Tuesday, 14 July 2009
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Prospectus for Health & Fitness Advice
There is some interest in me writing more blogs about weight loss. Before I do though, I just want to make it clear that I am by no means perfect in my own lifestyle. I had some people asking me if I watch my weight since I am a nutrition student. I am just like anybody else. I work and study full-time, so I also have the same time constraints, exams, stress, and deadlines. I love to eat. I love cheesecake, desserts, and french fries. I enjoy having a few drinks on the weekend and going out with my friends to restaurants that usually have over-sized portions.
The reason why I say this is because I volunteer at health tradeshows where I usually measure blood pressure and body fat composition. When there is somebody with an obese BMI or high body fat percentage, I find it difficult to advice them to lose weight. They respond with some defensiveness and upset feelings by saying to me, “Well it’s easy for YOU to say!”Genetics do play a partial role in weight, but it can be combated. My mother is overweight and my father is borderline diabetic. I also heard that Jessica Alba said she comes from an overweight family. My BMI is in the healthy range, but I have been exercising all my life. I played lots of sports in elementary and high school. But just like anybody else, I get busy (especially during exams) and I have my lazy days. End result: I don’t always make it to the gym.Life gets busy, so I understand that sometimes convenience/time seems more relevant and takes importance over nutrition and health. As a student, money is a concern, so I also understand that fresh fruits and vegetables are more expensive than highly processed foods that are higher in sodium and fat. Therefore, I will try to discuss more health tips in a perspective that will try to balance nutrition, convenience, time, and price. Because what is the point of nutrition tips if you are not able to incorporate it into your lifestyle? Your weight is actually a very simple equation:
Calories in = calories out
It’s just a balance between this equation. If you intake more calories than you burn out, then you will gain weight. It’s just vice versa if you want to lose weight. And if calories in = calories out, then you should maintain your weight.Although it’s a simple equation, weight loss is for sure NOT EASY. There are so many external factors that affect this little equation. Don’t listen to advertisements that promise a quick and easy route to weight loss. Weight loss is not a “secret”. It’s HARD WORK. Just look at how hard the contestants on The Biggest Loser work & sweat!And lastly, everybody is different. Some people may find a certain way to lose weight, but this may not work for every other person. In my Slimfast post, I talked about how a diet should suit your lifestyle. Because if you cannot maintain a certain diet for the rest of your life, then any weight lost will come back very quickly. This goes for most of the restrictive dieting that goes on out there. Messing with your metabolism will not help you maintain your weight in the long run.People want quick fixes, but there is no such thing when it comes to weight loss (unless you go through surgery or liposuction). My current research project is a lit review on obesity management in primary care. In this project, my professor wants to concentrate only on lifestyle interventions, which are programs that promote healthy eating and exercise because these concepts are feasible and applicable for life.i-Nutrition@xanga is my lifestyle intervention for you. Whether or not you read, listen, take my advice is up to you. I can supply knowledge, an ear to listen, and maybe some advice to help you overcome your obstacles and barriers to healthy living. But in the end, the person in charge of your life, motivation, behaviour, and goals is you. Cheers, guys.P.S. (And the answer to whether or not I watch my weight as a nutrition student:
I would still watch my weight even if I wasn’t a nutrition student. There is a lot of social/peer pressure to fit an ideal. Unfortunately for my career, if I want to become a registered dietitian... Would you take health advice from an overweight dietitian?? Lol. But seriously, we’re normal people. We’re not perfect. *Hides chocolate bar*)
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Comments (17)
true, it is hard to lose weight than it is to gain. genetics does play a big roll in it also. I myself am told to watch my weight and what i eat all the time, because my grandmother was a diabetic herself along with other family memebers, and it's quiet scary when you think about it. thanks for the advice.
great post!
I knew all of this already.
rec'd - that was perfect :) greatgreatgreat advice
Digestion is never simple, and actually, your calories in/out equation isn't perfect. My brother told about something from the book YOU On Diet. I already know fats are converted into ketones to be used as energy, and they are never converted into glucose. The thing about ketones that makes things more complicated is that if you have an excess in your body, they don't go back into storage. They're excreted (I think through the skin and mouth) and lost to the air.
Nice attempt to show balance between the gym, schoolwork and the fast food outlet. What so-called fat should I be looking at on the nutrition label to avoid this cholesterol problem - saturated or trans-fat? Some fats are good. Should I avoid oysters? No nutrition labels on restaurant food.
When I discovered that I had a cholesterol problem my doctor ( he has eleven ( 11 ) degrees on his wall ) recommended running and eating the five food groups - dairy, fruits, grains, meat and vegetables. Your lifestyle intervention is welcomed because I like your approach to the subject, Liz.
