Chapter 4

Nutrition for Walkers on the Run

In This Chapter

Understanding the basic fuel groups

Looking at the food pyramid

Discovering the ABCs of vitamins, minerals, and other nutritional considerations

Knowing why you have to give up on dieting

Eating well for walking performance

Getting the scoop on fast food and junk food

E very day, one of my clients asks me whether she should buy some crazy diet book on the bestseller list or believe the outrageous nutritional claim she read about in a popular magazine. Lynn, a client who has been working out with me for about five years, once announced that she was going on a high-protein diet. She wanted to give up all carbohydrates, including whole grains, pasta, and rice, because she read that they make you fat. Mind you, Lynn wants to run a marathon. She is training very hard, running and walking as many as 40 miles a week.

How many nutty, too-good-to-be-true nutritional theories have you heard or read about lately? How many have you believed? How many have you tried? How many have worked? On the surface, these theories appear perfectly credible — often backed up by seemingly respectable studies, reliable scientific information, and glowing testimonials. And yet, as this chapter shows, most of these claims turn out to be hard to swallow.

I start this chapter with some basic principles of good nutrition. Although nutritionists are discovering new things about good nutrition all the time, these fundamentals always ring true. One thing you won’t find in this chapter is a specific diet or menu plan to follow. Instead, I explain how to personalize and refine the basics so that they make sense for you. I give you some facts, suggestions, and guidelines. Your job is to take this information and make it your own. I also provide a list of the vitamins and minerals your body needs and tell you how much of each to take and where you can find them. Finally, I fill you in on nutritional bars, fast food, and junk food and what they do to and for you. Not sure what to eat to maximize your walking program? Read on.

Fueling Your Body with the Basics

Three fuels — carbohydrates, proteins, and fats — are the body’s only sources of calories. No matter what the folks selling food supplements say, these are the only fuels your body can use to produce energy. You need all three of these nutrients in your diet to ensure that you get proper nutrition — even fat.

Carbohydrates

Starchy foods, such as pasta, cereal, and rice, are good sources of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates (or carbs, as we athletes like to call them) are the nutrient most readily converted into glycogen, the elementary fuel your body uses. Carbohydrates are the most efficient form of energy your body has to work with because carbs break down quickly and readily into usable energy. Regardless of what you may read in many popular diet books, carbohydrates should be the mainstay of your diet.

Fifty to seventy percent of your daily calorie intake should come in the form of carbohydrates (more about these percentages in “Playing the Numbers Game,” later in this chapter).

Although carbohydrates should be the staple of any healthy diet, be careful about the type of carbs you eat. There are two kinds of carbohydrates: complex carbs (starchy, bready, grainy foods, plus vegetables and legumes) and simple carbs (candy, cake, doughnuts — anything containing large amounts of processed sugar).

Complex carbs are loaded with nutrition. Your body absorbs them slowly, so they provide a steady supply of energy. Simple carbs, on the other hand, are filled with empty, useless calories and are often found in foods that are also high in fat. These carbs are absorbed quickly and affect your energy level like a roller coaster: a quick climb, followed by an equally quick plunge. That’s why you feel so low in energy half an hour or so after eating a candy bar or a piece of cake. Fruits and vegetables are a combination of complex and simple carbs; they’re healthy because they contain lots of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and water.

Protein

Good sources of protein include meat, poultry, fish, dairy products, soy, legumes, and nuts. Your body uses protein as a backup fuel supply when carbohydrates and fats aren’t available.

Proteins are made up of combinations of smaller building blocks called amino acids. Your body needs 22 amino acids to function properly. Nine are called essential amino acids because you absolutely must get them from food; the other 13 are called nonessential because your body can produce them on its own. If you lack even one essential amino acid, your body starts breaking down muscle tissue to harvest the missing amino acid it needs.

Vegetarians have to be careful because plants contain incomplete proteins, which means that you can’t get all your essential amino acids from one source. All the essential amino acids must be present in your meal at one time in order for the body to recombine them into a complete protein. For this reason it is important for vegetarians to combine foods that contain complementary amino acids. Examples of such combinations include rice and beans, peanut butter and whole grain bread, and pasta and vegetables. This type of combination provides the proper mix of amino acids to fulfill protein needs. Vegetarians who include dairy products with their meals are getting all essential amino acids.

