Archived Ask a Dietitian 4/24/14 - 10/21/14 Topic

Dietitian 09/18/14 replied to U6012515
Hi U6012515, I think your intake is too low for safety - especially if you plan to eat that way over a period of weeks/months. With an intake that low in the presence of exercise, you are likely losing a lot of muscle along with body fat. It is one thing for the body to handle low intakes with illness for short periods of time, but quite another to sustain an intake that low over weeks at a time.

Even bariatric surgery & optifast programs have higher avg intakes than yours - and that is with medical supervision.

Please increase your intake. The standard rec when folks are not being monitored is an average of 1200 kcal or more.

Best,
Kathy Isacks, MPS, RD, CDE

Dietitian 09/18/14 replied to Cathi
Hi Cathi, it is confusing since the Nutrition Facts (food labels in the U.S.) are not required to show starch grams (which make up part of the total carb grams. As well, nutrient values are rounded up or down. So the components shown underneath total carbs rarely add up to the total carb grams.

To read more about carb counting methods, you might like this article if you haven't already read it: http://www.mynetdiary.com/food-diary-for-diabetes.html

Sugar grams might be slightly underestimated due to round down, but some foods will be slightly overestimated due to round up. It's only off up to 1/2 gram so I wouldn't be so concerned about that.

Best,
Kathy Isacks, MPS, RD, CDE

Dietitian 09/18/14 replied to U5693823
Hi U5693823, gaining 3 lbs overnight sounds like water weight to me. When you have your cheat meal, track that meal for sodium. Try to limit sodium so you don't retain so much the following morning. In general, you might want to track sodium. I aim for 2300 mg or less.

Gradual weight loss just means that you are creating a smaller calories deficit than expected. There is ALWAYS error in these calories intake and expenditure estimates.

Hang in there! You are doing great! 15 lbs is awesome.

Best,
Kathy Isacks, MPS, RD, CDE

U6024821 09/19/14 replied to Dietitian
Is it ok to drink green tea to hydrate myself while doing cardio exercise?

Nanimal 09/19/14
Hi Kathy,

Feeling a little disheartened at the moment, have set a loss of 1lb a week but have only lost half of that in 6 weeks and put .5 on this week.
I exercise quite a bit and training for a half marathon so do i need to eat more? On a few runs I've found in lacking in energy around mile 4 to 5.
Thanks

U6019057 09/19/14 replied to Nanimal
Please can you update this tool to reflect current research on saturated fat and carbs. It is annoying to be getting messages to increase carbs and reduce sat fats and cholesterol because they cause heart disease.

U6019057 09/19/14 replied to U6019057
It would be good to include GL analysis in this app.

Dietitian 09/20/14 replied to U6024821
Hi U6024821, if you are tired of water and want to switch up your routine, you could drink green tea too. There is some caffeine (anywhere from 20-40 mg/cup depending upon strength) in green tea - but that amount is not likely to cause an increase in urination or dehydration. I would go with unsweetened tea. But I wouldn't use green tea instead of an electrolyte replacement drink for cardio endurance activities since it won't contain enough sodium, chloride, or potassium.

Best,
Kathy Isacks, MPS, RD, CDE




Best,
Kathy Isacks, MPS, RD, CDE

Dietitian 09/20/14 replied to Nanimal
Hi Nanimal, since you are already at a healthy weight (I looked at your measurements since your data is open to all), you might be trying to go too low in calories and carbs for the amount of cardiovascular endurance activity you do. You might want to try bumping it up and see how it goes. A lot of runners like Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook - you might want to check it out. I think she is on the 5th edition by now.

Best,
Kathy Isacks, MPS, RD, CDE

Dietitian 09/20/14 replied to U6019057
Hi U6019057, MyNetDiary has to use default nutrient settings and not everyone will agree with the conservative guidelines set by the IOM/DRI or the American Heart Association. I have requested that MND allow flexible thumbs up and down, ability to hide thumbs goal, etc and I know that they are either working on it or it is in the queue now.

But those conservative guidelines are still considered valid by the medical community, especially for folks who are at higher health risk due to their age and extrea weight (that would be the majority of MND members).

For most folks, any type of eating plan that results in weight loss will improve health parameters, including blood cholesterol/lipoproteins, blood glucose, and blood pressure (excluding certain medical conditions). So I understand that the thumbs can be annoying when you don't agree with the cut points.

Best,
Kathy Isacks, MPS, RD, CDE

Archived Ask a Dietitian 4/24/14 - 10/21/14