Find Out What You’re Eating
It has to happen now and then. I take the palm of my hand to my forehead and say, “Why didn’t I do this sooner?”
I was reading Fertility Foods by Jeremy Groll, and he casually wrote that one of his patients uses an online food log to help her keep track of what she’s really eating. With a daily count of calories in terms of carbs, protein and fat she found it to be one of the most important parts of her low-carb lifestyle.
Now this is exactly what I need to know.
I haven’t yet concluded what the optimal daily caloric distribution is for carbs, protein and fat, but I have absolutely no idea what I am getting right now.
First, I thought I’d figure out the optimal distributions and then find out what I’m eating. Bad idea. Why? Because although I don’t know the exact distributions yet, I have a very good idea.
Here’s what I know: calories from protein should at least match the number of calories from carbs, and fat should be about half of that: so roughly 30-40% carbs, 30-40% protein, and 20-30% fat. These are just ranges but it still gives me a good idea of about where I want to be.
So, I stopped reading mid-paragraph and made a bee line to my computer. In less than ten minutes, I created an account on FitDay.com (the same website Dr. Groll’s patient used) and entered what I’d eaten for breakfast into my account - for free. Oh how I love the internet - you just need to know where to go.
Results: My caloric distribution shocked me. I thought I wasn’t getting enough carbs because I was relying heavily on vegetables - eating only a small portion of whole grains each day. What I found is that vegetables are a good source of carbs and my carb intake was about equal to my protein intake, which is good. What isn’t good is that I was getting 52% of my daily calories from fat!
They were healthy fat sources like olive oil and lean meats, which are essential to the fertility diet, but over fifty percent is not a balanced diet.
Immediately, I adjusted my diet by cutting down the amount of olive oil I used in recipes and stopped eating a whole avocado every day. I then upped my vegetable and poultry intake to keep the calories the same.
It’s looking good. Not there yet, but my fat is down and varies somewhere between 35 to 45 percent. It’s progress.
Here is my caloric distribution for Oct 8th from FitDay.com:

And an awesome add on to this whole calorie counting log is that it also gives you a complete breakdown of your daily intake of nutrients and compares them to the recommended daily allowances.
Here’s my nutritional breakdown for Oct 8th from FitDay.com:


Sometimes, life is easy.
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Posted: October 16th, 2008 under Fertility Diet.
Comments: 2
Comments
Comment from WaterBishop
Time: October 17, 2008, 6:42 pm
I use fitday as well. Some of their stuff is not nutritionally accurate, but then you can customize recipes with a little time and effort. It is a handy tool.
Comment from Vickey Moore
Time: July 20, 2009, 4:39 am
This website was awesome. I just learned I need to eat more protein and cut back on the carbs. Thanks!





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