The results are in! The International Food Information Council (IFIC) Foundation publishes an annual report that provides great insights into consumers attitudes about health, food and nutrition.

The May 2008 report sheds light on some interesting areas:

Breakfast Habits: Breakfast was cited by 92 percent of consumers as the most important meal of the day, yet less than half (46 percent) of consumers surveyed ate breakfast seven days per week. Some common “barriers” to not eating breakfast everyday, included: “not hungry right after I wake up” (59 percent) and “not enough time” (54 percent).

Diet and Physical Activity: Two-thirds of Americans (67 percent) reported making changes to improve the healthfulness of their diet. Some examples of these changes included: “changing the portion sizes of the meals or snacks I consume” (60 percent) and “changing the number of calories I consume” (57 percent). However, only 15 percent of those trying to lose or maintain their weight correctly estimated their daily calorie requirements.

For the full report, visit Food and Health Survey at the IFIC Foundation.

Want to know how to correctly estimated your daily calorie requirements? See “The Right Balance: How to Lose a Pound”

Losing weight seems like an easy enough thing to do, right? All you have to do is expend more energy than you take in. It sounds simple enough, but when it comes to science, nothing is really simple. There is information about your body you will want to know before you create a weight loss plan.

• You’ll want to know what your resting metabolic rate is. This is how much energy you need just to exist (breathing, sleeping, pumping blood through your brains, maintain proper organ function, etc.
• You’ll need to calculate how many calories you typically expend throughout the day now (not tomorrow when you start working out). The number you tabulate will be your calorie requirements today, not considering weight loss goals and not including calorie restriction.
• With this number in hand, you’ll be able to calculate how much energy you need to expend and how many calories you should eat to lose weight.

Are you lost yet? Hang in there. Go through the formula I’ve provided below, and I’ll meet you on the other end of it.
Worksheet for Estimating Daily Caloric Range Using Lean Body Mass

1. Determine Resting Metabolic Rate:
_______ (current body weight) x 10 = _______(RMR)

2. Estimate how many calories you expend participating in formal, scheduled or planned exercise each day:
Calories per minute (for ea. given activity) x number of minutes spent exercising for ea. Activity = formal exercise energy expenditure.
________ (calories per minute) x ________ (no. of mins exercising) = ________ (formal exercise energy expenditure)
________ (calories per minute) x ________ (no. of mins exercising) = ________ (formal exercise energy expenditure)
________ (calories per minute) x ________ (no. of mins exercising) = ________ (formal exercise energy expenditure)

To find total calories used for formal exercise, use this formula to calculate each formal exercise you participate in (e.g., cardiovascular, strength training).

3. Determine how many calories you use for daily activity that is separate from scheduled or formal exercise:
• If you are sedentary, add 20-40 % of your RMR (found in step 1)
• If you are active, add 40-60% of your RMR
• If you are very active, add 60-80% of your RMR
__________ (%) x _________(RMR) = ___________(daily activity calories)

4. Add the answers from steps 1, 2 and 3 to compute your total daily calorie requirements:
_________ (RMR) + ________ (formal exercise calories) + _______ (daily activity calories) = ___________ (calorie requirement for the day).

Are you done with your calculations? Okay, now for the good stuff. The number from step 4 (your calorie requirement for the day) is the number of calories you need to consume to stay the weight you currently are.

To lose one pound (3500 Kcals) in one week, you need to expend 500 calories per day for 7 days. You could restrict calories you take in by 250 and burn 250 calories exercising, or any combination of the two, really. Ideally, you will want to do both: take in fewer calories and burn more calories by exercising. This will keep your metabolism nice and high, maintain muscle mass, and of course, help add tone and definition to your new-found body.