Contrary to popular belief, eating excess protein does not help you build muscle and make you stronger. Although muscle tissue is made up primarily of protein, the building block for muscles is energy — not dietary protein. So, to build muscle, eat carbohydrates, which produce a greater deal of energy.

The same holds true for the opposite myth: Eating a lot of protein helps make you thinner. Calories are the key to weight loss, not the type of food those calories come from. If you eat more calories than you burn off — regardless of whether the calories are from steak, corn, or carrot cake — you gain weight.

Only 15 to 30 percent of your caloric intake should come from protein — far less than many popular diet books would have you believe. Actually, protein deficiency is pretty rare in the modern world. If anything, the average person eats two times the protein needed. Three modest servings, each about the size of a deck of cards, more than likely cover your protein needs — and then some.

Fat

In spite of their flabby reputation, fats are just as indispensable to your diet as carbs and proteins. Fats provide certain nutrients that are tough to get from any other source. Eating a moderate amount of dietary fat provides energy and helps make you feel full and satisfied. However, most of us don’t have to search for ways to add fat to our diets. Most people eat too much fat.

Your fat intake should be 15 to 30 percent of your diet. The average person eats a diet that’s closer to 40 percent fat. Too much fat clogs your arteries and is linked to heart disease and numerous types of cancer. The moral of the story here is that you should include fat in your diet, but do so with control and some limitations.

Here’s the skinny on the three different types of fat in your diet:

Saturated fats: These fats have all their chemical bonds fully stuffed with hydrogen ions (hence the name saturated). They’re the true villains that muck up our diets by preventing the liver from filtering out LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol (otherwise known as “bad” cholesterol) from the blood. This raises both total cholesterol levels and levels of LDL cholesterol. Saturated fats are easy to recognize because they’re solid at room temperature; examples include the fat in your steaks and burgers, butter, cheese, and mayonnaise.

Monounsaturated fats: Monounsaturates, such as olive, canola, and peanut oils, seem to be the most effective when substituted for saturated fats because they lower your bad cholesterol without affecting your good cholesterol.

Polyunsaturated fats: These fats, including sunflower, corn, soy, and canola oils, do a good job of reducing bad cholesterol levels, but they lower levels of “good” cholesterol (HDL, or high-density lipoprotein), too.

Fat-free and nonfat fats

The term fat-free does not mean calorie-free! Many fat-free products contain far more calories and sugar than their higher-in-fat counterparts. Plus, they often don’t taste as good as the real thing, so you wind up eating more to feel satisfied. Fat-free goodies have never been proved effective for fighting that battle of the bulge. You have to watch how many total calories — not just how many fat calories — you consume.

Some lowfat items do have a place in your diet. In particular, try to eat lowfat dairy products, like lowfat yogurt and skim milk. Other foods earn the lowfat label because they naturally don’t contain large amounts of fat. This is a pretty broad category, including everything from pretzels to fruit.

A new twist on fat-free began appearing on your supermarket shelves in 1996. Olestra, the first fake fat, received approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for human consumption. To date, Frito-Lay’s WOW chips are the highest- profile olestra product.

Why are some health advocates up in arms about olestra? Unlike the myriad of other lowfat products, olestra is a real fat — with one notable exception. Whereas the typical natural fat is loaded with 9 calories a gram, olestra is designed to pass right through your body without being digested. An ounce of potato chips fried in olestra has no fat and just 70 calories, compared to 10 grams of fat and 150 calories in conventional chips.

Here’s the reason some experts warn against eating large amounts of olestra: When olestra passes through your body, it takes certain nutrients right along with it. Some of these nutrients are thought to protect against cancer. Over- consumption of olestra may also cause cramping and diarrhea, although recent studies have diminished worries about serious gastrointes-tinal distress.

During an Oprah Winfrey show, an olestra advocate claimed food that is high in fiber also flushes a certain amount of healthful nutrients from the body. Hmmm. While I don’t think it will kill you to have an occasional bag of WOW chips, I think it’s a bit of a stretch trying to equate fiber with olestra products. My advice: Don’t use olestra as an excuse to eat a lot of empty calories and junk food. Eat olestra-based products in moderation, as an occasional treat, until more is known about its long-term effects on the body. The same goes for any food that contains artificial ingredients.

