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Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2002; 1 p.m. ET

Welcome to The Lean Plate Club, hosted by Washington Post health and nutrition writer Sally Squires. On Tuesdays at 1 p.m. ET, Sally leads a discussion for people who want to eat healthier, move around more and otherwise get better but not bigger. We're not about fad diets or crash weight-loss plans; we're about eating wisely and living healthy for the long haul.

We want to hear from you -- your tips, strategies, meal plans, successes, warnings, setbacks and more. Of course Sally will be happy to answer questions, and turn others over to the Club. None of this, of course, is a substitute for medical advice.

Health section editor Craig Stoltz will join Sally sometimes. Stoltz has none of Sally's impressive credentials but labors under a decade-long medical directive to control his weight and eat wisely, takes a statin to lower his blood cholesterol and keeps track of everything he eats on a Palm handheld computer, a fact most of his acquaintances no longer find interesting.

Want to get the upcoming Lean Plate Club E-newsletter? Send your E-mail address with "LPC" in the subject line to squiress@washpost.com to be added to the list.

A transcript follows.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

Sally Squires: Welcome to the Lean Plate Club! Today's topic: the latest nutrition recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences, which by the way, also have a lot to say about exercise.

Released last week, they build upon the U.S. Dietary Guidelines. And as you veteran Lean Plate Club members know, that's where the Lean Plae Club looks for nutritional guidance.

So the good news: no huge surprises from what experts have been saying all along, although there are for the first time recommended intakes for fiber, healthy types of fat and there's a "suggested" recommendation that foods with added sugars should not make up more tan 25 percent of total calories each day. And there's a minimum set for carbohydrates. Of course, there's also that advice about exercise. The latest recommendations suggest boosting daily activity to 60 minutes--or about twice what the Surgeon General's report recommended in 1996.

Okay, so what's your reaction to the news? Are you like the person who e-mailed me last week and signed himself as perplexed:

Sally, what I want to know is....

If you have to spend all your time figuring out what you can eat to stay within
the government guidelines for sugar, for fat, for fiber, for carbs, for cholesterol, for red dye no. 2
and on and on and on...

how can you possibly have any time left to meet the government guidelines
for ... exercise?

The freebies this week are:

The Chopra Center Cookbook: Nourishing Body and Soul with over 200 recipes and 30 days of meal plans, by Deepak Chopra, MD, David Simon, MD and Leanne Backer (Wiley; $24.95)

Conquer Your Food Addiction: The Ehrlich 8-Step Program for Permanent Weight Loss by Caryl Ehrlich (Free Press; $24)

Slow Burn: Burn Faster by Exercising Slower by Stu Mittleman (Quill; $14)

The Take Control Diet: A Life Plan For Thinking People by Ian K. Smith, MD ( Random House; $23.95)

You know the drill. As always, our offering of these books does not in any way endorse a particular diet or exercise program. One of these books could be yours if you can give us a great new healthy recipe to try, inspire us with your experiences of instilling healthy habits or getting back on track after a slip.

If you want to subscribe to the free, weekly electronic Lean Plate Club newsletter, you can now do that directly at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/email/front.htm.

Thanks to those of you who have sent me ideas of low-cost ways to exercise. If there are others out there--or if you have othre thoughts for an upcoming Lean Plate Club, e-mail the leanplateclub@washpost.com and please put either exercise or new idea in the subject line.

On to the chat!

Gaithersburg, Md.: The new guidelines make perfect sense to me; they're merely extensions of some of the latest research I've been reading about. It's definitely time for public emphasis on the differences between healthy and unhealthy oils and fatty acids.

Getting 60 minutes of exercise a day also makes sense; I've not read the the new guidelines but assume there's a little room for leeway? For example, my usually weekday bike ride is 30 minutes, but I do longer ones on weekends. This past Sunday my husband and I did a 50-mile organized ride in Dover, Del.; total ride time was 3-3/4 hours. Hopefully that extra time makes up for some of the weekday 30-minute sessions!

Sally Squires: Hey Gaithersburg: Boy are you ever on the mark. (Have you been eavesdropping on my interviews with exercise experts?) Yes, indeed, there does seem to be a little leeway, although ideally the recommendations urge folks to aim for those 60 minutes daily (or a little less if you do more intensive exercise, such as a jogging.) But stay tuned, we're going to go into the 60-minute guideline in more depth in next week's Health section.

Amherst, Mass.: Hi Sally,

The new food recommendations will take some experience for me, but seem doable. The exercise recommendation of an hour/day was a big surprise, though. I'm settling on racewalking every other day for 35-40 min., with an hour once a week, which works best for me, my body, and my health issues.

