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Home » Long Term Weight Loss » SHELTON ON FITNESS: Maximize ‘food values,’ don’t just decrease calories – Middletown Transcript

Frank Shelton

Calories in versus calories out. In the battle to lose weight, thats the equation that is examined most often and most closely.

But if we get caught up solely in calorie counts, we ignore other important food values. And doing so makes it harder to create a nutrition plan that promotes good health and enables long-term weight loss. In some cases, focusing only on calories can lead to poor eating habits and end up doing more harm than good.

For example, when you compare a dinner consisting of a hotdog, a roll and bag of chips versus 5 ounces of grilled salmon with a half-cup of peas and carrots and a sweet potato, the hotdog dinner wins if you judge the meals solely on calorie counts. But the hotdog meal has almost no nutritional value and is filled with sugar, sodium and saturated fat. Conversely, the salmon dinner, while providing a few more calories, gives you more protein, more fiber, a good serving of healthy fat and significantly more vitamins and minerals.

An even more ridiculous example would be to replace the hotdog dinner with a Snickers bar and a beer. Few would argue that a candy bar and a beer are healthy choices, but they do have fewer combined calories than the salmon dinner.

So, what are the other food values that should be considered besides calories?

When devising your nutrition plan, dont think only about how many calories youre consuming; think about the quality of those calories.

Judging content of calories

The first would be nutritional value. Nutrition plans should be built around foods that have higher vitamin content, particularly from vegetables and fruits. Meanwhile, you should avoid foods that are high in added sugar and sodium.

Fresh foods almost always have a higher nutritional value than processed foods. When shopping, spend most of your time in the outer aisles. Thats where youll get the most nutritional bang for your buck.

Looking for balance

The second consideration is the foods macronutrient value. This refers to whether the food is a protein, carbohydrate or fat.

Meal plans that balance items from all three groups are ideal. Too often, the American diet, along with being too high in calories, has too many carbohydrates, particularly sugar, and too much saturated fat. And it doesnt have enough lean protein, quality carbohydrates (fiber) and healthy fats (the kinds you find in fish, nuts and olive oil).

Thinking about calories

Once you have addressed the issues of macronutrient value and nutrition value, you can then turn your attention to caloric value.

For example, you can go back to the salmon dinner mentioned earlier and cut the salmon portion down to 3 ounces and cut the sweet potato in half. Doing so brings the calorie count in line with the hotdog while maintaining a high nutritional value and good macronutrient balance.

When devising your nutrition plan, dont think only about how many calories youre consuming; think about the quality of those calories. That way, youll not only lose weight, youll create a healthier you.

Frank Shelton is a certified fitness trainer and owner of Frank Shelton Fitness. He can be reached at (302) 463-4000 or frank@franksheltonfitness.com.

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SHELTON ON FITNESS: Maximize 'food values,' don't just decrease calories - Middletown Transcript

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Home » Long Term Weight Loss » SHELTON ON FITNESS: Maximize ‘food values,’ don’t just decrease calories – Middletown Transcript