Can Counting Calories Help Lose Weight?
I guess that the word "calorie" might be one of the most popular words in the English language given how much we all seem to discuss obesity and dieting these days; but do we know what it actual means? A calorie is a measure of energy; or to be more specific, heat.
In today's modern times, in scientific terminology, people talk in "joules" when referring to units of energy; but we still talk in calories in terms of food energy, and when you look on a food wrapper, you will often find its calorific content listed in both kilo calories, and kilo joules, the latter being the measure that the Europeans use.
When it comes to weight watching and dieting, the calorie is the bible.
It's the unit of measure that we use to describe any foods potential for weight gain (a food's energy).
But is also the unit that we use to measure the energy our body's use during the course of conducting various activities.
Even the simplest of activities, (like breathing for example), uses up calories in the process.
Just to stay alive needs a certain amount of calories to do so.
The basic minimum number of calories to sustain human life is 1200 per day for a female, and 1500 per day for a male.
This allows for all of the day to day body functions and a minimal of activity; below this, the body will automatically close down into starvation mode, and will seek to limit activity and store what calories it can to survive.
So when we are looking to control our weight, we have to balance the number of calories we put into our bodies, against the number of calories our bodies use up in terms of activities.
In simple terms, if we consume more calories than our body activity uses, any excess will be stored as fat.
In as far as weight loss is concerned, we need to cut 500 calories per day (3,500 calories per week) off the recommended level we ordinarily consume per day, (dependent on gender), in order to lose 1lb per week.
So, if we take the normal calorific level to maintain the status quo at 2000 calories per day for women, and 2500 calories per day for men, you can see that in order to lose 1lb per week: a woman should reduce her calorie intake down by 500 calories to 1500 calories per day, and a man by 500 calories per day arriving at a figure of 2000 calories per day in order to lose the same 1lb of weight per week.
If you are planning a calorie controlled diet, you should be aware of the foods that are high in calories (in order to avoid them), as opposed to the foods that are low in calories (in order to indulge yourself).
Here are some foods that are high in calories.
You need to think twice before allowing these into your diet regime: o All fast foods (Burgers, Chips, Pizzas etc) o Meat high in saturated fats o Bread and pastries o Diary: Full fat milks, butter, cream and cheeses o Pasta o Processed foods: Pate, frozen deserts and ice creams etc However, it is not just calories that you need to consider when you are planning a healthy well balanced diet.
For example, a popular conception is that all types of fat must be bad.
WRONG! Some fats are better than others, but equally some fats are called essential fats, and for a good reason.
Your body needs them! Of course it doesn't stop here.
Omega 3 fatty acids are considered to be hugely beneficial.
You can apply this same sort of logic to the whole range of foods that are available to us.
We have to go back to the well worn phrase of "a healthy, well balanced diet" to understand not only why it was coined, but what it really means, and just how we can construct such a diet for ourselves.
The words say it all; they have been carefully chosen: HEALTHY,& WELL BALANCED.
You can quite easily arrive at the lowest calorie diet possible; water.
But it will not satisfy the basic vitamin and mineral needs that your body must have in order to survive.
Yes, if you drink mineral water in particular it may give you some of the basic minerals that your body needs; but not all! What about the vitamins and nutrients; the carbohydrates, the proteins? No, a calorie controlled diet must look further afield than just the calorific content.
It has to take the entire nutrient spectrum into account in order to deliver that HEALTHY, WELL BALANCED, diet.
There are many sources of information that you can use.
They are all readily available online, and can supply the basic information that you need to help you construct an appropriate diet that contains all of the necessary building blocks required to give you a healthy disposition.
Carbohydrate is commonly misunderstood to be the enemy of dieters.
But without carbohydrates it is impossible to have a healthy diet.
Carbohydrates are one of the best sources of energy for the human body, but they come in two forms; simple carbohydrates, and complex carbohydrates.
Basically, simple carbohydrates will give you a quick sugar charge but leave you wanting more in short order.
Complex carbohydrates give up their sugar content more slowly and leave you feeling satisfied for longer and are therefore a more healthy form.
Complex carbohydrates exist in things like whole meal foods sources.
Protein is another major requirement of our daily dietary intake.
We need at least 10% to 15% of our daily food intake to consist of protein in order for our bodies to be able to sustain ongoing cell growth and repair.
We get our protein from meat, fish, poultry, legumes, and various vegetable foods that we consume in our regular diets.
In addition to carbohydrates and proteins, we must also consume foods that are rich in certain vitamins and minerals to provide or supplement that which our own body systems cannot provide naturally.
So, whilst a calorie controlled diet if necessary for us to control out weight, it is also essential to ensure that our diet is made up from a variety of foods that will supply our bodies with the complete range of nutrients that we need in order not only to survive, but to prosper healthily.
So, counting calories is a key factor in controlling our weight, but we must also be very aware that our diet needs to be both well balanced and healthy, above and beyond just measuring calories.
We must ensure that we ingest all of the elements (proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, etc) that our bodies need in order to stay in tip-top condition.
Calories are a good starting point, and are essential to monitor in terms of weight management.
But they are not the be all and end all in terms of an overall well balanced diet that will give our bodies what they need in order to flourish.