I've come upon a strategy that helps meet the Food Pyramid requirements rather easily, taking a cue from someone in a previous chat. One evening, I received an important call when "salad" was greens in a bowl, period. After the call, I began adding ingredients, and felt like I was painting a picture! By adding up the total servings for the day before dinner, it was fun to come up with a salad that fit the missing servings in the pyramid. Adding beans one night, tomatoes the next, provides variety, too.

Looking forward to seeing the other posts.

Sally Squires: Thanks Amherst. I think there's going to be more discussion in coming weeks about the exercise component. If you figure that we each have 24 hours in the day, and presumably sleep 8--and yeah, I know a lot of people don't get that much--then that leaves 16 hours. If you could move 10 minutes during even half of those hours, you'd have it made.

As for those salads, I couldn't agree with your more. The possibilities are endless and as I've explored new foods a the market, a salad no longer means lettuce and tomato or even a little jazzier parmesan croutons. There are so many great options. As I was fixing dinner recently, it occurred to me how much beans are not part of my family's diet. There's a great addition to salads--and a whole lot of foods.

Other thoughts or discoveries out there?

Greenbelt, Md.: Hi Sally,

My question is about chips: I eat a lot of sandwiches and like to occasionally eat chips with it. Whats more important, chips made with whole and multi-grains like sun chips, or chips lower in fat like baked doritos? Which is better for me?

Sally Squires: Hey Greenbelt: It all depends on what else you're eating throughout the day. There's no one approach, and in some ways, that's the beauty of the new recommendations, finding what works best for you within a given healthy range. If you're looking to explore, you might try baked chips, or the Terra Chips which are fried and won't save you any calories from potato chips but will give you some additional vegetables. You can also bake your own "chips" or try soy chips. The possibilities again are enormous. Bottom line: there is a strong trend towards eating as many whole grain foods as possibile.

Washington, D.C.: Hi Sally. Thanks for your informative chats. Because of them, I have become a devotee of Fitday.com, which has been extremely helpful. But through using it I notice that I am eating what seems like a huge amount of carbohydrates -- some days close to 70% of my calories. I eat very well -- lots of fruit, vegetables, yogurt, etc., but it seems that most of what I enter in Fitday goes right into the carbs category. What are some non-carbs that I should try to incorporate into my diet? Thanks!

Sally Squires: Thanks DC. The latest recommendations say to aim for a goal of 45 to 65 percent of calories as carbs, so you may be a little high with that 70%. Remember that what you eat needs to add up to 100. So if you go a little higher on one food group, you'll have to go a little lower on the others. Okay, so what could you add? First, are the carbs mostly from whole grain foods? Or are you getting a good range of fruit and veggies (which also have carbs.) Ditto for beans, which are rich in carbs, fiber and also have some protein. If you're running a little low in the protein category, think lean protein: poultry without the skin, fish (salmon and other cold water fish will also give you some of those healthy fats) lean cuts of beef, pork or other meat. Don't overlook eggs, although you'll want to watch the cholesterol from the yolks. But egg whites (Hard boiled or in an omelet) are a great source of protein. Skim milk is a good low fat source of protein. And I tried fat free feta cheese (the store was out of my usual variety) and crumbled it wasn't bad, and also has a some protein. Nuts are a another source, but also come with a lot of fat, although a good percentage is the healthy variety.

Meatless burgers etc are also choices...I could go on and on..

Tysons Corner, Washington, D.C.: I lived in France a year and a half ago. While I was there, I lost quite a bit of weight, despite the fact that I was eating more food -- food that was really not good for me. The reason? Exercise. I walked everywhere I went as I didn't have a car. Everything was within easy walking distance. When I came home, the weight came right back as I didn't walk as much. Now I try to fit in walking whenever possible. I spend my lunch hour walking instead of eating and I have discovered the lovely bike trails near my new apartment. I even managed to walk to the airport for my last trip! I love it! Now I find myself coming back near my France weight -- which was much healthier for me. Excercise is always key -- it should have always been part of the guidelines.

Sally Squires: Thanks Tysons. And you raise a good point. It can be so easy not to exercise in some places in the States.

Lanham, Md.: How many calories should a person cut back on in order to lost weight? I am female age 50.

Sally Squires: Hey Lanham: That's going to depend on your weight, height, gender and--the newest addition to the equation--how much you exercise. To lose a pound you need to have a deficit of about 3,500 calories. A lot of experts advise cutting your food intake by about 250 calories a day and boosting activity by about 250 calories a day (with that 60 minutes of exercise, for example.) This will roughly work out to about a pound of weight loss per week.

Washington, D.C.: Can you summarize the new guidelines? Is the food pyramid the same?