Woot, nutritionists are awesome! =] Where are you currently studying and what year?
hi...
thx for the advices...
and it`s true... it needs WORK HARD...
how not to messing up with our metabolism?
is there a way to make our metabolism faster?
i`ve read from an article , it said that if we eat 5-6 times every day , it can make our metabolism faster... 3x the main menu and 2x snack...
i don`t know wether it`s true or not...
thx
@Rejected_Stone - Yup, a large amount of ketones in your body is dangerous because they make your blood very acidic in pH. Some ketones are excreted through air. You can tell how much ketones are in your body by taking a sample of your breath.
This state, called ketosis, is something that occurs in low-carb diets. The brain can only function on glucose. In the absence of glucose, the body can't make glucose itself, so it will only convert fatty acids into ketone bodies and use this to fuel itself. Ketosis in the short-term is not too much of a problem, but when your blood's pH drops too low due to so many ketone bodies, then this state is called ketoacidosis and this is very dangerous.
Thank goodness that the low-carb and Atkins days are not so popular now!
You're right that the calorie in/out equation isn't perfect. It's an attempt to simplify something as complicated as the body's metabolism :P
I should add in there that there are lots of internal factors affecting it as well.
@Rodeney123 - Both saturated and trans fats are not so good for your body's cholesterol. Trans fat is the worst one tho and it should and can be completely avoided. However, saturated fat occurs in all meats and other products, so it's harder to avoid, but should still be limited.
The good fats that will help decrease your LDL (bad) cholesterol and increase your HDL (good) cholesterol are the mono-unsaturated and poly-unsaturated fats. This includes the omega-3s that you've probably heard about.
I wrote a little bit on these good fats here, so check that out.
You can also try looking up a mediterranean diet, which replaces saturated fats with those good fats.
As for oysters.... Generally seafood like oysters and shrimp do contain a lot of cholesterol, so they should be eaten in moderation or small amounts. Actually, cholesterol comes from any kind of animal product. I see peanut butter advertised as "no cholesterol!" but that's silly because peanut butter is not derived from animal products in the first place!
Oh and try this website here: http://caloriecount.about.com
You may not find the exact restaurant menu item that you are looking for (because you don't know exactly what restaurants put in their dishes), but you can find nutrition facts for basic ingredients like oysters, beef, fruit, bread, etc. Good luck!
@communitychannel - I'm glad that you like my approach! I hope that I won't run out of ideas of what to write about. So if you have anything in mind that you think would be a good topic, please let me know! :)
@teeraljannah - I'm almost done :) I just have 1 more full-time semester left. I actually can't wait to graduate... lol
I study @ the university of Guelph, which is close to Toronto, Canada~
@Amanda_Tomato - You're welcome :)
A restrictive diet that is too low in calories will decrease your metabolism because your body will go into this type of "emergency/survival mode". It doesn't know when it will get more food/calories to survive, so it will try to conserve fuel by using less energy to make your heart beat, body breathe, brain functioning, etc.
What is too little calories... You can calculate *approximately* how many calories your body burns in a day with this calculator tool. A healthy weight loss would be about 1-2 pounds per week. To lose 1 lb of fat, you need a calorie-deficit of 3500kcal. This sounds like a lot, but if you divide that by 7 days, then it is 500kcals deficit per day. Let's say you burn 2000kcal per day, then you should try minusing 500 from that and try to consume 1500kcal per day.
It's hard to be perfect and maintain this day by day though. So go easy on yourself :)
Women should consume AT LEAST 1200kcal per day. But this is different if you are a teenager and still growing. Teenagers should be more careful with dieting as they could stunt their growth or lose fertility
You can increase your metabolism through exercise and increasing your lean muscle mass. I'll talk a little bit about exercise more in my next post ;)
And yes.. eating smaller, but more frequent meals will increase your metabolism as well. This is because digestion burns calories too! It needs to move food into your stomach, mix up and break down your food, all kinds of stuff. So if you constantly have your stomach working, then this will burn more calories just sitting around than if your stomach isn't working. So eating 3 meals per day with 2 snacks means that you are eating frequently... about every 3-4 hours. But you need to keep in mind about the amount that you eat. Keep the portions small~ I want to blog about healthy portion sizing but i am still thinking about how to talk about it... I'm also considering doing a video blog on it. But we'll see!
Excuse this long message..... haha. I hope this helps :)
Wow, I like your nutrition advice! =)
thx 4 ur advices ^^
it really helps ^^
@i_Nutrition - I remember being taught that the for a period of time after 24 hours the body converts muscle protein into sugars for the brain, the nervous system, and parts of the kidneys, but after about a week, the brain ends up running on ketones. This results in being kinda delirious. Most people won't ever experience this unless they're actually starving to death.
Another nice post! You're on fire!