to calculate serving size and calorie breakdown in terms of proteins, fats and carbs for fruits, vegetables and nuts http://www.producepedia.com/

Do you know of any other sources? Please share.

What is a Calorie?

A calorie is a unit of energy. Technically a calorie is the amount of heat energy required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water up 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit).

When applied to food, we are actually talking about a kiloCalorie (1000 calories). However the word Calorie (note capitalization) is used in most literature.

The measure of Calories gives us an indication of the potential energy that food possesses. This can easily be calculated with the following formula:

1 gram of Protein = 4 Calories
1 gram of Carbohydrate = 4 Calories
1 gram of Fat = 9 Calories
1 gram of Alcohol = 7 Calories

Therefore Calories can be calculated simply by knowing the amount of these three building blocks in the food.

How many calories are in that…?

Here are some resources for checking the calories in foods..

• http://www.thecaloriecounter.com/
• http://caloriecount.about.com/
• http://www.nutritiondata.com/

Protein

What is protein?

Proteins are made up of 20 different amino acids. Eight of these are essential (must be supplied by the diet); the remaining 12 are non-essential.

What are the roles of protein in the body?

• principle role:  build and repair the body tissues (muscles, ligaments, and tendons);
• secondary role: energy source when there is not enough carbohydrates,  protein is striped away from muslces to be used as energy.

How much protein do I need to take?

 According to (source) RDA

•  for non-athletes: 0.8-1.0 g/kg (g/kg = gram per kilgogram of body weight
•  for athletes: 1.2-1.8 g/kg.

Steps

• your weight in pounds
• divide that number by 2.2 to get your weight in kilograms
• multiply weight in kilogram by gram of protein
• you get the total amount of protein to consume per day

example:

• body weight = 196
• 196/2.2 = 89.09
• 89.09 x 1.8 grams of protein (1.8 for an athlete that works out strenously) = 160 grams of protein to consume daily

What happens if I consume too much protein?

It is understood that consuming protein in excess of what the boy can use, may result in the excess be stored as fat in the body.

Vitamin K

What is Vitamin K?

Vitamin K is essential for blood clotting.

What are the best sources of Vit K?

Dietary sources of Vit K include:

• Green leafy vegetables
• fruits
• dairy products
• grain products

Vitamin E

What is Vitamin E?

Vitamin E is an essential vitamin in that it protects blood cells and body tissue.

What are the best sources of Vit E?

Dietary sources of Vit E includes:

• nuts,
• fortified and multigrain cereals, wheat germ
• green leafy vegetables

Vitamin D

What is Vitamin D?

Vitamin D aids in bone and tooth formation. It also helps maintain heart action and nervous system functioning.

What are the best sourcces for Vit D?

The best source of Vit D is sunlight; but due to the risk of skin cancer, other dietary sources of Vit D include:

• fortified milk, butter and margarine
• Fish and eggs

Vit D Deficiency

Dangerous statistics for kids http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/03/vitamin.d.children/index.html