How to calculate your calorie intake

This might be intense at first…if you’re not a math person you can skip the math and look at the websites below to help you with finding calorie intake.

Fats: ______g X 9  = _______Kcal

Protein: ______g X 4 = _______Kcal

Carbohydrates: _______g X 4 = ________Kcal

Percentages:

(Kcal total from fat, protein, or carbohydrates/total Kcal) X 100 = ________% Kcal recommended for daily intake of nutrient.

Total kcal comes from the food label. It’s the total calorie number.

All up all the numbers at the end of the day and then divide the out one of your totals from carbs, fats, and protein. You would then multiply it by 100 and this will give you your percentage of your total calories from the day.

Example:

2136 total calories from the day and for carbs I had 851 total calories for the day. You then divide 851/2136=0.4 (I rounded up) then we multiply the 0.4 X 100= 40%

So if you’re trying to lose weight cutting back 100-200 calories a day will help. 1 pound of fat = 3500 kcals. So buy cutting out those calories will help you lose weight. Most people cut carbohydrates (bad simple and refined carbs)

Daily recommendations for intake of Fats, Carbohydrates, and Protein

Fat: 20%-35%

Carbohydrates: 45%-65%

Protein: 10%-35%

You can go onto www.choosemyplate.gov and make sure your getting your correct amount nutrients needed daily.

If you click this link below, this gives you your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). This is the amount of calories you burn in one day. On the site they call TDEE maintenance.

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

This website also a Carb, Protein, and Fat calculator which is pretty awesome and can help you figure out how much to take in daily.

Here is an example of looking at foods and calorie and macro-nutrients.

Vegetable Calories and Macro-Nutrients

Vegetable	Serving	Calories	Kilojoules	Carbs (g)	Protein (g)	Fat (g)
Asparagus	raw, 4 medium spears, 2oz	11	48	2.2	1.3	0.1
Beans, Kidney	boiled, 1/2 cup, 3oz	108	451	19.4	7.2	0.4
Brocolli	1 cup chopped, 3oz	35	146	5.6	2.4	0.3
Cabbage	1 cup shredded, 5oz	41	172	9.8	2.1	0.1
Carrots	1 cup chopped	52	219	12.3	1.3	0.3
Cauliflower	1 cup chopped, 3.5oz	23	95	4.1	1.8	0.4
Celery	1 cup chopped, 3.5oz	14	58	3.6	0.7	0.2
Corn (kernels)	1/2 cup kernels, 3.5oz	354	1479	82.3	10.8	4.3
Corn on cob	1 large ear, 5.5oz	140	588	33.3	4.7	1.1
Cucumber	1/2 cup slices (with skin), 2oz	7	28	1.3	0.3	0.1
Lentils	1/2 cup boiled, 3.5oz	115	480	19.9	8.9	0.4
Lettuce (iceberg)	1 cup shredded, 1.9oz	8	35	1.7	0.5	0.1
Mushrooms	1/2 cup pieces, 2.5oz	20	83	3.8	1.4	0.4
Onion	1/2 cup chopped, 3oz	36	150	8.6	0.8	0.1
Peas	1/4 cup, 1.5oz	36	151	6.7	2.3	0.1
Peppers (bell or sweet)	1 cup sliced, 3.2oz	18	77	4.2	0.8	0.2
Potatoes	1 potato, baked with skin, 7oz	255	1065	58.1	7.0	0.4
Pumpkin	1/2 cup mashed, 4oz	23	95	5.6	0.8	0.1
Spinach	1/2 cup, 3oz	20	82	3.2	2.6	0.3
Sweet potato	1 cup, baked, with skin, 7oz	180	752	41.4	4.0	0.4
Tomato	1 tomato, raw, 2.2oz	11	47	2.4	0.6	0.1

http://icantseeyou.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/03/vegetable-calor.html

If you have the time, check out this website below. This site has a huge list and gives energy levels of food.

