A Unicorn, a Police Officer and Wallaby go into a bar

This weeks reading is brought to you by the WSJ.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-extraordinary-science-of-junk-food.html?pagewanted=all&_r=4&

Read it or else.

How many calories - Redux

Some poeple are too thin. Some are too fat.  Some are just right.  Medical stuff and hormones and all kinds of things play into our weight.  But having a family history of being overweight doesn't make us fat.  It's all the time we spend in line for chinese food that does that.

Believe it or not, being healthy is not actually about weight.  You don't REALLY care what the numbers are.  You just want to feel good and look good.  Eating the right amount of calories is the KEY to both losing weight and gaining weight (if that's your thing).  More importantly, the quality of those calories will determine how you FEEL.  No matter how thin you get, you will feel like garbage if you keep eating garbage.  Write this down:  "My stomach is NOT a trash compactor"


If you’ve been storing away fat like a bear getting ready for winter, it means you’ve been eating more than your body needs.  That part is obvious. The part we forget is that getting unhealthy happens slowly.  Barring some kind of alien abduction scenario, you probably won't wake up one morning 200 pounds heavier than the previous day.  Fat grows silently over time.  Like a flower, or love or a tumor.   You became unhealthy slowly and you're going to improve it slowly.

How Many Calories do I Need?
BMR stands for Basal Metabolic Rate.  Let’s say you were trapped on a mysterious island after a plane crash.  Your Basal Metabolic rate is the minimum amount of coconuts you need to eat so that you don’t DIE.  Our bodies need calories to keep our organs running, to power our massive energy sucking brains, and to keep our cells and muscles functioning.

Click the link below to open a BMR calculator.  Enter your current information to figure out your current Basal Metabolic Rate. Or, if you have my excel metabolic calculator you can just use that.

http://www.bmrcalculator.org/ 

Put in the following stats for a fake person.  Let's call them...  Professor Guggenheim.  Age 25, Female, 150 pounds, 5 foot 9 height.

The calculator says Professor Guggenheim has a BMR of around 1491 calories per day.  That’s the amount of calories that would keep her from looking like Skeletor and dying of a starvation heart attack. The problem with that BMR number is that we want to do MORE than just be minimally alive.  We want to do awesome stuff like swimming with dolphins, fire dancing or reading People magazine.  So Professor Guggenheim needs to bump that calories number up a bit. 

The Harris Benedict Equation
Since we want to do more than just not die, we need to add calories to our BMR to get the amount of calories our body needs for our level of activity. There are calculators that use body fat % to determine your calories and these are much more accurate.

1. If you sit on your rear all day and do basically nothing active, multiply your BMR by 1.2

2. If you do light exercise 1 to 3 days per week, multiple your BMR by 1.375

3. If you do moderate exercise 3 to 5 days per week, multiple your BMR by 1.55

4. If you do heavy exercise 6 to 7 days per week, multiple your BMR by 1.725

Let's say Professor Guggenheim exercises 3 times per week; we would multiply her BMR by 1.55 to get 2,311 calories per day.  This is the amount she needs to maintain his current body.  You should NEVER EVER eat below 1.2 times your BMR.  Anything less than eating at the sedentary level is a starvation diet and will only HARM you in the long run.  You will lose weight, but it will not be permanent because your body will eventually realize you are starving and it will fight the weight loss by slowing your metabolism and digesting your muscles.  And the more muscle you lose, the harder it will be to not look like you are made of marshmallow. So never eat below 1.2 times your BMR. 


Start by deciding you want to feel better.  Calculate the number of calories you should be eating and just eat that.  We'll worry about eating better foods later.  For now, just get your eating portions in control.

Eating Strategies

Author: Darci  2/11/2013

As we all take a critical look at ourselves and our health, there are many questions that
naturally come up. Questions such as: What type of exercise is best? How often should we
exercise? How do I make time for exercise? How to I monitor or track my progress? What are
my goals? These are all questions that may enter our minds when considering ways to improve
our health. However, the answer to all of those questions is secondary compared to the answer
to this question: What should my diet be like? In this memo I’d like to share some trending
eating strategies that I’ve read about recently. All of them have been effective for various
reasons and for various types of people. I’d like to share these strategies to get you thinking
more critically about what you eat and how you plan your meals for the day.

Strategy #1 – Intermittent Fasting:
A relatively new strategy that has surfaced that promotes weight loss is called Intermittent
Fasting (IF). As the name suggests, the main point behind the strategy is to frequently take part
in fasting periods followed by a period of calorie consumption. For example, one sample of this
strategy suggested fasting every day from 8PM until noon the next day. That’s an overnight fast
that totals 16 hours of basically no calorie intake. Beginning at noon you would eat your first
meal of the day. The second meal would come between the hours of 3?5PM with the final meal
being consumed a little prior to 8PM. Exercise should be planned into your schedule sometime
before or after the second meal of the day. The beauty of this diet strategy is that you aren’t
restricted to certain foods when you do decide to eat. That doesn’t mean you should go nuts at
McDonald’s or Burger King, but it’s also not forbidden from time to time. During the fasting
hours from 8PM until noon the next day, it is highly recommended that you drink plenty of
water to stay hydrated. A very low calorie drink is allowed in the morning such as black coffee
but the main idea is to keep calories restricted until after 12PM. It should be noted that the
preferred type of exercise that should accompany this diet strategy is resistance training.

