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Leaner Body Fat Percentages in Male and Female Athletes

Women have higher percentages of body fat than men, because female reproductive hormones require more fat. Women with healthy weights are generally between 15 and 25 percent body fat and men fall into [more…]

Healthy Body Image: Bigger Than Model Thin

Research shows that women — especially those on a diet — in the United States determine their ideal body size and shape from the way models in television ads and fashion magazines look, not from the way [more…]

How to Figure Athletes' Weight Goals Considering Body Fat

For athletes, reducing percent body fat should be the focus of weight-loss efforts rather than reducing total body weight, otherwise optimum performance will be compromised. In some cases, total weight [more…]

How Being a Woman Affects Weight Gain

If you’re a woman, even if you diet, you gain weight more easily than a man for several inherent reasons. Menopause, pregnancy, and the age you are when you reach puberty all impact your weight. [more…]

Medical Consequences of Eating Disorders: Anorexia, Bulimia, and Bingeing

Eating disorders — particularly anorexia nervosa — can be deadly. The following lists explain the many medical consequences of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. [more…]

Sources of Vitamin B12 in Your Vegetarian Diet

If you eat animal products, you get the nutrient vitamin B12 from them. Vegetarians who includes eggs, cheese, yogurt, cows’ milk, or other dairy products in their diets also have a source of vitamin B12 [more…]

Dietary Sources of Iron for Vegetarians

Vegetarians need more iron in their diets than nonvegetarians because the iron in plant foods is not absorbed as efficiently as the iron in meat. Surprisingly, vegetarians tend to get substantially more [more…]

Lithium Deficiency May Lead to Mood Disorders

Scientists are uncertain whether this mineral is a required nutrient, but a lithium deficiency can lead to mood disorders. Most people take in about 2 mg daily from their diets, although no specific requirement [more…]

Nutritional Needs of Pregnant and Nursing Women

Eating for two means that you’re the sole source of nutrients for your growing fetus. If you don’t get the vitamins you need in your diet, neither will your baby. The Recommended Daily Allowances [more…]

How Hormones Affect Your Nutritional Needs

Hormones affect your resting energy expenditure (REE) —the amount of energy (calories) you use when your body’s at rest. Men and women need different amounts of calories and different types of nutrients [more…]

Potty Training Children with Disabilities

Handling the physical aspect of training a child with a disability is wildly different with individual kids, depending on the disability. You may need to provide high-tech props that facilitate movement [more…]

Helping Your Body Absorb Iron from Your Diet

Just because you include a certain amount of iron in your diet doesn’t mean that that entire amount of iron is available for your body to use. There’s actually a little game of tug-of-war over iron going [more…]

Getting Enough Protein in Your Diet for Good Health

Really, you don’t have to worry about your getting enough protein in your diet — unless you live on Twinkies and Dr. Pepper. Then maybe you could end up protein deficient. But you’d be lacking in many [more…]

How to Determine Whether Your Child Is Overweight

Body Mass Index (BMI) is the standard used to measure a child’s weight-related health risk. However, you must use charts specifically designed for children. [more…]

Exceeding the RDAs: Do You Need Extra Minerals?

If your diet provides enough mineral nutrients to meet the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs), you’re in pretty good shape. A restrictive diet, the circumstances of your reproductive life, and just [more…]

How to Estimate Carbohydrate Needs for Athletes

Calculating dietary carbohydrate requirements (and protein and fat for that matter) is based on a percentage of your total calories. Most athletes should get at least 60 percent of their calories in their [more…]

Understanding the Origins of Eating Disorders and Disordered Eating

Contrary to popular belief, eating disorders aren’t just about being fat or thin, about dieting or weight. Instead, eating disorders are typically about self-esteem, depression, power, communication, or [more…]

Assessing Body Weight for Healthy Athletic Activity

Athletes come in many shapes, which impacts their dietary needs. If you lined up a marathon runner, a jockey, a speed skater, a weightlifter, a pole-vaulter, a linebacker, a gymnast, and a sumo wrestler [more…]

How to Figure Protein Needs for Dieting Athletes

Athletes have special dietary needs, particularly when they want to lose weight. To maintain performance, athletes in training need extra calories in their diets — especially carbohydrates and protein. [more…]

Find Ways — Other Than Eating — to Cope with Emotions

Keeping a food journal calls for recording what and when you eat and how you're feeling when you eat. Look back at your journal now and then: How many times did you record words that signal stress, sadness [more…]

Treating Eating Disorders: Anorexia, Bulimia, Bingeing

Treatment works for at least 60 percent of people with eating disorders. They can return to and maintain healthy weights and eat normally. They can develop healthy relationships with people, raise families [more…]

How to Change Your Perception of Your Body

About 95 percent of females and 30 percent of males have issues about the way their bodies look. You may never look like a supermodel, but that’s okay — virtually no one will. However, everybody can be [more…]

Multiple Factors Contribute to Development of Eating Disorders

Dieting is one possible reason for eating disorders, some people argue, because the disorders share dieting as a common thread. They think that if dieting didn’t exist, there would be far fewer eating [more…]

Carbohydrate Loading for Sustained Physical Exertion

Some athletes add extra carbohydrates to their diets. This practice, called carbohydrate loading, increases the amount of glycogen stored in muscles. This carb-loading diet is not for everyday use, nor [more…]

Taking Extra Vitamins When You Need Dietary Supplements

The Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs) protect people with a healthy diet from deficiencies, but sometimes your lifestyle or circumstances mean you need extra vitamins and nutrients in your diet. See [more…]

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