http://apjcn.nhri.org.tw/server/info/books-phds/books/foodfacts/html/data/data2a.html

This blog post is for those who want to keep track of their nutrition. I would recommend trying it out one day. Take a picture of everything you eat and try out the formulas to see if you’re staying in your calorie level. It always good to see how much food you need to take in and make sure your getting all the right amount of nutrients. There are programs and apps that can track your meals for you. Nutrition is a huge impact of overall health and abs.  But try to touch base and track your nutrition so you can map out all the bad foods and start replacing with good macronutrient foods. If you have medical issues or medication, always talk to your doctor about dieting and weight loss. Also talking to a professional nutritionist will help with mapping out a diet plan.

Also, track your sodium intake. We tend to have too much sodium in our diets. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommended reducing sodium intake to no more than 2,300 milligrams per day. However, those with hypertension, over the age of 51, or who are African American, should consume no more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day. This recommendation includes over half of all Americans. Sodium is important because it is necessary for water balance within cells, and is involved in proper functioning of never impulses and muscles. The website below is a great resource and information on sodium and the human body.

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/foodnut/09354.html

I hope you found this blog informational. It’s a little hard at first but, this is the first step look at your diet and make sure your getting exercise, sleep, lowering stress, and drink water.

 

 

Fats

Fats are delicious and make our food taste so good! Actually, fats are essential to the human body for supplying tissue needs in energy fuel and structural material. Plant and animal fat effect the body in different ways, but excess amounts of dietary fat (from animal sources) can cause risk factors for poor health.

 

Fat is stored in a space within adipose tissue. Fats can supplement carbohydrates (primary fuel source) as an energy source. Lipids are the chemical group for organic substances for fats. Which are fats, oils, waxes, and fat-related compounds similar to cholesterol. Glycerides are the principal constituents of adipose tissue found in animal and plant fats and oils. The fatty acids are called monoglycerides, diglycerides, and triglycerides.

 

Saturated fats are the solid fats usually from animal sources. The reason why they are called saturated fats is because, the state of fatty acid components are being filled in all their available carbon bonds with hydrogen, which makes the fat harder or solid. Examples of saturated fat: butter, cheese, meat, and eggs.

 

Unsaturated fats are the less dense and usually found in plant sources. These fats are the opposite of saturated fats. So, a fatty acid that isn’t completely filled with all the hydrogen that it can hold is unsaturated. Most food triglycerides are in the unsaturated group. The other two forms of unsaturated fat are monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat. Examples of food sources are; olive oil, peanut oil, almonds, avocados, safflower oil, corn oil, and soybean oil.

 

Trans-Fats are the fats to avoid the most! These fats pose a great number of negative health consequences. These fats are partially hydrogenated to produce  a more solid or “shelf-life” in products. Commercially hydrogenated fats are in margarine, snack items, and fast food. Always look at the label!!!! Just because a package says it has no trans fat, doesn’t mean that fat isn’t in the food! THIS FAT IS NOT ESSENTIAL TO THE HUMAN BODY OR DIET!

 

Omega-3 and omega-6 fats are also unsaturated. These fats are essential to the human body, and are found in fish, seeds, and nuts. Both of these fats serve important functions to the body like tissue strength, cholesterol metabolism, muscle tone, blood clotting, and heat action. These fats we get from food because our body don’t produce them. The body can produce monounsaturated fats and cholesterol.

 

Cholesterol is vital to membranes and is a precursor for certain hormones and playing a part in metabolism. It occurs naturally in animal foods but are not found in plant products. There is no daily recommendation for cholesterol but studies have shown that lower cholesterol diets are beneficial.

The functions of fat are to supply energy to the body. Fats serve as a fuel for energy production and is also used an important storage form of body fuel. Essential nutrients from fat supply essential fatty acids as long as the recommended daily amount is followed. These essential fats help make cholesterol and are a source for fat-soluble vitamins. Fats tend to slow the rate of digestion compared to carbohydrates.

