Why MFP could be holding you back

For years, MyFitnessPal has been the nutrition and fitness tracker used and recommended at brolific rates among new to calorie tracking and fitness people looking to get their diet in order and achieve a weight related goal. As we’ve mentioned and you’ve more than likely read about, weight loss, weight gain, and body transformation is largely a product of our diet, so it only makes sense to know what’s going into our body on a daily basis. While some advocate “extreme” calorie counting and others shun the idea completely, I am somewhere in between. I find it extremely helpful for myself and my clients to see the foods they are consuming and an estimate of how much they are consuming. For many people, this means using some form of tracking app.

As tracking software goes, the vast majority are the same, especially at the free level. You can set your own goals, track your food, the quantity, add new foods, see the macronutrient and micronutrient breakdown, and add new foods not already listed in the database. MFP is not much better or worse than any other tracker out there as far as the tracking apps go other than some really poor entries of food done by people that either misenter or only enter what they care about. With the big time bankroll of Under Armour, it is pretty to look at and has a large number of features. Where MFP starts to fall apart is their recommendations for how much a person should be eating and their process.

The following picture is taken directly from MFP for me, a 5’11”, 210 lb, approximately 15% bodyfat individual that trains 6 hours per week. This is their recommendation for me to eat to maintain weight.

3,030 seems like a good number to eat in a day, but what is this second number, 2,770 calories per week? That is what MFP determines your fitness goal to be, approximately 692 calories per workout and an additional amount of calories you can eat IF you burn those calories. If you know anything about MFP, this very small line between Nutritional Goals and Fitness Goals is overlooked and misused - “So the more you exercise, the more you can eat!” Essentially a statement that they suggest “eating back” calories that you have burned off in order to reach your goal.

Now, let’s take the calculator on our ZStrength website, which uses five popular estimations, and then takes the average. Using the exact same numbers I entered into MFP, I receive the following result:

Looking at the output, the estimated average intake I need to maintain my weight would be 3,329 calories per day. Like the line below our calculator says, it is an estimate and could be off, resulting in needing some adjustment up or down...just like MFP could (and almost always does) need adjusting.

Now looking at some of the math:

MyFitnessPal	ZStrength Calc
7 days at 3030 = 21,210 calories per week Workout Calories = 2770 Total Calories per Week = 23,980 Average per Day = 3,426	Average per Day = 3,329

That’s right, assuming you actually burn those 2,770 calories per week, you could eat an average 3,426 calories per day and the numbers aren’t that different. But is this clear to the average person just starting? Probably not and that’s what creates the problem.

The problem, and it’s a BIG PROBLEM that has happened time and again with clients when they use MFP, they either don’t know that MFP sets them low and wants them to eat back their calories or they know it and over-eat their exercise calories. The result is chronic over or under-eating because they are following the suggestions of MFP.

Combine the flaws of MFP with even the best non-clinical calorie burn estimators have a margin of error of at least 10%, and you can begin to understand just how bad this could turn out. Assuming one of the closest estimations of 10% and 692 calories burned per day could be 761 or 622. PN did a piece about how bad calorie estimators are: [http://www.precisionnutrition.com/problem-with-calorie-counting-calories-out].

As someone that works with clients to help them build the body they want, I have problems with the lack of clarity and relying on measurements with a known margin of error. MFP is going to take an inexact science (estimating calories in food) combined with another inexact science (how many calories you burn) and add an even less exact science (how many calories you burn in exercise) and convince you to eat that amount. Further, MFP only includes CARDIO calories in what you should eat back, so if you weight train for an hour and “burn 500” calories, you are still to eat 2730 according to them, but if you do an hour of cardio and “burn 300”, you get to eat 3030.

And a simple scenario to hammer home the problem:

You are training to lose weight at a rate of 1 lb / week. MFP gives you a 500 calorie deficit and a count of 2,530 + 1,500 calories of exercise per week. At 5 days per week of exercise, that’s 300 extra calories. Training day total: 2,830.  Off-day total: 2,530.

