####################################################################################### ############## To Do ############## ####################################################################################### I might also limit the duration of the simulation to 6 to 12 months. It does not seem practical to go beyond a year especially since most of the current data only follows folks for weeks and months. SR - Default range on graph should be 1 year, not 5 years. Time should go more slowly (1/5 as fast) NP - I think it should go for at least a few years. People can take years to lose large amounts of weight, especially if they want to do it safely, and we’d probably like to model this. I would also limit the age range to the young to middle aged adult since resting metabolic rate changes relative to lean mass outside this range. SR - if age is out of range, non-disruptive message that says data is not exact for your range Rename to Eating and Exercise Rename directory to match new simulation name, once it is selected Clarify the meaning of "lifestyle" vs. other daily exercises Add description to sedentary, moderate activity, etc. SR - Get rid of "Athletic Lifestyle" ####################################################################################### ############## To Do/Noah ############## ####################################################################################### I am not sure that I entirely agree with your calorie expenditures for physical activity. They seem a bit high and in many cases are absolute values. The total caloric cost for weight bearing activities should be based upon a per body weight value. What was your source for this information? SR - We'll choose a function for running, biking, etc. Noah will come up with these functions. Some activities will say “depends on weight” (others will just give a fixed calories value) Height Incorporate growth or height changes with weight? should we increase this? yes, look on web for height changes since BMI =f(height) SR - Problem: Fat % should be based on height and weight and gender, and update whenever height or weight or gender changes. Fat free mass depends on height & gender only, not on weight, thus BMR depends only on height and gender Noah P will provide these functions ####################################################################################### ############## To Discuss ############## ####################################################################################### BMI: Are we accounting for sex affects on BMI and BMR? NP - There is no “sex affect” on BMI – it is just height/weight^2. NP - BMR should differ by sex. SR – According to Exercise Physiology 4th Ed. By McArdle, Katch & Katch, 1996, p154, the Resting Daily Energy Expenditure is: RDEE (kcal) =370+21.6 * FFM (kg) This equation is said to apply to males and females over a wide range of body weights, and is the equation recommended to us by the CU Integrated Physiologists Can we put a chart or weblink to compare healthy or unhealthy BMI? (see categories chart on national heart lung and blood institute bmi calculator page) NP – there is a useful chart on wikipedia. The problem with this is that BMI is not the only indicator of health. People with high BMI can still be healthy. SR – Are there other factors within this simulation that we should use to indicate health? Or perhaps overall health is not sufficiently covered by this simulation? Or perhaps we should be clear that the indicator is only a measure of BMI. We are still confused about a delay in weight loss if: all variables remained constant: diet and lifestyle and then we ran a mile, why there is a delay in weight loss. NP – this is interesting. I haven’t been following this thread, but I have a theory. It might be because the exercise burns the calories you already ate, so you don’t lose the weight there. You lose the weight when your normal metabolism tries to burn up food, but the food is gone since you already burned it exercising, so then you burn fat. This causes a delay in weight loss (in fact, you gain weight when you eat the food, which you then lose again when you exercise, putting you back to the weight you started at.) I think you should be able to do "step day", so you can see the effects of 1 hour activity. NP – I don’t think this is realistic. People do step on a scale every day, but they don’t realize that the statistical fluctuations in weight (due to the weight of food, water retention, etc.) are probably larger than the amount of weight you can actually lose in a day. Note a lb. of fat is ~3000 calories. So if you weigh 150 lb and you some how burn 1 lb. of fat in a day (unlikely), this is <1% change in weight. Change in intake or expenditure … doesn’t lead to ideal weight loss, since other compartments adjust to compensate Caloric intake changes resting metabolic rate Extra carbs or protein can increase RMR (not agreed upon in scientific community) Is it true that I can eat a hamburger per day above a 'healthy diet', and have a steady weight (though a ~10 lb gain) after about three years? - to see this, click 'reset all', wait until you're 23 years old, then add a hamburger per day. >>The behavior of this has changed since we started keeping BMR constant over weight change >>Is the new behavior acceptable? 