Playing the Numbers Game

Early in this chapter, I give you pretty broad ranges for the amount of each basic nutrient that you should include in your diet: 50 to 70 percent for carbohydrates; 15 to 30 percent for proteins; and 10 to 30 percent for fats. Each person is unique. Whereas one person may lose weight and avoid health problems with a diet that averages 30 percent fat, another person may have to cut fat to around 15 percent to achieve her goals.

Experiment with your diet and see what works best for you. Keep a food diary and analyze it by using a nutrition and calorie book or a nutrition analysis software program. Better yet, take your food diary to a registered dietician and have it professionally critiqued. See how you respond to different percentages of each nutrient in terms of weight loss and energy level. I use the following guidelines to create a unique diet plan for each client:

Exercise: The more exercise you do, the more carbs you should include in your diet. If you’re a casual, 30-minute, 3-times-a-week walker, you can probably do well on a diet that contains 50 to 60 percent carbohydrates. If you race walk 50 miles a week, you will probably perform better if your diet is closer to 65 to 70 percent carbs.

Health history: If you have a history of heart disease, colon cancer, or breast cancer, I recommend keeping your fat intake at the lower end of the spectrum. Ditto if these conditions run in your family. Research shows that a high-fat diet, especially a diet high in saturated fats, may increase your risk of developing these diseases.

Satiety (pronounced sah-TIE-a-tee): Satiety is a measure of how full and satisfied you feel after you eat. Some people feel better and eat fewer calories only if their diet runs on the high side of acceptable levels for fat. You will have to manipulate percentages of each nutrient to see how low in fat you can go yet still feel satisfied. But do try to stay within the acceptable ranges for all three basic nutrients.

Energy level and moods: Different people react differently to different diets. I work with one woman who feels grouchy unless she has a protein fix in the middle of the afternoon. Other people say they experience a “food hangover” when they overdose on high-carb foods like pasta and bread. Again, keeping a food diary and including a few words on your mood and energy level at various times in the day can help you determine your feel-good foods and your feel-bad foods.

The foods you eat: There are many ways to arrive at acceptable nutrient percentages. For instance, if you eat 60 percent carbs, it is probably not wise to achieve this percentage by eating pastas and breads alone. You must eat fruits and vegetables as well. Not all your protein should come from red meat, and not all your fats should be consumed in the form of cake and pie.

Taking a Look at the Food Pyramid

The Food Guide Pyramid (see Figure 4-1), issued by the Food and Drug Admin-istration in 1992, can help you structure your eating. It provides a crystal clear picture of the types and quantities of foods you should eat. And recently it has been updated to make it even more clear and understandable.

The lion’s share of your calories should come from the foods at the bottom of the pyramid: grains, cereals, rice, pasta, fruits, and vegetables — those are your carbs. Meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and dairy products fall in the center — those are your proteins. Fats, oils, and sweets are at the very top, under the heading of “use sparingly” — those are your fats. So, you see, the pyramid is really just another way of looking at those percentage recommendations.

To make sure that you don’t go overboard on calories, pay attention to what counts as a serving. One serving of meat may mean half a cow to you; however, the federal government’s idea of a meat serving, 3 ounces, is about the size of a deck of cards. Here’s a rundown of some serving sizes of common foods as defined by the Food Pyramid. You may want to purchase a small, inexpensive kitchen scale to weigh your serving sizes until you learn to eyeball the correct amounts.

Meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs, nuts: One serving equals 2 to 3 ounces of lean cooked meat, fish, or poultry; 1 egg; 1/2 cup cooked beans; or 2 tablespoons seeds and nuts.

Milk, yogurt, cheese: One serving equals 1 cup of milk, enough to fill your cereal bowl in the morning; 1 cup of yogurt; or 1 1/2 ounces of cheese, which is about a slice and a half of sliced cheese. (Choose the lowfat varieties.)

Fruits: One serving equals one medium apple, banana, or orange; 1/2 cup of chopped fruit or berries; or 3/4 cup of fruit juice. Fresh fruits are usually preferable to frozen, canned, dried, or juiced. However, fresh fruits are not always better than frozen — it depends on how old the “fresh” fruit is. Freezing may do a better job of preserving nutrients.