You train and log your workouts on MFP, which only logs your cardio burn. You train an hour with weights, burning approximately 550 calories + 30 minutes of cardio burning 150 calories.

In addition to being at a 500 calorie deficit to start, you are now an extra 550 calories short because MFP doesn’t know what you burned lifting weight. That’s over a 1,000 calorie deficit and 25% below your maintenance calories. It goes without saying that that large of a deficit isn’t good for you, especially in the long term.

Is MFP really that bad? No. Can this scenario be avoided? Yes, if you are knowledgeable (which most people just starting out aren’t) or if you know how to work MFP like a pro (which most people don’t). And an even easier yes; don’t rely on MFP to determine how many calories you should eat. There are hundreds of calculators and formulas to help you estimate your needs, which can then be plugged in to MFP. As mentioned before, we have one that on our site that uses 5 of the most popular formulas and provides an average. You can find it here at: http://zstrengthfit.com/tools/calculator.html

Hooray! Now what?

You finally did it. You prepped. You dieted. You trained your ass off. It took hours of prep, self-control, thousands of hours of work, and months of your life, but you did it. You finally reached your goal weight and now you come to the amazing question: "What next?" You just put in all that effort and now you have to decide on how to maintain the results.

It seems like a fairly easy concept, right? Finish the bulk or the cut and then just maintain your size, but let's be honest, we screw this up all the time. If we all got it right, the diet industry would be shut down in a matter of years...

Whether you are losing weight or trying to gain, your post-diet is just as important as your diet!

If you just finished your diet:

Coming back from a diet can be tricky because there are so many variations and more possibilities than I can ever address.  Some diets require lowering of calories, others, the elimination of macros, and some changing the time period when you eat. Since the ultimate goal at the end of your diet should be to establish a sustainable eating style that maintains your weight, the important principle must be achieving a maintenance level of eating that matches your level of activity.

The largest of these principles is the SLOW recovery to maintenance. Whether you ate low calorie, low carb, or fasted, the diet effected your body's metabolism and hormones. Depending on how long the diet period lasted could have tremendous impact on how long the road back to maintenance will take.

You may be asking yourself "Why can't I just go back to my regular eating?" Your body seeks homeostasis, with weight, fat levels, etc. Simply, as you reduce calories to lose weight, your body is smart enough to slow metabolism and adjust hormones to maintain the current levels. In short, the gradual recovery will allow your body to recover it's metabolic rate, readjust hormones, balance gut bacteria, and set you up for sustaining the weight you worked so hard to achieve.

So how do we perform a slow recovery? Time for everybody's favorite answer, "It depends."

I was eating at a small deficit, how do I get back to full portions?

The answer is patience. If you were on a low calorie diet, recovering is just a matter of increasing our calories weekly until we reach maintenance. This has become wildly popular under the name of "Reverse Dieting" and can be found in books, websites, and even web software. One of the best books for explaining the concept is Reverse Dieting by Sohee Lee and Layne Norton. Essentially, you increase your calories weekly or bi-weekly with the idea that you will improve your metabolism and hormone profile with little to no weight gain and you will be able to return to your maintenance level calories over a period of weeks. Nobody can give you an exact time-frame, but the longer you dieted, the longer it will take to recover.

I was eating a specialized diet, can I go back to normal?

If you were on a diet like VLC, Atkins, or some other elimination style diet, your re-introduction could come with some nasty side-effects. When you remove a food type, the bacterial composition in your gut changes. With those changes come changes in how we digest and how we absorb the nutrients. Sometimes it's as simple as having a "gassy" feeling, other times it leads to diarrhea, leaky gut, or possibly worse with full out allergic reactions.

On top of the gut health issues, a diet that restricts carbohydrates tends to have an initial loss of weight associated with lost water weight. There's a lot of science behind it, but when you cut carbohydrates from the diet, the initial weight lost is primarily water, so naturally, when you reintroduce carbohydrates, the body will retain some water. A lot of people aren't prepared to see the scale rise and automatically assume it's fat. This is where a little extra time researching your diet is a worth it.

