Meet Troy: A Body-builder goes vegan

  Troy Loferski first got interested in body-building during his college years. Back then, he says, he had a typical body-builder’s approach to nutrition. “I was focused entirely on macronutrients: how much protein, carbohydrate, and fat I was getting. I ate a lot of tuna, eggs, whey protein, and whole grains, but hardly any fruits and vegetables.  I’d read that they were so filling that they made it difficult to consume enough calories to support muscle gains.”

Troy became absorbed by his career and drifted away from training. With his 30th birthday looming, though, he decided in the Fall of 2007 that he wanted to get back in shape. This time around, however, some things had changed.

“I’d been thinking about adopting a vegan lifestyle. Initially, it was for ethical reasons but the more I looked into it, the more I was convinced that the vegan diet was also the ultimate healthy diet and great for longevity. And, of course, there’s a huge emphasis on fruits and vegetables and all the micronutrients and phytochemicals they provide.

“So, I wanted to pursue this healthy diet but I also wanted to start body-building again. At first, I wasn’t sure if it would be possible to do both. But I found a vegan body-building site [veganbodybuilding.com], and then I found Nutritiondata.com.

Troy last year (before becoming a vegan) and now:

“I just kept plugging different foods into the tracking tools to find the combinations that would provide the optimal balance of macronutrients and micronutrients.  I used the Nutrient Search Tool to find foods that had a certain nutritional profile. For instance, that’s how I discovered chia seeds, which I now eat almost every day. I didn’t even know you could eat them…I thought they were just for chia pets! They are a great source of omega-3 fats.

“I still log in everything I eat on most days. The tools on ND are fantastic, especially the pantry and the custom entry tool. The caloric ratio pyramid shows me my macronutrient ratios and the total consumption report helps me track all the micronutrients.

“I eat about 3,800-4000 calories per day with a ratio of about 55% carbs, 20% protein, and 25% fat. That’s way less protein than most body-builders eat—most of them don’t believe it’s possible to do what I’m doing. But my strength and energy levels are fantastic and I feel terrific. Plus, I know that this diet is also really healthy for me over the long-term. My friends and family were a little skeptical about me becoming a vegan, but now that they see how healthy I am, they are very supportive.

“Eating that many calories on a vegan diet can be a challenge. Fruits and vegetables are micronutrient rich but not macronutrient rich. It ends up being a lot of food. I drink 2-3 green smoothies a day, made with pea protein powder, flax or chia, nuts, fruit, and greens. They are 600 or 700 calories each (and no chewing!) so they help me meet my caloric needs. Usually I get about 200% or more of the DV for all the vitamins and minerals, except for sodium, which is usually less than 100%.

“I’m constantly telling other body-builders (and vegans) about Nutritiondata.com. It’s been a big part of making this work for me!”

If you'd like to be profiled as one of our ND Champions, we'd like to hear your story!  Anyone who has used Nutrition Data to make positive changes in their health and lifestyle can be an ND Champion. Click here for details.

Chocolate Milk: Better than Sports Drinks?

A few weeks ago, one of my co-workers asked me my opinion on a fancy sports drink that her 16-year-old son was trying to get her to buy for him. He's in training with the high school football team and the word around the locker room was that this pricey potion would help one get stronger, faster.

After looking at the formula, I told Joanne that, while I didn't think it would hurt him, he could probably get much the same benefit for a fraction of the cost by drinking low-fat milk. (One of the primary ingredients in the drink was whey protein, or, the stuff you get in milk.)

Today, I ran across research that not only validated my call on the sports drink but added a delicious twist.   Researchers at Indiana University are saying that chocolate milk is just as good as sports drinks in aiding recovery from intense exercise. (See also this response from nutritionist Felicia Stoler on Shereen Jegtvig's Nutrition Blog.)   Although chocolate milk obviously contains more sugar than plain milk, sugar has a less dramatic effect on blood sugar right after a work out, when your body uses the sugar to restore glycogen stores in spent muscles rather than storing it as fat.

So, if your inner kid (or your actual one!) craves chocolate milk, go ahead and give in--as long as it's after exercise!

