Assignment #1: Personal Nutrition Assessment

1.      I am five feet, six inches tall, and I weigh 158 pounds.  According to the Center for Disease Control’s Body Mass Index (BMI) Calculator, my BMI is 25.5, which puts me in the Overweight category.  This is about what I expected, but I thought I was 5’6½” or 5’7” until I actually measured, and even half of an inch makes a difference in determination of these categories.  If I were half-an-inch taller, then I’d be only slightly overweight, but if I were a whole inch taller, I’d be at the high end of the normal category.  Even if I weren’t overweight, I still feel that, with my body type, I should have a little less fat to look as good as I want to.  Normal weight for my height is 115-154 pounds, but I would be content with weighing between 125 and 135 pounds, which is the range in which my weight fell all through my middle school and high school years.

2.      My waist circumference is 37 inches, and my hip circumference is 41 in, making my Waist-to-Hip Ratio 0.9, or apple shape.  This was kind of disappointing, because I thought that with my wide hips, I’d at least be out of the “apple” range, but that was not to be so.  My Basal Metabolism (RMR) for a female of my age (28 years) is 1519 Calories, and my Calorie/Energy Needs is 1975 Calories.  It’s nice that I now know how many Calories I need to eat per day to maintain my current weight, and that I should reduce that to between 1475-1675 in order to lose weight.  My problem is that I have such long days; even eating only 1975 Calories is difficult, because if I’m hungry, I can’t think of anything else, especially when I’m supposed to be sleeping.

3.      According to my daily food plan, I currently don’t eat enough vegetables.  This is difficult to do, since I only do the grocery shopping in my house very rarely.  My sister and her husband do the bulk of the shopping, and they don’t often buy vegetables.  There are also many other factors, like the cost of seeds and nuts, and my preference for whole milk, which I will not go into here.  I’m also eating too much, due to my long days and not knowing just how big a meal—or how small a snack—should be.  I’ll certainly pay more attention to food labels from now on, and if the food I’m eating doesn’t have a label, I’ll look up the nutrition information online either before or after I eat it.

4.      I chose Saturday, September 3, 2011 to track my diet, because that is as close to a “typical work day” that I can get.  I also have typical school days, but the assignment only called for the tracking of one day’s diet.  The log of what I ate that day can be found on the next page.  I also included where I was when I ate each of those foods.  That day, I woke up at 1:30 a.m, had work at Dulles Airport from 4:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m, and went to sleep around 7:00 p.m. I tracked this using FitDay, and was surprised that I had taken in almost half again as many Calories as I needed, and yet I was still hungry between meals and snacks.  I’m not sure how well FitDay compares to Choose My Plate, because the measurements are not all the same, and FitDay only calculates Calories, Fat, Carbs and Proteins, and then calculates the percentage eaten of those nutrients.  Choose My Plate tells you how many cups of foods from the different categories should be consumed in a day, but doesn’t break it down the same way as FitDay.  One difference that I’m definitely sure of, however, is that Choose My Plate is listed as a 2000 Calorie plan, whereas I know that my intake should be slightly lower.  According to FitDay, I need to cut back on Fats, Sodium and Proteins the most, and I need to have more Fiber; Vitamins A, B12, D, and E; and have more Copper and Zinc in my diet.  What that means in actual food terms compared to Choose My Plate, I am not certain.  I think the healthiest meal I had on September 3^rd is probably the banana bread, although I should have only eaten two slices instead of three.  The least healthy meal was probably the bologna and cheese sandwich, since I didn’t make it myself and it had three slices of meat instead of one, which added up to a lot of sodium.

a.       0130: A couple sips tap water (Smithsburg, MD) with allergy medication – bedroom

b.      0200: A couple sips tap water with lactose supplement, about 1½ cups Malt-O-Meal Berry Colossal Crunch with about ¾ cup My Essentials Vitamin D Whole Milk - kitchen

c.       0240-0340: 16 oz. AC&T Dark Roast Coffee with 3 packets of sugar and 5 individual containers of Half and Half. - car

d.      0615: 3 slices banana bread from AC&T, 2 “cone-cups” of water from the jug cooler – TSA break room at Dulles Airport.

e.       0915: Three slices bologna and one slice American cheese on wheat bread with 1 packet of mayonnaise and 2 packets of mustard, about 1 apple (sliced—various varieties) with caramel for dipping, about 15 grapes (red and green, seedless)

f.       0930-1130: 20 oz. Deer Park Spring Water

g.      1600: 1 fortune cookie, about ¾ cup fried rice, and about 2 cups Hunan Beef from China 88 in Smithsburg, Maryland – living room

h.      1700: 1¾ slices homemade French toast (leftovers) made from whole grain wheat bread – living room

i.        1815: A couple sips of tap water – bedroom

Timing, money, and convenience of preparation for food all affect my diet.  On the chart we made in class, I highlighted a lot of things.  In fact, I think I highlighted most of them, except those items having to do with sports, since I don’t play any.  My eating habits make me consume more sugars, sodium and fats than I probably need, giving me an apple shape and making me overweight.

Teacher Comments and Grade: I'm pretty sure I got full marks on this assignment, but I do not have the teacher's comments anymore.