Measured Success: 50 Online Fitness and Nutrition Calculators

This is a re-print request from a fellow blogger. Good information!

September 11th, 2008 by Site Administrator Print
By Alisa Miller

Whether you are trying to lose weight or just want to improve your overall health and fitness, there are plenty of online calculators that can help you achieve your goals. Find tools to assist with packing the most nutritious lunch, creating a overall health picture, eating the healthiest fast food, creating a great running plan, or telling you how strong a swimmer you are. These calculators will have you motivated and moving in the right direction when it comes to diet and fitness.

Nutrition
Everyone has to eat, but make sure you are eating a good balance of what you need and the most healthy food possible with these calculators.

Pack a Lunch. Use this tool to determine the calories and nutrition in the lunch you pack. Make combinations of entrees, sides, snacks, and drinks and you will see the total of calories and a breakdown of the vitamins you are getting with the entire lunch.
NAT Tool. Use this tool to determine the nutritional content of the food you eat. Just enter your age and gender and the food you want analyzed to receive a report.
CalorieKing Food Database. Find out serving size for popular foods and drinks as well as the calorie, fat, and carbohydrate information for each. This database includes everything from beer to fast food to snacks.
Nutrition Data Daily Needs Calculator. Scroll down this page to enter your information into this calculator to discover what your nutritional needs are. The breakdown includes specific amounts of vitamins and minerals you should be getting each day.
The Bored.com Nutrition Calculator. Whether you want to scroll through the list of types of food or do a search for a specific food, you can find all the nutritional data. This calculator even does fast food, so if you want to learn about that breakfast at McDonald’s, just type in the name of your food and get the nutritional value.
Workouts for Women Nutritional Calculator. Type in your information to discover your nutritional requirements. The results are categorized by caloric expenditure and requirements for carbohydrates, fat, protein, and calcium.
Your Health Your Way Nutrition Calculator. Search for a particular food or add in all of your foods for an entire meal to find out the nutritional data for what you are eating.
Fast Food Nutrition Facts Calculator. Designed for determining the amount of calories your child is getting from fast food, this calculator also works for adults. Select menu items from several popular fast food restaurants and find out the percentage of calories received in that meal as well as fat content.
KFC Nutrition Calculator. If you love KFC, then this calculator is for you. Select your menu items to discover the nutritional value of the food at KFC.
Nutritional Guideline Calculator. Not only can you find out how many calories a day you need with this calculator, but it will also give you a breakdown of how much protein, carbohydrates, and fats you need. You can select results for maintaining, losing, or gaining weight.

Health and Fitness
From finding out about your overall health to more specific information such as target heart rate, these calculators will help you with your general health and fitness needs.

Healthy Body Calculator. Plug in your age, height, weight, fitness levels, and any other information you may know about your body style to get a simple report about your overall health. You can also request nutrition facts to help you maintain or lose weight.
Activity Calorie Calculator. Tell your weight and the duration of your activity and this calculator will give you the amount of calories burned for 222 different activities.
Your Total Health. Choose from 11 different calculators (or choose all of them) to find out anything from your body mass index to daily calcium requirement to target heart rate.
Self.com Fitness Calculators. Use these calculators to find your BMI, ideal weight range, happy weight, and caloric needs. You can also select from 19 different activities to learn how many calories each one burns.
ExRx Fitness Calculators. This extensive list of calculators offers everything from body composition to male girth to risk class calculators. If you are looking for a fitness calculator, this is a great resource.
Health and Fitness Calculator v.1.0. Download this calculator to discover your BMI and what risks you have for size-related diseases. You will need your weight, height, and waist size to use this calculator.
Active.com Fitness Calculators. Calculate your pace, target heart rate, body fat index, body mass index, and more with these fitness calculators.

Weight Loss

These calculators will help you reach your weight loss goals with calorie calculators, body fat percentages, food tracking, and more.

