Counting calories
Your weight is a balancing act, and calories play a big role. Despite all the diet strategies out there, weight management still comes down to the calories you take in versus those you burn off.
Fad diets may promise you that avoiding carbs, eating a mountain of grapefruit, drinking ‘special’ coffee or rubbing bees wax on your knees is the secret to weight loss, but it really comes down to eating fewer calories than your body is using if you want to lose fat.
Have you used a fad diet? Let us know about it in the comments section below.
Calories fuel your body
Calories are the energy in food. Your body has a constant demand for energy and uses the calories from food to keep functioning. Energy from calories fuels your every action, from fidgeting to marathon running.
Carbohydrates, fats and proteins are the types of nutrients that contain calories and are the main energy sources for your body. Regardless of where they come from, the calories you eat are either converted to physical energy or stored within your body as fat.
These stored calories will remain in your body as fat unless you use them up, either by reducing calorie intake so that your body must draw on reserves for energy, or by increasing physical activity so that you burn more calories.
Tipping the scale
Your weight is a balancing act, but the equation is simple: If you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight. And if you eat fewer calories and burn more calories through physical activity, you lose weight.
Because 3,500 calories equals about 1 pound (0.45 kilogram) of fat, it’s estimated that you need to burn about 3,500 calories to lose 1 pound.
So, in general, if you cut about 500 to 1,000 calories a day from your typical diet, you’d lose about 1 to 2 pounds a week.
As an example Sandra’s Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is 1231 calories – BMR is the number of calories required to keep your body functioning at rest, if you just led in bed all day doing nothing.
With the level of exercise Sandra undertakes she should aim to eat 1,908 calories each day to maintain her current weight. If she wants to lose weight he should aim to eat 1,308 calories each day. That should see her lose 1 to 2lbs each week, although it’s not an exact science.
Sandra’s bank account
This morning Sandra had 1,308 calorie coins in her bank account.
- At the end of today, if she spends 2,300 calorie coins on food and drink she will gain weight (fat)
- If Sandra spends 1,908 calorie coins on food and drink she will not gain nor lose weight (fat)
- If she only spends 1,308 calorie coins on food and drink she will lose weight (fat)
- If she only spends this amount of calorie coins each day, on food and drink, she will lose 1 to 2lbs of fat at the end of the week
What about the calories burned through exercise though? She can eat them too, that’s right isn’t it? No, because at Be Strong we have already taken into consideration the amount of calories you will burn through exercise. This allows us to keep things very simple for you because the simpler it is, then the greater chance that you will succeed.
What about me?
You have two bank accounts with Be Strong. One is to maintain weight, the other is to lose weight! To ‘lose weight’ you have a grand total of Please ensure all relevant data to calculate calorie intake has been entered i.e. Activity Level, Date of Birth, Current Weight, Gender and Height.
Cutting calories
Cutting calories requires change but doesn’t have to be difficult. These changes can have a big impact on the number of calories you consume:
- Swapping high-calorie foods for lower calorie options
- Can you think of any examples?
- Reducing portion sizes
- This is where the calorie numbers game is usually lost or won – are you getting your portion control right?
- Saving calories by cutting high-calorie, low-nutrition items
- Which could you cut down on?
- Sacrificing one or two high-calorie, low nutrition items is a good place to start when cutting calories
- Which could you sacrifice this week?
Think about what you eat and drink each day and identify items you could cut out. If you think that sacrificing what you really love will leave you with a craving, try really cutting back or finding a low-calorie substitution or another way to manage that craving until it subsides.
- Has anybody made any really good lower calorie substitutions?
- How do you manage your cravings?
- Tell us in the comments box below
Simple substitutions can make a big difference when it comes to cutting calories. For example, you can save 90 calories a cup by drinking regular coffee with skimmed milk instead of a latte with semi skimmed milk. Instead of having a dessert out of habit, could you make fresh fruit your ‘go to’ choice?
Reducing your portion sizes
The sizes of your portions affect how many calories you’re getting. Twice the amount of food means twice the number of calories.
It’s common to underestimate how much you’re eating, especially if you’re dining out. Controlling your portions is a good way to control calories.
Try these tips to control portion sizes and cut calories:
- Start small. At the beginning of a meal, take slightly less than what you think you’ll eat. If you’re still hungry, eat more vegetables or fruit.
- Eat from plates, not packages. Eating directly from a container gives you no sense of how much you’re eating. Seeing food on a plate or in a bowl keeps you aware of how much you’re eating.
- Consider using a smaller plate or bowl.
- Check food labels. Be sure to check the Nutrition Facts panel for the serving size and number of calories per serving. You may find that the small baked potato you eat with lunch every day, for example, is two servings, not one, which means twice the calories you thought.
- This is usually always the case with pasta unless your portion control is accurate
- Use a calorie counter. Check out reputable resources that offer tools to count calories, such as websites or smartphone applications – https://www.myfitnesspal.com/
Putting it all together
Replacing high-calorie foods with lower calorie alternatives and reducing your portion sizes can help you cut calories and improve weight control. For a successful — and sustainable — weight management plan, you also need to increase your physical activity. Combining regular activity and healthy eating will best help you achieve and maintain a healthy weight.
Ref: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/calories/art-20048065