Nutrition
Basics
Have you ever heard the expression,
'you are what you eat?' While we can't take this literally, this simple saying
contains a lot of truth.
The foods you choose to eat
determine which nutrients your body will receive and in what quantities. Nutrients are
substances that allow your body to make energy, build and maintain tissues, and
regulate bodily processes. If you eat a healthy diet filled with a variety of
high-nutrient foods, you are more likely to enjoy good health than if you eat a
poor diet that is lacking in nutrients. This lesson will provide an overview
of nutrition, which is the process of taking in nutrients from
foods, by looking at the six classes of nutrients:
• Carbohydrates: Provides major source of energy.
Examples: cereal grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and sugars.
• Fats (lipids): Provides energy and has the highest
kilocalorie value. Examples: meats, milk, cream, butter, cheese, egg yolks,
oils, nuts.
• Proteins: Builds and repairs body tissues,
provides energy and only one of the six nutrients that contains nitrogen.
Examples: meats, fish, poultry, eggs, milk, cheese, corn, grains, nuts, and
seeds.
• Vitamins: Organic compounds that regulate body
processes. Examples: vitamins A, B, C, D, E and K.
• Minerals: Inorganic compounds that regulate body
processes. Examples: calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, chloride, iron,
magnesium, zinc.
• Water: Major constituent of all living cells that
is composed of hydrogen and oxygen.
How
much should I be eating to reach my goal?
An
average woman needs to eat about 2000 calories per day to maintain, and 1500
calories to lose one pound of weight per week. An average man needs 2500
calories to maintain, and 2000 to lose one pound of weight per week. However,
this depends on numerous factors. These include age, height, current weight,
activity levels, metabolic health and several others.
One
particular resource I want to provide you with for the start of our weight loss
challenge is the active.com calorie and nutritional needs calculator (example
below). Click this link to run your numbers: http://www.active.com/fitness/calculators/calories
After
calculating the calories and nutrients needed for your age, height and activity
level then you are ready to move forward with preparing daily meals. Grocery
shopping, planning meals, healthy snacks and adequate hydration are key
components to your success during the next 10 weeks of the weight loss
challenge.
A calorie is a unit that measures energy. Calories are
usually used to measure the energy content of foods and beverages. In order to
lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than your body burns each day.
Here
is a list of free sites where you can insert the foods
you are eating to keep track of your calorie intake: 5 Best Calorie Counter
Websites and Apps. All of them are available online and include apps for
iPhone/iPad and Android devices.
It
is highly recommended
to use a calorie counter for at least a few days, to see how many calories,
carbs, protein, fat, fiber,
vitamins and minerals you are truly eating. Seeing the numbers like this can
often be an eye opener. Calories are simply a measure of energy. It is known
that in order to gain weight, more calories need to be entering your body than
leaving it. Conversely, if more calories leave your body than enter it, then
you lose weight. That being said, just cutting calories without regards to
the foods you eat is usually not a sustainable way to lose weight. Although it
works for some people, the majority of people end up hungry and eventually give
up on their diet. For this reason, it is highly recommended to make a few other
permanent changes to help you maintain a calorie deficit in the long term,
without feeling starved. Here are 5 evidence-based diet/lifestyle changes that
have been shown to help people lose weight in numerous studies.
Lifestyle change 1: Eating more protein
will help you reduce appetite, cut cravings and increase the amount of calories
burned at rest.
When it comes to losing weight, protein is the king of
nutrients. Adding protein to your diet is the simplest, most effective and most delicious way to lose weight with
minimal effort. Studies show that protein both increases your metabolic rate and helps curb your appetite. Because protein requires energy to
metabolize, a high protein diet can increase calories burned by up to 80 to 100
calories per day. Protein is also the most filling nutrient, by far. One study
showed that people who ate 30% of calories as protein automatically ate 441
fewer calories per
day. In other words, you can easily increase calories out and reduce calories
in… just by adding protein to your diet. Protein can also
help fight cravings, which are
the dieter’s worst enemy. In one study, 25% of calories as protein reduced
obsessive thoughts about food by 60% and cut the desire for late-night snacking
by 50% If you want to lose weight, sustainably, with minimal effort, then
consider making a permanent increase in your protein intake. Not
only will it help you lose, it will also prevent or at least significantly
reduce weight regain, in case you ever
decide to abandon your weight loss efforts.