Strategy #2 – Carb Back-loading
Carb back-loading (CBL) refers to the time of day when most of your carbohydrates should be
consumed. It is recommended that you eat little to no carbohydrates in the morning and
afternoon hours. It is then suggested that resistance training be done sometime in the hours
between lunch and dinner. Once your workout is complete for the day, you are more than
welcome to go nuts on carbs for the rest of the evening hours. This even means desserts and
other high-carb options are perfectly acceptable when following this strategy. As with
Intermittent Fasting, the preferred type of exercise is resistance training. While walking,
jogging, cycling, and other forms of exercise aren’t frowned upon, both of these eating
strategies suggest that you’d get the most bang for your buck by taking part in resistance
training. And more specifically, the heavier weights you can lift, the better! This doesn’t mean
you need to be a World’s Strongest Man, but it does mean you should challenge yourself with
the heaviest weights you can handle for sets of 3-8 repetitions.

Strategy #3 – Carb Cycling:
Carb Cycling (CC) takes a slightly different approach to calorie restriction than IF or CBL. CC is a
weekly plan rather than a daily concept. With CC, it is suggested that you have some cycle of
days where you have no/low carbs one day, low/moderate carbs another, and moderate/high
carbs on another. Rather than trying to explain this concept further, take a look at two samples
of CC that could be used as a weekly cycling structure:

*  Monday = No Carb
*  Tuesday = Low Carb
*  Wednesday = High Carb
*  Thursday = No Carb
*  Friday = Low carb
*  Saturday = High Carb
*  Sunday = Low Carb

OR

*  Monday = Low Carb
*  Tuesday = No Carb
*  Wednesday = Low Carb
*  Thursday = High Carb
*  Friday = No carb
*  Saturday = High Carb
*  Sunday = Low Carb

As with any approach to your diet, eating should be done with intention and attention. The
bottom line is that weight management is not just about what you eat, but also how you eat.
What may work for one person might not be the best option for another. As a Wellness
Committee Member, I am not claiming to be a dietician or fitness expert. Accordingly, these
approaches may not be the best for YOU. I suggest doing your research before beginning any
fitness routine or making drastic changes in your diet.

Healthy Breakfasts

Author: Darci - Feb. 4, 2013

You wouldn’t make it far from your driveway on an empty tank of gas, so why would you leave the house without filling up your tank first? Eating a healthy breakfast is no different for our bodies. A good breakfast fuels you up and gets you ready for the day. Breakfast is important because it is what your metabolism is based on for the day. If you give your body fuel to burn early on, it will burn more calories throughout the entire day.

So, you are probably wondering what a nutrient-dense breakfast consists of. The main focus is eating a breakfast that is filling and has the proper nutrients to satisfy you until your next meal. If there is any meal where you want to load up on protein and complex carbohydrates, it is breakfast, not only because proteins and complex carbs are filling, but because you have the entire rest of the day to burn the provided calories. Eating a complete breakfast sets the pace for the day since you won’t be as inclined to over-eat at other meals.

Often, breakfast foods are high in sugar and other simple carbohydrates which do not provide the necessary nutrients to get you through the day. So here are some tips and helpful hints on what a nutrient-dense breakfast should look like:

• Include whole grain products instead of refined products
• Choose low-fat dairy products (skim milk, low?fat yogurt and low?fat cheeses, such as cottage cheese and natural cheeses).
• Limit intake of fried foods, grease, and extra gravies/sauces
• Aim to include fresh fruit at breakfast rather than fruit juice, which can be high in added sugars.
• Make sure your breakfast includes:

1. Complex carbohydrates (such as whole grain cereal, whole grain bread, wheat bread or fruit)
2. Protein (such as eggs/egg whites, peanut butter, lean meat, poultry or fish or nuts)
3. Healthy fat (such as peanut butter, nuts, light cream cheese)

     

Menu ideas for healthy, dense breakfasts:

300 Calorie Breakfasts at Home or On-the-Go
1 pack Nature Valley granola bars, handful of nuts, 8 oz skim milk
1 mini whole wheat bagel w/ 1 Tbsp light cream cheese, 1 small banana, 4 oz skim milk
1 wheat English muffin toasted w/2 slices lean ham, 1 slice of 2% cheese, ½ cup sliced fruit, 4 oz skim milk
Carnation Instant Breakfast/Protein Shake, 1 pack Nature Valley granola bars

400 Calorie Breakfasts at Home or On-the-Go
1 cup cereal w/ ½ cup skim milk, ½ cup sliced fruit, handful of nuts, 1 string cheese
1 slice wheat toast, 1 Tbsp peanut butter, 1 fruit, 8 oz skim milk
Yogurt cup w/ handful of nuts, ½ cup sliced fruit, 1 wheat English muffin w/2 slices of lean ham
Carnation Instant Breakfast /Protein Shake, 1 pack Nature Valley granola bars, 1 banana, 1 yogurt

500 Calorie Breakfasts at Home or On-the-Go
1 whole wheat bagel w/ 2 Tbsp light cream cheese, 1 small fruit, 8 oz 2% milk
2 whole wheat waffles w/ 2 Tbsp butter, drizzled with syrup, 1 string cheese, 8 oz skim milk
1 wheat English muffin w/ 2 cooked egg whites, 2?3 slices lean ham, 1 slice 2% cheese, 1 small fruit, 8 oz 2% milk
1 pack Nature Valley granola bars, 1 small fruit, 2 string cheese, 8 oz 2% milk