Again, the solution is slowly reintroducing the removed macronutrient WITHOUT creating a large surplus of calories. (Remember, caloric deficit = losing weight, caloric surplus = gaining weight)

What about if I want to change "Eating Styles?"

Sometimes, our diet has us changing from eating three meals a day to a modified eating plan, five meals a day, or possibly intermittent fasting. Although changes like these are typically lasting and are a way of eating for life, some people want to return to their good old three squares a day plan. Essentially nothing changes macro-wise, but you will have to fight through feelings of either being full or starving and possibly a little upset stomach if you've been avoiding morning meals. The best suggestion I have is to continue with the same calories while transitioning back to the three meals per day and then gradually increase calories if needed.

What if I did something radical and possibly stupid to lose weight?

Yup, there are STUPID ways to lose weight that will work in the short term. I do not personally recommend any of them, but people have done things like extended juice fasts, major calorie cuts (like 1/2 their intake cut), or one of the many extremist fad diets. The inherent risk with any of these diets is their effect on our metabolism, our gut bacteria, and our hormone levels. While they may accomplish the short term goal, the consequences could be long term damage, and sometimes the rebound could result in more fat gained than lost.

Of course, people will still do these diets and there needs to be some way to help them recover. Again, I believe "Reverse Dieting" is one of the better options if the extreme diet was run for only a short period (less than two weeks), but the first thing I recommend after a prolonged extreme diet is talking to a physician and allowing them to run blood tests. At the point where hormone levels are outside of the "normal" range, a medical professional will have the safest protocol to attempt to return the hormones to normal. And despite the weight loss, the safest option may be to regain weight and diet back down the right way.

If You Just Finished Your Bulk

This is a far shorter answer. Eat less! Cut the total calories by cutting back on carbs and fats. Again, the key is slowly cutting back each week until you find your maintenance levels. The one macronutrient I recommend keeping high is your protein to keep supporting that new muscle. Unlike after a diet concludes, the conclusion of a bulk allows for a much easier return to maintenance.

The Keys

1. Be Patient
2. Make Slow increases or decreases in calories, radical changes can have bad effects
3. Weigh yourself each week and add or decrease total calories until maintenance
4. Keep protein high to support your muscles
5. If you're doing it right and something isn't right, SEE YOUR DOCTOR.

A little knowledge goes a long way. Now that you've reached your goals, take it slow, recover the metabolism the right way and maintain that body you worked so hard for.

Why Aren't I Losing Weight? 10 Factors You Need to Consider.

Every year, millions of people attempt to tackle weight loss. They find talk of calories, of macros, of IIFYM, Paleo, and IF; hormones with really weird names, and fat burning supplements; training programs, met cons, and infomercials galore. Everybody says how simple it should be and then proceeds to muddy the simplicity with hundreds of “if's” and options. There is no shortage of information telling you everything you've done wrong or why this program is better than the others. And I'm not going to write another step-by-step guide to losing weight, discuss macros, diets, and training programs. There are enough of those out there for you to read. Instead, I'm going to address some of the not-so obvious problems in weight loss.

Without boring you with all the different theories and the soapbox lecture about how weight loss is a process and there is no such thing as a quick-fix, I want to remind you that THERE IS NO QUICK-FIX, no magic pill, no insta-cleanse (that's a whole different post), and a whole lot of ways that work. Each person responds differently and part of the challenge is finding what works for you. The most important part is approaching your weight loss systematically and by making small, sustainable life changes and having patience.

Assuming you've got a solid plan (no magic pills, no drastic calorie cuts or food eliminations) and a training program that matches (some cardio, some weight training), you should see progress happen within a few weeks depending on how much you've got to lose. Remember, the scale isn't always going to show progress, so that's why we advocate taking before pictures from multiple angles along with measuring calves, thighs, hips, waist, chest, biceps, and neck. But what happens when you aren't seeing any of these measures move?

