Naval ROTC FEP Nutrition Guidance
Background: You will be required, as part of the Fitness Enhancement Program (FEP), to log your daily food intake on a nutrition log. The intent behind this is to see how many calories and the type of calories you intake. To assist you in making good food choices and making a good nutrition plan, guidance is provided below:
-Bottom line: in order to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you intake. It’s that simple.
-Healthy weight loss is approximately 1 lb per week.
-1 lb = appx3000 calories. So, you need to have a deficit of 3000 calories burned vs calorie intake in order to lose 1 lb per week.
-Do NOT take diet pills, water pills, or any other ridiculous supplement to try and lose weight. The only way to lose weight and maintain good health is reducing your caloric intake and exercising.
-Do not try low carb diets or other crazy diets. Your body needs carbs for energy. The only way to lose weight is burn more calories than you intake. Period.
-Tips for reducing your caloric intake:
-A good place to start is myplate.gov.
-Read food labels.
-Your meal/daily intake should be appx 45-65% of your calories from carbohydrates, 20-35% from fat (less than 10g of trans fat and try to reduce intake of saturated fat), and 10-35% from protein.
-Try eating more fruits and vegetables. They have more fiber in them and other phytochemicals (plant chemicals) that have other health boosting properties.
-Avoid empty calories such as sodas, fruits drinks,candy, etc. They offer no nutritional value and are not good for you. Instead of consuming a soda or fruit drinks, drink water with some no-calorie/low-calorie flavoring/sweetener such as Crystal Light or MiO. Not only will you reduce your caloric intake but you’ll also save money!
-Avoid supplements. If you have a good nutrition plan and a balanced diet, your body doesn’t need these supplements. You will get enough nutrients your body needs in your food. You do not need to consume a ridiculous amount of protein because you lift weights. Increase your protein intake to no more than 35% of your total calories per day. Your body can’t even process a certain amount of protein at a time so if you intake too much, it will just come out as waste.
Again, bottom line is, if you want to lose weight, you need to reduce your caloric intake and increase your caloric burn by exercising. It’s simple math/science.