Top 5 Health and Fitness Tools for Firefighters – #1

Calorie and Activity Tracker

Each year during the annual firefighter fitness tests that I do here in Oregon, the firefighters I work with are required to complete a nutritional analysis on themselves using an online calorie tracker.

While this always drums up a lot of moaning and complaining, I’ve found over the years that seeing on paper how healthy their diet is has made a tremendous impact on many of their eating habits.

Some of them have continued the practice on their own, also choosing to enter their activity level to help balance their calories and lose weight or maintain a healthy weight.

The great thing about these online programs is they’re free. One that can also be used as an app is My Fitness Pal. In my program we use the USDA’s Supertracker.

Although it seems like this would be really labor intensive, I guarantee it takes less time than you think and could save you effort in the long run. For example, you may find out that the granola you were eating accounted for 30% of the calories you ate that day! By switching out that granola for something lower in calories, you’re saving yourself the two-hour run that would be required to burn that off.

Photo Courtesy: Pixabay

Research shows that when people document what they eat daily (with something like this or a food journal) they end up eating less simply because they are aware of what they’re taking in.

The next 4 articles in this series will highlight four pieces of exercise equipment that I believe are excellent tools for firefighters to keep their bodies in tip-top shape and resistant to injury. An added benefit of these 4 tools is that they’re all small and portable, inexpensive and can be found at any sporting goods store.

Find the complete series here!

Part 1 : Calorie/Activity Tracker
Part 2 : Foam Roller
Part 3 : Resistance Tube
Part 4 : Yoga/Stretching Mat
Part 5 : Exercise Ball