No Nonsense Guide To Nutrition, Exercise, And Weight Control: Nutrition

How are you doing on your New Year's resolutions to eat better exercise - lose weight? Well, if it's not going like you thought it would, we would like to help.

In the previous article, we have discussed "The Problem." Now, in this article, we'll discuss "Nutrition."

Become educated

The first step to a healthy lifestyle is to become educated on nutrition and health. Read books and articles by authors with solid academic credentials and experience in the field. Books widely used in university and college nutrition programs are usually based on the most solid scientific evidence.

New findings are published almost daily, but if a study contradicts all previous research, it is wise to wait for other studies to confirm the conclusions. It can also be important to know who funded the research. Food producers or food industry groups have funded studies to refute evidence that consuming a particular food or food additive has negative consequences for human health.

Industry groups seeking to protect or increase their sales use these studies as public relations tools. A researcher that produces results contrary to the wishes of the group that provided the funds may find the study quashed and getting paid or getting further funding difficult.

Becoming educated about nutrition includes understanding the nutritional value of the food you are eating. For example, did you know that processed foods foods that are canned, boxed, or frozen contain additives that could affect your health?

The more processing food undergoes, the more salt, sugar, fat, hydrogenated oil and other additives are likely to be present. Therefore, to eat healthy, reduce the amount of processed foods that you eat.

Know that fresh foods keep more of their nutritional value than canned or processed foods do. The only exceptions are frozen vegetables. Since, they are frozen immediately upon harvesting, they retain more nutrients than vegetables sitting out in the supermarket.

Fresh fruit, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and fresh fish and poultry should make up the majority of your diet. If you can eat dairy products, stick with low-fat or nonfat milk and cheese, and unsweetened low-fat or non-fat milk yogurt to which you can add sliced fruit.

Many frozen yogurts or fruit-on-the-bottom yogurts have a high sugar content. You can also use egg substitute or egg whites in recipes that call for whole eggs. People who experience gas, bloating, or other symptoms should probably avoid dairy products or can use "Lactaid" or similar products to assist digestion.

Find out what you are actually eating and why

The second step to a healthy lifestyle is to find out what you actually eating. Many people eat without realizing how much they are eating or what most of their diet consists of. The only way to be sure what you are eating is to write down whatever goes into your mouth (a food diary). Then, have the food diary evaluated by a Registered Dietician.

However, a good food analysis software program can show how many and what kind of calories you are eating and when. It should also show if you are getting all the vitamins, minerals and fiber you need. These programs can also be used to analyze diet programs found in books, magazines, or diet centers. If the program is lacking in one or more nutrients, it is unsuitable for long-term use.

Are you eating automatically or because you are hungry? People develop automatic behaviors such as eating while watching TV or when stressed, sad or bored. If you realize you are eating for emotional reasons, you may wish to seek professional counseling to deal with these issues.

Plan your meals

The third step is meal planning. Often people grab whatever is available and appealing because they are busy and failed to plan. If possible, it's important to eat a minimum of three times daily, keeping to moderate or small portions.

At work or at school, you can either bring your meals or look at what is available in the cafeteria or nearby restaurants and find what is both tasty and healthy. At home, try to stock up on healthy meals and snacks when grocery shopping.

Don't shop when hungry because impulse buying of "junk" food is likely. If junk food is less available at home and quick and healthy food is, you are more likely to eat healthy. Using various spices can also help to make "healthy" foods more appealing.

Eating healthy when traveling is more difficult. However, modern technology can be helpful. Whether it is a business trip or a vacation, you can call to ask the hotel where you are staying about the hotel restaurants and other local eateries. You can also use the Internet to look up local restaurants and grocery stores. If they have local "Health Food" stores and restaurants or restaurants specializing in fish or vegetarian cuisine, you can probably find healthy meals there.

Don't starve yourself - it is as counterproductive as overeating. Missing meals puts the body in a crisis mode. The thyroid gland produces less of the hormone that determines how many calories to burn. When the blood sugar drops rapidly, the body burns muscle rather than fat as fuel. Muscle is what burns more calories than any other type of body tissue.

Each pound of muscle requires 30-50 calories per day to maintain itself at rest, while each pound of fat only requires 2-3 calories per day to maintain itself. Muscle is metabolically active and fat is not. This is one reason men burn more calories than women of the same weight.

Men usually have a lower fat percentage and more muscle mass than women at any given weight. A fit person at the same weight as an unfit person will burn more calories from both the increased activity and the higher muscle mass.

Fad dieting doesn't work because the body adjusts the number of calories burned to the food available as a survival mechanism. If one does manage to lose the weight this way, the metabolism is lower and more weight is gained when a "normal" diet is resumed. The weight goes up and down, the muscle mass decreases and the fat level rises.

To avoid the metabolism adapting to the lower calorie intake, it helps to vary caloric intake every few days. For example, for 3-4 days, eat 250 to 500 calories per day less than is required for weight maintenance, then for 1-2 days, eat a maintenance number of calories.

It's also important to drink enough water each day. An inactive person should drink at least 8-10 glasses of water daily. However, water requirements increase in hot weather, during exercise, and when dieting, therefore you will need to drink more during these times.

Water helps to regulate body temperature, keep blood volume up (which helps deliver oxygen to the tissues), assists the kidneys in removing wastes, and is the medium for every chemical reaction taking place in the body. Those reactions include fat burning during exercise.

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