The FitDay Experiment
Apart from times when I’ve been tracking Weight Watchers points, I haven’t really been in the habit of tracking my eating. And I found myself becoming curious about exactly what I was eating—how many calories, how many grams of protein, vitamins, etc. So I signed up for a free account on FitDay, a site that my friend Nonk had once mentioned. And it’s totally fascinating.
The first day I did it, I looked at the little pie chart showing what percentage of my calories come from fat, protein, and carbs. And I realized I had no idea what I was looing at! I had 49% carbs, 29% fat, 21% protein… was that good? I asked La Wade, who gave me this very useful information:
The USDA recommendations for protein are that it should be 10-35% of calories, which is probably on the high side given the influence of the meat industry. They say fat should be 20-35% of calories (although again, I think somewhat lower than that is probably totally fine) so 49% of calories from carbohydrates is smack in the middle of USDA guidelines.
After doing it for a while, I can tell you that I eat pretty well, in general—a ton of fruits and veggies, complex carbs, that sort of thing. I also noticed that other than Vitamins D and B-12, I get all my vitamins in every day. One day I got 93 grams of protein without eating any meat at all—I guess between the yogurt, the milk, and the fortified grains, all that protein adds up.
I also made a couple of small changes in my diet. One day, I had 44% of my calories from fat, because I’d had my favorite veggie sandwich from the deli across the street. The thing is, there’s half an avocado on that sandwich. That’s not the problem–it’s that once I put mayo on the sandwich, it skews the entire pie chart all to hell. I’ve been having the same sandwich with mustard only or with balsamic vinegar. The avocado is still creamy and full of fat, so I haven’t really lost anything in terms of flavor—and it makes a big difference in the fat and calorie content of that sandwich! (To clarify this point, I eat a moderate-fat diet to avoid gallbladder issues.)
Also according to the program, I burn 3,200 calories a day, but I eat in the 1,800-2,500 calorie range. That makes me think I really don’t burn 3,200 calories at all, so I don’t know about that statistic. Anyway, a couple of my other friends mentioned that programs like FitDay contribute to an unhealthy obsession with food on their parts. I can see that, for sure. But so far I’ve just found it really interesting. And it’s taken the residual guilt out of a lot of foods that I always thought were “bad,” like that perfectly healthy veggie sandwich. I eat well! I’m doing okay!
Posted by mo pie
Email us
I hope you don’t think I was attempting to give any sort of “permission” for you or anyone to eat however you want.
My point was and remains that with the huge amount of nutritional research out there, if you start with a conclusion and then work backwards, you’ll always be able to support your ideas. That goes for low-fat, high-fat, traditional, low-calorie, or vegan diets. So the best thing someone can do, imnsho, is to find what works best for them in terms of health and feeling good and not try too hard to mold their diets around any expert opinions or advice.
Of course people should be encouraged to look at the relevant research and come to their own conclusions. I’m all for that. My problem with special interest non-profits (Weston A Price, PCRM) is that they’re only interested in information which supports their conclusions.
The fact that, if high vegetable/fruit diets are healthiest, then you could have the exact same health benefits from cutting down on animal products as you could from being vegan is not generally mentioned by PCRM because they want people to be vegan.
The traditional diet proponents often point out that grains did not make a big appearance in human diets until the advent of agriculture (approx 10,000BC) and this is part of the proof that a diet high in grains is unnatural and disease-causing. Yet, the fact that animal’s milk wouldn’t have been a regular feature in human diets until the same date (and some genetic research suggests the gene that keeps us producing lactase past childhood came about much later*) doesn’t come up nearly as often, ime.
This doesn’t make either approach wrong, of course. Only that relying on true believers to be objective isn’t a good idea.
sorry, meant to include the * link
http://www.thetech.org/genetics/news.php?id=45
Oh boy, this is a can of worms. In theory I think these nutrition tracking sites can be incredibly useful, but if you have tendencies toward an eating disorder or OCD, I think it’s really hard to maintain your sanity and not become obsessive. Anymore I only track my nutrition intake when I’ve lapsed back into my disordered eating behaviour. I’m still struggling to just accept myself at the size I am and not worry about fat or calories or whatever. But when I lapse I immediately turn to counting calories, and the worse I am the lower I’ll drop my calories. All of these nutrition websites give me every tool I need to continue my obsession. SO, I avoid them like the plague now. They’re just not worth it to me. I figure I need to let my body tell me what I need rather than listening to a one-size-fits-all nutrition calculator.
attrice — thanks for posting the link, I’ll take a look.
I completely agree that starting with a conclusion and working backwards is a problem in nutrition. That’s why Taubes’ book (which never mentions WAP but criticizes the last fifty years of nutrition science for working backwards from conclusions) inspired me to go back to the Weston A Price website which I’d happened across, and try a traditional diet for myself. (My heritage is Scotch-Irish-German-Native American.)
I’ve never tried FitDay, but I used to use the Dr. Phil weight loss board as a way to see where my eating fit in on a wellness scale of some sort. Since Dr. Phil is all about eating in moderation, etc., I thought it would be a good idea. It wasn’t a good idea at all, because those ladies used to go directly by Dr. Phil’s books, and couldn’t, for the life of them, think for themselves. So, when I tried telling them that for one day I didn’t eat meat but I did eat half an avocado, which added some fat and tempeh added protein, they just about had a fit, because I was eating such a fatty food and cut out meat. It was sort of like when I joined the Reader’s Digest forums for weightloss, and no one on a board would accept me because I dared to ask if they had a Buddhist forum instead of all the Christian forums.
My problem with the online eating trackers is their available food items. I can usually find a billion entries for processed foods but no entries for unprocessed organic type foods that I regularly eat.
“…I eat in the 1,800-2,500 calorie range.”
From the range of calories you eat, I’d estimate that your metabolic level is that of a woman in her 70s or 80s.
What an interesting comment, Mary. Almost as interesting as your link hawking a diet plan. But not as interesting as your diet plan’s acronym – “ED”.
Mary, the horror of eating food! Damn you Mo Pie! Eating like a normal person!
Mary, WTF? Eating doesn’t slow down and screw up metabolism, but not eating enough/rigorous dieting certainly do. 1800-2500 calories is a healthy, RECOMMENDED amount for an active adult woman.
Geez.