In order to construct a complete well balanced diet, we must look at the entire range of nutrients our bodies need.
In today's modern times, in scientific terminology, people talk in "joules" when referring to units of energy; but we still talk in calories in terms of food energy, and when you look on a food wrapper, you will often find its calorific content listed in both kilo calories, and kilo joules, the latter being the measure that the Europeans use.
When it comes to weight watching and dieting, the calorie is the bible.
It's the unit of measure that we use to describe any foods potential for weight gain (a food's energy).
But is also the unit that we use to measure the energy our body's use during the course of conducting various activities.
Even the simplest of activities, (like breathing for example), uses up calories in the process.
Just to stay alive needs a certain amount of calories to do so.
The basic minimum number of calories to sustain human life is 1200 per day for a female, and 1500 per day for a male.
This allows for all of the day to day body functions and a minimal of activity; below this, the body will automatically close down into starvation mode, and will seek to limit activity and store what calories it can to survive.
So when we are looking to control our weight, we have to balance the number of calories we put into our bodies, against the number of calories our bodies use up in terms of activities.
In simple terms, if we consume more calories than our body activity uses, any excess will be stored as fat.
In as far as weight loss is concerned, we need to cut 500 calories per day (3,500 calories per week) off the recommended level we ordinarily consume per day, (dependent on gender), in order to lose 1lb per week.
So, if we take the normal calorific level to maintain the status quo at 2000 calories per day for women, and 2500 calories per day for men, you can see that in order to lose 1lb per week: a woman should reduce her calorie intake down by 500 calories to 1500 calories per day, and a man by 500 calories per day arriving at a figure of 2000 calories per day in order to lose the same 1lb of weight per week.
If you are planning a calorie controlled diet, you should be aware of the foods that are high in calories (in order to avoid them), as opposed to the foods that are low in calories (in order to indulge yourself).
Here are some foods that are high in calories.
You need to think twice before allowing these into your diet regime: o All fast foods (Burgers, Chips, Pizzas etc) o Meat high in saturated fats o Bread and pastries o Diary: Full fat milks, butter, cream and cheeses o Pasta o Processed foods: Pate, frozen deserts and ice creams etc However, it is not just calories that you need to consider when you are planning a healthy well balanced diet.
For example, a popular conception is that all types of fat must be bad.
WRONG! Some fats are better than others, but equally some fats are called essential fats, and for a good reason.
Your body needs them! Of course it doesn't stop here.
Omega 3 fatty acids are considered to be hugely beneficial.
You can apply this same sort of logic to the whole range of foods that are available to us.
We have to go back to the well worn phrase of "a healthy, well balanced diet" to understand not only why it was coined, but what it really means, and just how we can construct such a diet for ourselves.
The words say it all; they have been carefully chosen: HEALTHY,& WELL BALANCED.
You can quite easily arrive at the lowest calorie diet possible; water.
But it will not satisfy the basic vitamin and mineral needs that your body must have in order to survive.
Yes, if you drink mineral water in particular it may give you some of the basic minerals that your body needs; but not all! What about the vitamins and nutrients; the carbohydrates, the proteins? No, a calorie controlled diet must look further afield than just the calorific content.
It has to take the entire nutrient spectrum into account in order to deliver that HEALTHY, WELL BALANCED, diet.
There are many sources of information that you can use.
They are all readily available online, and can supply the basic information that you need to help you construct an appropriate diet that contains all of the necessary building blocks required to give you a healthy disposition.
Carbohydrate is commonly misunderstood to be the enemy of dieters.
But without carbohydrates it is impossible to have a healthy diet.
Carbohydrates are one of the best sources of energy for the human body, but they come in two forms; simple carbohydrates, and complex carbohydrates.
Basically, simple carbohydrates will give you a quick sugar charge but leave you wanting more in short order.
Complex carbohydrates give up their sugar content more slowly and leave you feeling satisfied for longer and are therefore a more healthy form.
Complex carbohydrates exist in things like whole meal foods sources.
Protein is another major requirement of our daily dietary intake.
We need at least 10% to 15% of our daily food intake to consist of protein in order for our bodies to be able to sustain ongoing cell growth and repair.
We get our protein from meat, fish, poultry, legumes, and various vegetable foods that we consume in our regular diets.
In addition to carbohydrates and proteins, we must also consume foods that are rich in certain vitamins and minerals to provide or supplement that which our own body systems cannot provide naturally.
So, whilst a calorie controlled diet if necessary for us to control out weight, it is also essential to ensure that our diet is made up from a variety of foods that will supply our bodies with the complete range of nutrients that we need in order not only to survive, but to prosper healthily.
So, counting calories is a key factor in controlling our weight, but we must also be very aware that our diet needs to be both well balanced and healthy, above and beyond just measuring calories.
We must ensure that we ingest all of the elements (proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, etc) that our bodies need in order to stay in tip-top condition.
Calories are a good starting point, and are essential to monitor in terms of weight management.
But they are not the be all and end all in terms of an overall well balanced diet that will give our bodies what they need in order to flourish.
In order to construct a complete well balanced diet, we must look at the entire range of nutrients our bodies need.
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