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Nutrition
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Nutrition is a huge part of weight loss. If you combine
nutrition and exercise your weight loss plan should be a success. However, most
people usually decide to go either way, exercise or nutrition and it doesn’t
always work out the way they want it.
Nutrition
dictates what every cell in the body needs to support life. A healthy diet with
the proper nutrition cannot only prevent disease but can alleviate illnesses.
This is why it is so important to eat a healthy diet. Some people think that
when they are young they can eat whatever they want and they will eat healthy
when they get older. This is the wrong kind of thinking. No matter what age,
your diet can affect you at any time in your life. It can have an immediate
affect by causing deficiencies, or it can lay dormant and cause diseases later
on in your life such as cardiovascular disease.
The
number one cause of obesity in America is improper nutrition. People are
consuming too many calories and not burning enough through daily activities. In
today’s society it’s all about the easiest and fastest way to get something
done and that includes what we eat. There are fast food restaurants on every
corner that serve up greasy, high fat foods and you don’t even have to get out
of your car to get it. Couple this with the fact that people don’t exercise and
it causes obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and osteoporosis. Even
people’s jobs now a days involve sedentary activity such as sitting at a desk
staring at a computer for 8-10 hours a day. Then what do people do when they
get home? Watch TV for 4-6 more hours. So where is the physical activity that
will burn all of the additional calories? Nowhere in site.
So
we can see how important nutrition is and how it goes hand in hand with
exercise. Now what is proper nutrition and how to achieve it? It is important
to understand that you don’t have to give up all of the foods that you love to
eat. However, to lose weight, prevent disease and alleviate any current
symptoms you need to start making some changes. If you are currently on a diet
of 3000 calories a day and eat anything you want and you switch to a diet of
1800 calories and you are very strict about what you can and cannot eat, you
are probably going to give it up in a week. Getting proper nutrition doesn’t
have to be about what you can and cannot eat, it’s about adjusting your current
nutrition to get you to better health.
If
you go to a nutritionist or a personal trainer that is going to talk to you
about nutrition they will more than likely have you write down everything you
eat in a week to determine where are at now and how to proceed to where you are
going. It also gives you a rough average of how many calories you are eating in
a day. Food journaling is a great way to keep track of the foods and calories
you are eating. Also writing down what you eat gives most people a sense of
responsibility for what they eat and for the weight they have put on. The
average amount of calories to consume in a day is 1200-1800 depending upon
gender. Depending upon where you are at initially will determine how far you
want to reduce your calories. Drastic changes in lifestyle, calories or food
you eat are never good because 9 times out of 10 the person won’t stick to it.
Not to mention when you reduce calorie intake, the body is going to notice the
change and will continue to expect the old amount of calories. This can become
a burden on a person because the body is saying “I’m hungry give me more food”
and you may crave something high fat or sugary but you can’t have it if you are
going to keep on your nutritional plan. Ultimately a person will break down
which can cause a backwards spiral to high fat, high sugar foods.
As
I’m sure you know there are thousands of diet plans on the market that
recommend one of the following low-fat, low-carbohydrate, low-calorie and very
low calorie. A healthy nutrition plan doesn’t have to be any one of these. A
healthy diet involves consuming the appropriate amounts of all nutrients in
addition to a healthy amount of water. This brings us back to the food pyramid.
The US department of Agriculture has provided for us over the years a chart of
what food groups and how much of each food group we should eat. This gives us
the primary basis for setting up our nutritional plan
The largest food group that we need
to consume is grains. This includes any food made from wheat, rice, oats,
cornmeal, barley or another cereal grain. Bread, pasta, oatmeal, breakfast
cereals, tortillas, and grits are examples of grain products. It is recommended
that at least half of the allowed amounts be eaten in whole grain form because
it is high in fiber, where as enriched grains the fiber is processed out. Daily
amounts consist of 6-8 ounces; with 1 slice of bread or 1/2 cup of cooked rice
or 1/2 cup cooked pasta equals 1 ounce. Almost as large is the vegetable
category. This includes raw or cooked; fresh or frozen, canned, or
dried/dehydrated; and may be whole, cut-up, or mashed vegetables. The
recommended daily amounts are 2-3 cups. Not quite as large but still very
important is the fruit category. Fruits may be fresh, canned, frozen, or dried,
and may be whole, cut-up, or pureed. The recommended daily amounts are 1 1/2 –
2cups. Meats and beans include all
foods made from meat, poultry, fish, dry beans or peas, eggs, nuts, and seeds.
Meats and poultry should be lean or low fat. Daily limits are 5-6 ounces. The
milk, yogurt, and cheese group includes foods made from milk that retain their
calcium content. Choices from this group should be fat-free or low fat. Daily
recommendations are 3 cups. The last group is oils. Oils are fats that are
liquid at room temperature. Oils should be limited to 5-6 teaspoons daily since
people consume enough oil through their food anyway.
This is a good outline of what
types of foods should be eaten, and how much should be eaten daily. For ideas
on what types of foods you can eat in each category check out the US Department
of Agriculture website. The next time you go to the grocery store make a list
of these foods so that way you can keep your nutritional plan on track. Also
remember to keep your food journal. Its ok to go over your calories a little
bit every once in a while but try to stay within your limit and this will
ensure you are getting your proper nutrients and losing weight.
Resource
: http://www.mypyramid.gov/pyramid/index.html