Weight Loss Calculator. Based on calorie intake, calculate how long it will take you to lose your goal weight, daily calorie deficit needed, and weight loss over a period of time. This site also offers some food and calorie calculators as well.
What Does 200 Calories Look Like?. This visual tool helps you see a 200 calorie serving-size of particular foods. If you are trying to stay within a certain calorie intake, this tool can quickly help you know what you can eat and what you should stay away from.
Understanding Your Body Fat Percentage. Learn about the relationship of essential body fat to your health and use this chart to help determine what a healthy amount of weight you can lose may be. You will probably need your calculator to help you with the calculations here.
JournalToSuccess.com Tools . There are several health calculators to help you lose weight at this site including a body mass index, ideal body weight, ideal weight range, and more. They also offer an online journal to record your food, weight, and fitness activities.
Tweight.com. If you are a Twitter fan and are trying to lose weight, this tool is great. Just tweet your weight goal, send your updates, and check your history to see how much progress you are making.
TweetWhatYouEat.com. Another Twitter-based tool, this one lets you log your food intake and calories associated with each food. If you don’t know the calories for a particular food, this tool also offers a database to help you.
CRON-O-Meter. Download this free tool to help you lose weight on a Calorie Reduced diet. You can track your food, get diet advice, use a custom recipe editor so you can track the foods you make at home, and much more.
Free Weight Loss Calculators and Tools. With 12 different calculators and even a converter tool, you will find helpful tools to your weight loss goals. Check out the Pregnancy Calorie Calculator to maintain a healthy weight during pregnancy and the Waist to Hip Calculator to find out about a healthy body fat distribution.
Changing Shape Health and Fitness Calculators. These calculators range from food fat content to daily protein requirements to one-rep calculator to help you determine your strength.

Complete Fitness Programs
While not straightforward calculators, these online tools offer a way to combine your food and fitness goals, track data, and chart your progress. All are free, but some offer premium services for a charge.

Gyminee. Track your workouts, monitor your food intake, and connect with others with this tool that is designed for both those trying to lose weight or those just getting a handle on their fitness. The Daily Plate. This tool allows you to track what you are eating each day and log fitness as well so you can determine how many calories you are eating and burning. They also have a handy search tool that will tell you how many calories are in a specific food or how many calories you can burn with a specific activity.
SparkPeople. Get meal plans, weight tracker, calorie counter, fitness log and more with these free tools. You can also connect with others, watch exercise videos, and get recipes.
traineo. Find motivation and support to change the way you eat and work out with this tool. set up a free profile and track you exercise and nutrition information to see your progress with graphs. You can also connect with others and find plenty of support to keep going toward your goal.
FitWatch. Create your profile and start tracking your fitness and nutrition data with this tool. You can also read articles about fitness and health, get popular diet plans, and learn about various exercise and workout programs.

Running
These calculators can help any kind of runner, no matter if you enjoy jogging around the neighborhood or are training for a marathon. Some are handy for cyclists and hikers too.

Smart Coach. This tools from Runner’s World allows you to enter information about your past runs and how you would like to start training to receive a training program that is individualized to your ability and goals.
MapMyRun. Use this tool to create a map of your runs, find a run, or log your training information.
Run the Nation. This site offers several tools to help with your running including a body fat calculator, race pace calculator, workout calorie counter, and more.
RunningAHEAD. With this tool, you can log and track your runs, and then analyze them to make sure you are staying on track with your goals.
Runworks Running Calculator. Enter the data from your last run into this calculator to find your level of fitness and help predict how you will do in longer races.
Runbayou: VDOT Calculator. Similar to the previous calculator, this one finds your level of fitness based on your last race. This calculator also provides paces for five different running zones to help you create the perfect training routine.
Runningmap.com. Use this tool to map your runs, plan for future runs, and even share your running maps with others. Cyclists, hikers, or any other outdoor fitness buff will also find this tool helpful.
Running4Women.com. This site offers lots of tools for women to use when training including a body mass index calculator, heart rate monitor, and a pace calculator.
MarathonGuide.com. This site offers running calculators, fitness calculators, and health/nutrition calculators. While written for those training for a marathon, anyone will find many of these calculators useful.
Track Lane Distance Calculator. If you run on a track, use this calculator to determine what the offset distance is for each of the lanes. You will need to know the specifics of the track and race details including lane width and distance of the race.

Other Sport Calculators
Whether walking, body building, or competing in a triathlon, these calculators will make your fitness program a bit easier.

