Nutrition Tool

Mar 14 19:23 UTC 2007

I came across a pretty useful tool for anyone interested in diet and
nutrition. I had to do a diet analysis for school but I was also curious
about how bad my diet really is, especially since I have been trying to
eat intuitively. 

The link is:

http://mypyramidtracker.gov/default.htm

This is a site where you can enter everything you eat in a day and get
nutritional information not just for one item but for one's entire day
of eating. If one does enough days, one can track trends. I kept a food
diary for a month. I wrote down every thing I ate, even if it was just
2-3 M&M's from the gumball machine at work. 

What I found is that I eat about 80% of the calories that should
maintain my weight. Not surprising to me really. I have always known
that weight is more than just how many calories one eats. I still eat a
lot of calories though (an average of 2320 per day). My worst day had
almost 4000 calories and I had skipped breakfast! That's what eating
almost a whole large pepperoni pizza will do. go figure. 

My total caloric percentages from carbohydrates, proteins, and fats are
as follows: Carbohydrates 56%; Proteins 13%; Fat 31%.  These values do
not differ more than 2% from any of the USDA recommended percentages of
55% of calories from Carbohydrates, 15% of calories from proteins, and
30% of calories from fat.  

Honestly, that kind of surprised me because I would have thought that I
eat way more fat than that. I am going to continue with the food diary
and see if I keep getting the same results. 

Anyhow, I just wanted to share that tool for folks who are curious about
exactly what they eat. 

response 2 of 41:

Mar 15 00:52 UTC 2007

Jeanne? Do you find yourself feeling hungry a lot? If not, you are
probably eating enough. 

A triathalon? That is sooooo awesome! When is it?

response 4 of 41:

Mar 15 12:32 UTC 2007

I too like fitday.  All of these programs are a nice way to keep
portion-creep in check.  I tend to fall into the pattern of 
thinking I'm eating mostly healthy stuff, so I can eat all I want.
Wrong.  It doesn't matter if it's ice cream or apples if 
I'm eating more than what I'm burning, I'll be carrying
it around for a while. 

I'll check out the link.  Thanks, Lynne.

response 8 of 41:

Jun 27 15:25 UTC 2007

That's brilliant.  I know that I have been working hard at reducing 
portion size with my husband and I.  What's funny is that he rarely 
goes back for seconds...so I think a lot of it is visual.

response 10 of 41:

Jun 27 16:35 UTC 2007

If I didn't make it an ongoing project to keep my weight down (as best I 
can) (and it is work) I'd easily weigh 300 pounds.  I'd be a very unhappy 
person at that weight and I know my health, both physical and 
emotional, would take a hit.

So how do I figure into your facts about dieting not working?

It works for me although imperfectly.  But that's sure better than
not working at weight loss at all.

response 12 of 41:

Jun 27 17:20 UTC 2007

resp:10 I am not convinced that you would weigh 300 lbs if you didnt 
strictly control your food intake. But clearly you are convinced of 
that and you know your body better than I do. Maybe you are one of 
those 5% of people who have so much self control that they can beat the 
odds. Maybe you are hungry all the time and it is only through serious 
will power that you can keep yourself from eating more than you do. I 
dont know. 

I will say that most people tend to have a natural range and find it 
just as difficult to gain enough weight to move out of that range as 
they do to lose weight to move out of that range. There are things that 
people can do to change their "set point" of course. But generally, 
most people will not weigh 300 lbs even if they allow themselves to eat 
as much as they want to eat. So where does your diet figure into the 
idea of diets not working? Well, I suspect that if you were to just not 
consciously pay attention to portions, you might gain some weight but 
unless you started seriously overeating even when you're not hungry, 
you probably wouldnt gain more than 5 pounds or so. Or maybe you would. 
I dont really know. I can tell you that in the last three months, my 
diet has been *really* bad due to outside factors. And by bad, I mean I 
am eating fast food about 3 times a week which a pretty big increase. I 
analized my calories on the cdc website and have been eating around 
3000 calories a day which is 800 a day more than what I was eating 
before. I have gained no weight. I expect to have more time soon and 
will return to my old habits. I dont expect to lose weight but I do 
expect to feel better.  

Let me ask you this. Are you at a normal BMI or are you considered 
overweight? And if you are overweight, why havent you changed your diet 
such that you end up at a lower BMI? 