Help! I started running and GAINED weight!

Dear Monica,

Recently I started running about 35 to 40 minutes a day. I usually run 4 to 5 times a week but I have gained weight in the process. I gained 4 lbs. I wanted to know whether this was muscle weight or is it because I have been eating a bit more carbs than normally?

A. Congratulations on your new healthy habit! But if one of your goals for your new exercise program was to lose weight, I can imagine how frustrating it would be to see the scale going UP instead of down. Let's see if we can get to the bottom of things.

Fill that sport bottle with milk

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a new "sport performance" drink and polled Nutrition Data users about what they like to drink during and after exercise.  Turns out I should have included "milk" as one of the choices! A new study out of McMaster University finds that drinking skim milk after exercise can increase the amount of lean muscle you gain and double the amount of fat you lose. (The study compared three post-workout drinks: skim milk, soymilk with the same amount of protein and calories, and a carbohydrate drink equivalent to a typical sport drink.)

Even the researchers were surprised at the results. "The loss of fat mass, while expected, was much larger than we thought it would be," says Phillips, associate professor of kinesiology at McMaster.

I should point out that the study involved "rigorous" weight-lifting workouts, five times a week, which may have something to do with the dramatic changes in fat and muscle mass they observed. Still, the relative benefit of drinking milk compared with other protein- and carbohydrate-containing drinks appears to be substantial.  If you're working out to lose extra fat, wouldn't you want to lose it twice as fast?

A big glass of milk after a workout doesn't sound very refreshing but maybe its just a matter of getting used to it. Think we'll be seeing milk bottles next to the gatorade in the gym vending machines?

Ask Monica: How many calories should I eat to lose weight?

Q. I'm 31 years old and 66 inches tall and weigh about 250 lbs. How many calories should I be consuming if I want to lose weight. Should I only eat 1500 calories a day?

A.  Many experts like to reduce this question into a simple mathematic equation, namely, that 3500 calories equals one pound. Therefore, cutting 500 Calories (kcal) per day will equal one pound of weight loss per week (500 Calories x 7 days = 3500 Calories, or 1 pound).  Using Nutrition Data's Daily Needs Calculator, I figure that you would need 2500 Calories per day to maintain your current weight. So, using the simple math, eating 1500 Calories a day would cut 1000 Calories, translating into 2 pounds a week.

But in the real world, it's a little more complex than that.   First of all, a 1500-Calorie diet can feel pretty restrictive and might be hard to stick to for the long term. Secondly, suddenly cutting your caloric intake by 40% is likely to shift your body into starvation mode, in which your metabolism slows to accomodate the drop in calories. That's not what you want!

A better way to create a calorie deficit is to moderately reduce your calorie intake and at the same time increase the number of calories you burn with exercise.

Let's say you reduce your caloric intake to 1800 Calories a day (a deficit of 700 per day). Then, you burn an extra 300 Calories every day through exercise.  (You can use the Daily Needs Calculator to see how many calories various exercises burn. Walking briskly 30 minutes a day and doing 20-30 minutes of strength training per week would burn an average of 300 extra Calories per day.)

You're still creating a 7000/per week Calorie deficit, which would average out to a weight loss of 2 pounds per week, but you won't be as hungry and there's less danger of an unintended down-shift in metabolism.   In fact, exercise not only burns calories but as you add lean muscle mass (particularly through strength training) you actually increase your metabolic rate. That means you burn more calories even when you're not exercising, which can incrementally increase the pace of weight loss. It will also speed the loss of inches, which can be just as important as the loss of pounds.

Ask Monica: does caffeine increase fat-burning?

Q. I read recently that the consumption of caffeine prior to exercise will assist the body in using body fat as fuel, up from 21% to 40%. The remaining fuel comes from stored carbs. Any truth to the story?

A. There may be a grain of truth to the story but not much more.  Taking caffeine  before exercise has been shown to increase energy expenditure (the number of calories burned) during exercise by around 10%.  So if you would normally burn 200 calories in a half-hour, some extra caffeine might help you burn 220.  Caffeine may also delay exercise fatigue and otherwise boost performance slightly. I didn't find any evidence, however, that it increases the amount of fat used as fuel. Generally, the body taps into fat stores when available carbs have been depleted.   