Vegetables: One serving equals 1 cup of raw leafy vegetables; 1/2 cup of other vegetables such as green beans or carrots, chopped; or 3/4 cup vegetable juice.

Bread, cereal, rice, pasta: One serving equals 1 slice of bread; 1 ounce of ready-to-eat cereal; or 1/2 cup of cooked cereal, rice, or pasta.

Sweets and other high fat foods: Just keep them to a minimum!

Figure 4-1: Use the Food Guide Pyramid to help plan your meals.

Keeping Other Nutritional Factors in Mind

If it were just a simple matter of keeping track of your carbs, proteins, and fats, nutrition wouldn’t be that complicated. But you need to pay attention to other nutritional considerations also. These other substances don’t provide calories per se, but they may impact your health and well-being.

Cholesterol

Animals produce cholesterol in their livers, hence animal fat is the main source of dietary cholesterol. Cholesterol, although it’s a form of fat, doesn’t contribute extra calories. But it may affect your heart’s health in a big, negative way by clogging your arteries, eventually leading to heart disease.

The total fat in your diet, especially saturated fat, can affect your cholesterol levels most dramatically. To lower your blood cholesterol, you need to reduce your fat intake. Talk to your doctor and registered dietician to determine what’s right for you.

There are two main types of cholesterol: LDL and HDL. LDL, also known as the “bad” cholesterol, is the substance that clings to the walls of your arteries, blocking them, and forcing your heart to work harder to pump blood through your blood vessels. HDL, the so-called “good” cholesterol, scrubs your artery walls clean, so blood has easy passage and your heart doesn’t have to work as hard.

A total cholesterol reading counts both good and bad cholesterol. Any total cholesterol reading of 240 or below is generally considered in the healthy range and puts you at lower risk for heart disease and cancer. It is important to pay attention to your cholesterol ratio. You want your total cholesterol divided by your good cholesterol (HDL) to achieve a ratio of 5:1 or lower. For example, if your total cholesterol is 200 and your HDLs are 66, you divide 200 by 66 for a ratio of about 3:1. Although your total cholesterol number is up at the upper end of the acceptable range, a high level of HDLs balances it out.

Fiber

Fiber refers to the indigestible parts of a plant that help cleanse your digestive system. Most scientific studies have found that eating a diet high in fiber can reduce the risk of colon cancer as well as other types of cancer and health problems. However, the largest study to date did not find a lowered risk of colon cancer.

Fiber comes in two types: insoluble and soluble. Insoluble fiber absorbs water, thereby increasing bulk in your digestive system. This keeps things moving along through your intestines. Soluble fiber dissolves in water, so you fill up more quickly, possibly making weight control easier. Fiber may help lower total cholesterol and blood pressure, too. Whole grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables are good sources of insoluble fiber; whole oats and oat bran are the best sources of soluble fiber.

Most expert organizations agree that you need 20 to 35 grams of fiber daily. A good way to increase your fiber intake is to eat foods as close to their natural state as you can. Carrots, for example, are a pretty good source of fiber. But there’s a big difference between raw carrots and carrot cake! Five half-cup servings a day of fresh fruits and vegetables plus three or four servings of whole grain cereal or bread easily meet your fiber requirements.

Don’t try to make sudden increases in your fiber intake, especially if you don’t eat much fiber right now. Increasing fiber intake too quickly can be a big shock to your system, resulting in gassiness, stomach cramps, and diarrhea. Introduce fiber into your diet slowly. Add an additional gram or two per day until you reach the recommended amount.

Vitamins and minerals

Vitamins come from living sources, such as animals and vegetables. Minerals come from inorganic, or dead, sources that were once part of a large rock or glacier, perhaps the earth’s crust. Both are considered micronutrients because your body uses them in such small amounts.

Neither vitamins nor minerals give you energy like fats, carbs, or proteins do, but your body needs them in order to perform all the chemical reactions it should. That may not seem like a very big deal until you consider those chemical reactions are responsible for everything from proper breathing to shiny hair.

To keep your body humming along like a well-oiled machine, you need more than 40 essential vitamins and minerals. Although Mother Nature has done a pretty good job packaging these micronutrients in the most advantageous combinations and doses, it is very difficult to achieve the correct balance of vitamins and minerals, especially if you exercise on a regular basis, have a lot of stress in your life, or don’t always make the best food choices. That covers just about all of us. For this reason, taking a daily vitamin and mineral supplement is probably a good idea.

