Nutrition for Healthy Weight Loss:

People’s bodies are all different. Some are tall and lean; some are short and squat; and still some are right there in between, or any combination of physical attributes. Different though we may be, every one of us needs the same things in order to stay healthy. We need water, of course, to stay hydrated, because the body is roughly 70 percent water (so drink plenty of water throughout the day; they recommend drinking eight to ten small glasses daily); but we also need each of the following nutrients (which we get from foods). This is why it's so important to make good food choices, so we can get in the right balance of each! Here's exactly what we need:

• Carbohydrates - sugars, the main energy source for the body
• Protein - amino acids, the building blocks of life – help grow and repair muscle tissue
• Fat - yes, we actually need to have some fat in our diets – for a few important reasons, which we’ll discuss in more detail later...

________ and also, in much smaller doses (but each is vitally important) we need:

• Vitamins and
• Minerals

And don't forget, we need plenty of water! But as far as the three main things in a healthy diet go, it's the first three mentioned above that we should have in the right proportion—to meet our body’s needs and at the same time facilitate weight reduction.

We only need a little bit of the others (and plenty of water) and we get these from the foods we eat to get what we need in the way of the former three. As long as you eat a wide variety of foods, vitamin and mineral requirements basically take care of themselves (although taking a multi-vitamin pill to ensure stability is still not a bad idea).

To not gain or loose weight and stay healthy, there is an optimum percentage for each individual... for example, if you are very active you may require more carbohydrates (sugars – glucose – and lesser partners – fructose and sucrose, which are easily converted into glucose, the fuel source of the body which is in blood sugar [potential energy runs through our veins; we are our own power plants!]) and you’ll probably need more protein compared to someone who is not as active as you, or remains more sedentary. Basically, the more active you are, the more calories you will need to eat, because your body uses up the energy in food to operate (energy is required to perform almost all vital life functions). Read more about this topic here.

So, the Macronutrients – Carbohydrates, Proteins, and Fats – we are supposed to get more of them than anything else (except for water, we definitely need more of that per weight). We need vitamins too, only they are much smaller: vitamins and minerals are measured in milligrams as opposed to grams for the big three!)

They call these the MacroNutrients—“macro” means “large,” and they call these three the macronutrients—because we need to consume these in larger quantities, not necessarily because they are larger molecules.

Here’s roughly how much of each (of the macronutrients) you should get in your total diet:

• Carbohydrates 45 – 65 Percent
• Proteins 10 – 30 Percent
• Fats 20 – 35 Percent

The numbers represent percent of all the food you eat—out of total calories—for each.
You can read all about how many total calories you need in our Exercise Science Article!

Above we have the widened ranges to account for differences in our body types, preferences, customs, habits and tastes. But, according to most studies, the following is recommended for weight loss and proper nutrition.

The best calorie balance (between the big 3 players),  

_____for optimal weight-loss and health is as follows:

• Carbs: 50 - 65 percent (this is our bodies major energy source)
• Protein: 20 – 30 percent (increase to more than 10 or 15 percent, assuming you are going to be getting  lots of exercise; this is because you will need the extra protein to build and repair muscle!)
• Fats: 10 – 25 percent (try to limit your intake of fats to a minimum, don't fight an uphill battle! There's more on this below, and consult our meal planning section for more tips on minimizing fat intake!)

The whole reason why we want to limit our intake of foods with high fat-content (especially certain types we’ll find) is because they are so rich in energy (and we don’t want to put more energy in than what we can burn off)—and so easily stored—so if we are eating lots of fats, we are never going to be able to use up all the energy that the body will keep on trying to store by making the body new fat cells). The weight will probably never come off if you take in too much fat in your diet, unless of course somehow you have time to burn off thousands of calories every day!

Did you know that Wildland Firefighters use up about 6,000 calories in a single day while working? And cross-country skiers who ski the entire 1,100 mile course of the Iditarod while pulling behind them a sled with a tent and all their food, a tent, and sleeping bag actually burned about 10,000 calories per day!? (They had actually planned on eating a high-fat diet, because they were going to be burning up so much energy they HAD to take in HIGHER ENERGY NUTRIENTS: FAT 9 kCal/g – in the form of “high fat snacks!” You’ll never guess what they were made of... ... They ate balls of butter with bacon fat... eww! gross... or yum? Give me some peanut butter in mine... but I guess that’s not high energy enough! They probably ate them because it wouldn’t be that tough to gobble down one of those while still x-country skiing. It’s crazy what some people do for sport.

Most people are not going to burn that many calories in a single day. It’s our level of activity that dictates how many calories we add on to the number we use just resting (called our Basal Metabolic Rate). These calories are available to us as energy, and if we do not use that energy, they are actually transferred to a different to a different chemical form where they can be stored away (as fat cells) for later use (when neccessary the body begins to send fatty acid molecules from adipose tissue [a medical term for body fat] to the liver, where these molecules are converted to ketone bodies to procide energy for the manufacture of glucose [or blood sugar]).

Remember, calories are a measurement of energy. And each of the three types of macronutrients has a different amount of energy (measured in kilo-calories) in it:

One Kilo-Calorie (one thousand “calories”) in the scientific sense, is what we call a calorie on the new Nutrition Label, which is really not all that new anymore, and will perhaps be replaced by something even better.

Here’s how many calories are in a gram of each macronutrient:
How much Energy is in a gram of each macronutrient?

• Carbohydrate: 4 kcal/ gram
• Protein: 4 kcal/ gram
• Fats: 9 kcal/ gram

(And Alcohol, surprisingly, has a lot of energy in it too [7 kcal/gram], only it also causes damage when consumed in excess, when the body actually begins producing a chemical that damages and destroys healthy tissue.)

A kCal is actually what we call a “calorie” in our diet – a true calorie, in science, is really only 1/1000th of a kcalorie that we use for our diet system. Weird huh?

Real calories are for bugs. We need Kilo-CALORIES! But – be careful – not too many of them!

If you want to know more about why each of these is absolutely vital to our survival, then please consult this medical source.

Nowadays, they’ve got nutrition down to... well,

A science!

DID YOU KNOW:

“If you eat 100 more food calories a day than you burn, you’ll gain about 1 pound in a month. That’s about 10 pounds in a year. The bottom line is that to loose weight, it’s important to reduce calories and increase physical activity,” from the USDA's webpage.

You can read the full text here:

http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2005/document/pdf/brochure.pdf

Don’t worry, GettingOutside.com will show you how to do both!

Exercise and Eat Right, That IS!

First please consider this quote from a well-respected Medical Doctor, Michael Picco:

“The best diet is one based on fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean sources of protein and unsaturated fats. Add regular exercise and stress reduction techniques, and you have a solid foundation for good health.” -- from Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist, Michael Picco, M.D.

We here at GettingOutside.com completely agree! We are a community of people who lead active lifestyles, and we are encouraging others to do so as well (safely, of course, Always Consult Your Doctor First before putting any new exercise or nutritional plan into action). By following the medical communities guidelines for healthy eating and exercising (to get in better and better shape each week), we have found ourselves feeling healthier, more energy, and yes, even lighter. We believe we are living proof for how regular exercise can be done in a stress free and natural way; and it will keep the weight off (and if done diligently, it will take the weight off too! Outdoor Exercise that is! [Balanced with Healthy Eating])... We’re living on this plan and feeling great!

Continued Healthy Weightloss Guidelines For Making Good Food Choices

Link to Outdoor Exercise Log Book