Frankly, I care more about the taste or flavor of the food I take than calories.
And yet it's extremely important for one to understand how calories contribute toward how weight is gained or lost before they can be effective in their own weight loss programs.
Simply put, a calorie is just a unit of measurement of energy, just like foot (the singular of feet) is a unit of measurement as in "a man is six feet tall".
Food, including drinks, gives the body the energy it needs for everything it does, from repairing damaged cells to singing to speaking to sleeping. Thus, a calorie is a measure of the energy in food and drinks that we take as well as the enery in activities we do.
I'm not going into a biology lesson or science class but simply put, whether you gain or lose weight boils down to just ONE simple equation:
ENERGY INTAKE - ENERGY EXPENDED = WEIGHT GAIN OR LOSS
ENERGY INTAKE - this includes both food and drinks that you take that gives you the energy (or calories) you need to live, to work, to play.
Your energy intake is therefore dependent on these factors:
1) Knowing which food has less (and more) calories - fats give you more than two times the calories from proteins and carbohydrates
2) Choosing the food you take - the proportion of proteins, carbohydrates and fats will determine your calorie intake
3) Choosing how much to eat - if you eat more than you can use between meals, the body will store the excess calories as fat
4) Deciding when to eat - if you eat too late at night, you tend to put on weight as your body uses up less calories at night and when you are asleep
5) Deciding how often to eat - if you let yourself become too hungry, you will tend to snack and put on unwanted calories
ENERGY EXPENDED - this is actually the amount of energy (or calories) we expend when we work, play, walk, jog, run, swim, or even breathe.
In this case, it will help to know:
1) What activities will burn more energy - high impact activities like running, ball games need more energy but are not necessary suitable for one who is overweight
2) What causes a higher metabolism (which means a faster rate of burning the calories) - the more muscle tissue you have, the more calories you burn
3) Is it necessary to exercise - generally, the more exercises you engage in, the more calories you use up
4) How often to exercise - if it's brisk walking, you can do that almost everyday but if it's some more strenuous exercise like running, you should typically exercise at most up to 5 times a week.
Thus, at the end of each day, whether you gain or lose weight depends on the net result of your energy intake versus your energy expended.
When a person eats more food than the body needs - that is, if you "overload your tank" - the body converts the excess calories into fat. Eating less food than the body needs will cause a person to lose weight.
The number of calories needed by a person each day depends on how much energy a person's body uses. For example, an active sports man needs more calories than an adult who leads a sedentary lifestyle, such as a clerk who works all day in the office.
So, if you find yourself gaining weight, you are in fact taking in more calories than you need. To achieve weight loss or maintain your ideal weight, you need to watch your calories to some extent, even if you do not count them.
Alice Loh is a WEIGHT LOSS Coach and acclaimed author with over 25 years of health care experience. Her digital book, “Natural Weight Loss REVEALED”, is an easy to follow guide to losing weight and getting control of your life.Weight Loss Tips
http://weight-loss-fact.com
Posted by: Best Weight Loss Program
The following article lists some simple, informative tips that will help you have a better experience with weight loss.
Whether you're trying to lose some holiday weight, made a new year's resolution, or simply want to look and feel healthier, a weight loss attempt is rarely a bad idea. A good place to start for most people is to set a goal to lose 10 pounds. To lose 10 pounds should be easily attainable for most people, and often with less work than you think.
When people think about losing weight, the first thing that usually comes to mind is diet. Your diet is, of course, one of the most primary influences on your overall weight, and you would be ill-advised to overlook it in your attempt to lose 10 pounds. Rather then thinking only about your diet, however, you should think about your eating habits as a whole. By looking at the bigger picture you will be able to effect more permanent changes on your weight.
It some cases, and for some people, it is possible to lose 10 pounds quickly through some hard and fast dietary rules. The problem, though, is that these rules are likely going to be restrictive, so there's a good chance that they're going to be hard to stick to. Not only that, but if you do stray from the restrictions, those 10 pounds are going to come back quickly.
If your weight loss facts are out-of-date, how will that affect your actions and decisions? Make certain you don't let important weight loss information slip by you.
A much better way to try and lose 10 pounds is to adjust your overall eating habits. While it may ultimately take a little longer to lose the weight this way, the weight loss is far more likely to be permanent. To lose 10 pounds by adjusting your eating habits, you have to first give those habits close scrutiny. If you stop and think about it, you'll probably be surprised how often you eat when you are not actually hungry. For example, many people eat in front of the TV not because they are hungry, but out of habit. In the same manner, you probably eat the same amount of food at the same times every day, with little regard for your hunger.
The way you're going to lose 10 pounds, then, is to listen more closely to your body. The stomach sends very clear signals, but they are slow: it is a rule of thumb that you don't "feel" full until 20 minutes after you actually are full. This is why people get overstuffed: we've all had the experience of wanting one more helping, only to regret it 20 minutes later.
So you should make an attempt to eat your food more slowly and to savor it - this will allow your body more time to signal to you how full it is. Also make sure to stop eating when you're full - you can always save leftovers - because there's no reason to eat food simply because it's there.
Altering your eating habits is one of the most effective and easiest ways that you can lose 10 pounds. For many people, weight loss will occur simply be reducing your intake of food. This doesn't mean you have to starve yourself, it just means not eating when you're not hungry. Following the guidelines above will allow you to permanently change your eating habits, and more importantly: to lose 10 pounds, and keep it off.
