How To count Calories?
Whether To Lose Weight
Gain Weight Or Maintain Weight?
How to Count Calories?
Follow the law of calorie balance......
And it isn't as difficult as you think.
Once you get a hang of it, you know how to lose weight by simply counting calories.
That would be real cool, right?
First, get to know what are calories.
A calorie is a unit of energy that measures how much energy food provides to your body.
A kilojoule (kJ) is a unit of measure of energy.
1 calorie has the same energy value as 4.186 kilojoules.
Your body needs calories to function properly. When you eat food, your body turns the food into fuel, burning it to produce calories (energy).
The calories in food come from sources such as carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.
The energy value per gram (g) of various food:
Fat – 9 calories or 37kJ
Carbohydrates – 4 calories or 16kJ
Protein – 4 calories or 17kJ
Fiber – 3 calories or 13kJ
Water – 0 calories or 0kJ
It takes 3,500 calories to get 1 lb of body fat.
The recommended caloric intake for an average person who wants to maintain weight is 2,000 calories per day.
How to Count Calories if you Want to Lose Weight?
The straight forward formula. If you consume fewer calories than you burn, you lose weight.
Believe it or not, this is the basis for weight loss - fewer calories consumed. Period.
So, take a look at your calories in vs. your calories out, to get the answer to your weight problem.
You also need to know how calories get stored as fat.
This relates to the basal caloric need your body requires each day to keep going its minimum functions,like keeping heart pumping, blood flowing, glands sweating, lungs breathing.....
When you're in excess of this, your body store the excess calories as fat. This means that calories turn into fat when they're sitting around doing nothing.
So get the gist on how to count calories and you'll lose weight.
Since you take an extra 3,500 calories to get 1 lb of fat, to lose weight, all you take is to cut 3,500 calories to lose 1.
You can best do this by simple, small changes: cutting some calories from your regular meals, such as choosing reduced-calorie drinks and burning additional calories by exercising on a regular basis.
You can reduce 500 calories per day by:
- A combination of food and exercise
or- Cutting them from food alone
or- Burning them off vie exercise alone
Go for Combo of Food and Exercise
I suggest you go for the combo of food and exercise as this is the best strategy to lose weight.
The result is you can lose an average of 1 lb per week, which is a healthy and sustainable rate to lose weight.
Don't drastically cut your calories; it can "backfire" and you don't lose weight. It also puts your health at greater risk.
Yes, calories do count whether you want to maintain weight, lose weight, gain weight.......
Claims that shout out loud to you that "calories don't count" or "you can eat all you want and still lose weight" are really crappy stuff you should avoid, at all cost.
When I say things like "eat less", "exercise more", "count calories" - you think it's hard......
But the reality is that you need to adhere to this law of calorie balance, a term used by weight loss expert Tony Venuto.
The law says this:
To maintain weight, you must consume the same number of calories you burn.
To gain weight, you must consume more calories than you burn.
To lose weight, you must consume fewer calories than you burn.
If you want to lose weight and don't know how to count calories, it's more likely you'll eat more than you realize.
Or you might take in fewer calories than you should, which triggers your body’s "starvation mode" and causes your metabolism to shut down.
So how do you balance your calories?
According to Tony Venuto, you plan your menu and write it down.
Crunch all the numbers in plus protein, carbohydrates, fats.......
Stick your daily menu on your refrigerator (or some place you can see) and you've an eating "goal" for the day, including a caloric target.
By the way, I've got a healthy meal plan for you.
That's a simple menu planning that shows you how to count calories.
You only need to count calories once when you create your menus. After you've got a hang of things, you can estimate portions in the future and get a pretty good (and educated) ballpark figure.
Does that sound reasonable and simple?
The way I look at it, counting calories doesn't have to get complicated.
You don't have to resort to counting every calorie, to lose weight (but still you got to follow the law - eat fewer calories than you burn).
Whether you count calories and eat less than you burn, or you don’t count calories and eat less than you burn, the result's the same – you lose weight.
Which one you prefer?
A wild guess?
A simple menu planning that can increase your chance of success in losing weight?
It's a "no-brainer" choice.......
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