About.com Walking Fitness Calculators. These calculators will help your walking program and overall health and fitness by assisting you with target heart rate, pace, calorie and distance, and much more.
Walk, Jog, or Run Pace Calculator. Use this calculator to determine your pace no matter which mode of moving you enjoy. Just enter the distance you went and the amount of time it took you to do so.
Stride Distance Calculator. If you can’t afford a pedometer, this calculator can help you find the same information. By measuring your stride distance, you can determine the distance traveled very accurately.
Bodybuilding.com Fitness Calculators. If you are into body building, this resource offers tons of calculators to help you discover anything from training to nutrition to supplements. There’s even a calculator to help you know how much alcohol you can drink before you would be drunk.
Bicycle Speed and Power Calculator. Enter the information about your bike and the conditions of the ride to determine the power and speed of your ride. Also, if you know the distance of your ride, you can determine the number of calories burned during that specific ride.
Gear Inch & Shifting Pattern Calculator. Whether you ride a multi-speed or single-speed bike, you can find out gear inches and shifting patterns based on your chain ring and freewheel specifics.
Academy Swimming Ready Reckoner. Select your stroke, distance, the time it took you to swim it, and find out if you are academy, bronze, silver, or gold standard. This is a great motivator if you are trying to improve your times.
Triathlon Conversion Calculators. If you are training for a triathlon, use these calculators to get your swim pace, bike speed, and running pace and convert your distances from metric to standard.
Triathlon Race Calculator Time Management Tool. Enter your information for your next triathlon as well as your pace for each event to find out how much time it will take you to complete the race.

I re-printed this article as it is a Great Resource for us all and I got it here:

Hi Ed,
We just posted an article, "Measured Success: 50 Online Fitness and Nutrition Calculators" (http://www.collegetrainingschoolsonline.com/blog/2008/09/measured-success-50-online-fitness-and-nutrition-calculators/). I thought I'd bring it to your attention in case you think your readers would find it interesting. Either way, thanks for your time!

Kelly Sonora

If you enjoyed this article, please bookmark it at del.icio.us » This entry was posted on Thursday, September 11th, 2008 at 7:28 am and is filed under Diet and Nutrition, Health and Wellness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can trackback from your own site.

Grace and Peace,

Ed

Http://www.UriInternational.com/RealFoodForLife

The Imprtance of Sleep and Weight Management

My wife and I were watching 60 minutes on CBS last night and they had a very interesting show on the effects of sleep deprivation. While anyone who has been awake, or had severely disturbed sleep, for over 48 hours knows first hand that there are some physical and mental changes that take place, the show had some interesting studies regarding the actual physiology involved when our body is deprived of deep restful sleep for prolonged periods of time.

Most interesting to me was the effect that sleep deprivation has on our weight! Here is an excerpt of an article found at http://www.sleep-deprivation.com/ :

Leptin and Grehlin are hormones that help the body control appetite and weight gain and loss. Leptin suppresses appetite, while Grehlin increases appetite and may prevent a person from losing weight.When lack of sleep becomes a chronic problem, levels of Grehlin increases, causing greater appetite, and levels of Leptin decrease. Regardless of diet and exercise, it's possible that some obesity is caused, or made worse, by sleep deprivation.

If you are experiencing problems sleeping and think your sleeping disorders might be causing you to gain weight, you should consider visiting a doctor, who can discuss ways to help restore your normal sleeping pattern. You may even want to consult a sleep lab for evaluation. There, you will spend the night hooked up to electrodes, which will monitor your brain activity during sleep. The process is painless and may be covered by your insurance.

Regular exercise will improve your quality of sleep, as will reducing or eliminating you intake of alcohol, caffeine and tobacco.If enlarged tonsils are obstructing your airway and causing sleep apnea, the doctor might want to surgically remove the organs. He or she also may prescribe sleep medications to help you sleep through the night. While some newer sleep medications may be used for long-term sleep problems, it's important for you and your doctor to weigh their risks and benefits. Remember to ask your doctor about Melatonin! Getting your sleep problems diagnosed and treated may be the first step in accomplishing your weight loss goals. If you've tried everything to lose weight and nothing seems to be working, don't give up. Lack of sleep may be keeping you from achieving weight loss success.

Another area of great concern to my wife and I was the relationship between sleep deprivation and Type II Diabetes. Here's an article I found at http://www.sciencedaily.com/ :

Science Daily (Jan. 2, 2008) — Suppression of slow-wave sleep in healthy young adults significantly decreases their ability to regulate blood-sugar levels and increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, report researchers at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

The researchers studied nine lean, healthy volunteers, five men and four women between the ages of 20 and 31. The subjects spent two consecutive nights in the sleep laboratory, where they went to bed at 11 P.M., slept undisturbed but carefully monitored, and got out of bed 8.5 hours later, at 7:30 A.M.

