A helpful way to manage your food intake is keeping a food diary. MyFitnessPal.com offers a free way to track your workouts, food intake, and offer an estimate on weight loss/gain based on entries. The Tracker has a full database of foods available to easily enter just about anything, with full nutritional facts weighed against your daily totals.
Starting Weights
Here is a graph that represents the starting weights of all contestants (click the image to enlarge). Next weigh in will be on Monday!
CALCIUM: Calcium reduces stress-fracture risk by strengthening bones and plays a key role in muscle and nerve function. A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found people with high calcium intake have a lower risk of developing type-2 diabetes. If you eat at least three daily servings of dairy, you probably have enough calcium in your diet. But if you regularly fall short, supplementing is a good idea.
Supplement: Take 1,000 mg of calcium citrate or calcium carbonate daily. To boost absorption, take it in two doses at meals a few hours apart.
FISH OIL: Studies show EPA and DHA, the omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil, help reduce exercise-induced asthma and muscle soreness and increase lean body mass. Both are in fatty fish, like salmon and sablefish. If you eat two or three servings of fatty fish a week, you get plenty of omegas, but if you’re among the 65 percent of runners who rarely or never eat seafood supplements are a good choice.
Supplement: A supplement with 1,000 mg of fish oil may actually contain little DHA and EPA, find one that contains at least 500 mg of DHA and EPA combined.
MULTIVITAMIN: A 2007 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found 35 percent of adults swallow multivitamins. Another recent study reported long-term takers are less likely to have heart attacks. If you’re healthy and eat a variety of whole foods, you probably won’t benefit, but if you struggle to eat all the food groups it can fill nutritional gaps.
Supplement: Pick one with 100 percent of the Daily Value for most vitamins and minerals, but avoid excesses. High doses of some nutrients can be dangerous. Humidity affects potency, so keep pills out of the kitchen and bathroom.
Everyone knows that walking is good for you. Its as easy as putting one foot in front of the other and can be done almost anywhere. According to the Mayo Clinic this simple exercise has some benefits that may not be so obvious to the average person.
This Mayo Clinic Article states:
“Walking, like other exercise, can help you achieve a number of important health benefits. Walking can help you:
- Lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (the “bad” cholesterol)
- Raise high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (the “good” cholesterol)
- Lower your blood pressure
- Reduce your risk of or manage type 2 diabetes
- Manage your weight
- Improve your mood
- Stay strong and fit
All it takes to reap these benefits is a routine of brisk walking. It doesn’t get much simpler than that. And you can forget the “no pain, no gain” talk. Research shows that regular, brisk walking can reduce the risk of heart attack by the same amount as more vigorous exercise, such as jogging.”
The full article from the Mayo Clinic can be located here.
Trans-fats has been a buzz word for the past couple of years and some counties have gone as fat as “banning” trans fats from restaurants and super markets. But how many people actually know what kind of foods contain Trans-fats? WebMD has published an article listing the top 10 foods that contain trans-fats.
I have listed the top 5 in this post:
1) Spreads. Margarine is a twisted sister — it’s loaded with trans fats and saturated fats, both of which can lead to heart disease.
2) Packaged foods. Cake mixes, Bisquick, and other mixes all have several grams of trans fat per serving.
3) Soups. Ramen noodles and soup cups contain very high levels of trans fat.
4) Fast Food. Bad news here: Fries, chicken, and other foods are deep-fried in partially hydrogenated oil
5) Frozen Food. Those yummy frozen pies, pot pies, waffles, pizzas, even breaded fish sticks contain trans fat.
The rest of the top 10 foods that contain trans-fats can be found in WebMD’s Article: WebMD’s Top 10 foods that contain trans-fats
Today marks the official start of the “Big Fat Weight-Loss” contest! All contestants should weigh themselves today and e-mail fat@alanpwebb.com. I will compile all the data and post the starting results tomorrow.
If you do not have a scale available to you I will be bringing in a scale to work tomorrow.
Remember, registration is still open, so any late comers can still participate in the contest.
This Blog was set up as a resource to motivate and track a weight-loss contest that will span 3 months (Mid-January – Mid-April). The conditions of the “Official” contest are in the “How the contest works section”.
You do not have to be part of the contest to participate in the blog. Feel free to register, comment on any posts, and track the contestants progress!
The contest officially starts 1/9/12 and will conclude 4/9/12.
Good Luck Everyone!
