Counting Calories

Each pound of fat your body stores represents 3,500 calories of unused energy. In order to lose one pound, you would have to create a calorie deficit of 3,500 calories by either taking in 3,500 less calories over a period of time than you need or doing 3,500 calories worth of exercise. It is recommended that no more than two pounds (7,000 calories) be lost per week for lasting weight loss.

Adding 15 minutes of moderate exercise, say walking one mile, to your daily schedule will use up 100 extra calories per day. (Your body uses approximately 100 calories of energy to walk one mile, depending on your body weight.) Maintaining this schedule would result in an extra 700 calories per week used up, or a loss of about 10 pounds in one year, assuming your food intake stays the same. To look at energy balance another way, just one extra slice of bread or one extra soft drink a day – or any other food that contains approximately 100 calories – can add up to ten extra pounds in a year if the amount of physical activity you do does not increase.

lf you already have a lean figure and want to keep it you should exercise regularly and eat a balanced diet that provides enough calories to make up for the energy you expend. If you wish to gain weight you should exercise regularly and increase the number of calories you consume until you reach your desired weight. Exercise will help ensure that the weight you gain will be lean muscle mass, not extra fat.

Overweight or Overfat?

Overweight and overfat do not always mean the same thing. Some people are quite muscular and weigh more than the average for their age and height. However, their body composition, the amount of fat versus lean body mass (muscle, bone, organs and tissue), is within a desirable range. This is true for many athletes. Others weigh an average amount yet carry around too much fat. In our society, however, overweight often implies overfat because excess weight is commonly distributed as excess fat. The addition of exercise to a weight control program helps control both body weight and body fat levels.

A certain amount of body fat is necessary for everyone. Experts say that percent body fat for women should be about 20 percent, 15 percent for men. Women with more than 30 percent fat and men with more than 25 percent fat are considered obese. 

How much of your weight is fat can be assessed by a variety of methods including underwater (hydrostatic) weighing, skin fold thickness measurements and circumference measurements. Each requires a specially trained person to administer the test and perform the correct calculations. From the numbers obtained, a body fat percentage is determined. Assessing body composition has an advantage over the standard height-weight tables because it can help distinguish between "overweight" and "overfat." An easy self-test you can do is to pinch the thickness of the fat folds at your waist and abdomen. If you can pinch an inch or more of fat (make sure no muscle is included) chances are you have too much body fat. People who exercise appropriately increase lean body mass while decreasing their overall fat level. Depending on the amount of fat loss, this can result in a loss of inches without a loss of weight, since muscle weighs more than fat. However, with the proper combination of diet and exercise, both body fat and overall weight can be reduced.

Exercise and Weight Control

Just about everybody seems to be interested in weight control. Some of us weigh just the right amount, others need to gain a few pounds. Most of us "battle the bulge" at some time in our life. Whatever our goals, we should understand and take advantage of the important role of exercise in keeping our weight under control. Carrying around too much body fat is a major nuisance. Yet excess body fat is common in modern-day living. Few of today's occupations require vigorous physical activity, and much of our leisure time is spent in sedentary pursuits.

Recent estimates indicate that 34 million adults are considered obese (20 percent above desirable weight). Also, there has been an increase in body fat levels in children and youth over the past 20 yaars. After infancy and early childhood, the earlier the onset of obesity, the greater the likelihood of remaining obese. Excess body fat has been linked to such health problems as coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, diabetes, arthritis and certain forms of cancer. Some evidence now exists showing that obesity has a negative effect on both health and longevity. Exercise is associated with the loss of body fat in both obese and normal weight persons. A regular program of exercise is an important component of any plan to help individuals  lose, gain or maintain their weight.

Yet more reasons why blueberries are a superfood

Summertime offers so many wonderful pleasures and for many people, myself included, blueberries are among those at the top of the list. I could eat them three times a day - prepared differently or just naked. Even plain, these spectacular little colourful berries are definitely a tasty treat. And, as an added bonus, they have so much scientific research backing their powerful disease-fighting effects. Researchers are investigating a multitude of benefits including their potential defence against certain cancers, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's, urinary tract infections and weight gain. You have to wonder if there's anything that these berries don't protect against.

For a mere 80 calories per cup, blueberries offer almost four grams of fibre along with a range of vitamins and minerals such as vitamin C and potassium. But it's their pigments, called anthocyanins, that are at the centre of much investigation.

Unlike some research on various compounds which requires ridiculously large amounts of a food to be consumed in order to achieve any disease-fighting effects, investigators at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Cancer Center point to consuming just one cup a day to prevent cell damage - the type that can lead to cancer. They suggest the abundant antioxidants in blueberries offer protection against free radical damage to cells which can be the first step in cancer development.

Healthy snacks on the go Nutritious and delicious treats you can grab on your way out the door.

Drop the kids off at school, drive to work, pick the kids up, drive to soccer practice, drive home, sleep and repeat. Sometimes life can be hectic, and when hunger strikes it's easy to grab the first thing you see in the cupboard or fridge. Unfortunately, today's prepackaged food, while convenient, is often high in fat and low in nutrients.

Junk food doesn't have to be your only option when you're eating on the go. Take some time at the beginning of the week to plan and prepare your snacks and you can ensure that you and your family will eat well, even if it is while you're on the run.

Here are five healthy snacks that you can prepare in advance, so all you need to do is grab and go.

1. Trail mix 
For a great midmorning or afternoon energy boost, toss a bag of homemade trail mix into your bag before you leave home. Combine a variety of dry cold cereal with dried fruit and nuts in single-serving-size containers. To get the most nutrition you can from this snack, registered dietitian Fran Berkoff suggests choosing cereal that's high in fibre or whole grains. It's also important to remember that while nuts can be good for you, you should take notice of the calorie count.

