Ok. If you are reading this you probably have an interest or a need to track food nutritional values. For whatever reason be it vitamins, weight loss, healthy living, body building etc., there is advice in this article that can help you.
Let’s look at my example. Quite a few years ago I decided to join a gym. At that time I was in decent shape physically and was playing hockey 2-3 times a week during the winter. I wanted to get stronger and lose a few extra pounds I had gained around my middle. I joined a local gym and asked one of the trainers on staff to design a work out program for me. I also realized that if I didn’t fuel my body properly I would be wasting my time and asked also for nutritional advice. Let’s just say the nutritional advice that I received was weak at best. It left me with more questions that answers. How big is a serving? What is the proper balance of food recommended by the food guide? How many calories should I eat? I had many more questions.
I started to research recommended food nutritional values. I read books, researched the internet, talked to people. I slowly began to learn important and valuable information. I learned that in my situation I needed roughly 3,000 calories a day. These calories optimally were split at 60% carbohydrates and 40% protein. If my mouth was dry and I was thirsty my body was too low on fluids and muscle performance was reduced. The most important thing I learned however was the fact that I had no idea what I was eating! Don’t get me wrong I ate healthy, home cooked meals that were balanced across all the food groups. But when I started to analyze the food nutritional values it was a real eye opener. Did you know that most people eat too many carbohydrates? The problem with carbohydrates is that if your body doesn’t use up all of them then basically the remainder is converted to body fat. So I started to watch and regulate the balance of carbohydrates versus proteins that I ate. I was careful about the number of calories that I ate each day. And I had good results.
Boy was this a lot of work! I spent countless hours researching, monitoring and tracking food values. Remember I said I had good results. Well good results wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. I wanted excellent results!
I’ll let you in on a secret. I found the way to excellent results. If you haven’t heard about it check out the Glycemic Index of Foods. This index rates carbohydrate based foods on a scale. There are good and bad carbohydrates. Now I am not talking a chocolate bar versus and apple. I am referring to white potatoes versus sweet potatoes. They’re both good foods right? Well sweet potatoes are lower on the Glycemic Index. What this means is that the carbohydrate in sweet potatoes is converted to energy slower than white potatoes. This gives your body a chance to burn it off instead of turning it into body fat.
I lost 20 pounds in 3 months. I wasn’t hungry nor did I reduce my food intake. Instead I focused on eating low Glycemic Index foods and watching my carbohydrate and protein % balance. If you don’t believe me ask me for my fitness evaluation reports. I’ll send them to you!
Ok. Now to the point I am trying to make. I spent a ton of time and energy doing all of this research. I’ve been doing it for years. A good Nutritional Software program will do all of this for you. Nutritional Software makes it easy to track and analyse what you are eating. Do yourself a favour. Buy some software!
Check out our software at http://www.paxtontechnologies.com/NutritionPax
Scott Paxton
Paxton Technologies Inc.
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