A supplement can ensure that you meet your minimum daily requirement for most, if not all, of the essential micronutrients. But don’t get any ideas about a little vitamin pill taking the place of a healthy diet. And don’t expect a cure for baldness lurking beneath that ball of cotton under the cap either.

Other vitamin and mineral pitfalls to avoid: megadosing and overspending. Because most vitamins are water soluble, that means your body flushes them out of your system instead of storing them. So taking way more than the recommended daily allowance (RDA) only serves to give you very expensive urine! Don’t be surprised if your urine turns strange shades of orange, gold, or yellow if you swallow vitamins by the handful. I speak from experience.

Taking large doses of fat-soluble vitamins, primarily A, D and K, can cause serious health problems. Instead of dumping excess amounts, your body stockpiles fat-soluble vitamins in your organs until you’re ready to use them. If you overdose on supplements containing fat-soluble vitamins and don’t use them quickly enough, they can have serious health side effects, such as increased risk of cancer.

As for overspending, your body doesn’t know the difference between a ten-dollar vitamin pill and a ten-cent vitamin pill. I personally can’t take adult vitamins because they give me a stomachache even when I take them with food. I pop two Flintstones chewables every morning, and they give me 100 percent of my RDA for all essential vitamins and minerals. A self-proclaimed nutrition expert once gave me flak about this, but I hold that vitamins are vitamins — everything else contained in the pills you buy is filler. So get the best bargain on vitamin and mineral supplements you can; just make sure to check expiration dates because pills do tend to lose potency over time.

Check out Tables 4-1 and 4-2 for information on the vitamins and minerals you need, what they do for your body, how much you should take, and where you can find them.

Water

Water cools your body, aids circulation and digestion, and carries the fuel used to power your muscles. You need water as much as you need air. In fact, your body is about 60 percent water, and if you lose as little as 2 percent of your body weight through dehydration, your ability to think and move is seriously impaired.

Alcohol, caffeine, sun, heat, wind, exercise, smoking, and air conditioning are just a few of the things that can sap your body of water. Try to drink at least eight, 8-ounce glasses of water to replenish what you lose normally everyday. When you walk, drink two cups of water for every pound you lose from sweating. Your body can absorb only a small amount of liquid at a time, so replace lost water slowly, over the course of a few hours.

Water also comes from other sources, like milk, juice, sports drinks, seltzer, and even juicy fruits. Drinks that don’t fully count, and even hurt, are alcohol and caffeinated drinks like coffee, tea, and cola; all of these have a diuretic, or dehydrating, effect.

Many people drink bottled water nowadays. It may taste better than tap water available in your area. However, some new studies show that people who never drink tap water may be at increased risk for tooth decay and gum disease. Tap water, in most parts of the country, is fluoridated, meaning it is supplemented with fluoride, a substance known to protect teeth and gums. Bottled water is usually purified and does not contain added fluoride.

Caffeine

I am one of those people who can’t crawl out of bed in the morning without drinking a cup of coffee. Fortunately, my husband understands that I’m not going anywhere until he brings me one. If you’re like me, I don’t have to tell you that caffeine is classified as a mild stimulant.

Caffeine causes an increase in heart rate and metabolism, which heightens your mental sharpness or, for the more caffeine-sensitive, induces over-the-top jitters. (I can’t drink more than my one morning cup without feeling shaky and hyper.) Caffeine reaches the peak of its stimulating powers about 30 minutes after you’ve had that cup of coffee or tea. It takes your body 4 to 6 hours to metabolize half of your intake. By the way, it takes about 10 hours for caffeine’s effects to subside in women who use oral contraceptives. For smokers, it takes about 3 hours.

Most nutritional experts think that caffeine in moderation doesn’t do you any harm, but that over-indulging may have a negative impact on your health. Just what overdoing it means depends on your age, health, weight, and caffeine-sensitivity, among other things. Most people are probably okay if they hold their caffeine intake to the equivalent of one to two cups of coffee (150 milligrams) a day. Some studies actually show some possible health benefits to drinking caffeine. A recent study suggested that drinking one to two cups of coffee a day may offer some immunity to gallbladder troubles.

