Calories or Nutritional Value?

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dandy_girl
dandy_girl Posts: 13 Member
in Food and Nutrition
As a Fitness Chef and Nutrition Coach, I regularly tell my clients to focus less on calories and more on nutritional value. What I mean by this is that if you are eating what the USDA recommends for "My Plate" (the new food pyramid), the calories matter less. I tell my clients to ask themselves, "Does this food have good nutritional value?" if it does- it's a good choice! If it doesn't... it's a calorie hog.

MFP focuses on calories. My question is this: are you focusing on Calories or Nutritional Value? Look back at your journal- are you getting enough veggies, whole grain and low fat dairy? When I focus on nutritional value, I'm typically way under my recommended calorie intake. It's a different way to look at things.

Good luck on your journey!

Replies

  • cmsiemsen
    cmsiemsen Posts: 78 Member
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    I'm a vegetarian as well as allergic to corn and lactose intolerant so I'm very sensitive to what I can/cannot (will/will not) consume. I take a multivitamin as well, but I am always over 100% on my nutritional goals (read: Vit. A, C, Calcium, and iron) while typically being under on my calories as well. Since I have to be particular about what I eat, whole foods (veggies/fruits/grains/legumes/beans) are more a part of my diet than they were before. I think that it could be very easy to be consumed with either just the nutrition or just the calories to detriment. For example, someone on a multivitamin (such as myself) could easily eat too-low an amount of calories simply because of the supplement still allowing them to get certain nutrients in full. Personally, I'm careful about both.
  • neekz0r
    neekz0r Posts: 41 Member
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    Both? If you have more calories then your body needs, your body will gain weight. If you eat crap, but at about what your body needs, you won't gain weight but you'll be more or less malnourished.

    You really need to look at and focus on both. Also, grains aren't all that great.

    "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

    I've found that with enough spinach (and dairy products such as skim milk (1 cup a day) and cottage cheese (200g a day)), any sort of ketosis or carb cravings goes right out the door.

    For the record, I'm consuming about 275g of spinach a day.

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