How to lose, maintain, and gain your weight wisely?

Hi, buddies!

I took some courses at coursera.org. One of them is Nutrition class from University of California, San Fransisco (UCSF). Ms. Katie Ferraro is my lecturer in this class. She teaches us very well.

I'm interested in one topic about determining individual nutrient needs. If you want to lose your weight, you only need 20-25 kcal per kg body weight. In maintaining weight, 25-30 kcal per kg body weight is needed. But, for people who want to gain weight, they need 30-35 kcal per kg body weight. Upper end of range is used if you're physical active. Otherwise, lower end of range is for people who don't do any physical activity. 

As we know, macronutrient play an important role to give us calories, i.e. carbohydrate, fat, and protein. Carbohydrate, fat, and protein yield 4 kcal/gram, 9 kcal/gram, and 4 kcal/gram, respectively. Here is the table about macronutrient distribution ranges in every stage of people's life.

So, how can we calculate our nutrient needs? Let me try to make you understand by giving a case. For example : Rina (37 years old) is the woman who suffer from diabetes mellitus. Her body weight is 80 kg. She has days with no exercise. She must reduce her weight in order to meet the goal of diabetes mellitus treatment. So, how much carbohydrate, fat, and protein that she needs per day?

In losing weight => 20-25 kcal/kg

Since she is not physical active => 20 kcal/kg

Then multiply by her weight => 20 kcal/kg x 80 kg = 1600 kcal

For her, let me use the macronutrients proportion: carbohydrate 55%, fat 25%, and protein 20%. So?

Carbohydrate =>  55% x 1600 kcal = 880 kcal => 880 kcal : 4 kcal/gram = 220 gram per day

Fat => 25% x 1600 kcal = 400 kcal => 400 kcal : 9 kcal/gram = 45 gram per day

Prorein => 20% x 1600 kcal = 320 kcal => 320 kcal : 4 kcal/gram = 80 gram per day

As you see, what a fascinating class it is! :D For further information regarding this nutrition class, please visit coursera official website.

Annyonghi-geseyo!

How to be a centenarian?

Do you know about centenarian?

Centenarian is the people that can live for more than 100 years. In this world, there are only a few people that can reach that age. Wow amazing!

So, what the tips for living like that? Let me try to share them in here.

Besse Cooper, one of the centenarian, said about her tips to the Guinness Book of World Records. She shared that she never consume fast food on her daily life, always do anything and solve her problems by herself. That's great!

Dan Buettner identified five zones in this world which have people who significantly live longer than the others. There are Sardinia in Italy, Okinawa in Japan, Loma Linda in California, Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica, and Icaria in Greece. 

Aside from either the genetic or lifestyle effect for being a centenarian, we should try to do some tips below that really good for our health. Some of the tips were taken from Dan Buettner's book, The Blue Zones. Here they are :

1. Keeping the active lifestyle

2. Having the purpose of life

3. Making a good relationship with family

4. Being a part of the community that has strong religious value

5. Not to consume any meat too much

6. Eating something until 80% from stomach capacity. Okinawa's people called this habit with hera hachi bu.

7. Having sense of humor

8. Keeping up-to-date to the actual events

For being healthy and live longer happily, let's do those tips from now, guys! :)

Baguskah vitamin C dosis tinggi untuk tubuh?

Asam askorbat atau yang biasa dikenal dengan vitamin C memiliki banyak manfaat untuk tubuh kita, salah satunya adalah sebagai antioksidan. Antioksidan merupakan zat yang sangat penting untuk tubuh dalam menangkal radikal bebas. Radikal bebas ini ada di sekitar kita, misalnya asap rokok atau ketika kita dalam kondisi sakit. Tubuh kita sebenarnya dapat menetralisir radikal bebas ini, namun, apabila jumlahnya terlalu berlebihan, kemampuan tubuh untuk menetralisirnya akan semakin berkurang. That's why terkadang kita membutuhkan asupan antioksidan dari luar.

Nah, saat ini banyak sekali produk vitamin C di pasaran, yang paling banyak dijumpai adalah vitamin C dosis tinggi 1000 mg. Mungkin salah satu dari kita sering mengkonsumsinya setiap hari :) Sebenarnya, as I know from some literature, recommended dose untuk vitamin C adalah 75 - 90 mg per hari. Nah lho, jadi apakah vitamin C dosis tinggi tersebut baik untuk diminum setiap hari? ;)

Pembahasan vitamin C ini sebenarnya pertama kali saya dengar sewaktu kuliah Biokimia di kampus. Saya pikir sangat bagus untuk share di blog saya ini karena banyak orang yang belum mengetahuinya.

Dalam tubuh, vitamin C akan dimetabolisme menjadi asam oksalat (lihat gambar alur metabolisme vitamin C di bawah ini).

Asam oksalat merupakan salah satu prekursor untuk terjadinya kidney stone (batu ginjal). Dosis tinggi vitamin C akan meningkatkan kadar asam oksalat dalam serum (darah) dan urin. That's why tingginya kadar asam oksalat akan memberikan peluang besar dalam terciptanya batu ginjal. Does it make sense? Gambar di bawah ini merupakan contoh batu ginjal (kalsium oksalat) yang terbentuk dari asam oksalat.

 

Jadi gimana dong? Gimana kalo sakit and butuh vitamin C dosis tinggi? Vitamin C dosis tinggi ini memang sangat baik dikonsumsi ketika tubuh sakit, misalnya ketika kita terserang radang tenggorokan atau flu berat. Pada kondisi tersebut radikal bebas banyak di tubuh dan tentunya tubuh akan membutuhkan antioksidan dari luar. Agar terhindar dari pembentukan batu ginjal, konsumsi vitamin C dosis tinggi harus diiringi dengan banyaknya konsumsi air putih. Urinasi yang tinggi akan mencegah pengendapan batu oksalat tersebut dalam ginjal kita. So, we should drink much water if we will take the high dose of vitamin C. 

Take care of your body, guys! See you on the next post :) Hope this information will be useful for you.