New Google Emoticons
Gmail has a bunch of new emoticons (79 to be exact, unless I’m miscounting). There’s a sneak-attack-hug, a wide face, a cake, a radio, and pile of poop. There are some new smileys for chat (Google Talk) as well, but they are limited to the old emoticons – the standard smileys and some of the secret ones (monkey, pig, cowbell, etc). What I want IMMEDIATELY is to be able to put poop into my chat windows. Someone petition Google, quickly!
WebMD just posted an article called “The Truth Behind 10 Diet Myths.” This is what I’ve been saying all along though! For weight loss, there’s minimal effect of eating times, food types, etc on weight loss.
Calories are calories.
Calories are energy. Unused energy is stored as fat. And fat is weight. Of course, there is a difference between weight loss and health – the two are not by any means the same thing. You can be fat but healthier than someone in their proper weight range.
This man’s skills make me jealous, but also thankful that I can bike without the need to navigate New York traffic.
I wonder if he would be a good competitive cyclist.
This is my first new post on my hosted wordpress blog. My website is now entirely hosted by dreamhost, including the blog, which was previously a free-hosted wordpress.com blog. The transfer process was pretty simple, and the theme integration was straightforward, since this is the second time I am doing it.
Overall, a success!
I’ve been working on some websites lately, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how efficient <div /> is compared to <table />. In the example below, my home page condensed from over 80 lines of code to a mere 29. Of course, this was aided by better use of CSS, but I feel that it was easier to use CSS once I had divs in. There are some things that table do better though, and for me it is the vertical-text align. Trying to center align some text vertically involves creating multiple nested divs, alignment of the first inner div to 50% of the outer div, and then alignment of the second inner div to go up 50% of the text! Nonetheless, it’s a sacrifice worth making. See below for before and after screen shots.
Before: Tables, 80+ lines of code
After: divs, 29 lines of code
In theory, I suppose I could discount the meta tags to get an even lower line count.
To best calculate your daily caloric needs, you can use the Compendium of Physical Activities Tracking Guide [link]. It’s a huge list of very specific daily activities, including physical activities at different intensity levels as well as general tasks, such as eating in church. For each activity, calorie output is represented by a number called “METS” (metabolic equivalents).
To get calories from METS, multiply your weight in kilograms (pounds divided by 2.2), and multiply by the number of hours you performed the task for.
For example, if you weigh 70 kilograms and went to dig worms with a shovel for 30 minutes, you look that up on the chart. It’s METS = 4.0. Calories burnt = 70 x 4.0 x 1/2 = 140 calories.
To find out your daily calorie needs, take an average day, and track all of your activities during that 24 hour period, including sleeping, walking, studying, exercising, eating, etc. The more detail you put in, the more accurate your results will be. Here’s an example for one of my days:
Daily Calories Example
As you can see from my example, I’m burning about 3600 calories in that day. But if you saw my previous post, my average output is 3200 calories a day. This is because for this sample day, I’ve included my morning bike ride – but I do not do this everyday. To compensate, you may need to average a few days worth of calories.
Of course, these figures will be different based on your age, gender, metabolism, etc. But overall, they are pretty accurate, especially if you are exercising a lot. This is because metabolic differences will become small relative to calories consumed during exercise.
Now all you need to do is consume a number of calories that’s approximately equal to your caloric needs if you want to maintain your weight. And if you’re trying to lose or gain weight, then eat less or more! A good estimate for calories to burn is that ~500 calories per day = 1 pound of loss a week, or 3500 calories = 1 pound of fat. Healthy weight loss is about 0.5-2 pounds a week, depending on your original body weight. I’m not a qualified nutritionist, so you should contact a professional before starting any weight-loss/gain plan.
So I’ve calculated out a nutrition plan for me that is moderately high in protein, but also provides enough carbohydrates for my aerobic activities. I’ve only listed the calories because there is not enough space to cover everything. Nutrition data from HUDS. Nutrition information analysis (not shown) from USDA.
Intake:
Breakfast: 786 calories
Lunch: 1138 calories
Dinner: 1098 calories
Supplements – 240 calories
Total: 3272 calories
Sandwich = 2 slices wheat bread, 2 oz tomatoes, chicken breast, 1 oz lettuce, 1/2 slice American cheese
Salad = 8 oz cucumbers, 2 oz tofu, 2 oz tomatoes, 4 egg whites, 4 oz carrots + other dark veggies
Pasta = 8 oz multigrain spaghetti + 4 oz tomato sauce
Frozen Yogurt = 4 oz
Orange Juice = 8 oz
Output:
Total: 3270 calories
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