But here's a bizarre and newly discovered benefit of combining exercise with caffeine: last week researchers found that drinking caffeine and exercising regularly may decrease your risk of skin cancer (at least if you're a mouse)!

Will 75% of Americans be overweight in 8 years?

That's what the folks at Johns Hopkins are saying this week!  If Americans continue to get fatter at the current rate, three-quarters of us will be overweight by the year 2015. (And the other 25% will be NutritionData users!)

Right now, two-thirds of Americans are considered to be overweight (having a body mass index of greater than 25). Half of these are obese (having a BMI of 30 or more).  So, how do NutritionData users stack up against the national statistics?  If you don't know it, you can calculate your BMI here. Then, come back and be counted. (It's completely anonymous, of course.) 

Note: Because the BMI is not a reliable estimate of body fat for body builders and others with a very high ratio of lean muscle to fat, and because we have a lot body-builders on NutritionData, I'm going to include a special category for them!

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Many of our users say they user NutritionData tools to help them lose or watch their weight--and we've heard some remarkable success stories.  One user kept us posted on his progress as he lost over 100 pounds using NutritionData to track and analyze his diet. 

Post a comment below to share your experience. How do you use NutritionData tools to manage your weight?  Do you look up restaurant foods to see which are highest or lowest in fat or calories?  Do you use the total consumption report to self-monitor your intake? Do you analyze recipes? Use tools like Better Choices or Calorie Ratio Pyramid to select foods?

What do you find to be the most helpful?

Can a sports drink with protein improve your workout?

I saw a poster at the gym today for a new fitness drink called Accelerade.  It's the latest in a growing brigade (remember when there was only Gatorade?!) of drinks that are supposed enhance athletic performance with electrolytes, vitamins, minerals, various performance-enhancing herbs, and fuel for your muscles (read: sugar).   Accelerade's new twist is to add whey powder in a ratio of 4 parts carbohydrate to 1 part protein, which is supposed to "start the rebuilding process of muscles damaged during exercise."  The result is less muscle soreness and quicker recovery.  Sounds good, but is the product going to improve your work-outs (or your body)?

If you run or do other endurance exercise for an hour or more at a stretch, or if you are beating up your muscles with a heavy-duty weight-lifting routine, these sorts of drinks might actually give you a performance edge.  Personally, I don't work out long or hard enough to require additional sugar, salt, or protein to keep functioning.  I usually run a couple of miles and do about 20 minutes of strength-training and water works just fine.  Nonetheless, I regularly see women chugging 20-ounce bottles of gatorade during their 30-minute stint on the Stairmaster.  Calories burned? 177.  Calories consumed? 160. 

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Measuring trans fats in foods: We're still catching up

Q. The listing for roasted chicken thighs on ND shows no quantity for trans fat.  Is it safe to assume that there is no significant source of trans fat from this item?

A. It's true that there is no value for trans fat on the Nutrition Facts label for this food, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it contains no trans fats. It just means that we don't know how much there might be. (And when you do see 0g of trans fat on the Nutrition Facts label for other foods, keep in mind that quantities less than 0.5 are rounded down to 0.)

If you scroll a little farther down the page to the detailed analysis of roasted chicken thighs, you'll see a tilde (~) after "total trans fatty acids." That means that data for this nutrient is either unavailable or incomplete.  Although the USDA has begun to measure trans fats as part of its analysis, the majority of foods in the database still do not yet have a value for this nutrient. Manufacturers have been required to include this information on their Nutrition Facts labels since 2006, so you may find trans fat information on packaged foods that is not yet included in the USDA database. Although the USDA has not measured the trans fats in roasted chicken thighs, it has measured the amount in raw chicken. If you check the listing for raw chicken thighs, you'll see a value of 0 grams for trans fats in the Nutrition Facts label, and 0.0 of trans fatty acids in the detailed analysis.