The downside to caffeine: It can leave you feeling agitated and nervous. It can disrupt your ability to concentrate. It can cause diarrhea, dehydration, and irritation. Caffeine can also inhibit your ability to absorb certain nutrients, like thiamin, calcium, and iron. Long-term heavy caffeine use has possible links to breast cancer, colon cancer, and osteoporosis.

Understanding Why Diets Don’t Work

Energy from food is measured in calories. Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the number of calories you need each day to perform basic bodily functions. For an average-size American woman, this number is around 1,000 calories; for the average-size American man, around 1,400. BMR takes into account only the energy your body needs for fundamental functions like breathing, blood circulation, and digestion. It does not take into account any movement or exercise you do. Everyday movement generally raises an average person’s caloric needs to around 1,600 and 2,000 for women and men, respectively. We walkers burn off even more calories a day through exercise.

Scientists are beginning to believe that your BMR has a set point, a certain weight that your body tends to weigh even if you overindulge or make moderate calorie cutbacks. This may be why some people seem to lose weight so easily and others have a harder time trimming off unwanted pounds. However, they also believe that you can exert some influence over your set point. Exercise definitely speeds up your metabolism, especially if you do enough of it to add muscle and drop body fat; some scientists theorize that for each pound of muscle you pack onto your frame, your BMR increases by 50 calories.

One thing does seem clear: The starvation and deprivation method is not the way to rev up your BMR. In fact, it probably slows it down, at least temporarily. When you drastically reduce your caloric intake, your metabolism puts on the brakes. Though you may have initial success with low-calorie diets, the needle on the bathroom scale suddenly stops creeping downward and then stubbornly remains in the same place day after day. When you inevitably quit dieting (as more than 95 percent of people do), your body bounces back to its usual set point. You’re no thinner. And you probably feel like a failure because you couldn’t lose weight.

This temporary metabolic slowdown is the main reason diets don’t work. Just like a car with a nearly empty gas tank, there’s too little fuel to run your organic engines properly. You feel hungry all the time and probably lack energy. (That’s also why you often feel cold when you’re dieting.)

Steer clear of any eating strategy that involves severe restriction or requires you to follow an elaborate set of rules: It’s a recipe for disaster. You will fail and feel hungry and miserable the whole time you’re dieting. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make an attempt to clean up your eating act. If you eat a giant bowl of pasta every night, as my client Lynn did, you will gain weight. Does that mean that the pasta itself is the culprit and you should banish it from your table altogether? Absolutely not. Limiting portion sizes enables you to enjoy pasta, daily if you like, yet not go overboard on carbohydrates and calories.

Two popular diets have people in my gyms buzzing: The Zone and Sugar Busters. The Zone makes the claim that carbohydrates make you fat, so therefore, you should eat a high-protein diet; Sugar Busters claims that eating sugar is responsible for everything from your excess weight to the national deficit. Of course you can’t consume mountains of carbs or scarf down sugary treats by the pound. But that doesn’t mean these wacky diets can fix your weight problem, increase your energy level, or make all your health troubles disappear.

People often have initial success on these two diet plans — as well as nearly every other fad diet — because they both restrict calories. You lose weight because you eat less, not because you have unlocked some magical secret that helps melt away body fat.

Outlining Special Eating Strategies for Walkers

If you’re really interested in losing weight, walking is a great way to start. The following list of eating strategies can help you as well. Walkers should follow the same fundamental nutritional rules as everyone else, and pay attention to these special tips:

Eat before you walk. Forget what your mother told you. You need to eat before you exercise. Eat a small, high-carb meal half an hour to an hour before you head out the door so that your blood sugar is in full swing during your walk. You’ll have more energy and feel better than if you skipped the snack. The best pre-workout choices are starchy, complex carbohydrates like bagels, whole grain bread, and rice. Experiment with different foods. If you tossed back a handful of crackers and they made you feel crampy during your walk, try a piece of raisin toast next time out.

You don’t have to eat a ton, just enough to give you that extra energy boost. Overdoing portion size works against you. Also, this is one time you may want to avoid some otherwise healthy foods. Eat a high-fiber snack or an acidic piece of fruit and you may find yourself doubled over 20 minutes into your walk.