Sally Squires: Hey DC: Food pyramid doesn't change. In fact, the group that issued these guidelines is not the same group that does the pyramid. Here's how it works: The National Academy of Sciences is an organization here in DC. There is an Institute of Medicine at the NAS which has a Food and Nutrition Board. They convene a group of experts--in this case about 21 scientists--who spent 2.5 years developing these guidelines, which are known in nutrition circles as the macronutrient recommendations.

This information then is used by such federal groups as the Food and Drug Administration, the US Department of Agriculture and the department of Health and Human Services to craft the Dietary Guidelines, the nutrition facts labels that you see on food and things like goals for school lunch programs. USDA and I believe HHS did the Food Pyramid.

Got it? This is why there are people like me to keep reporting this stuff.

Silver Spring, Md.: Hi Sally,
I thought this idea that a co-worker and I are trying might be of use to others. We couldn't get motivated to change some of our more unhealthy behaviors by ourselves. So we thought up a challenge like the Lean Plate Club (changing one behavior per week) but with money involved.

My first challenge was start exercising at least 25 minutes per day -- very doable. My friend's was to not eat after 9 p.m. We would check in with each other each morning and if I didn't do the exercise, I put a dollar in a little box. Same with him. Since I'm really cheap and since I had to account to someone, it's worked really well.

We plan on donating the money to a local food bank later in the year.

Sally Squires: Good for you Silver Spring. And congratulations to your partner in this exercise. And you illustrate a fine point: how important it is to not follow any one approach but to use your growing nutrition and exercise knowledge and incorporate it into your own life in your own particular way.Bravo!

Virginia: Sally,

In your article, you mention that less than 25 percent of our calories should come from processed sugar. Could you help me to figure out how many grams of sugars that translates to? E.g. I had a fat-free yogurt this morning that lists 14 g sugars and 19 g total carbohydrates. How does that translate into calories? Is it three calories per gram? Are the sugars in my yogurt considered processed?

I just want to understand -- I am looking for hidden sugar in my food and I want to know if there are better choices I could make.

Sally Squires: Hi Virginia:

This can seem a little complicated--the reason that we're going to address some of these very topics in upcoming instalments of the Lean Plate Club. So watch that space in the Health section, on-line and in the e-newsletter. A quick fact that I culled from the report. 1 teaspoon of sugar has about 4 grams of added sugar.

And you're right to take a second look at that yogurt. Adam Drewnowski of the University of Washington told me last week that some can have up to 40 or 50 grams, much of it added sugar. His suggestion: buy plain yogurt (vanilla and lemon are other less sugary choices) and add your own fruit.

Okay, now a rough calculation of your yogurt. Take the 14 grams of sugar. Multiply by four. (Amoung of calories in each gram.) That would be 64 calories. If you add up all your added sugar and put it over your total calories for the day, you'll get a percentage. But admittedly, this isn't easy.

Virginia: A suggestion for eating healthy at work:

Try shopping for new Tupperware containers! There are some great ones out there that make eating salads and veggies more convenient. They have built-in holders for dressing and dips. I found some great ones at the Container Store.

Sally Squires: Thanks Virginia. Also don't overlook the various brands of disposal plastic containers also now available and able to be washed like Tupperware in the dishwasher.

Gaithersburg, Md.: Dear Sally and posters,
My question is if the exercise is more vigourous should it still be 60 minutes and does weight training count towards the 60 minutes

I started out eight months ago could not walk even five minutes. Now up to 40 minutes daily 6-7 days a week and have lost 35 pounds since then also by watch what I eat and keeping a food journal

Thanks for your weekly LPC it keeps me inspired.

Sally Squires: Way to go Gaithersburg! Yes, William Haskell, PhD, of Stanford University and Glenn Gaesser at the University of Virginia both told me yesterday that weight lifting can count towards the total. But it's also good to try to get some more vigorous aerobic activity in the mix.

Annapolis, Md.: With all the meals being consumed by people in restaraunts, is there anything you can do to encourage these eating places to include nutritional information on their menus?

Sally Squires: Restaurants are working on this. In fact, fast food restaurants have been ahead of the pack. Center for Science in the Public Interest has been lobbying for this too, so it may happen one day.

Amherst again: Keep making those suggestions -- they're so helpful. Fitting exercise in by walking to do errands is easy. In fact, I already do that, and will beging "counting" it immediately!

A friend told me just after the hour/day exercise recommendation came out that people who move, regardless of whether it's an hour, are already ahead of most of the population.

Sally Squires: Thanks, Amherst.

