For a couple years now, I have been sporadically using a website called FitDay to log everything I eat. I never really kept up with it for more than a month at a time, but it was really interesting to see exactly what I was putting into my body.
In FitDay, which is free, you add everything you’ve eaten to a food log. They have a large database of food you can search choose from, or you can create a custom food. Custom food and recent foods, along with the serving size you last used, or saved so you can easily add them again in the future. I love this feature because there are certain foods I eat everyday and it makes logging them a snap!
FitDay keeps tracks of calories, fats, carbs, sodium, vitamins, protein, fiber and more. From a curiousity and nerdy standpoint, I find it very interesting to see if I’m meeting my RDA percentages and to know exactly what my calorie intake is. I love that FitDay has all sorts of graphs and charts to help you visualize what you’re putting into your body.
For anyone looking to lose weight to or improve their healtht, FitDay is a great tool. I have use it more to sate my curiosity than to adjust my eating habits, but that may change.
Of the many charts FitDay provides, the following is one of my favorites. It shows the daily average over the course of just about a week. I have been entering everything I eat for a few days now and this is a good picture of my normal diet. I’m surprise by how healthy this is:
Daily averages for everything I eat.
Here’s an explanation of the items that are of the most interest to me:
- Calories: 1,666.2
This isn’t really accurate. I was looking at the bar graph for calories only and noticed that my calorie intake varies greatly from day to day. There was a day where I took in over 2,000 calories and another day where I barely broke 1,400. This is a good thing because it keeps my body guessing and my metabolism from going stale. This “unbalanced diet” is actually promoted by many fitness experts and it’s always been my natural eating habit. I definitely take in more calories on workout days and don’t eat as much on days I am idle.
- Fat: 91% of RDA
I don’t really care how much fat I eat and I don’t try to avoid it. Despite popular trends, I don’t think fat is all bad for you as long as you burn it off.
- Sodium: 137% of RDA
We’ve all heard that a high sodium diet is bad for you. It can lead to high blood pressure which can lead to issues with the heart. This daily average isn’t all that accurate either because for the first few days I was taking in over 200% of the RDA for sodium. I then tried to keep it low one day. That didn’t work out very well because I ended up feeling tired and light-headed. I have extremely low blood pressure (84/60) and crave salt all the time. I think I’m one of the lucky few who are better off with a higher sodium diet.
- Carbohydrate: 56% of RDA (169.5 g)
I averaged 56% of the RDA for carbs, which comes out to 169.5 grams a day. I think the RDA is bullshit. Are they trying to say I should have almost 40% more than 170 grams? That’s absurd. A lot of people believe, myself included, that the food pyramid puts too much emphasis on carbs. There at the bottom of the pyramid is all your rice, breads, pasta and grains. I think Americans eat too many carbs and that’s why we have an obesity problem. You’ll get fat if you follow the food pyramid! With Atkins, they recommend 20 - 20 grams of carbs per day. Just 20! Compare that to my 169.5 which isn’t even near the 100% RDA. Other diets like The Zone and South Beach recommend around 40 - 60 grams. I really do believe that limiting carbohydrate intake is essential to staying lean unless you are an active individual who expends a lot of energy and will burn it off. Truth be told, most of us spend our time sitting at computers, on couches, or driving and we really don’t need all that carb-based energy. We’re not going to use it, it gets stored as fat, and we have an obesity problem! Fortunately for me, with 2 dogs and no car, I do a good amount of walking almost every day and still do a bit of weight training. I don’t worry about my carb intake very much because i know I will burn the fuel.
- Dietary Fiber: 73% of RDA
I think it’s important to get a good amount of fiber in your diet. I’m going to try and make sure I get more.
- Protein: 187% of RDA (93.3 g)
I need to look into this. For someone of my body weight and my activity level, I should be getting about 54 grams of protein a day. However, with my love of meat, I get a lot more of this. I need to research the pros and cons of a high-protein diet.
- Iron: 145% of RDA
Years ago I was diagnosed as anemic. I had to take iron tablets for a while. Now I try and make sure I get enough iron in my diet which is not hard at all.
- Vitamin B12: 310% of RDA
My actual daily percentages were: 493%, 588%, 1011%, and 1011% - WOAH! Like protein, I need to do more research on this. I do believe they go hand in hand because B12 is mainly derived from eating meat and meat products.
I really like this program and hope that I can stick to it for a bit longer this time! I always thought I was a junky eater with all the meat I eat, but it doesn’t look that bad at all. Taking a daily multivitamin has also helped with my nutrient levels (yes, I enter it into FitDay also).
My ultimate goal is to make sure I get everything my body needs to support my workouts. I’m upping my weight training and serious exercise needs serious nutrition. I like where I am right now and I don’t think I need to many any changes yet.
Linkage: I highly recommend reading this list from Men’s Fitness about 101 Ways to Lose Your Gut and Burn Fat. It has some great tips for staying or getting lean and healthy. I was surprised by how many on that list I already do.
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