Eat after you walk. You need to replenish your glycogen stores after a good workout, so make sure that you eat a small snack after your walk. Again, reach for those carbs. At this point, juicy fruits are a good choice because they replace carbs, water, and electrolytes. Even if you aren’t hungry — exercise can dull the appetite — grab a piece of fruit and take a few bites. You can always eat a heartier meal later on.

Eat while you walk. As crazy as this sounds, you may need to eat at some point during a walk. Of course, you shouldn’t be wolfing down a turkey sandwich to fuel a 20-minute jaunt around the neighborhood. But if you’re doing a 4-hour hike or an all-day walkathon, it’s wise to bring a snack along. Hikers should pack snacks that are high in protein and fat to replace all the calories they burn off. Gorp is a standard hiking snack; the name is shorthand for Good Old Raisins and Peanuts. Long-distance walkers should keep a simple carb handy. Candy, yes candy, is a good mid-to-end race choice because it gives you a quick shot of energy when you need it most.

Drink lots of water. It is essential to drink before, during, and after your walk. Carry water with you and take a sip every few minutes, even if you don’t feel thirsty. By the time you do feel that thirst, you’re already partially dehydrated. When the weather is extremely hot and humid or you’re walking for more than an hour, consider sipping a sports drink like Gatorade or Powerade. The electrolyte and carbs they contain help replenish what you lose from sweat.

Manipulate your carbs. Walkers who go at a moderate pace for under 30 minutes a workout can probably stay on the low end of the carbohydrate range in their diet; 50 to 60 percent of their calories should come from carbs. Walkers who put in more time and mileage may need to up their carb intake for optimal performance. Once again, experiment here. Keep a food diary and analyze it regularly so that you can pinpoint the balance of carbs, fat, and protein that makes you feel best. Your carb intake may change as your workouts change.

Don’t use walking as an excuse to pig out. Yes, you burn an average of 100 calories a mile as you walk, but that doesn’t give you a license to go hog wild. Your walking program is an important part of a weight-loss program, but it can’t perform miracles. If you eat more than you burn off, you’re gonna gain weight.

Dissecting sports nutrition bars

I once went to a fitness trade show and was stunned to see an entire exhibit hall the size of a warehouse devoted to sports nutrition bars. I opened my plastic bag and yelled, “Trick or treat” every time someone tossed another sample in my bag. When I got home and spread them out on my desk, I was even more stunned to find that I had collected over 40 different brands of these things.

Examining the labels of these bars was a true education for me. One claimed to be formulated to meet the special needs of women. Another claimed to be formulated to meet the special needs of tennis players. Yet another claimed to mimic the nutritional content of mother’s milk.

I opened one up and took a bite, and you know, it was pretty good. In fact, too good. It was coated with a thick layer of chocolate and tasted just like a candy bar. Of course, others weren’t so good; some had the taste and texture of wet plywood coated with rubber cement.

Tasty or not, most of the nutritional bars I have sampled pack just as much sugar and as many calories as any candy bar you find at your local candy counter. One particularly tasty bar claimed to be packed with muscle-building protein, but it also contained 240 calories and 10 grams of fat, and listed the main ingredient as dextrose, a form of processed sugar. By comparison, a Milky Way candy bar of approximately the same weight contains 250 calories, 9.1 of them from fat. It contains less sugar and nearly as much protein as this so-called nutritional supplement bar.

I don’t object to treating yourself to an occasional nutrition bar as a snack or when you don’t have time for a meal. But don’t kid yourself. Most of them are nothing more than high-priced candy bars with a vitamin coating and a little extra protein thrown in. If you take a daily multivitamin and eat well, you don’t need to eat these pseudo candy bars.

Avoiding Fast Food and Junk Food

Food that you order by speaking into the mouth of a clown or that comes in glow-in-the-dark colors are, unfortunately, a growing part of the average person’s diet. Typically, fast foods and junk foods are laden with extra fat, salt, and calories but light on nutritional value. And, although it’s okay to splurge on an occasional fast-food meal or stroll down the candy aisle of the supermarket, here are a few rules to help you avoid making a disaster of your diet.