Arlington, Va.: I've developed a new resolution for the fall: for every minute of television I watch in the evenings, I am doing a corresponding number of ab and back exercises. So, for example, if I watch an hour of TV, I have 60 exercises to do -- 30 ab exercises and 30 back exercises (to keep things in balance). It's accomplishing two things: First, I'm doing a much better job of weighing whether or not I really want to watch TV, thereby cutting out "mindless" watching. Second, it's adding some activity relatively painlessly, since I can spread the exercises out during commercial breaks. It's also kind of fun to come up with a whole lot of different ab exercises so I'm not just doing crunches all the time.

Now, clearly I have to get rid of some more of my excess fat so I can actually show off the results of this TV trade-off, but I'm very excited about my new way of fitting in some additional exercise during the evening.

Sally Squires: Great idea Arlington. When I interviewed Haskell yesterday of Stanford he said that he and some NASA scientists had rigged up a stationary bike to the television. No bike, no t.v. They did this in 1968-69. Too bad it didn't take off, huh?

Cruising: So, I had been doing great 00 lost 30 pounds last year, gained 5 back and was pretty happy since I had decided I was too thin (yes, it does exist when you can't maintain it). Then I went on a 10 day cruise to celebrate my anniversary and gained another five pounds! I thought I was relatively good, always ate off the light menu, rarely got dessert, worked out and always took the stairs. But, you are eating so much more than normal.

My question is, I'm back, and finding it discouraging now that I've gained 10 back. I'm finding it hard to get back in the swing of things of etaing healthy. I find myself hungry all the time. I think my body got used to eating ALL the time. Any hints?

Sally Squires: Hey Cruising: Firs of all congratulations on what you accomplished. And that cruise sounds like it was fun. Okay, so now you're back and as that old Billy Joel song says, have to pay the rent, or at least the caloric price of your fun. How did you get motivated that last time? Think about what you want to accomplish. View this as a life-long effort. You've just hit a little bump in the road. That wouldn't stop you from making a journey, would it? Start slowly. Get an exercise buddy. Hire a personal trainer for an hour. Try a new activity. Buy a new cookbook. Shop at a new store. Do something to jumpstart yourself and be sure to check back in with us.

Other suggestions out there...

Washington, D.C.: Hi,

I'm a normally active person who recently started an office job (read: much more sitting down than normal). As a way of incorporating healthy behavior into day-to-day activities I was thinking of getting a stability ball to sit on at my desk (probably not all day, but for at least some of the day). Any suggestions for where to get a stability ball? preferably somewhere where I could sit on the ball before I bought it to make sure it was the right size. Thanks.

Sally Squires: Have you come to the right place! I've got a catalog for this very thing, and if you e-mail me after the chat, i'll give you info because I can't put my hands on it right at the moment. A catalog won't give you the chance to try it out of course, but I've also seen these at kids' stores. Maybe other chatters can also help us out here too.

Los Angeles, Calif.: For the poster who wanted nutritional information for restaurants. check out this site and click on Restaurants. There's a listing of more than 300 chain restaurants with nutrition information for the majority of their menus. Granted, your neighborhood bistro won't be on there, but it does include almost anywhere you might go for lunch, or with the kids on weekends, or to pick up a quick dinner.

Sally Squires: Thanks, LA.

Alexandria, Va.: Hi Sally!
I have been doing Weight Watchers for 11 months and so far have lost 51 pounds. My amazing fact or tip is that at age 41, someone who has NEVER been athletic or enjoyed sports of any kind, actually looks forward to my daily walk/jog. I started out walking for 50 minutes M-F last spring. A couple of months ago I felt so good I wondered if I could jog -- I'm still not a runner, but now my daily walk includes about 10-15 min. of LIGHT jogging. I am amazed that I am actually doing it and that (I'll deny it if cornered!) actually LIKE it. This just goes to show that ANYONE can come to sort of enjoy exercise. If I can, anyone can.

sign me: Former Couch Potato!

Sally Squires: Hey, Arlington: Awesome! Congratulations and a great example of how it is never to late to change habits. Well done! Thanks for the inspiration.

Breezewood, Pa.: Hi Sally,
About beans -- get hold of a book by Bharti Kirchner, called vegetarian burgers (I think). We've enjoyed her red lentil and millet burgers, Teriyaki tofu burgers, Pecan mushroom burgers, Cashew burgers, refried bean burgers with chipotle pepper, curried kidney bean burgers, zucchini burgers with pine nuts and sun-dried tomatoes (I'm reading from the pages I xeroxed and saved). The book also has side dishes and sauces. She's written another cookbook, also a winner for taste, variety, and healthfulness. She has a new novel, too, which I picked up because her cookbooks are so good.

Sally Squires: Thanks, Breezewood! This is a new one to me.

Salad City, Md.: Hi Sally and all,
I made a great salad the other night when I was rushed: