7 Ways to Improve Your Nutrition
The final feature of the L.E.A.N. program is nutrition, which carries equal weight with exercise in the process of becoming lean. No, this does not mean going on a diet, at least in the way most people regard this four-letter word. Just the word “diet” can be a turn-off. “Die” is 75 percent of the word. Most of us enjoy eating; we look forward to our evening “meal,” and even more to “dinner” or “a banquet.” We don’t eat to live, we live to eat. Below you will find healthy tips to improve your nutrition.
Change your style to improve your nutrition
So instead of a diet, let’s call it a change in eating style, meaning that you are focusing more on eating well rather than on eating less. For some over-fat and under-lean individuals, this will probably also mean eating less, and I know this is not easy. I belong in the category of people who like to eat. Martha, on the other hand, is more likely to eat primarily for health than enjoyment. To stay lean you have to do one of two things: eat more and burn more fat; or eat less and exercise less. You can’t have it both ways. I have chosen to eat more and exercise more; Martha has chosen to eat less and exercise less. She often chides me during my exercise binges, “Why don’t you just eat less?” “Because that’s no fun” is my answer. So, it’s not only your body type that determines how many calories you need, it’s also what type of attitude you have about food. (See Eating Right for Your Type). So, the key is to eat right for your body type. Here’s how:
Figure out how many calories you need. Determine how many calories you need for optimal health. Because of the concept of biochemical individuality, the custom of calorie-counting for weight control is a concept that is becoming less nutritionally correct, but it’s a place to start. Calories are simply a measure of how much potential energy a particular food can deliver to your body. It used to be thought that the “calories in” / “calories used” equation was all you needed to know to take off body fat. Yet, new nutritional insights show that it’s not only the calorie value of the food, but also the type of food and the type of metabolism that is important in fat gain or loss, not just the calorie content of the food. Since 3,500 calories equals one pound of fat, if you eat 3,500 calories more than you burn, you put on a pound of fat. If you eat 3,500 calories less than you burn, you burn off a pound. But the real situation is more complicated than this. The body is programmed to burn carbs but store fat, and different metabolisms react differently to different kinds of food. Still, figuring how many calories you need each day will give you a rough guide to what you should eat. You need calories for three bodily processes:
- Basic metabolic needs. These are the calories needed to keep your body going. How many you need is determined by your basal metabolic rate (BMR), as well as your size and your body composition. To figure your basic caloric needs, follow these formulas. As a rule of thumb:
- For women, add a zero to your weight in pounds. For example, for a 120 pound woman, her basic caloric needs would be 1,200 plus 120 for a total of 1,320 calories a day.
- For men, multiply your weight by twelve. For example, for a 160 pound man, his basic caloric needs would be 160 x 12 for a total of 1,920 calories a day.
- Because body types contribute to BMR, if you are genetically lean, or ectomorph, add five percent to your daily caloric needs. If you are a round, plump endomorph (an apple), subtract ten percent.
- Exercise factor. If you’re a very active person, plus you exercise around 1/2 hour a day, add another 300-500 calories to your basic caloric needs. So, the calorie needs of an average, active woman would be around 1,700-1,900 calories a day; for the average, active man around 2,200-2,500 calories a day, depending on the person’s age.
- The growth factor. The basal metabolic rate (BMR) naturally decreases around two percent for each decade above 20. As a rough guide, you could subtract 40 calories per decade from your BMR, so a man of 60 would need 160 calories less than a man of 20. Women need extra calories during pregnancy and lactation. Caloric needs also increase when you are recovering from an illness, or during competitive sports.
- Growing children, especially during infancy and adolescence, need 25 percent more calories for growth. So an adolescent girl may need as much as 2,300 calories a day, and an average adolescent male may need as much as 3,000 calories a day, depending on how active they are.
In the early weeks of the L.E.A.N. program, it would help to consult a calorie-counting book and meticulously add up the calories in everything you eat to get an accurate idea of how many calories you consume each day and how close this comes to your basic needs. As you store your knowledge of food calories, you won’t need to do this anymore. You’ll know that 8 ounces of plain yogurt contains 80 calories. As you keep track of your calories, you’ll learn how many average calories per day you need to keep yourself as lean as you want to be. When you begin your caloric cut down, do it gradually. Begin by cutting 20 percent of calories off your usual intake and see what kind of results you get.
- Basic metabolic needs. These are the calories needed to keep your body going. How many you need is determined by your basal metabolic rate (BMR), as well as your size and your body composition. To figure your basic caloric needs, follow these formulas. As a rule of thumb:
Eat nutrient-dense foods. Those that pack the most nutrition into the least amount of calories. The opposite of nutrient-dense foods are calorie- dense foods, those that pack a lot of calories into a small amount of food and leave you craving more. Examples are fast foods, junkfoods, and high-fat and high-sugar foods. Nutrient-dense foods are more likely to satisfy you, leaving you feeling full while contributing to your body’s overall nutritional needs. An interesting study showed that when people were allowed to eat all they wanted, but only of nutrient-dense foods, they consumed fewer calories than when they were allowed to eat highly-refined and processed foods. Examples of nutrient-dense foods are:
- cantaloupe
- papaya
- fresh fruits instead of juice
- whole-grain cereals
- wild rice
- brown rice instead of white rice
- nonfat or low-fat milk
- nonfat cottage cheese
- turkey and chicken, white meat
- egg whites
- salmon
- tuna
- shrimp
- sweet potatoes
- all vegetables and legumes
- avocados
NUTRITIP: Lean Cuisine
You are likely to feel more full after eating a fiber-filled plant food than after a meal featuring meat. Fiber gives you a feeling of fullness sooner for fewer calories, a good nutritional strategy for staying lean. So, if you are trying to lose weight or lower the amount of fat in your diet, first fill up on high-fiber, low-fat salad-bar fixings. You’ll eat less of the main course and dessert.
Fill up with fiber. Fiber is calorie-free and filling. When you eat foods high in fiber, you feel full without consuming a lot of calories. Fiber also slows the absorption of nutrients into the bloodstream, which in turn lessens insulin bursts and thus slows fat storage. Soluble fibers, such as psyllium, pectin, citrus fruits, legumes, and oat bran are the best weight loss boosters. One study showed that an extra five grams of fiber a day (equivalent to one serving of fiber-rich cereal) resulted in a daily decrease in calorie consumption And, when you eat fiber along with fat, you’re liable to eat less of fatty foods. Pies are my downfall. For an extra piece of pie, I’ll willingly spend an extra 30 minutes on the family treadmill. Yet, I notice that I tend to eat less pie and feel just as satisfied when we make homemade pie crust with whole wheat flour or fiber-filled cereal. Breakfast is an important fiber-rich meal. One study showed that persons who ate a high fiber breakfast cereal ate an average 150 calories less per day than those who ate a low fiber cereal.
NUTRITIP: Veggie Up
Eat lots of vegetables, since ounce for ounce they contain fewer calories and more fiber than most other foods. They tend to fill you up without putting on the fat.
Little bites add up. Small changes in your eating patterns result in big changes in your waistline – for better or worse. Take a close look at the food you’re eating and trim away those unneeded calorie-dense, nutrient-poor foods that stand between you and a trim body. You’ll be surprised how little you have to change to get slim. For example, five to ten potato chips a day is an extra 50-100 calories, which amounts to five to ten pounds of extra fat in a year. Lose the chips and you’ll lose the pounds. Or, try substituting a lower calorie food for a higher calorie one. Try these tiny calorie cuts:
- Canned fruits packed in water instead of those packed in syrup
- Tuna packed in water instead of oil
- Lowfat or nonfat yogurt instead of whole fat
- Lowfat or skim milk instead of whole milk
Trim fat in foods. Fatty foods are more fattening than foods that are high in proteins and carbs. Cutting back on fat will help you get lean. Yet because most of us have a preference for foods with fat in them, lower the fat in your diet gradually. Drastic changes are harder to maintain. Try these low-fat versions of everyday foods: low-fat or non-fat dairy products (milk, yogurt, and cottage cheese), yogurt instead of sour cream on baked potatoes. Removing the skin off of chicken before eating it can cut the amount of fat by at least half. You may wonder how much fat should be in your daily diet? An already lean person, especially a person who has been lucky enough to be born and remain lean, can safely consume around 25, or even 30, percent of their daily calories as fat and stay lean. For most of us rounder mortals, 20 percent of calories from fat is a goal to aim for to get and stay lean. This amounts to 45 to 60 grams of fat per day, depending on your calorie needs. And, don’t forget, it’s not only important to have a low-fat diet, take a close look at the type of fat you’re eating as well. Remember to read labels and pay attention to the fat information given. To keep yourself lean, eat mostly foods that contain less than 20 percent of the calories in the food as fat. Here’s a quick way to calculate if the fat calories are greater or less than 20 percent of the total. The label on the food lists both the total calories and the calories from fat. Divide the calories by the calories from fat, and if the answer is less than five, leave the food on the shelf. For example, if a food contains 120 calories with 40 calories from fat, divide 120 by 40 and the answer is 3, so you may not want to eat this food that contains 33 percent of its calories from fat. Stick to reading the “Nutrition Facts” for your information about fat and ignore the come-ons on the front of the package. Even though “reduced fat” under the new label laws means that the food contains 25 percent less fat than the original product, if the original product was half fat, the new product is still 35 percent fat. Labels with the words “light” and “lite” have to be one-third less fat than the original, but again, if you start with a high-fat food, the lite version could still be high in fat.
NUTRITIP: Beware of Movie Popcorn
The popcorn in movie theaters may be called “buttered,” but really it’s soaked in the worst oils – saturated and hydrogenated – with only a bit of butter flavoring (See Facts about Hydrogenated Fats and Oils). Bowing to public and parental pressure, some theaters are offering air- popped popcorn and popcorn popped in unsaturated oils, such as canola. If you’re a popcorn lover, ask about the oil used at your local movie theater. Let them know you’re concerned and, who knows, you may motivate the theater to change the fat in its popcorn.
Eat fats that keep you slim. All fats are not created equal, and one of the dangers of crash diets is that you not only cut out the bad fats, but you cut out the good ones, too. Your body needs fats. You can’t live without them, especially those that are high in essential fatty acids, which are-essential for life and health. Essential fatty acids, such as those found in fish and flax oils, are more likely to stimulate the body to burn fat rather than store fat. By being sure your diet has enough of the right fats your body is less likely to crave other fats trying to make up for deficiencies.
RIGHT FATS – FAT BURNERS WRONG FATS – FAT STORERS Essential fatty acids
Fish Flax oil
Unsaturated fats
Hydrogenated fats
Saturated fats
Be especially sure that growing children have a diet high in the right fats.
Drink up. The higher the water content of a food, the more filling it is, and water itself has no calories. Fiber-rich foods need to be eaten with a lot of water. Drinking at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day, perhaps slightly flavored with a little lemon or fruit juice, is a lean person’s best choice in the beverage department.
NUTRITIP: Never Dine After Nine
If you’re accustomed to big dinners, eat them early in the evening to give your body a chance to burn off some of your indulgence before you retire.
Dr. Sears, or Dr. Bill as his “little patients” call him, has been advising busy parents on how to raise healthier families for over 40 years. He received his medical training at Harvard Medical School’s Children’s Hospital in Boston and The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, the world’s largest children’s hospital, where he was associate ward chief of the newborn intensive care unit before serving as the chief of pediatrics at Toronto Western Hospital, a teaching hospital of the University of Toronto. He has served as a professor of pediatrics at the University of Toronto, University of South Carolina, University of Southern California School of Medicine, and University of California: Irvine. As a father of 8 children, he coached Little League sports for 20 years, and together with his wife Martha has written more than 40 best-selling books and countless articles on nutrition, parenting, and healthy aging. He serves as a health consultant for magazines, TV, radio and other media, and his AskDrSears.com website is one of the most popular health and parenting sites. Dr. Sears has appeared on over 100 television programs, including 20/20, Good Morning America, Oprah, Today, The View, and Dr. Phil, and was featured on the cover of TIME Magazine in May 2012. He is noted for his science-made-simple-and-fun approach to family health.