Ok, this site is a little addictive: http://www.nutritiondata.com .
You can type in various food categories, and it will then give you not just the standard “Nutrition Facts” label, but also some highly detailed analysis of the quality of the food. Because proteins, carbs, etc. have subtleties beyond the standard label, I think if you play with this site a bid, you’ll be as addicted as I am!
Let me walk you through an example…
I was curious about why so many body builders put pumpkin in their home-made protein bars. So rather than drive to the store, I went to nutritiondata.com and found that they have various options to choose from:
I figured “vegetables and vegetable products” made sense.
And then, drilling down one more level, I checked out “pumpkin, canned, without salt”. Here are a few screen shots (way too long of a page to show you all of them):
But here’s my take away: pumpkin is low fat, decent omega-3 and -6 fatty acids, high dietary fiber, moderate sugar, and a little protein. Because I do a lot of running in addition to weight training, pumpkin is looking like the perfect food to work in around my 8-mile runs.
In contrast, here’s part of the screen for Snickers’ protein performance bar: (http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/snacks/9963/2)
Not surprisingly, it has a ton of sugar. Yeah, it’s got a lot of protein, but this is essentially a candy bar with a scoop of protein powder mixed in. Better than a regular snickers, but something you should consider as a treat outside your regular diet. [If you crave protein bars, make these yourself.]
What do you think of nutritiondata.com? Do you have other sites you’d recommend? Chime in!
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Get my metabolic routine here: Fat Burn Furnace!
Continue reading about Nutrition Data – Easy As (Pumpkin) Pie
Why is it that the world is focusing more and more on fitness, but at the same time everybody seems to be even more out of shape?
Scores of new diets come in and out of the market place that promise us amazing results in a matter of weeks. There’s always some sort of new magical pill which claims to be able to make you “fit”.
Each year, waves of people make a New Year’s resolution to keep in shape and sign up for a gym membership, only to return to their sedentary lifestyle a month later.
The world is constantly in search of the answer. Unfortunately, so many people go looking for the easy fix, the path of least resistance.
The problem is that there is no easy fix.
There is no easy answer.
The truth is that anything worthwhile in our lives requires our effort and attention. Our physical health should be no different. Who do you want to be – the out-of-shape person you’ve been in the past, or the fit and tone person you know you can be?
We Are All Human
Each person is built slightly different, but we all have the same basic needs. Both men and women alike need to maintain certain levels of muscular strength and endurance. We also need to maintain good cardiovascular health and flexibility. Where we differ is in the level, degree, and type of fitness we are trying to achieve.
Regardless of the type of build you are shooting for, you will need to know how properly build your strength, cardiovascular health, and flexibility. For many people, this will mean learning how to lift weights and exercise effectively.
Weights Matter
You may have friends who claim you can get fit without weights. That may be true, (more…)
Continue reading about Why Lifting Weights is Key To Your Health- New Year Approaching
“I run 30 minutes every day, so why is it that I never seem to look any leaner?”
Have you ever found yourself asking this kind of question? Lowering your body fat levels can be more difficult than building muscle if you let it be, but I get the feeling that many of us make it a bit tougher than it really needs to be.
Chances are that if you have been weight lifting for a decent period of time, you’ve managed to increase your metabolism by adding more muscle to your body. Each weight lifting session also burns calories and helps you get closer to your goals.
Adding cardio into your routine can only help out when it comes to lowering your body fat levels, but cardio is not the first factor you should be looking at to help you get leaner. A few tweaks to the way you eat might really be what you need the most to start seeing a difference.
When you’re trying to lean down and get rid of some extra fat, start by focusing you’re attention on the F.A.T.
F.A.T. = Frequency. Amount. Type.
This is a simple way for you to remember to get rid of fat by focusing on F.A.T., or the Frequency, Amounts, and Types of food you’re eating.
Don’t be one of those fools who runs their guts out only to come home and mess it all up by the way you eat. I know that you might feel that you’re getting something more out of running hard because it’s so tough to do, but seriously, do the easier things first and then move on to the tough things, especially if the easier things help you more.
Frequency: In general, if you’re one of those people that (more…)
Getting the right amounts of food is a huge part of the muscle-building and fat-loss equation. You can train as hard as you want enough in the gym, but if you don’t get enough food, you’ll never have the fuel needed to become stronger.