Fast food

The best rule to keep in mind when you pull up to the drive-through to place your order is to keep it simple. Avoid specialty sandwiches with globs of special sauce, and stick to pared-down, basic sandwiches or junior versions. Lose the words “cheese” and “double” from your order. Chicken and fish may seem like healthy alternatives, but if they’re fried or batter-dipped, they rival specialty burgers in terms of fat and calories. That’s true for anything that comes in chunk or nugget form as well.

Many fast-food joints now offer lowfat burger options, although the McDonald’s McLean burger proved to be a dud with consumers. Better- tasting, lowfat options include a barbecued chicken sandwich or a plain salad. Just go easy on the extras they put in salads, including processed meats, cheese, hard-boiled eggs, and creamy dressings.

For fast-food breakfasts, go with pancakes or an English muffin (hold the butter if you can stand it), orange juice, and lowfat milk. As for lunch, if you can, resist the 200 plus calories and 50 percent fat of a regular order of French fries. Go for the hot apple pie or chocolate shake instead. Though these two items offer nearly the same number of calories as the fries, more than half of their calories are from carbs and less than 30 percent come from fat.

The best type of fast food can be found at pizza and Mexican chains. A slice of pizza is around 70 percent carbs and 20 percent fat (calories vary by slice size, of course). Likewise for a bean burrito, unadorned taco, or an order of rice and beans with a sprinkle of cheese. You do have to be careful, though. Taco Bell has one sandwich that weighs in at over 2,000 calories and 60 percent fat.

Junk food

Munchies that hit you while you’re studying, right after you put the baby to sleep, or when you’re working late at the office can be overpowering. You want something, and it’s got to be crunchy, smooth and creamy, or sweet.

If you crave crunchy, you may be tempted to reach for a bag of potato chips. Unfortunately, a measly 2-ounce bag of potato chips offers 306 calories, 58 percent of them from fat. You can blow a whole day’s virtues in one swift handful. Nuts and seeds, though “natural,” are even worse. It runs you 320 calories for two ounces of peanuts, and 77 percent of those calories are from fat, even more for the same amount of cashews or macadamia nuts.

Your safest crunchy munchie is a bag of pretzels. Unlike chips and nuts, they’re high in carbs, relatively low in calories, and only 6 percent fat. Popcorn can be a good choice too, but be careful here. Air-popped without butter and salt offers just 20 lowfat calories per cup. The same amount of microwave or oil-popped popcorn may deliver as many as 110 calories and 8 grams of fat. Movie theater popcorn is one of the worst choices you can make. A large popcorn can contain more than a thousand calories and as much saturated fat as you get from five fast-food specialty burgers — and that’s before you add the butter flavoring.

One of my clients told me that when he craves something crunchy, he eats raw new potatoes; those are the small, hard red variety of potato. This man swears by them, but I don’t know. . . I don’t think that would cut it for me. Perhaps you have your own healthy crunchy snack?

For smooth and creamy cravings, a cup of fruit-flavored, lowfat frozen yogurt is the safest selection (around 225 calories, 10 percent fat). However, the nutrition information displayed in a yogurt shop or on a yogurt container usually applies to vanilla flavor and to portion sizes that are much smaller than what is typically served. Other flavors, especially those with nuts or other add-ins, contain more fat and calories. Frozen yogurt vendors can sometimes be misleading about fat, calorie, and sugar content and the serving sizes of their products. Be sure to read labels and decipher serving sizes carefully.

I don’t usually recommend fat-free products, but many of the fat-free ice creams actually taste pretty good; they are significantly lower in fat and calories than regular ice cream but are still delicious and filling enough to satisfy a yearning for ice cream. Edy’s, Dreyer’s and Turkey Hill make a fat-free, sugar-free ice cream that is surprisingly good. Just make sure that you stick to a serving size. Don’t eat the whole pint at one sitting.

When your sweet tooth starts sending you signals, fig bars are your wisest cookie option (two have 110 calories, 17 percent fat). Angel food cake is also a good choice, weighing in at 140 calories per heavenly slice. My Mom loves Gummy Bears; she can eat just a few, and they satisfy her. Although you can eat the lowfat and no-fat versions of your favorite sweet treats, read the labels carefully. Sometimes they’re not the fat and calorie bargain you think they are. Also, because they don’t taste as good as the real deal, you tend to eat more of them.