The same subjects were also studied for three consecutive nights during which they followed identical nighttime routines. During this session, however, when their brain waves indicated that they were drifting into slow-wave sleep they were subtly disturbed by sounds administered through speakers beside the bed.

These sounds were loud enough to disrupt deep sleep but not so loud as to cause a full awakening. This technique enabled the researchers to decrease slow-wave sleep by about 90 percent, shifting the subjects from the onset of deep sleep (stage 3 or 4) to a lighter sleep (stage 2) without altering total sleep time.

"Our system proved quite effective," Tasali said. When asked about the sounds the next morning, study subjects vaguely recalled hearing a noise "three or four times," during the night. Some recalled as many as 10 to 15. On average, however, subjects required about 250-300 interventions each night, fewer the first night but more on subsequent nights as "slow-wave pressure," the body's need for deep sleep, accumulated night after night.

"This decrease in slow-wave sleep resembles the changes in sleep patterns caused by 40 years of aging," Tasali said. Young adults spend 80 to 100 minutes per night in slow-wave sleep, while people over age 60 generally have less than 20 minutes. "In this experiment," she said, "we gave people in their 20s the sleep of those in their 60s."

At the end of each study, the researchers gave intravenous glucose (a sugar solution) to each subject, then took blood samples every few minutes to measure the levels of glucose and insulin, the hormone that controls glucose uptake.

They found that when slow-wave sleep was suppressed for only three nights, young healthy subjects became about 25 percent less sensitive to insulin. As insulin sensitivity decreased, subjects needed more insulin to dispose of the same amount of glucose. But for eight of the nine subjects, insulin secretion did not go up to compensate for reduced effects. The result was a 23 percent increase in blood-glucose levels, comparable to older adults with impaired glucose tolerance.

Those with low baseline levels of slow-wave sleep had the lowest levels after having their sleep patterns disrupted and the greatest decrease in insulin sensitivity.

The alarming rise in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes is generally attributed to the epidemic of obesity combined with the aging of the population. "Previous studies from our lab have demonstrated many connections between chronic, partial, sleep deprivation, changes in appetite, metabolic abnormalities, obesity, and diabetes risk," said Van Cauter. "These results solidify those links and add a new wrinkle, the role of poor sleep quality, which is also associated with aging."

Grace and Peace,

Ed

Live Whole Food Based Nutrition

As you may know I tried a new nutrition supplement about six months ago. It is called "The Feast" and it is made by Uri International. The Feast is a LIVE Whole Food Based "Instafresh" Concentrate. It is the ONE and ONLY LIVE Whole Food Based Concentrate that provides:

30 ANTIOXIDENT RICH FRUITS AND BERRIES

30 POWERFUL SUPER GREENS AND VEGETABLES

11 NUTRIENT DENSE SEEDS, NUTS AND SPROUTS

83+ ACTIVE ENZYMES AND FULVIC MINERALS

22 RESILIENT LIVING PROBIOTICS

All this nutrition in a great tasting, easy to mix, affordable live concentrate! After taking this supplement for 6 months my family and I can feel the difference! It's nice to know that you are getting great nutrition and getting the live organics necessary to promote health and fitness! It's even better to have tangible evidence that the product is working.

My wife, daughter and I have lost a combined total of 52lbs just by replacing one traditional meal like breakfast or lunch with a shake made of "The Feast", "Beyond Berries" and a good protein powder mixed in a cup of yogurt or soy milk and a cup of pure water.

My other two daughters say that they FEEL a distinct difference when they forget to drink their "Feast". They have more clarity and energy when they drink it. Many of my co-workers are finding out the same thing that we did. The "Feast" is the only complete, live whole food supplement that helps you to get your 5-7 organic fruits and vegetables and so much more!

E-mail me or go to my site to get a no risk sample of the Feast and Beyond Berries and feel the difference that whole food nutrition makes! All Uri's products come with a 90 day unconditional guarantee! However, my experience has been that whoever tries the Feast uses it daily and we all wonder how we went without it. Imagine, ALL NATURAL ENERGY by meeting your bodies need for real food. The contents say it all!

Grace and Peace,

Ed

Rjonodde@aol.com

http://www.urilife.net/realfoodforlife

Dietary Fiber

Dietary fiber is the term for several materials that make up the parts of plants your body can't digest. Fiber is classified as soluble or insoluble.

