Dietary Analysis

Lab 4: Dietary Analysis
Goals: Today’s activity will help you become more aware of what kinds of fuel
you are putting into your body. You will follow the instructions provided to keep
track of your food and beverage intake for five days. You will then determine if
your nutritional intake is adequate to help you meet your personal health goals.
The lab has you using an online program (My Fitness Pal) to track your intake
and to calculate your nutritional needs. If you would prefer not to use this
program, you may use another one or you can even track your intake and
manually calculate out your calories per serving using https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/ or
other online calculators. You will still need to fully answer the questions in
Part B of the lab, regardless of what method you use.
This lab is worth a total of 40 pts. See the individual point breakdown in
green for each question.
Part A: Using the Internet to Track Information.
Go to www.myfitnesspal.com and create a free account. If you are under the age
of 18, you will need to have your parent/guardian sign up for the account for you.
Once there, enter the “Tell us about yourself” information. Be sure to indicate if
you wish to maintain your current weight of if you wish to lose or gain some
weight.
You can skip the next step (or add friends if you would like to).
You will then see a page that lists how many calories, carbs, proteins, and fats
you should be consuming to stick to your own goals! Like this one!
Click the “Get Started Now” button to begin!
At the top of the page you will see tabs that will allow you to enter foods and
exercise for each day.
Enter your foods for each meal by clicking on the “Add Food” link and searching
for your foods. You can also enter water consumption and exercise if you wish.
Part B: Making Sense of the Data
Your assignment for this lab is to track your food (and drink) intake for five
days. At the end of the five days, review how many calories, carbs, proteins, and
fats you are consuming and determine if what you are putting in your body is
appropriate for your goals! Write a summary of your findings as you answer
the questions below. You DO NOT have to include personal information about
your weight or specifics about what you eat. That is your private information.
What you should include is data about how close your dietary intake matches the
recommended intake that will help you meet your goals.

1. Your Recommended Nutritional Intake (10 pts) – Replace the screen shot
   below with yours (you can find it by clicking on “My Home” and then clicking on
   “Goals”). If you use another program to track your intake, then you will need to
   figure out your recommended intake of total calories, grams of fat,
   carbohydrates, and protein using a different method, such this online calculator:
   https://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/dri-calculator/index.php.
2. Your Nutrional Intake Summary (10 pts) – Write a summary of how your
   intake matches/doesn’t match your goals. Be thorough in your discussion!
3. Your Action Plan (20 pts) – Write SPECIFIC, DETAILED steps you will take
   to better match your own nutritional recommended nutritional intake to your goals
   and DISCUSS them. This is worth half of your grade on this report, so discuss
   accordingly!