Hi Everyone! This is Kris Metea from What’s Cooking with Coach. I would like to share with you an important tool that can help any person start to navigate and discover their nutrient needs.

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Many people do not know where to start when it comes to food choices, dieting, and health decisions. The best place to start, however, is yourself. Understanding your body and potential needs can lead to better health decisions in the short- and long-term.

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I am going to share with you a tool that I like, and it is a great starting point for understanding oneself and nutrition needs.

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It is a Dietary Reference Intake Calculator (DRI for short). These are suggested nutrient amounts for people by health professionals. DRIs change from person to person and affected by height, weight, sex, age, and activity level. This online calculator will give you your specific nutrient needs.

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The calculator can be found on the USDA website, in the Food and Nutrition Information Center. The link can be found on my blog post on whatscookingwithcoach.com if you need it.

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Once you have found the online calculator, you will put in your information. What is great about this calculator is that you can adjust the weight to meet your goals up or down and get the nutrient numbers for the adjusted weight. I will put in mine as an example.

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(Put in information and submit: 34-Year-Old, 6’, 225lb, Male, Moderately Active)

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The calculator will then provide you all the personal nutrient information for your body. As you can see it will give you total calories, exact amounts of macronutrients (protein, fat, Carbs), micronutrients (vitamins, minerals), and water.

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You can use these numbers to help influence your next food choices to ensure you stay within your specific range.  

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To get the link for the calculator, or to find more nutrition and sports information please visit Whatscookingwithcoach.com. You can also find us on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

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We hope you enjoyed! Thank you for watching!

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