need help learning about nutrition

jhansen2011

Hi, I was wonder if there was a good book or website to learn about nutrition for weight loss? For example what are micro how do you know the right number for you. How good carbs work and why you should or should have to many fruits ect. Tried eating health but feel like it won't work till I understand the nutrition better.

Thank you.

kommodevaran

It's really simple, and can be really easy to do, but it requires some un-learning first. There are no books or websites about nutrition for weightloss, because there is no such thing. Many books and websites make such claims, but they are all scams.

For weight loss, all you need is a sustained calorie deficit. When you signed up, MFP should have given you a calorie goal to hit. If you entered your stats correctly and picked weight loss, that number of calories, eaten consistently, will make you lose weight.

But to be able to sustain the calorie deficit, you need good nutrition, and food you like. Good nutrition is pretty basic, it's getting in sufficient amounts of all the nutrients you need each day, and not too much of anything over time. There are so many ways to this, that what you should focus on, is to find a way that suits your preferences - your likes and dislikes, allergies, medical issues, values and beliefs, budget, schedule, work, family and social life.

You can ignore macronutrients and just track calories, or start out with the macro setup MFP suggests. Prelogging speeds up the learning process and prevents eating yourself into a corner. When you are hitting your macro goals and calorie goals, you will automatically be making healthier food choices. This can be enough to eat sufficiently healthily. But if you want to go further, you can do that:

The easiest way to get in good nutrition, is to eat balanced and varied. You do that by eating some food from each food group every day, and composing meals that look and taste good. This means that you'll be cooking at least some of your meals from scratch. There are several ways to split food into groups, but the most useful is: Fruit - vegetables - grains and starchy vegetables - meat/fish/eggs/pulses - dairy - nuts and seeds - fats and oils.

No magic, just common sense. No torture, but lots of patience.

ZoneFive

You're going to find out that there isn't one golden answer for everyone. Each of us has different likes and dislikes and needs that will affect what eating protocols work for us. I'm an omnivore; a vegan's best diet won't suit me and vice versa, so we'll each get our proteins from very different places. Someone with, say, gallbladder problems will need to restrict fats at a different level from someone who doesn't have those issues. The Great Carb Question will always be with us: medical requirements, personal preferences and cultural backgrounds play a huge part in what an individual calls healthy and chooses to eat.

Fortunately, you don't have to have a complete understanding of the details to begin with. What @kommodevaran said above is absolutely true: balanced and varied, and importantly, what you like to eat. (Eating stuff that may be "healthy" for you but that you dislike won't do you any favors.) The patience part comes in where you pay attention to your body and your doctor and your scale results, and tweak the balances and details as you go.

theabsentmindednurse

Hello.
Totally agree with posted statements.

You will find the longer you are on this journey, the more you will learn and the more confident you will become.
Google offers a wide range of information, that is confusing at times.

Consune a wide range of foods from all the food groups.
Eat the rainbow. Meaning try to have different coloured fruits and vegetables. They offer differing Vitamins and minerals, complex carbohydrates and fibre.
Eat lean protein. It will feed your cells and give you lots of energy.
Cook and prepare your own meals. This will ensure that you know what you are eating and you can control portion sizes.

Try and keep processed foods to a minimum. In an ideal world we wouldn't consume any, but they are ideal at busy times

Your meals needn't be fancy, just nutritious.

And lastly, listen to your body. It will tell you, in time, what you need. You will know through hunger, energy levels and overall general well being.
Good luck

OliveGirl128

jhansen2011 wrote: »

Hi, I was wonder if there was a good book or website to learn about nutrition for weight loss? For example what are micro how do you know the right number for you. How good carbs work and why you should or should have to many fruits ect. Tried eating health but feel like it won't work till I understand the nutrition better.

Thank you.

I've read over 50 books on dieting/nutrition, have watched all the food 'documentaries', watched hours and hours of youtube lectures and have read countless articles. My takeaway from all of that is that most of them are a bunch of whooey

For weight loss the only thing that matters is that you're at the correct calorie deficit for your weight loss goals. It doesn't matter what foods you're eating though, to make up your calorie intake.

For health-if you're overweight, then getting rid of the excess weight will be the number one thing you can do, to improve your health. Don't get bogged down by claims from all the fad diets. These diets all are based on a calorie deficit, no matter what they claim. And with that calorie deficit comes weight loss and most times improved health markers. It's not the magical plan you're following or the restricted list of foods you're eating-its the loss of poundage that's really making the changes to your health markers.

I lost the extra weight while eating the antithesis of a 'healthy' diet. Besides the weight loss I improved all my health markers, including normalizing a pre-diabetic glucose number-the only person in my family who's reversed the progression of prediabetes.

Then, as time went on and I successfully maintained the loss for a few years, I've became more interested in how food and nutrition could play a role in long term health. I'm still not completely convinced it really matters, but I have made some tweaks to how I eat and now focus more on whole grains, beans, veggies/fruit, fish etc. I also still eat fast food at least once a week, still drink diet soda and still eat chili cheese fritos every day It really comes down to finding the balance that clicks with you-eating in a way that's enjoyable, realistic and most importantly-sustainable for the long term. You can eat the 'healthiest' diet, but if you don't enjoy it you won't stick with it.

OliveGirl128

double post