Unfortunately, even with the perfect plan, there are other factors that can effect weight loss, and many of them are either overlooked or never discussed. Instead of looking deeper, the fitness world would have you change programs, cut your calories, use a “cleanse” or buy some new variant of bootcamp DVD paired with a TENS Unit (the electro shock thing).

Some of these factors that effect our weight loss are within our control, and many others are not. Even though we can't have 100% control, when we know what is causing our problem, we can take appropriate steps to minimize their effect.

Possible Factors Effecting Weight Loss:

• The Wrong Mentality – This could be the most difficult weight loss stumbling block of them all. Whether it's overconfident or self-defeating, how we think about our weight loss and our plan can determine our chance of success. When we're too stubborn to listen (I didn't say implement) to other options we're likely to make poor decisions when we stall. When we don't believe in the program we're using, we're likely to cheat on the diet, skip workouts, and commit self-sabotage in small ways. Either way, your success depends on you believing

• Stress – We all face stress every day. Some of us train to relieve stress, some of us play sports, some meditate, and others binge eat. For the most part, we handle the stress fairly well, but when we face more stress than we can handle or we don't recover well enough, bad things happen. Stress causes the body releases the hormone Cortisol. While Cortisol is both normal and necessary, too much of it throws off the body's hormonal balance and can result in a number of medical conditions.
  
  One of the best techniques to battle stress in my experience, is learning to meditate. There are apps on both iOS and Android that can guide you through techniques to relax and relieve stress in as little as 5 minutes each day.

• Working Out Too Much – The old addage goes something like “Eat less, move more.” Unfortunately, in weight loss, more isn't always better. When you work out too much, whether it's endless hours of cardio or weights, the body's reaction may be to hold on to weight. Simply explained, working out causes stress, and stress without proper nutrition and recovery leads to negative changes in the body and potential weight gain.
  
  Many unknowingly out-train their recovery and nutrition, resulting in no progress and a lot of frustration. The solution is truly as simple as it seems; do less. That's not to say do nothing, but if you are training 5-6 days per week and you aren't seeing changes, it may be time to consider reducing your training days to only three days per week.

• Too Little Recovery – There are articles and research to be found all over that explain the importance of recovery and sleep on hormonal regulation, recovery, and weight loss. When the hormones get out of whack (yup, science terms here) weight loss and fat burning slows. Lack of sleep and poor sleep quality leave us tired and potentially reaching for sugary food and drink to give us quick bursts of energy, skipping workouts, and eating the easy, fast food because we're too tired to make healthy meals at home.
  
  One of the tools I use to monitor my sleep is called “sleep bot” for Android. There are a plethora of similar trackers that monitor sleep time and movement and can provide a sleep quality. Many can also create “smart alarms” that wake us up at the right time with the right amount of sleep. Another valuable part of getting restful sleep is playing meditation hypnosis before bed to relieve stress. If monitoring and adjusting your sleep isn't working, it may be time to speak to a doctor about it.

• Inconsistency – We all see it or have experienced it, the on again, off again relationship with good nutrition and working out. But what happens when we start and stop repeatedly? What happens when we only work out once a week instead of the three that we planned on? Weight loss takes consistent efforts, and patience to stay the course.
  
  News Flash – The infomercials provide skewed perceptions about typical weight loss rates. The truth is weight loss and body changes don't happen overnight and sometimes not for weeks. Be patient, make your training and nutrition a priority. Plan it into your day and then take no excuses.

• Medical Conditions – Hypothyroidism, Cushing's Syndrome, PCOS, Syndrome X, Depression, and other Hormonal Changes are all conditions that effect weight loss. Each condition occurs for a different reason and can be an underlying cause on why the weight isn't coming off.
  
  While we can read all about these conditions and symptoms, and self-diagnose, the only true diagnosis and treatment comes with the the assistance of a medical professionals.

• Medications – There are millions of medications on the market and being used by people all over the world. Birth Control, Anti-Depressants, Blood Pressure Meds, and many others can all effect our hormone levels, cause fatigue, fluid retention, or can increase appetite. Like everything else that goes into our body, the medications we take can effect how our body works.
  
