Analyze Your Current Diet - A to Z Weight-Loss Tips for Long-Term Success - Tip A

Tip A - Analyze Your Current Diet

If you don't know what's "broke", how can you possibly "fix" it?  

• Do you know how many calories you should be eating to lose weight healthfully?
• Are you eating too many calories? 
• Are you exercising enough (or at all)?  
• Are you eating too much of some nutrients (fat, sodium) and not enough of others (fiber, calcium)?
• Are you eating at the right times to support your exercise program? 

If you don't know the answers to these questions, it's time to find out. Analyzing your current diet is the first step to making positive changes to improve your nutrition lifestyle and health.  Here are some ways to analyze your diet so you make a plan for successful, long-term weight loss:

1. The best way: Talk to a Registered Dietitian (RD). RDs are trained nutrition experts and can help you find the right answers to all of those above questions, plus many more. In addition, we can help you create a nutrition plan of attack: help you make small changes that will evolve into healthy weight loss habits for a lifetime.
   
2. If you cannot see a RD now, there are some helpful online nutrition analysis sites and smart phone apps you can utilize to get you going. Some are free; some are not. They can help you determine your calorie needs and help you count your calories to keep you on track. 

Some examples of online diet analysis sites include: 

• Nutrihand, My Food Diary , MyPyramid Tracker, FitDay

Smart phone apps include: 

• Liverstrong.com calorie tracker, MyFitness Pal, LoseIt

Happy New Year. Let's make this a healthy one!