The American Heart Association recommends eating a variety of food fiber sources. Fiber is important for the health of the digestive system and for lowering cholesterol. Foods containing fiber often are good sources of other essential nutrients. Depending on how they're prepared, these foods can also be low in trans fat, saturated fat and cholesterol. Fruits, vegetables, whole-grain, high-fiber foods, beans and legumes are good sources of both soluble and insoluble dietary fiber.

Dietary fiber intake among adults in the United States averages about 15 grams. The Institute of Medicine recommends consuming 14 grams of fiber for every 1,000 calories you need. So we can see how most of us may be falling a bit short.

When eaten regularly as part of a diet low in saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol, soluble fiber has been associated with increased diet quality and decreased risk of cardiovascular disease. Soluble or viscous fibers modestly reduce LDL cholesterol beyond levels achieved by a diet low in saturated and trans fatty acids and cholesterol alone. Oats have the highest proportion of soluble fiber of any grain. Foods high in soluble fiber include oat bran, oatmeal, beans, peas, rice bran, barley, citrus fruits, strawberries and apple pulp.

Insoluble fiber has been associated with decreased cardiovascular risk and slower progression of cardiovascular disease in high-risk individuals. Dietary fiber may promote satiety by slowing gastric emptying, leading to an overall decrease in calorie intake. Foods high in insoluble fiber include whole-wheat breads, wheat cereals, wheat bran, rye, rice, barley, most other grains, cabbage, beets, carrots, Brussels sprouts, turnips, cauliflower and apple skin.

The proper intake of fiber may help with weight loss. In a recent study of more than 1700 overweight and obese men and women, those with the highest fiber intake had the greatest weight loss over a two year period. One of the reasons that fiber may have an impact on body weight is its ability to slow the movement of food through the intestines. The gel-like substance that soluble fibers form when they dissolve in water causes things to swell and move slower in the intestines. This increase in time that foods stay in the intestines has been shown to reduce hunger feelings and overall food intake. It has also been shown to decrease the number of calories that are actually absorbed from the ingested food. One study showed an increase in the number of calories that were excreted in the stools when high-fiber psyllium gum-based crackers were given in comparison to low-fiber crackers. Whenever fewer calories are taken in, or more are excreted, weight loss will generally occur.

Not only can a diet rich in fiber help with weight control but together with ample water intake it may help relieve symptoms of constipation which over extended periods of time can affect our overall health. Many types of fiber within the intestine bind to water and keep the water within the intestine. The fiber adds bulk (volume) to the stool and the water softens the stool.

The best way of adding fiber to the diet is increasing the quantity of fruits and vegetables that are eaten. This means a minimum of five servings of fruits or vegetables every day. For many people, however, the amount of fruits and vegetables that are necessary may be inconveniently large or may not provide adequate relief from constipation. In this case, fiber supplements can be useful. I recommend Food -N- Fiber by URI International. Food n’ Fiber provides a unique profile of nutrients that are specifically characteristic to nuts, sprouted grains & seeds. This superior blend has extraordinary whole food value and is a rich source of naturally occurring vitamins, minerals, amino acids, phytonutrients, antioxidants, essential fatty acids and protein. Food n’ Fiber provides a highly usable, nutrient dense, vegetarian source of soluble and insoluble dietary fiber without additives in a live whole food state. Here is a link to try a risk free sample http://uriinternational.com/wholefood/wholefood_fiber.asp

Because of concern about obstruction, persons with narrowings (strictures) or adhesions (scar tissue from previous surgery) of their intestines should not use fiber unless it has been discussed with their physician. Some fiber laxatives contain sugar, and diabetic patients may need to select sugar-free products.

The fiber should be started at a low dose and increased every 1 to 2 weeks until either the desired effect on the stool is achieved or troublesome flatulence interferes. (Fiber does not work overnight.) If flatulence occurs, the dose of fiber can be reduced for a few weeks and the higher dose can then be tried again. (It generally is said that the amount of gas that is produced by fiber decreases when the fiber is ingested for a prolonged period of time; however, this has never been studied.) If flatulence remains a problem and prevents the dose of fiber from being raised to a level that affects the stool satisfactorily, it is time to move on to a different source of fiber.

Grace and Peace,

Ed