3000 kcal/day wrong, should be 2000kcal/day should this be exact? can't force 2000kcal/day and prescribed ffm and have balanced calories As I add the exercise the graphs begin to change, but I can't see whats happening from the getgo because it runs while the exercise window is open. I think this might make it difficult to understand what the starting point is and what the added exercise is changing. >>To address this problem, I started the simulation paused; hopefully the user will be able to pause the simulation before >>adding exercise/diet. If not, we can either pause the sim when they bring up an editor, or add a control to the >>diet selection panel >>Now that the simulation has drag-and-drop for editing diet and exercise, perhaps it should start running? >>Or perhaps the sim should start running as soon as the first item is dropped? >>Or perhaps a wiggle me should be used instead Satisfy learning goal: How long do you have to bike/walk to burn a certain number of calories? the learning goal seems too easy: to figure out "How long do you have to bike/walk to burn a certain number of calories?", you just have to look at the number of kcal/day in the text of the exercise type. might be better to ask how long it would take to lose 10 lbs? How is body fat calculated? How would a student know their % body fat to put in the simulation? NP – most people don’t know this. It is done either with a skin fold test (calipers), electric current (this is how these scales do it, not entirely accurate), or a submersion in water test (need a special facility). With skin fold, all the numbers are entered in a spreadsheet and it spits out a %. Electronic scales use weight, height, and conductivity (I don’t know the equation. I know it depends on how hydrated you are, and how long your legs are.) Better values/more options for base diets Need more junk food for diet options, like actual student diets: burrito, chips, cookies, tacos, sub sandwich, twizzlers or candies, etc ###################################### # Edit Diet ################### Add a legend for caloric breakdown pie chart Number of calories of healthy diet should be editable Add/Remove items from Edit Diet should be synchronized with Plate graphics I wanted to click on the food item or description rather than the add button. Can you change the interface to something like that. That would clean up this box a bit as well. Add a done button at the top of the diet and exercise boxes. Editors for exercise (change time or intensity) Would it be informative for students to see what 590kcals/day is equivalent to (for example 1 hour of swimming, or 2 hours of pilates?) NP – possibly – or have them figure this out on their own might be better. The energy cost of walking/running is about 1.43 kcal/kg/mile, swimming 4x higher, biking 1/4 value of walking NP – this is probably not the best way to represent this. It should probabaly be kcal burned per hour rather than per mile. It may be that biking is ¼ per mile, but you travel at least 4x as far on a bike in the same time. In fact, because of wind drag at higher speeds and the ability to climb hills very quickly, the actual “work” done cycling can be considerably higher than other activities. ###################################### # Fat % issue ################### I'm having trouble making sense out of this. It appears that if I add weight my BMR increases tremendously. I thought BMR does not increase unless muscle mass increases. Then I see that adding to my weight does not change my body fat. That seems very strange to me. Shouldn't that be a calculation of my weight and height with a slight scaling due to the muscular slider? The way it's set up, adding to a person's weight immediately causes calorie burn to compensate and they get lose weight immediately. This does not match my understanding. Weight gain should go into fat% to keep BMR basically constant. My biggest concern is the body fat indicator not changing as your guy gets fatter or you set his weight really high. I agree with Wendy that it doesn't make much sense to not have the percentage fat linked up at all to the weight. Description Women Men Essential fat 12–15% 2–5% Athletes 16–20% 6–13% Fitness 21–24% 14–17% Acceptable 25–31% 18–25% Obese 32%+ 25%+ source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_fat_percentage When you get up to 300+ pounds and have a BMI over 30, you should be into the obese fat percentages, but as lower weights, your percentage should be more in the fit ranges. (The default 26% is quite high for a male so should change if you hit male instead of female.) It seems like when you increase the weight we should also increase the calories in the base diet because otherwise the 300 lb guy loses weight very fast ... normally a guy like that would eat a lot more to maintain his weight. Basically this would be his BMR plus Lifestyle calories. Then be able to add OR subtract from that base diet. This would get away from the unrealistic rapid weight loss by a very overweight person. I found this page somewhat helpful in thinking about the above. http://weightloss.about.com/od/eatsmart/a/blcalintake.htm 1. Percent body fat should change as body weight changes. This change probably be based upon the concept that one pound of fat gain/loss requires a gain/loss of about 3500 calories. It should be noted that weight loss by diet only, results in a loss of both fat (75%) and lean tissue (25%) whereas weight loss via diet and exercise results in a maintenance of lean tissue and a loss of only fat. Food composition should lead to a change in the Fat Free Mass % check with fran, bill & kate regarding change in % fat http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/fitnessevalandassessment/a/Body_Fat_Comp.htm Can I Change My Body Composition? Yes. To increase or decrease your percent of body fat you need to create the right balance between the calories in and calories out. The best way to do this is to decrease daily calories by about 500 and increase your exercise. Aerobic exercise along with strength training is ideal. If you are beginning a new exercise program, you are advised to first consult your physician. KG gained per day should be a function of caloric distribution over lipids, carbs and protein Performance: consider profiling or changing clock rate >>How severe is this problem? Some exercise and food items are missing icons >>Should this taks be reassigned? Time readouts should be Years:Months, not years in decimal >>What's the best input user interface for this? Need a way to get rid of or clean up icons >>Dragging back to the toolbox removes the item >>Could add a trash can as well