FWIW, I have found that portion control has helped me with my eating. I 
say this because I have a tendency to finish what is on my plate and I 
am working on only eating when I am hungry. So I dole out small 
portions but my rule is that if I am still hungry after I eat what is 
on my plate, I can get seconds (or thirds or even fourths or fifths or 
whatever). That does help me because I only get more if I am still 
hungry. That is something different than being on a diet though, imho. 
I dont restrict the amount of food I eat except that I am working on 
reducing "emotional eating"  

As for being unhealthy mentally and physically at 300 lbs. I can say 
that I am not unhealthy at 300 lbs. I probably will eventually become 
unhealthy but that pretty much happens to everybody as they get older 
regardless of their weight. I dont think that weight increases the risk 
of bad physical health significantly. 

I do think that being heavy can be a blow to mental health. But it isnt 
so much the weight that is the problem as people's reactions to it. But 
ok, yes...being fat is hard and stressful and if a person internalizes 
society's messages about fat=lazy, fat=sloth, fat=no willpower, 
etc...then yes, being fat is a good way to feel shitty about oneself. 

response 14 of 41:

Jun 27 22:23 UTC 2007

I agree with mary, because for me personally I do have to work at not
being 300 lbs.  Been there, but not for 15 years.  I did let a few more
pounds add up over the past 10 years, but over the last 2 years have
taken that back off.  I won't call it a battle, because I'm a lover not
a fighter.  It's just something I'll keep an eye on for all my life,
because I am not happy at a higher weight.  I am happiest now.

response 16 of 41:

Jun 28 10:47 UTC 2007

I am not happy when I'm heavier not because of health reasons, but it's 
because I just don't feel good when I'm bigger and I am more depressed 
(though I'm not really a depressed person, I can tell a difference in 
hind-sight of how I was really kind of depressed).  I just feel 
better.  I strive to stay thinner because of health, though.   I maybe 
wrong, but it is my feeling that I am much healthier now than I was 
120lbs ago.   If I am wrong, then I don't really care, because I am 
happier this way anyway.

I do agree that fat people totally get discriminated against, because I 
have experienced it first hand.  

response 18 of 41:

Jun 28 13:43 UTC 2007

resp:16 WEll, I always say that if what you are doing makes you happy, 
then it doesnt matter. This is why I bite my tongue when people talk to 
me about homeopathic remedies that have no basis in science. IF it 
makes them feel better and healthier than more power to them. I mean 
what you are doing is making you feel good, Jeanne. So there is NOTHING 
wrong with that. And for all I know, for you, being thinner is 
healthier. Everyone is different and everyone needs to make their own 
choices. 

Part of the issue is that certain behaviors which are healthy cause 
people to lose weight which puts them at the lower end of their natural 
range. But is the weight loss itself that is healthy or is it the 
getting off the couch which is healthy? No one really knows for sure. 
The only study I have seen that corrects for things like activity 
levels showed that fat active people were more healthy than thin 
inactive people. 

But of course we could go around and around on this issue. Unlike the 
tobacco issue or global warming, there is no scientific concensious 
about the effects of obesity. There are studies that show it is bad, 
there are studies that show only really extreme obesity is bad, there 
are studies that show being between 1-100 lbs overweight is GOOD, etc. 
None of the media reporting on the subject seems to give meaningful 
statistics. Usually they say things like "Obesity increases risk of 
breast cancer" without mentioning what the increased risk is. 

Anyways, one of the things I find interesting is a debate going on in 
the "fat blogosphere" about how to handle the health issue. There are 
people who want to get the message out that being fat is usually not 
unhealthy (i.e. fat is a state of being, behaviors are healthy or 
unhealthy) and that you cant tell a person's health by their weight. 
And there are those people who say that the whole health issue is a way 
for anti-fat people to frame the arguement in terms of a different form 
of discrimination and moral judgement (healthy vs. unhealthy) and this 
is wrong because even if a fat person has bad behaviors and unheathly 
habits, they still deserve the same dignity and treatment as other 
people in our society. 

Anyways, one of my favorite bloggers has a post about just this issue 
which I ran across last night. She says things a lot better than I can

http://kateharding.net/but-dont-you-realize-fat-is-unhealthy/

resp:17

Ok, I will accept that fat people dont heal quite as well as thin 
people. But in the grand scheme of things, that isnt a big risk. I will 
also accept that fat people are more likely to have certain joint 
problems later in life (although less likely to have them than 
athletes). But I imagine that surgical techniques could be developed to 
make healing go better for fat people and I also imagine that medical 
technology can help with a lot of the joint problems people are likely 
to encounter. 

I do, btw, understand the economics of it all. Such a small percentage 
of people are over a 100lbs overweight that it probably wouldnt be in 
the best interests of medicine to focus on fat people. As our 
population gets fatter though, I expect more resources will be devoted 
to such things. 

