Help me learn what I need in my diet

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mrsmccullen07
mrsmccullen07 Posts: 159
in Food and Nutrition
I am loving MFP but I dont understand which 5 items are most important to track so help me understand what I should really be watching for the first little while .. Please Help Me !!

** Here are my totals from today **
Calories - 1260 (Daily Goal - 1200 Excerise Calories - 191 --- Remaining 131)
Sodium - 2236 (Daily Goal - 2500 --- Remaining 264)
Carbs - 172 (Daily Goal - 191 --- Remaining 19)
Calcium - 214 (Daily Goal - 100 --- 114 too many)
Potassium - 910 (Daily Goal --- Remaining 2590)
Cholestrol - 94 (Daily Goal - 300 --- Remaining 206)
Fiber - 25 (Daily Goal - 16 --- 9 too many)
Sugar - 95 (Daily Goal - 28 ---- 67 too many)
Protein - 80 (Daily Goal - 52 ---- 28 too many)
Vitamin A - 204 (Daily Goal 100 --- 104 too many)
Vitamin C - 548 (Daily Goal 100 --- 448 too many)
Iron - 71 (Daily Goal 100 --- 29 too many)
Trans Fat - 1 (Daily Goal - 0)
Saturated Fat - 2 (Daily Goal - 0 --- 2 too many)
Polyunsaturated - 2 (Daily Goal - 0 --- 2 too many)
Monosaturated - 0 (Daily Goal - 0 --- 0 too many)
Fat - 38 (Daily 46 --- 8 remaining)

Replies

  • Iamfit4life
    Iamfit4life Posts: 3,095 Member
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    I'm a dolt! I'm sorry.


    I do calories, protein, fat, sodium, and I think calcium
  • Nguyenbr
    Nguyenbr Posts: 9
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    total caloric intake
    protein
    carbs
    fat

    i would concentrate on keeping those under control and everything else will fall into place.
  • pitbullmama
    pitbullmama Posts: 454 Member
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    The 5 most important things I track are:
    Calories
    Carbs
    Protein
    Fibre
    Fat
  • tacticalhippie
    tacticalhippie Posts: 596 Member
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    I do:

    Calories
    Protein
    Carbs
    Fiber
    Fat
    Iron
  • Erindipitous
    Erindipitous Posts: 1,234 Member
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    Don't worry about going over on vitamins.. That's GOOD. Too many vitamins from your diet will not hurt you in any way.

    Focus on Calories, Protein, Fat, and Carbohydrates.
  • autumnridge
    autumnridge Posts: 97 Member
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    I agree with pittbullmama, carbs, fiber, fat, calcium, calories. The carbs give you energy, but too many and they're stored in your body. The fiber helps move the food product through the digestive more rapidly and helps keep you "regular." Fats have to be limited because they can build up in your arteries and lead to high blood pressure and strokes. Calcium is particulary important for women in building your teeth and making your bones strong. You want to control your overall caloric intake to lose weight. It doesn't hurt to keep the sodium down because that can be greatly overdone, leading to high blood pressure and other chemical imbalances. You can research further nutritional information at the Mayo Clinic site or WebMD site.
  • TrishMahon
    TrishMahon Posts: 14
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    You should also consult with your doctor. Surprisingly enough I have to watch my calcium. Milk was a binge food for me, even low fat milk. Ask him/her what you should be concentrating on. I watch my calories, fat, and protein. That is what my doctor has told me to watch. .
  • ApproachingDusk
    ApproachingDusk Posts: 70
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    I like to watch as much as I can, that way I can figure out how each thing takes its toll on my body. I watch everything the others say as well as sodium. Sodium is my enemy it seems.
  • kimberg75
    kimberg75 Posts: 412 Member
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    I track calories, carbs, fat, protein, sodium and sugar. The sodium is very important to keep in check b/c if you have too much sodium you can retain water and that will affect the scale. Also too much sugar is not good b/c sugar turns to fat in your body. You can manually choose the amt. per nutrient too...I found that for me the protein and sugar were set up too low and the carbs were too high. Change it up to see what works best for you. Protein is a good thing for losing weight, when you do weight lifting or workout a lot then you need more protein in your diet. Some say to get 90 g of it but that is hard to do...I usually get about 50 or so grams a day of protein.

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