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Dr. Kristine Clark is the Director of Sports Nutrition for the Athletic Department at Penn State University and Nutritionist for the U.S. Olympic women's soccer team. Here's where she'll answer nutrition questions that you can apply to your own lifestyle goals.


Question
I want to lose about 25 pounds and am confused about the role fat plays in weight loss. Is the goal to cut fat or are you supposed to cut carbohydrates (carbs)? Are there good and bad carbs and fats?

Answer
To set the record straight, weight loss involves one major goal - changing energy balance. Simply put, you have to reduce calories coming into your diet (energy in) and increase your ability to BURN calories through more physical activity (energy out). A combination of both is optimal for good health, but one versus the other can influence energy balance. Think about a see-saw or teeter-totter. If YOU are that see-saw, and it was evenly balanced, your weight would not be budging. In other words, you would be maintaining your current weight. Now think about YOURSELF as that see-saw again but consider that one end is touching the ground while the other end is sticking up at an angle. The side touching the ground is your weight, and it's gone DOWN, because the other end of the see-saw is "the calories you're burning" and they've gone UP. You can look at it from one other viewpoint: The side that's DOWN - touching the ground - is your "energy output, or the calories you've burned" and as a result, the side that's UP is your weight. Typically we gain weight when our energy expenditure goes down - even if we aren't eating more.

So to begin losing 25 pounds, you need to take a very close look at your diet and try to see where you could reduce some calories. Also, you need to consider spending a bit more time fitting in physical activity. A 30-minute walk each day would be a good start.

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