Do You Make Use of the Nutritional Chart?

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waterboat1956
waterboat1956 Posts: 8
in Food and Nutrition
Hi Folks,

Have you ever read your nutritional report (not the pie-chart, the one in columns), and said, "gee, I'm low on potassium" and then either eaten more bananas over the next few days, or actually supplemented by the percentage you were low?

It's harder to eat less the next day (boy is it ever!) but I'm thinking of an example such as your goal for potassium is 3500 mg's a day, and last night, when you where "all done" eating you found yourself say, 1500 mg's short.

Do you grab your potassium supplements and pop a 1500 before bedtime?

Does this make sense to folks? 'Cause it seems rather useless to have all the great data, and then not take some positive action step.

And along the same lines, if you look at your week, and you see you've got days where you ate too many calories, days when you were under, and may be a few days when you were right on the button, what should we think if, overall, we're eating less calories over the course of the week (in a good way), with a few "bad" days where we pigged out.

What to think? Any suggestions?

Thanks to all!

Replies

  • ClinicalTrial
    ClinicalTrial Posts: 55 Member
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    Nope. I like knowing I'm covered at all times, so I just eat lots of vitamin- and mineral-rich foods and regularly take supplements for any gaps.
  • TrailNurse
    TrailNurse Posts: 359 Member
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    I know you probably are just using potassium as an example but just to be sure.....Never, EVER take high doses of Potassium supplements. It can adversely affect your heart and put you in the hospital.

    With that said....I always look at my data half way through the day to check my protein levels. If I am not getting enough I will add more protein to my remaining meals.
  • vickidiane13
    vickidiane13 Posts: 22 Member
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    I look at the full report most days and try to get close to the nutritional goals. When I began I focused more on calories, then looked at protein, carbs and fat later. I now make sure to see where I am with Vit A, C, Iron, Calcium, Sodium and Potassium. It is easy to eat a few fruits or veggies to meet Vit A and C. I don't make the Calcium or Iron goal very often and probably should work towards that now. I have thought about adding a multivitamin but just never seem to like the idea of popping a pill every day.
  • bajoyba
    bajoyba Posts: 1,153 Member
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    I do look at my nutrition data on my cell phone app throughout the day. If I notice that I'm extremely low on a particular macro nutrient or vitamin, I will probably try to make food choices for the remainder of the day that get me closer to those goals. I don't take supplements or anything to make up for any small shortcomings I might have, I just try to eat a balanced diet, and I assume that if I'm a little low in something today, I'll probably make up for it somewhere else during the week.

    The same goes with calories. I look at my daily deficit, but I also look at my weekly deficit. Some days I might be a little bit over and some days I might be a little bit under, but I'm not a stickler for exact numbers. But yes, I do use the nutrition data as a guideline. :smile:
  • AlabasterVerve
    AlabasterVerve Posts: 3,171 Member
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    No. I think the RDA's are without merit and they might as well have pulled the recommendations out of their butt for all the good they do people. Eat as much whole, unprocessed foods as possible, be active and go outside for fresh air and sunshine. RDA's, fortified foods and multivitamins do not make you healthy.
  • waterboat1956
    waterboat1956 Posts: 8
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    Hi!

    Thanks for your thoughtful reply; some people were, shall we say, off the hook!

    Regrettably, I pretty much squandered my youth, and at the age of 57 I find myself way overweight and dealing with all sorts of health problems from kidney stones to parathyroid disease to celiac disease to depression to blah blah blah.

    I wanted to suggest that you watch your calcium! Even if you "have" to take a supplement. When I developed the parathyroid disorder, all the calcium went to my blood.kidneys and not my bones!

    Then boom, I'm suddenly a guy in his late 40's with Osteoporosis! So I had to start taking 2000 mg's of Calcium a day, and I hear ya about the pill thing - I hate it to.

    Luckily, just around that very time they came out with a time-released 1200 mg Calcium tablet - boom! 1 tablet in the AM instead of having to remember to take one with each meal.

    Luckily, although I did break my arm, I overcame the deficiency and I'm now fine in terms of my bones.

    My doctors, and yes that's plural, tell me that all the problems and challenges I face are connected to being overweight. And at 6' 4", 350 pounds, I believe them!

    I have really grown to love this "MyFitnessPal", and I've just now started using some of the social media aspects of it, so I hope you don't mind me telling you just a little bit about myself, and also I'd like to ask you couple questions.

    As far as the weight loss, did you do anything like Weight Watchers, or the Atkins diet to jumpstart your weight-loss, or anything like that?

    Do you work out a lot? And if you don't mind could you tell me what your ratio to cardio versus strength work is?

    Something really bad happened to my feet last year, and nobody knows exactly what the problem is, but I have to walk with a cane now. Still, two weeks ago, I just got so fed up, I started meeting a friend - now I walk 3-4 days a week and "do" 5 flights of stairs at the pond where we meet to walk.

    I was just declared cancer-free, and I'm truly devoted to turning the rest of my life around.

    Thanks again for your input, stay the path, be strong, and have a wonderful tomorrow.

    Sincerely,

    Kevin
  • cherrilovee
    cherrilovee Posts: 194 Member
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    I make use of it, but I don't obsess over it. I try to not go over my sodium levels and try to get my vitamins in. I'll look at everything else, and try to keep everything under the max level, but don't obsess over it.
  • KM0692
    KM0692 Posts: 178 Member
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    Yes, I enjoy seeing how I did at the end of the day. I'm keeping a special watch on my sugar intake, as I have a huge sweet tooth that I want to get rid of!
  • phonegal2
    phonegal2 Posts: 11 Member
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    I'm am always low on protien. I really stuggle getting my protien right but leave the fat at my goal. Yesterday, I finally got enough protein, but I ate almonds, greek yogurt, pork chop, and beef jerky! I felt like all I ate was protein. I was over on fat. I must resort to protein shakes to get the fat/protein correct.
  • Meerataila
    Meerataila Posts: 1,885 Member
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    Because Cronometer has a better layout for micromanaging nutrients, I use both that and MFP. It's free as well, at least on a computer and in its basic form.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
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    I know you probably are just using potassium as an example but just to be sure.....Never, EVER take high doses of Potassium supplements. It can adversely affect your heart and put you in the hospital.

    With that said....I always look at my data half way through the day to check my protein levels. If I am not getting enough I will add more protein to my remaining meals.

    Agree. The data base is very inaccurate for potassium, supplementation with certain things such as potassium and iron should be done under the supervision of a doctor where you have lab work that confirms a deficiency. Your body is not able to process overages of all supplements, vitamins, minerals etc. and can become overloaded with some (not all). That being said, I do take a multivitamin everyday, and I take some Vitamin D because I tend to be deficient in it.
  • rebeccaisafish
    rebeccaisafish Posts: 87 Member
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    Nope, simply because a lot of entries don't have things like potassium listed. So while I might have logged foods with enough potassium if it isn't listed in their entries its going to say I'm short.

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