Maintaining a Healthy, Balanced Diet In Technology

English Subtitles



Khmer Subtitles

Part 1

Part 2 end

In this post, you learn about devices that help you track your weight and body composition. You learn about devices that weigh food portions or monitor fluid intake, and apps that help you choose healthier food options. You also discover some food delivery services that help make grocery shopping easier.

• Knowing Your Body Measurements 
• Watching Your Weight 
• Watching Your Food Portions 
• Tracking Your Daily Hydration 
• Making Better Food Choices 
• Getting Groceries Delivered to Your Door 
• Exploring Diet-Specific Delivery Resources with Recipes

The quality and quantity of food you put into your body is an important factor in living a healthy lifestyle, regardless of your weight goals. The word diet has almost become synonymous with weight loss. However, whether you are looking to maintain your current weight, lose a few pounds, or work toward profound weight loss, the fuel you put in your body plays an important role in the quality of your life. In this chapter, you are introduced to digital resources that help you accomplish your goals. They not only help to educate you on the quality of the foods you eat, but also provide greater insight into your body composition— body measurements beyond just the metric of weight. You explore how to monitor your weight on an app with information acquired from a scale. You see how to measure food portions so you’ll know exactly how much you’re eating. You learn the value of apps that help you make better nutritional choices and can journal what you eat. You even learn of devices that ensure you reach your daily fluid intake. Toward the end of the chapter, you are provided many options for having your food delivered straight to your door, including diet-specific foods such as vegetarian, heart healthy, and gluten-free grocery lists.

Knowing Your Body Measurements 

There is more than just one way to measure your health and fitness. Knowing your body mass index (BMI) and body fat percentages are great ways for you to gain further insight into your body composition, beyond just monitoring weight. The reason for this is that the ratio between fat and muscle changes as you become more fit. The bodies of two people who are the same height and weight can look drastically different if they are on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to body fat versus lean body mass. This is where smart weight scales come in handy. Some can help you track both. Before we jump in to the hardware, here are some things you should know about BMI and body fat percentage— and ways to measure them.

• Calculate Body Mass Index (BMI). Calculating BMI is an approach to assess whether a person is at a healthy weight for his or her height. It’s an easy way for a person to determine whether a person is normal weight, underweight, overweight, or obese. It is not a perfect indicator; more on that in just a moment. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) formula for calculating BMI using pounds is BMI =( weight in pounds x 703)/ Height in inches2. Fortunately, there are devices (some of which we’ll cover shortly) and many apps that can do this calculation and provide weight categories you might fit into. These apps include the Fitter Fitness Calculator for the iPhone and the BMI Calculator by Splend Apps for Android phones. Although BMI is used to screen for weight categories that could lead to chronic conditions, it provides an educated guess at best as to the fatness or overall health of an individual. BMI does not take into consideration how much muscle a person might have. For example, a person who does a lot of weight training and is very muscular might have a BMI that places him or her into the obese category. This is where fat percentages come into play.

• Track Your Body Fat Percentage .The formula for calculating body fat percentages is a bit more complex than the formula for calculating BMI. However, it can be broken down into Body Fat Percentage = Fat Mass/ Body Weight. The ability to track your lean mass and body fat percentages helps you determine whether you are losing fat and building muscle. Fortunately, smart scales and apps can calculate body fat percentages and help you track this data. The Fitter Fitness Calculator for the iPhone and the Body Fat Calculator app by Voice Apps for Android phones can do the calculations and track your progress.

Watching Your Weight 

Bathroom scales have become a whole lot smarter. Not only do they show your weight, but they can also calculate your body fat percentage, BMI, and lean mass. Access to lean mass and body fat percentages help you determine whether you are losing fat and building muscle. Some scales are equipped to track data from multiple individuals and can even determine who you are as soon as you step on them. The information collected by these scales can also be accessed through websites and apps where you can view your progress in the form of charts and graphs. Some smart scales work in tandem with compatible fitness trackers to help you achieve your goals.

It’s Not All Good: Do Not Use a Smart Scale if You Have a Pacemaker or Other Internal Medical Device Due to the technology used by these smart scales to analyze body mass, which involves sending a small electrical signal through the body (Bio-impedance Analysis), people who have pacemakers or other internal medical devices should not use these devices before consulting their doctor.

• Track Your Weight with the Withings WS-50 Smart Body Analyzer. Withings WS-50 Smart Body Analyzer not only tracks your weight, BMI, and body fat, but it can also measure your pulse through your feet so that you can set goals to lower your standing heart rate (a good indicator of heart strength). If you work out vigorously, this scale also lets you switch to “Athlete mode” so it can more accurately calculate the fat mass measurement. The Withings WS-50 Smart Body Analyzer also has the ability to track environmental metrics such as carbon dioxide concentration and indoor temperature to let you know when it is time to clear the air, and it even provides the daily weather. This scale can accommodate up to eight different users and automatically recognizes each user after he or she steps onto the scale. If two people are of a similar weight, it will prompt you to lean either left or right to choose the right person.

• Withings WS-50 Smart Body Analyzer. You pair the Withings Smart Body Analyzer to your Android or iOS device using Bluetooth. Then download the Health Mate app from the Google Play Store or the App Store. The app walks you through setting up an account, connecting to your Wi-Fi network, and configuring measurement units. After you’re set up, just step on the scale and let it go to work. With the Health Mate app, you can keep your progress history on hand. You can also track your health using the web-based interface. If you are not familiar with some of the readings, Withings does a good job providing helpful information so you can understand the data being tracked. Visit withings.com to learn more and to purchase the device. You can also search for the device on the Internet.

Watching Your Food Portions 

If you regularly eat out in restaurants, it’s hard to ignore the fact that food portion sizes have grown larger and larger over the years. This trend can also influence you when you’re preparing meals at home, giving you a skewed perspective of what an actual serving size really looks like. Knowing the proper serving size helps you know the calories, fat, sodium, and other nutritional values of the food that you put in your body. Resources like digital food scales and measuring cups that talk can help you take control of portion sizes and help build a healthier you. If you don’t already practice this, there will be a learning curve; you’ll have to start reading packages and learning what constitutes a recommended serving size instead of just eyeballing. You just might learn that the plate of pasta you enjoy at your favorite Italian restaurant in fact might be an entire package of pasta! The tools to watch your food portions are really quite simple. Consider the following products as examples to get you started. There are many, many more to choose from.

• Weigh Food Portions with Digital Scales. Knowing your food portions when you’re preparing meals has never been easier. Digital kitchen scales have been around for a long time and are hardly high tech, but sometimes simple and low tech is all you need. Enjoy the foods you love, but eat less. A digital food scale provides more precise measurements of portions when preparing food. Consider one of these scales. The Ozeri Pronto Digital Multifunction Kitchen and Food Scale is a popular product that lets you accurately weigh up to 11 pounds in graduations of 0.05 ounces (1 gram). The weighing platform is large to accommodate large bowls and food items. It comes with a tare feature, which allows the scale to subtract the weight of the bowl or plate so you can get an accurate measurement. You’ll need to place the empty container on the scale first, and then press the Tare button to zero out the scale before you add the food. You can change the unit of measurement with just a press of a button. The widescreen LCD displays results in grams, ounces, pounds, and kilograms. Visit ozeri.com and choose For the Kitchen at the bottom of the screen to view more scales by Ozeri.