On the other hand, if you eat too much, you’ll end up overweight and wondering where your muscle is buried beneath the fat. So the question is: How much food, or how many calories do I need to consume?
The truth:
Counting calories is a great way for you to know that you are eating the correct amount of food. In fact, it is the best way for you to measure your daily calorie intake. But the truth is that most of you are never actually going to weigh your food and do the work necessary for calorie counting to pay off.
We can talk all day about how many calories you should be eating, but it won’t do you any good unless you are actually counting your calories.
Portions:
Since most of you are too lazy to count your calories (just admit, and I will too) I recommend the portion method for most people. This simple method has been around for a long time, and it is the quick and dirty way to know the right amount of food for you. Here’s how to do it:
Six small meals: Each meal should (more…)
Continue reading about Portion Sizes & Calories Needed to Build Muscle, Lose Fat
Image Credit: Lost Fun Zone
Read part 1 about quitting junk food here.
You’ve probably heard it a thousand times: you are what you eat. So if we’re going out and eating like crap everyday, then what are we? You can think that one over, but in the meantime, something needs to be done about it.
Quitting junk food won’t be easy though, because your body grows accustomed to what you feed it. Being stuck on junk food is nothing like being a crack addict, but some research shows that junk food still has many addictive properties.
So it’s gonna be tough, no doubt about it. Here’s how to do it:
1. Have a purpose: You’re not just quitting for the hell of it. You want to get something out of your hard work. Hold onto that thought and let it be your motivator… maybe it’s to impress a girl/guy or look (more…)
Image credit: oatmeal2000
I can already feel the hate mail coming, but I’m going to say it anyway: you shouldn’t always trust science. Instead, we’re going to talk about a better way of going about things.
First off, I realize that there’s not a crystal ball that magically reveals all truth, and science is the best method we have for understanding health and how the human body functions.
But science is a back and forth process of sharing ideas, debate, and seeking evidence. Science isn’t always right, and all the new studies that we hear about should be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism, and sometimes even ignored.
Here’s why:
Statistical models show that we live in a world of healthy mediums. When we measure the characteristics of a certain population, we usually end up with a nice bell curve as shown below. For example, the average height of men in the US is about 5’10”. Most men are close to this height, and there is a lower number of guys at either side of the curve who are very tall or very short.
Let’s say for example, that you are a scientist and you are trying to figure out if saturated fats (animal fats) are fit for human consumption. You conduct a few studies that seem to show it has some negative side effects, so you conclude that people should eat zero fat. Just stop eating all fat (and that’s what we did).
A few decades later, a new group of scientists, including Mary Enig come along with a new set of studies. These studies say that maybe fat and cholesterol aren’t as bad as we once thought. Here’s a video that talks about high fat (more…)
When it comes to losing fat and building muscle, eating less food is not the answer to getting lean and cut. Others will try to tell you that losing excess fat is simply a matter of using more calories than you eat. What they don’t tell you is that eating less will slow your metabolism.
Part of the secret to eating the right amounts of food while keeping your fat levels in check is to use the thermic effect of food to your advantage.
The thermic effect (also referred to as specific dynamic action) is the incremental energy requirement above your resting metabolic rate used due to the cost of digestion, absorption, and disposal of ingested food.
Translation: Some of the foods you eat speed up your metabolism more than other foods.
You’ll find it much easier to reduce your fat levels if you consume plenty of foods with a higher thermic effect. Proteins tend to have a much higher thermic effect than other types of foods.
Calculating the thermic effect: A general guideline used by some to calculate the thermic effect of the foods you eat is to take your total calorie consumption and multiply that (more…)
Continue reading about Burn Fat With The Thermic Effect of Food
Image Credit: this lucid moment
You know you need to do it… you know you need to quit eating crap.
It wasn’t easy for me either, but I’ve done it. In fact, I went for an entire year of my life without eating any sugar at all and almost no fast-food junk. You can do it too, but just like anything in life that’s worth your effort — there will be challenges.
If you know the challenges ahead of time and what the rewards are, you’ll be able to handle it. We’ll talk more about the specifics of how to quit junk food another day (Done! Click here to read).
How it happened: Sometime in mid-January, one of my good friends in college and I were talking about all the junk food that’s making everybody so fat. My friend mentioned that he and another friend (more…)
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