  You can research the medications you take, along with their side effects online. If you're concerned about your medications and their effect on weight loss, check with the prescribing doctor.

• Food Sensitivities – There is a difference between a sensitivity and an allergy. A trouble food can be tolerated in small amounts and the bad reaction might be prevented with medications in a food sensitivity. The reason for the reaction is certain elements of the offending food might not be digested and processed optimally, resulting in inflammation. Inflammation is typically followed by a level of insulin resistance and possibly leaky gut.
  
  The obvious solution is to limit the intake of foods that you are sensitive too. Another possible solution is the use of Probiotics to help maintain a healthy gut and aid in digestion. If you suspect food sensitivities could be hindering your weight loss, it is best to seek the assistance of a medical professional.

• Lack of Variety – When we do the same thing or eat the same thing for too long, our body adapts. In 6-8 weeks, the body can become more efficient and at that point, a small change needs to be made to keep progress moving forward.
  
  Evaluate your program every 6-8 weeks. If you are still making progress, there is no need to make a change, but when a program that was working, stalls, it's time to consider a small, calculated change.

• Too Much Variety – On the flip side of not changing enough is the person that changes too much. Whether it's switching from carb backloading to IIFYM to IF or from 5x5 to GVT to PHAT, too much variety prevents us from making progress. There is a huge myth out there that says the body needs to be “confused” to produce results.
  
  Like many have mentioned before, progress requires consistency and a chance for the body to adapt. As the body becomes efficient and adapts, then it is time to make just enough of a change to keep progress going.

As you can see, there are a number of factors that can effect weight loss and while we have control over only a few of them, we can be informed and make educated decisions about how to handle all of them. Once you've got the plan and the program it is important to be patient and consistent. Remember to take pictures, use the tape measurements, and the scale to create a whole picture of your transformation. If things aren't moving, instead of giving up or making drastic changes, consider the many factors above and ask for help from the people that know about and have experience working with weight loss.

Q and A #1 December

Every now and again, I hit a roadblock when thinking of blog topics and I had a little inspiration from searching through facebook for ideas. It seems people do it through youtube, facebook, twitter, and all other forms of social media, so we may as well implement it here. If you have a question or a topic you'd like to see answered, post it to us on our facebook page (http://facebook.com/zstrengthandfitness) or send us an e-mail (zstrengthfit@gmail.com) and once a month, we'll answer your questions to the best of our ability.

On to the questions we had this month:

What is the effect of strength training on the heart?
-Answered by Rich

Recently, I wrote about the effects of cardio training and strength training in Why Cardio Isn't the Devil where I discussed the issues with the changes that take place in the heart from cardiovascular training and from weight training. Both forms of training resulted in a lower resting heart rate, but only cardiovascular training resulted in an increased stroke volume, while weight training potentially decreased stroke volume. Neither was found to have a greater incidence of cardiac arrhythmia, or the feeling of “skipped heartbeats.” In the long run, the only significant difference was caused by the hypertrophy of the heart muscle.

Furthering the look at how training effects our hearts, let's consider some other factors besides resting heart rate and stroke volume. Specifically looking at strength training, let's consider two other characteristics that can be effected by training: blood pressure and maximum heart rate during activity. For many of us, we don't need science to tell us that training has an immediate impact on our heart by increasing the average heart rate and the blood pressure.

It seems logical that strength training would cause an acute increase in heart rate and blood pressure; after all, our body is recruiting muscles which need oxygen, which requires more blood to be pumped through the body. Assuming we are all in agreement about the short term effects, I have a wrench to throw in the system. [1,2] The Valsalva Manuever. During the temporary use of Valsalva, you are effectively holding your breath under high pressure to increase core stability during a heavy lift. By bearing down and holding your breath, your heart rate increases drastically and your blood pressure drops. This is the reason that you will see lifters pass out under a heavy load. When the breath is released, the heart rate returns to normal, but the blood pressure overshoots and is momentarily high, making the technique dangerous for those with cardiac conditions. Coincidentally, the technique can aid in correction of a cardiac arrhythmia and the detection of heart murmurs.