So the chicken itself is not a source of trans fats. But are trans fats created in the cooking process? Although frying at high temperatures (and in hydrogenated oils) would add a significant amount of trans fats to the finished product, roasting at 350 degrees should not.

Ask ND: Should I eat before working out?

Q.  I exercise in the mornings, shortly after I get up. Generally, it's a 45 to 60 minute cardio workout coupled with strength and stretch exercises. I drink water during exercise but don't eat beforehand. If I should eat, what should I eat? I can't imagine eating a full breakfast and then working out.

A. Part of this is a matter of personal preference.  Like you, I find it more comfortable to exercise with a mostly empty stomach, and so I usually wait at least two hours after eating before heading to the gym or out for a run.  But I usually exercise in the late morning or afternoon.  Because you work out first thing in the morning, it's probably been at least eight hours since your last meal. There might be some benefit to topping off your reserves before your workout.

Obviously, I'm not talking about a Denny's Grand Slam breakfast.  Save your protein, fats, and fiber (all of which are slowly digested) for after your workout.  But you might want to try having a small, quickly digested carbohydrate snack (such as a banana or another piece of fruit) before working out.  I think you'll find that a bit of quick energy will enhance your exercise without weighing you down.  Try it, and let us know what you find.

This article by Daryn Eller, originally published in Muscle & Fitness/Hers magazine, offers a good overview of the way food (or the lack of it) affects your body during exercise, along with useful suggestions about what and when to eat before you work out. 

Q. How much protein should you have each day?

A. The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies are the folks who establish the government's dietary recommendations and they have two things to say on the subject of protein. First, they say you need about 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight to be healthy (more if you're pregnant or breast-feeding*). If you weigh 150 pounds, that comes out to about 54 grams of protein per day or around 11% of your daily calories. 

But the IOM also says that adults can get up to 35% of their daily calories from protein.  At 150 pounds, that's up to 175 grams of protein. Just as a point of reference, to get 50 grams of protein you'd need to eat a 5-ounce steak, 7 ounces of tuna, 12 egg whites, 3 1/2 cups of yogurt, or 25 ounces of tofu (whew!).  Use the ND Nutrient Search tool to look for other protein foods.

Whether you should aim for the high or low end of the range is open to debate...and personal preference.  Here are some of the things you might want to consider:

Turning that resolution into reality

Happy New Year, everyone!

Did you make a New Year's resolution this year?  If so, you're in good company.  Coming hard on the heels of the party-hearty holidays, January 1st seems to be a natural time to start fresh.  But is there any point? Psychologists say that many resolutions are broken before the day is out. The fact that we seem to make the same resolutions every year suggests that few of them stick. 

But even if you broke last year's (or every year's) resolutions, this year can be different. Here are four strategies that will help you turn your resolutions into reality.

1. Stay focused on your actions, not your progress.

According to researchers at Yale University, the trick to sticking to your resolutions is to stay focused on your commitment to a certain course of action (to eat healthier, to spend less, to exercise more, etc.) and not pay too much attention to your results or progress toward a specific goal. 

2.  Keep a log--especially at the beginning.

When you are trying to change habitual patterns, it can be very enlightening and helpful to keep a log of your daily activities.  If you are trying to stop out-of-control spending, write down everything you spend for a couple of weeks. If you are trying to lose weight, keep a diary of what you eat. ND's pantry tool can help. If you want to get into the habit of exercising regularly, log your daily mileage or calories burned.

3. Find a support network

Research shows that support and encouragement from others with the same goals is a big help. Why not make the Nutrition Data community your partner in achieving a healthier lifestyle this year?  Whether your goal is to lose weight, increase your fitness, lower your blood pressure or cholesterol, or simply to eat a healthier diet, you'll find thousands of others in the ND community who are committed to the same goals. 

4. Go on record

There's something about making your resolution public that makes it just a little bit harder to abandon your resolution. To give your resolution a little extra staying power, why not put it on record? Use the 'Post a Comment' link below and tell us your New Year's Resolution and how you plan to attain it.

Here, by the way, are the ten most common New Year's Resolutions:

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