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3-Day Diet Tracker Reflection

1. Darla Fox tracked her diet for three days and found some areas of improvement, including low fiber intake on two days and high fat and sodium intake on one day. 2. To improve her nutrition, she plans to eat more fruits and vegetables to increase her fiber, reduce cheese consumption to lower fat intake, and limit deli meats to decrease sodium intake. 3. By making these changes to consume more nutritious foods, Darla hopes to better balance her macronutrient percentages and nutritional levels overall.

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132 views

3-Day Diet Tracker Reflection

1. Darla Fox tracked her diet for three days and found some areas of improvement, including low fiber intake on two days and high fat and sodium intake on one day. 2. To improve her nutrition, she plans to eat more fruits and vegetables to increase her fiber, reduce cheese consumption to lower fat intake, and limit deli meats to decrease sodium intake. 3. By making these changes to consume more nutritious foods, Darla hopes to better balance her macronutrient percentages and nutritional levels overall.

Uploaded by

api-518057149
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Darla Fox

Professor Knott

Kinesiology 34

26 July 2020

Reflection Upon Current Diet

Nutrition was not a large focus for my family meals as a child. In my teenage years, I

began exploring fitness as I had two siblings lose significant amounts of weight, and I became

interested in doing the same. Back then, I used the MyFitnessPal phone application to track my

caloric intake, but my main focus was macronutrients and caloric values rather than nutrition

regarding both macronutrients and micronutrients. When tracking my food with the app I was

able to maintain a slimmer figure, but unfortunately to lose weight I used too large of a caloric

deficit that was not maintainable, and I gained the weight back. Since beginning this course and

learning about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, I have once again begun tracking my food daily;

however, this time, I have centered the focus around eating nutritious food. I still have a lot of

room for improvement, as I have learned with this three-day diet tracking reflection.

Before evaluating my food intake, I had a few assumptions about the way my results

would turn out: high sugar amounts, low fiber, and high carbohydrate percentages because I tend

to snack on sweets. I was shocked to find this only partially true once I evaluated my percentages

for the three days. The MyFitnessPal report tracked calories, carbohydrates, fat, protein, sodium,

sugar, fiber and cholesterol. The nutrient recommendations for a woman of my age from the

National Institutes of Health and from the book Questions and Answers 4e: A Guide to Fitness

and Wellness are as follows: carbohydrates (45%-65% of daily calories), fat (20%-30% of daily

calories), protein (10%-35% of daily calories), sodium (maximum 1500mg per day), sugar (less
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than 25% of daily calories per day), fiber (25g per day), and cholesterol (less than 300mg per

day) (Liguori, Carroll-Cobb, 277), (National Institutes of Health). Using the knowledge that

there are 4 calories per gram of carbohydrates or proteins, and there are 9 calories per gram of

fat, I was able to calculate my percentages of macronutrients. For most of the days of my

tracking, my macronutrient percentages were within the goal range, except for Day 3 in which I

consumed 44% Fat, 35% carbohydrate, and 21% protein calories; my fat percentage was too

high, and my carbohydrate percentage was too low. On Day 3, my sodium intake was also

significantly too high – I consumed 3760mg of sodium, which is 2260mg over the recommended

intake. In addition to sodium, my fiber intake was insufficient on Day 1 (18g) and Day 3 (6g),

both of which are out of the 80%-110% range of the 24g of fiber recommended for a woman of

my age. Using this information, it is evident that my areas for improvement are increasing fiber

consumption, minimizing sodium intake, and aiming to have more balanced ratios of

macronutrient percentages.

In order to improve my nutritional areas of deficiency, I will aim for a few different

goals. First, to improve my intake of fiber, I will consume more fruits and vegetables. I will

make half of my plate full of either fruits or vegetable; for example, for breakfast I may consume

a yogurt parfait filled with several berries and low-fat granola, and for dinner I may consume a

salmon fillet, a portion of whole grain rice, and asparagus. To improve my fat consumption

percentage, I will reduce the amount of cheese I consume by replacing a cheese snack with

vegetables. Cheese is a favorite food of mine that I do not want to eliminate, but it is high in

saturated fat which is not good for the body because it can increase LDL cholesterol, so I must

minimize my consumption of it to one serving a day instead of the several servings I am

currently consuming. Lastly, to ensure I am not consuming too much sodium, I will decrease my
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consumption of deli meats to only about once a week and pay more attention to sodium levels on

nutrition labels. On Day 3, the day my fat and sodium percentages were significantly higher than

the other days, the main source of sodium was from deli meats. In the future I will aim to eat lean

proteins like chicken and salmon instead of deli meats so I may eat healthier alternatives for

protein sources.

With these changes, I will consume more nutritionally well-rounded meals. In the future,

will work to consistently improve my nutritional imbalances as I continue accomplishing these

goals.
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Works Cited

Liguori, Gary, and Sandra Carroll-Cobb. Questions and Answers 4e: A Guide to Fitness and

Wellness. McGraw Hill Education, 2019.

“Nutrient Recommendations: Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI).” NIH Office of Dietary

Supplements, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,

ods.od.nih.gov/Health_Information/Dietary_Reference_Intakes.aspx.

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