Similar to cardiovascular conditioning, strength training can increase a person's VO2 Max as well as lower a person's resting heart rate. Unlike cardiovascular training, strength training is shown to have little effect on the heart in the long run. After that, strength training is not proven to have any significant effect on heart health. According to the AHA, strength training has little to no effect on Systolic Blood Pressure (the pressure of the blood in the arteries during a heartbeat), but can lower Diastolic Blood Pressure (the pressure of the blood in the arteries between beats). Some studies have demonstrated decreases in Systolic Blood Pressure, but due to variability of training methods used, there is no consensus that strength training alone will lower overall blood pressure. The implications of having a lower Diastolic Blood Pressure is minor as the the majority of heart related issues can be attributed to the Systolic.

1. Fleck, S. J. (1988). Cardiovascular adaptations to resistance training. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 20 (Suppl.), S146-S151.
2. Stone, M. H., Fleck, S. J., Triplett, N. T., & Kramer, W. J. (1991). Health- and performance-related potential of resistance training. Sports Medicine, 11, 210-231.

Tips for Lifting with Degenerative Joint Disease
-Answered by Rich

Degenerative joint disease can put a damper on anybody's fitness program, but there are ways to stay active without causing constant pain. Obviously, you never want to do anything that causes bad pain or joint pain.

Some solutions are neoprene support sleeves, pool workouts, time limited workouts, band workouts, and bodyweight workouts. My prime focus as a trainer working with those that have arthritis is mobility. We focus on rolling, gentle stretching, and several basic functional movement patterns. With the majority of clients, the entire hour was spent working on basic bodyweight movement, increasing flexibility, and working through increasing ranges of motion.

With the majority of cases we work with, the use of a neoprene support sleeve to provide warmth and minimal joint stability helps them continue to train three days per week. We tend not to recommend more than four days per week as proper rest and recovery is essential to not exacerbate the symptoms.

As a general rule, when clients that have Arthritis or Degenerative Joint Disease can perform more complete ranges of motion, we move onto strength building. We start conservatively with 3-5 minutes of constant movement followed by a brief rest of about 2 minutes. The other recommendation is to alternate movement patterns. For example an upper pushing movement followed by a lower pulling movement. By changing the focus, we are allowing the body to continue working while allowing effected joints a chance to rest. As we find the threshold of activity, we can train for longer periods with shorter rest or increase the intensity. Increases in intensity are done very slowly as the goal is not to become superhero strong, but to slow or even stop the degeneration.

For clients that are less limited, it is highly recommended that axial loading is used as science has shown weight bearing lifts can maintain or even contribute to bone density. Again, progression of weights is slow as rule #1 must be do no harm.

And for the most extreme cases, the use of a warm water pool can help tremendously. The warmth helps joint to move fluidly as well as the support of the water can allow for less stressful workouts that can still burn calories and keep you in shape.

How can we combat Winter and Less Daylight
-Answered by Erin

Winter brings cold, less sunshine and a mood change for many people. Weight gain during the winter is common among many people. This change in body composition is likely caused by two things; Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D) and the craving for high fat, high carbohydrate foods. S.A.D doesn’t directly affect weight gain, however, it leads to people being less active and often eating more. 

In order to combat Seasonal Affective Disorder, there are a few action steps that you can take.

These action steps include;

Light Therapy: Use a light therapy box. Light therapy boxes are brighter than regular light bulbs and provide light in different wavelengths. Sitting in front of the light therapy box in the morning for 30 minutes a day is shown to have a positive effect on S.A.D. You can purchase “Full Spectrum” light bulbs from most hardware stores.

Get Moving! Exercise can help relieve the symptoms of S.A.D.  The best place to exercise to help alleviate Seasonal Affect Disorder is outside. However, if you are unable to exercise outside you will still experience the benefits of moving. That said, continue your training regimen and possibly add in some additional walking or jogging.