Lifestyle change 2: Avoid sugary soft
drinks and fruit juices
Another
relatively easy change you can make, is to eliminate liquid sugar calories from
your diet. This includes sodas, fruit
juices, chocolate milk and other beverages that have sugar in them. These
“foods” are probably the most fattening aspect of the modern diet, by far. This
is because liquid calories don’t get “registered” by the brain in the same way
as solid calories. For this reason, drinking sugary soda doesn’t make your
brain automatically compensate by having you eat less of other things instead. Studies
have shown that sugary drinks are strongly linked to an increased
risk of obesity, with one study in children showing a 60%
increased risk for
each daily serving of a sugar-sweetened beverage. Of course, the harmful
effects of sugar go way beyond just weight gain. It can have disastrous effects on metabolic health and raise your
risk of all sorts of diseases. Although small amounts of natural sugars from
foods (like fruit) are absolutely
fine, large amounts from added
sugar and sugary drinks can be an
absolute disaster. There is absolutely NO physiological need for these
beverages and the long-term benefits of avoiding them can be enormous.
Lifestyle change 3: Drinking more water
can help with weight loss
One
very simple trick to increase weight loss is to drink more water. This can increase
the number of calories you burn for up to 90 minutes. Drinking about 2 liters
(68 ounces, or 8 glasses) of water per day can make you burn about 96 more
calories per day. But when you drink water may be even more
important, because having it before meals can help reduce hunger and make you
automatically eat fewer calories. In one study, drinking a half liter (17
ounces) of water a half hour before meals made people lose 44% more weight over
a period of 12 weeks. When combined with a healthy diet, drinking more water
(especially before meals) does appear to be helpful if you need to lose weight.
Caffeinated beverages such as coffee and green
tea are also excellent. The
caffeine in them can help boost
metabolism somewhat, at least in
the short term and not as a habit.
Lifestyle change 4: Add regular
exercise to your routine and lift weights
When
we eat fewer calories, our bodies compensate by making us burn less. This is
why long-term calorie restriction can significantly reduce metabolism. Not only
that, but it can also lead to loss of muscle mass. Muscle is metabolically
active, so this can reduce metabolism even further. Pretty much the only proven
strategy to prevent this from happening is to exert your muscles by lifting
weights. This has been repeatedly shown to prevent muscle loss and prevent your
metabolism from slowing down during long-term calorie restriction. Of course,
we don’t want to just lose fat… we want to make sure that what is beneath also
look good. If you can’t get to a gym, then consider doing some body weight
exercises like push ups, squats, sit ups, etc. Doing some cardio like walking,
swimming or jogging can also be important. Not so much for weight loss, but for
optimal health and general wellbeing. Of course, exercise also has a plethora
of other benefits that go way beyond just weight loss… such as a longer life, lower
risk of disease, more energy and feeling better every day.
Lifestyle change 5: Reduce carbohydrate
intake, especially refined carbs and sugars
When
people do that, their appetite tends to go down and they eat fewer calories
automatically. Studies have shown
that eating a low-carb diet until fullness can make you lose about 2-3 times as
much weight as a calorie restricted low-fat diet. Not only that, but low-carb
diets also have all sorts of other
benefits for health, especially
for people with type 2 diabetes or metabolic syndrome. But if you don’t want to
go low-carb, then that’s fine
too. Just make sure you eat quality, fiber-rich
carbohydrate sources… from whole, single ingredient foods. If you stick to real
foods, the exact composition of your diet becomes less important.
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