2. Raw veggies and fresh fruit 
These old standbys may be common-sense choices, but often they are passed up for easy-access convenience snacks. To ensure fruits and vegetables are always at the top of your snack list, clean and prepare a day or two's worth of produce when you get home from the store. Keep snack-size containers or bags of carrot sticks, celery sticks, red pepper slices and broccoli florets in your fridge, ready for the grabbing.

When it comes to fruit, apples and pears are great grab-and-go options. But if you'd like a little more variety, Berkoff suggests making a fruit salad with interesting fruits like mango, papaya and berries that you can eat while in the car or at work or school.

Add a medium-size low-fat skim or soy latté, as Leslie Beck suggests in her book10 Steps to Healthy Eating (Viking Canada, 2002), and you'll get a nice dose of calcium to go with your nutrient-rich snack. It's an excellent replacement for the usual coffee and doughnut, which provide little more than empty carbs.

3. Smoothies 
If you have yogurt, soy or skim milk and some fresh fruit on hand you'll always be ready to whip up a smoothie that you can drink on the way to work. In her book, Beck also suggests adding one tablespoon (15 mL) of wheat germ or ground flaxseed to your drink. These ingredients give your smoothie the added value of nutrients such as fibre, omega-3 fatty acids, iron, zinc and folate.

4. One slice of whole-grain bread with peanut butter (1 tbsp/15 mL)
Talk about beating your hunger. This is one snack that should easily quiet those rumblings in your stomach until your next meal. This traditional treat has a low glycemic index and will give you a nice hit of protein and fibre, making it a well-rounded snack.

5. Energy bar 
If you just cannot find the time to plan your snacks in advance, energy bars can be a good option -- if you know what to look for. Berkoff says to look for ones that are "not loaded with calories and are low in saturated fat, low in trans fats." She also says it's important to make sure the bar you choose fits into your eating style, so it should be higher in carbs if you are looking for an energy boost or higher in protein if you want something more sustaining.

Beck's book also offers information about energy bars as snacks and she recommends choosing a bar with 14 to 18 grams of protein and no more than 200 to 250 calories. She also says to look for bars that have only 20 to 25 grams of carbohydrates. Anything with more than that is designed for people who endure extended workouts.

Here are some additional tips from Beck's 10 Steps to Healthy Eating:
• Plan your snacks for the day, just as you plan for meals.
• Be careful not to overconsume. Beck recommends snacks with approximately 150 calories for women and 200 for men.
• Try to include fruit, vegetables and calcium-rich foods (such as milk, yogurt or almonds), and always include some form of carbohydrate (low glycemic index) and protein.


Sourced: Canadian Living.

What Should You Eat After a Workout?

Whether you’re into running, rock climbing, yoga or weights, you know the feeling—the munchies that hit you after your last sprint, ascent, downward-facing dog or biceps curl. 

What nutrients does the body need after working out?

The two things we need most after physical activity are fluid and carbohydrates. The point of recovery nutrition is to replace the fuels that you used. Your body gets very good at knowing if those fuels are going to be replaced quickly. If they are, your body is more likely to let go of all its stores.”

For fluid, check your sweat rate: weigh yourself before and after exercise, and drink 1.5 litres for every lost kilogram. For carbs, aim for 1.5 grams per kilo of body weight. So, if you weigh 59 kilograms (130 pounds), you’ll need 90 grams of carbs.

Contrary to popular belief, protein isn’t the star of the show. Protein really only becomes important for high-interval training or weight training.

How soon should we eat after working out?

It’s important to get fluid and carbohydrates within 30 minutes of exercising. That’s when your body is most able to use these nutrients.

• Have a snack right away, rather than waiting until you get home to prepare a meal. Try a granola or cereal bar; a fruit cup; a smoothie; dry cereal; trail mix with nuts, seeds and dried fruit; vegetables and hummus; or crackers with cheese. Avoid foods high in fat or fibre, which slow digestion. (Try our recipes for Chewy Date and Walnut Bars, Walnut Breakfast and Snack Cookies, Peanut Power Balls or Spicy Chocolate Energy Bars.)

Chocolate milk has a really good ratio of protein and carbohydrates—about one gram of protein for every three to four grams of carbs, the ideal ratio for a recovery food. It also has fluid, so you’re knocking off all those things you need in one beverage. Can’t stomach dairy? Guzzle flavoured soy or almond milk.

Do we need special sports drinks during or after exercise?

If you’ve been working out for longer than an hour, particularly when it’s hot and you’re sweating a lot, you want to get some kind of sports drink, something with electrolytes in it. The more you sweat, the more you need those electrolytes—sodium and potassium.

If your activity is short or not very strenuous, or you’re barely sweating. We advise skipping the sports drink. The next time you eat, your body will get what it needs.

What about protein powders?

As soon as people get active, they think they need protein powders because there’s so much marketing for them,” says Caldwell. Even someone doing strength training needs as little as 10 to 20 grams of protein afterward—less than what’s typically in one scoop of powder.

When you get protein from food, you’re getting a lot of other nutrients compared to protein powders, which tend to have more protein than you need and be lower in carbohydrates.

Protein powders can be high in calories. For recreational athletes—people who are active but not highly competitive—I find they’re taking in more calories than they’re burning through the activity.

How can we tell if we’re eating properly after a workout?

If you exercise regularly without replacing fluid and carbs quickly or sufficiently, you’ll feel low in energy the next time you work out. You’ll hit the wall sooner, or can’t work out at the same intensity. You might also find you’re really hungry, and no matter what you eat, you can’t calm the beast. And overall, if you’re not eating enough, you’ll get sick more easily.

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