 

Cholesterol is vital to membranes and it is a precursor for certain hormones and playing a part in metabolism. It occurs naturally in animal foods but not found in plant products. There is not daily recommendation for cholesterol but studies have shown that lower cholesterol diets are beneficial.

The functions of fat are to supply energy to the body. Fats serve as a fuel for energy production and is also used an important storage form of body fuel. Essential nutrients from fat supply essential fatty acids as long as the recommended daily amount is followed. These essential fats help make cholesterol and a source for fat-soluble vitamins. Fats tend to slow the rate of digestion compared to carbohydrates.

The recommended daily intake of fat is 20%-35% (good sources of fat are better)

1 g of fats= 9 calories

GOOD FATS
Monounsaturated fat	Polyunsaturated fat
Olive oil Canola oil Sunflower oil Peanut oil Sesame oil Avocados Olives Nuts (almonds, peanuts, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts, pecans, cashews) Peanut butter	Soybean oil Corn oil Safflower oil Walnuts Sunflower, sesame, and pumpkin seeds Flaxseed Fatty fish (salmon, tuna, mackerel, herring, trout, sardines) Soymilk Tofu
BAD FATS
Saturated fat	Trans fat
High-fat cuts of meat (beef, lamb, pork) Chicken with the skin Whole-fat dairy products (milk and cream) Butter Cheese Ice cream Palm and coconut oil Lard	Commercially-baked pastries, cookies, doughnuts, muffins, cakes, pizza dough Packaged snack foods (crackers, microwave popcorn, chips) Stick margarine Vegetable shortening Fried foods (French fries, fried chicken, chicken nuggets, breaded fish) Candy bars

http://www.helpguide.org/life/healthy_diet_fats.htm

 

 

S.M.A.R.T Goal setting

In this blog I wanted to focus on short and long term goal setting. I want to give you some tools to make S.M.A.R.T goals. S.M.A.R.T is establishing Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-targeted goals. By using these tools, your goals will be reachable and you will be aware of what is expected to reach your personal goals.

So, let’s start simple with some short term goals. You can make your short term goals anywhere from 1 week to 3 months. I would suggest looking at your short term goal and seeing what time is needed to accomplish this goal. You do want to test yourself but you also want to feel good about completing the goal, so try and keep it simple and reachable. Once you successfully reach and complete your goal start planning another short team goal and keep testing yourself. So try it out! Take a piece of paper out and write down a short term goal. Then think about all the S.M.A.R.T concept and brain storm what it will take to get this goal accomplished! As everything on the paper comes together, try writing down in order so you know what it's going to take to successfully accomplish your short term goal.

Ex: if you're trying to lose weight, put a goal where you lose 10 lbs. in 3 months. Brain storm what your going to do to lose that weight, what its going to take physically and time wise. Map out the steps of what you're cutting out of your diet and how much you plan to exercise. Start off slow! It takes steps to get to your goal so don’t put everything in at once. You can make as many short term goals as you want!

There is nothing wrong with your short term goals leading up to your long term goal. I think this is a great way to keep yourself in check so you know that you’re doing everything needed to complete short and long term goals. Reachable goals make it easier to continue on long term goals!

Now, I’ll go through long term goals using S.M.A.R.T theory. Long term goals can be from 1 year to 50 years to 75 years. This is related to a personal goal for your life! If you plan on getting a PhD or start your own successful business, ect. Long term is still similar to short term because you want to be able to accomplish your goal, but this goal will take much longer and will take more work. Take the long term goal seriously and make it something you are passionate about and really want to complete. You would do the same planning as you did with short term goals. Write down the long term goal, brain storm what its going to take, how long its going to take, and what are the outcomes from this goal. Then organize your goal so you have a map to follow and successfully complete your goal! Save that piece of paper, document, or whatever you used to map out this goal. Then from that point on, its up to you! Believe in yourself, take a deep breath, and starting completing some goals!!!!