Nutrition
Sound Resolutions for Real Results (Jan 6, 2009)
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009New Years Resolutions have been around ever since ancient civilizations anointed January 1 as the beginning of the New Year, celebrating with gifts and well wishes for the coming twelve months. In modern times, New Years Resolutions are established at the drop of the Times Square ball but more often than not, forgotten after a few days or weeks. To combat this trend, here are five simple guidelines to help you along the way.
Surviving the Holidays: Tips for Better Nutrition (Dec 15, 2008)
Monday, December 15th, 2008We continue our focus on seasonal tips for staying healthy with strategies for nutrition during the holidays. It seems like the holidays are one big eating fest. Everything revolves around food and drinks – and by the New Year we’re all in a frenzy to get back to our normal schedules and our pre-holiday weight.
Surviving the Holidays: Tips for more efficient workouts (Dec 8, 2008)
Monday, December 8th, 2008Surviving the Holidays. Use these tips so that you can have more efficient workouts during the challenging holiday season.
Happy Belated Thanksgiving and Exercise of the Week (Dec 2, 2008)
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008The team at inSHAPE hopes that you had a fabulous Thanksgiving Holiday this year! We have no blog article for the holiday week, as we were all doing what you were likely doing: eating and enjoying the company of our friends and families.
Nutrition Essentials: Timing & Moderation (Nov 3, 2008)
Monday, November 3rd, 2008Nutrition Essentials: Timing & Moderation
This week we finish our discussion on the five essentials to better nutrition. Meal timing and moderation play a significant role in how your body responds to the nutrition you provide it. In order to keep metabolism in check, energy up, maintain mental focus and avoid cravings, we must understand these concepts. How many meals should you eat each day? When should you eat them? How many calories should each meal be? What types of food should be eaten at what times? Read on and get the answers that you need to stay healthy, feel great, and stay inSHAPE!
How many meals should you eat each day?
Everyone has different schedules, so one plan doesn’t fit all. However, in order to increase your metabolic output (how many calories you burn), you need to eat frequently. When you eat sporadically or skip meals, your body responds by slowing down to conserve energy. Ideally, therefore, you should try to consume something healthy 5-6 times a day. This may sound unrealistic, but these should be smaller meals (mini-meals) packed with nutrient dense foods. Think about it this way, after several hours without eating, your body “panics” and goes into starvation mode – skipping a meal may sound like an appealing form of punishment for eating too much at a previous meal, but metabolically, you are doing more harm than good. If you eat regularly (every 2.5-3.0 hours) your body will release its fat stores more readily because food is more efficiently absorbed. It is much more difficult for your body to utilize the nutrients ingested in 3 larger meals and the result is that the body stores the excess as body fat.
How many calories should each meal be?
This is dependent on how many calories your body needs, as we all have different body sizes and activity levels. This is also dependent on how active you are before and after your meal. If you are going to be more active for the next several hours you may need to consume a higher calorie count at the meals prior to activity. You just need enough energy to sustain yourself until the next meal. All mini meals do not need to be equal but they should be in a fairly close range of each other. If you consume 2000 calories a day, each meal should be approximately 333 calories, if you are having 6 meals a day. You may have one or two that are closer to 400-500 and one or two (healthy snacks) that are closer to 200 calories.
When should you eat the meals/snacks, what time of day?
You should always start with a healthy breakfast to “break the fast” between last night and the new day. Your body has been without food for 8-12 hours (unless you sleep walk to fridge at night) so you need to replenish your fuel stores. Eating breakfast can increase your metabolism by as much as 10%. Following breakfast you should eat every 2.5-3 hours. On workout days you need to pay special attention to your pre and post workout meals. If your goal is to lose fat you need to have your pre-workout meal about 2 hours prior to exercising so that you burn more from fat stores. And your post-workout meal should be consumed within 1 hour of completing the workout. This hour is a window of opportunity where nutrients are more effectively absorbed after the workout.
What types of foods should be eaten at what times?
Your body responds differently to a meal consumed in the morning than it does to the same meal eaten in the afternoon or evening. After 7-9 hours of “fasting” during sleep, your body needs to replenish glucose, your body’s energy source. During this fast, the body compensates by releasing glucose that has been stored in your muscle tissue and liver, called glycogen. Once all the energy from the glycogen stored is used up, the body breaks down fatty acids to produce energy. Carbohydrates are the source of glucose, and without carbohydrates, fatty acids are only partially oxidized, which can cause reduced energy levels. This means that your breakfast should include carbohydrates, especially whole grains and fruits. These foods also boost your metabolism and help you stave off unhealthy snacks once you get into the office.
In the evening, on the other hand, your body craves foods that will metabolize super slowly in preparation for the nightly fast. If your final meal of the evening is chock full of carbs (think: an extra serving of pasta or potatoes on your plate), your body will metabolize and store all of those extra calories in fat cells. The bottom line is to balance your diet, eat a variety of foods, in moderation, and enjoy each bite.
Nutrition Essentials: Taste and Variety (October 27, 2008)
Monday, October 27th, 2008With the turn to lower temperatures and shorter days, people tend to spend more time indoors and more time near or in the kitchen. This transition is often accompanied by a significant increase in consumption and therefore often results in seasonal weight gain through the New Year. What a better time, then, to focus on two important factors in good nutrition: taste/enjoyment and variety.
Nutritional Essentials #1: Awareness and Knowledge (October 21, 2008)
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008We are going to expand on each of these to give you a more in depth understanding of why they are crucial in helping you maintain a healthy and well-balanced eating plan. This week we will cover Awareness and Knowledge of your nutritional choices, arguably the most important in your ability to manage a healthy weight through diet.
Nutritional Essentials: Five Important Factors (October 14, 2008)
Tuesday, October 14th, 2008This week, our attention turns to nutrition - key elements in understanding good nutrition. There’s so much information available, so you’ve likely seen this all before, but a little reminder is often helpful, so read on for what we believe are Five Nutritional Essentials.
The Science of Metabolism (July 21, 2008)
Monday, July 28th, 2008Did you know that you are burning calories every second of every day by just supporting your body’s normal bodily functions, like the beating of your heart, lung function and regulating body temperature. This is known as your Basal or Resting Metabolic Rate, and this accounts for about 60-65% of all energy that is expended [...]