Vitamin D: Supplement your diet with vitamin D. Adults should supplement with at least 2,000 IUs a day. Those with more muscle mass require more vitamin D.

Diet Suggestions for Lean Muscle Mass in the Over 40 Club.
-Answered by Rich

Science has shown time and again that as we age, our ability to build muscle mass decreases, our ability to store fat increases, and our body just generally starts to break down with potential bone loss, loss of cartilage, and loss of elasticity in connective tissue. So what can be done to prevent it and is there a way to get it through the diet?

Well, I'm not known for wanting to push supplements on people, and because I can't guarantee anything will work, I'm inclined to say if you're really concerned with hormone levels, go get a full blood panel done by your doctor, and if something is on the low end, and is a concern, voice it. Only they have access to give you the medications known to work. Notice I called them medications? That's because most over the counter “testosterone” and “gh” boosters don't really have an effect. If you are curious about supplements that work, I rely onexamine.com to provide accurate results for supplements.

So the diet itself, isn't much different than what I would suggest for most people looking to remain lean. Eating a diet high in protein and moderately high in fat with low carbs is probably the best way to maintain. Another option to consider, but requires more preparation is to use carb cycling.

Obviously, making it work will take some tweaking for each person, but in general, I recommend 1-2g of protein per pound, .75g of fat per pound, and .5g of carbohydrates per pound. During this time, it will be necessary to get on the scale and take measurements several times during the week. If any number changes rapidly in the wrong direction, making calculated and appropriate adjustments is necessary. An appropriate adjustment would be increasing or decreasing the total calories by 50. We will always want to make small adjustments because drastic changes can have unpredictable results and negatively effect your hormone levels.

In addition to eating the right food, you will need to consume enough water to keep the body hydrated. Using the simple urine color check, we don't want clear, but we don't want dark yellow either. Keep it in the middle and all will be well.

Finally, making sure you achieve optimal sleep is key. I prefer the add “Sleepbot” as it can track sleep movement, sounds, and has a smart alarm to wake me at just the right time.

Do you have any tips for avoiding the onslaught of unhealthy foods during the holidays?
-Answered by Erin

During the holiday season we are bombarded with sweet treats and large dinners. You shouldn’t feel like you’re missing out. Learning to enjoy the holiday times is part of living a healthy lifestyle.  During this time your goal should be maintenance in order to greet the New Year without tipping the scale. 

There are several ways to avoid the holiday weight gain, they include:

Don’t skip your workouts. Even moderate intensity workouts can burn 300-400 calories per hour. These workouts can help counter act some the rich foods you’ll be eating and you will also be less likely to overeat. Remember, the idea is to just maintain during the holidays and working out excessively hard will only serve to make you more stressed.

Eat breakfast. Eating breakfast will help you avoid a binge and thus keep your calorie intake in check for the day. While many people try to fast, it can be a challenge to fast and maintain a healthy balance of proteins and carbs given the nature of high-sugar desserts.

Keep a food diary. Write down every single thing you eat—even if it is only one bite of shrimp cocktail. Research has shown that people who keep journals are more successful at keeping their weight in check.

Monitor your hunger. Never show up at a party or buffet ravenous—you will most certainly overeat. Drink water and have a protein-filled snack (such as nuts or cheese) before arriving.

Weigh yourself twice each week. Throughout the year you should be weighing in no more than once a week. However, during the holidays its a great way to stay on track with your goals. Remember that there is potential for the scale to move 2 pounds in either direction daily due to hydration levels.

Watch your portion size. Use a dessert plate which are known to be smaller than dinner plates. Using this plate will help ensure that you don’t overeat.  When you return for seconds, fill no more than one quarter of your plate. This will give your body time to process the signals that tell you if you are full without eating too many calories.

Deal quickly with leftovers. If you have unhealthy leftovers in your home, you are likely to indulge. Don’t leave them sitting around. Freeze them, give them away or toss them.

With these tips you can survive the holidays without putting on the pounds. During this time enjoy yourself, but keep in mind how you want to look and feel on January 1st!