Dietary Analysis Project Paper

Dietary Analysis Project In working on my dietary analysis project, I decided to monitor what I consumed and what physical activities I completed during a seven-day period. My reasoning for this was that I could easily identify what changes I could make in my diet, as well as my physical activities. It was slow and grueling, but I managed to stick through to the end of the seventh day. Working through the seven days, I noticed my diet did seem to vary quite a bit, but stayed pretty consistent between roughly 1,200 and 1,650 calories. While it is difficult to say whether the consumption of the calories will cause weight loss, gain, or maintenance, it also does depend on what is consumed, as well as the level of activity. Given that I am currently a lightly active person, my consumption of calories for the seven-day period did keep me between weight maintenance and weight loss, given that I weighed myself within a couple days prior, in the middle of, and on the last day of watching my daily caloric intake and output. In relations to including more activity in my day, that would vary on what exactly I have for that day. Say I’m at home and working on homework, I could easily work on completing hand strengthening exercises. If I’m watching television, our elliptical is stationed parallel with it, therefore giving premium access to work out and watch TV at the same time. There’s plenty that I could do while working on daily things around the house. Looking at my caloric intake for the seven days, what I ate did vary, but five of the seven days, my intake stayed fairly consistent, and remained between roughly 1,200 and 1,400 calories. The other two days, I did notice that my caloric intake did rise up to about 1,650, and that’s when I tried to rein it in on what I had eaten and how much of it. Nutrients wise, I did notice that I could have laid off quite a bit on the fat and carbs. I do know that some carbs are good, while others aren’t. I tend to be very much a carb eater, and I know I could have laid off on the bread carbs a bit, though in doing so, I tend to lean on the potato starches and carbs. A vitamin that I seemed to have a bit too much would be sodium, and I know that in reducing the bread and potato carbs that I intake will reduce in some of the sodium that I intake. For the macronutrients that I had eaten, the highest one that I consumed was fats. In all honesty, I did think that I would have a higher percentage on the carbs. The highest nutrient of the fat contents that I ended up consuming was saturated fat, coming in at 18.28 grams. The negative effects of consuming too much of saturated fat, that can lead to cholesterol to build up in the arteries, and it can also cause the LDL cholesterol to rise. This in turn can lead to having a risk of heart disease and stroke. Some foods that I could reduce in eating would be most meats, which include beef, lamb, and pork, and then butter, cheeses, and dairy products that have 2% milk. A nutrient that I am subsequently low in in fats would be cholesterol. A way that I can change that is by consuming more eggs, a one-ounce serving of cheese for every meal I have it at, and even pasture-raised steak to name a few. In looking through all of the minerals and vitamins in my seven-day dietary analysis, magnesium seems to be one of the lowest nutrients on my analysis. The importance in the nutrient is that it helps to regulate reactions in the body. Some of these reactions include working with protein, the functions of muscles and nerves, controlling the blood and glucose, and help regulate blood pressure. If the body doesn’t get enough magnesium, the individual can experience a loss of their appetite, experience nausea, vomiting, fatigue, and even weakness. If an individual continues to go on without getting the proper amounts of magnesium, that can start feeling numbness, tingling, muscle contractions, personality changes, abnormal heart rhythms, and more. Three foods that I can eat to ensure that my magnesium levels go up and are maintained are potatoes with the skin, cooked beans such as black, lima, navy, and pinto, as well as peanut butter. Also looking at the My Plate Analysis, it shows that I had only consumed 5.7% of what I should have consumed for fruits. That should be implemented more into my diet. The second lowest to that of the fruit, was vegetables at 39%, though most of that came from any potatoes I might have consumed. After looking over my diet over the seven days that I was tracking my intake, I now have a better understanding of what I could and should cut out of my diet and what I should implement more of. I do know that I should reduce the amount of bready carbs that I intake, but in turn replace that with even more fruits and a bit more vegetables, making sure I don’t go to bed until I have at least one serving each a day. If I were to not change my diet, I could might as well have organ failure and die from that as well as being overweight. This analysis has definitely made me think a little differently about the way I look at food. Now I know what exactly I’m lacking. While I do understand that my daily caloric intake does change on a week to week basis, I now am able to focus what I need little of and what I need more of. There are days where I just want to eat to make sure I don’t go hungry, but at the time being, I just want to fuel my body with the good nutrients that I need.