I know it is good that I bite my tongue when people tell me they are 
going on a diet. For all I know they might be one of the 5% who 
actually lose weight and keep it off. They might even be like Jeanne 
who has lost a LOT of weight and kept it off for years and years. Of 
course it is possible for people to lose weight. I wish that people 
would give me the same courtesy when I talk about my decision NOT to 
try to lose weight. It is a rational decision. I sometimes really start 
to feel some of the fat community cliches in situations like that. Like 
the one about how being fat and happy with one's body is a radical act. 
It drives people NUTS. seriously. If I say: "I like my body. It is 
healthy. I dont think I am ugly" and so on, there are always tons of 
people who go out of their way to tell me I am wrong WRONG wrong. 

Obesity is not a choice though. Obesity is a state of being. Smoking is 
a behavior. They are quite different. I kind of like thinking of 
obesity like gender. A person can change their gender if they wish. But 
there simply isnt the social pressure to do it. Why not? Because we see 
gender as a state of being and not a choice. Technically, though it IS 
a choice. Just like obesity is a choice. Actually, I might even 
theorize that it is easier to change gender than it is to change body 
mass. 

As for my personal health issues. Well, no. I can run up two flights of 
stairs. Mostly that is due to a couple of injuries though. I dont get 
winded when I climb stairs. My knees hurt too but again, that seems 
more related to injury than weight or at least I think so because my 
knees have been getting better. I might have healed more quickly if I 
were thinner I suppose. 

None of that matters. What it would take for *me* to become a thin 
person is not healthy for *me*. What you do to become thinner may or 
may not be healthy for *you* 

response 20 of 41:

Jun 28 18:15 UTC 2007

Just to make sure something gets recognized first off- I really don't
think you're at ALL ugly. Okay? :) I don't think weight makes a person
ugly. I do think being overweight is unhealthy- but it doesn't make a
person ugly.

As for the risks with healing- I must disagree. When you heal more
slowly- and that includes the way your skin heals from cuts/incisions-
you seriously leave the body open to infection. And a lot more visits to
the doctor's office to check on the wound, and lots on bandaging, etc. 

To be honest one of the problems I have with "diets" is their
suggestions to eat 'lite' foods and what not- and quite frankly, I don't
trust all those chemicals. Butter may not have the right level of
calories- but at least I have a much better idea of what's in it. So
yes, hubby and I use butter in our cooking. Plus I just think it tastes
better.

My theory is all about moderation. I would rather eat smaller portions
of good foods rather than perhaps larger portions with chemicals I can't
pronounce. ;) Overeating is a problem for many people- which is why I'm
trying to be more aware of portion size AND get this 'must clean off my
plate' idea out of my head.

As for activities- I do want to be more active, be able to take the dog
for long walks, maybe even run a little. These things should not be
impossible, or terribly difficult.

response 22 of 41:

Jun 29 21:10 UTC 2007

I don't have a whole lot of time to post right now but here are just a 
few random thoughts for right now...

For me, though I've been at a 'normal/recommended' weight in the past, 
its been so many years that I don't exactly remember what its like. 
Over the years--since HS, I've gained weight at various rates, have 
lost some weight multiple times during all these years but have gained 
it all back plus some.  

There's a number of factors that come into play, I'm sure.  Stressors 
for one thing [starting college, getting married, subsequent bad 
marriage and divorce, multiple deaths in the family for various 
reasons, etc etc etc].  Activity level has also fluctuated over the 
years as well.  However, I've gained the most weight [with a little bit 
of ups and downs] since 2000 when I had to go on disability for awhile. 
I was hospitalized a number of times and have been on a variety of 
medications, adding some, deleting some, based on what works, what 
didn't, what had bad side effects, etc.  I do need to be on some 
medication for the long haul [as do a number of people for a variety of 
disorders]. And many of these can lead to weight gain and great 
difficulty in losing it again [but the meds are needed].

And yep, there is a lot of negative connotations from the general 
public for people 'of size' [too 'thin' and too 'fat']...  It's one of 
the visable predjudisms [I know that's not spelled right] still out 
there in a big way [no pun inteaded].  However, that's also true with 
non-visable issues, too.  I have a disability that people can't visably 
see but my disorder has been joked about, commented negatively about, 
lack of knowledge about, stigma, etc etc.  So for both issues, I 
have 'issues' with the general public.  Sometimes I try to educate the 
people/public, other times its not worth the time/hastle at the time 
the juegments are made.  And sometimes I want my privacy protected...

[more soon]

response 24 of 41:

Jun 30 13:16 UTC 2007

I think that it is very common for fat people to internalize messages
that our culture gives about fat people. They learn that fat people dont
look good or that fat people cant possibly be healthy, and so on. Once a
person honestly starts to believe those things, OF COURSE they feel bad
when they are fat and feel good when they are thin. That so few fat
people ever become thin people even with that kind of belief system says
a lot to me.