Those who only know one or two facts about weight loss can be confused by misleading information. The best way to help those who are misled is to gently correct them with the truths you're learning here.
About the Author:
Ron Goodpaster is a freelance writer and a self-proclaimed health nut. He has written many health related and weight-loss articles. His website’s address: http://www.getupandmove.ws
www.bestvitasource.com
When you think of nutrition and eating healthy, most likely you are more concerned about the food you eat than the beverages you drink. You may think having a diet drink could not do any harm at lunch or dinner, but if you indulge too much it could add up to trouble in the long run.
But it's a diet drink…
Perhaps you have seen on television or film a sketch where a person orders a fattening, fast food meal with a diet soda to even everything out. A diet soda has zero calories compared to as many as 300 per serving of regular soda, so you are actually doing yourself a good service, right?
Not exactly. Regular sodas are highly caloric because they contain sugar, whereas diet sodas are manufactured with artificial sweeteners - one of the most popular being aspartame. The validity of aspartame as a health risk has been debated for many years - some claim the sweetener may contribute to increasing toxicity levels and risk of various illnesses, while other dismiss such charges.
What we do know for certain is that aspartame contains phenylalanine, an essential amino acid that does occur naturally in certain dairy foods and green vegetables. On the other hand, one byproduct of aspertame is formaldehyde!
When you shop for "diet" foods it is always a good idea to check for this ingredient on the labels so you know exactly what you are eating and how much.
Too much caffeine?
Just because a diet soda is free of calories, doesn't mean it is devoid of other questionable ingredients. For example, not all calorie-free, sugar-free sodas are caffeine free, check the labels! Did you know, for example, that there is more caffeine in one can of Diet Coke than in regular Coca-Cola? There are almost 46 milligrams of caffeine in this diet soda, and while it's not as much as coffee (which can top 200 milligrams), the tendancy to want to drink more diet soda can contribute to a caffeine overload. You will have energy yes, but will be driven on empty calories and sweeteners instead of something nutritious. You may lose sleep, and suffer incredible headaches through caffeine withdrawal. Caffeine is highly addictive as well, and could lead you on a cycle that is difficult to break without some good will power.
Water, the best "diet" drink
A good percentage of our bodies are water, so it would make sense to constantly replenish your body with the very same substance. Imagine, if you replaced a glass a water for every soda you drink, think of all the calories you save, the less toxins in your body, and the greater improvement to your health. It's the best diet drink there is.
Eight glasses a day…no doubt you've heard it from everybody - your parents, your doctor, talk show professionals. The road to wellness is actually a river of pure, clean water, and while to drink sixty-four ounces daily seems like an impossible task, it is actually one of the simplest steps you can take to starting a sound weight loss program. After all, our bodies are approximately sixty percent water, so it is only natural that we constantly replenish ourselves in order to feel good.
About the Author:
Kathryn Lively writes for Compuslim, custom fit weight loss for everyone.
http://www.kathrynlively.com
I recently came across an article entitled, The Five Absolute Worst Foods You Can Eat. It was written by Dr. Joseph Mercola, an osteopath who also wrote The No Grain Diet Book, a New York Times best seller.
The article sparked my interest. What foods made his list? Hot dogs? Brats? How about a chocolate sundae? When compiling a worst food list, several criteria could be considered. Calorie density, the number of fat grams, the level of saturated fat or trans fats, grams of sugar, lack of fiber, or overall lack of nutritional value.
I wondered if there were other lists out there with similar bad food lists. If I could find the same items on 3 or 4 different lists, I figure they must be really bad! Without peeking, can you guess Dr. Mercolas Top 5 Worst Foods, or is it Bottom 5?
1. Doughnuts: Fried, loaded with trans fats, lots of sugar, white flour, no fiber, vitamins or minerals. What more could you ask from a worst food?
2. Soda: Plenty of sugar, caffeine, artificial colors, and sulfites. All stuff that you do not need. Dr. Mercola thinks the artificial sweeteners in diet varieties arent much better.
3. French Fries: Fried potatoes are loaded with trans fats.
4. Chips: Just like their cousin French-fries, chips are made from potatoes, both with plenty of fat added during processing. Chips and fries contain ample levels of something called acrylamide, a compound suspected to be a possible cause of some cancers.
5. Fried, Non-fish seafood like shrimp, lobster, clams, oysters contain trans fats, acrylamide, mercury, and according to Dr. Mercola, perhaps parasites or viruses.
There are other worst food lists. Charles Booras, M.D. has one with soda listed #1, which he eloquently describes as the epitome of nutritional bankruptcy. Other foods that made his list include French fries, bacon, granola bars, and doughnuts.
Doughnuts, deep-fried foods, fast food hamburgers, high-fat ice cream, latte with real whipped cream, and soda are at the top of a 101 Worst Foods List put out by ediets. The usual suspects like sausage, most pizzas, most candy bars, onion rings, gravies, macaroni and cheese, egg rolls, and frosted breakfast cereals also made the ediets list.
Its hardly practical to stop eating these foods completely. When you think about it, most Americans eat something off of the worst food list just about every day, if not every meal.
What you can do is always keep fruit or cut vegetables handy for snacks, then increase portions of vegetables at every meal. Substitute rice or baked potatoes for french fries, and never go shopping when you are hungry and tempted. If you dont buy the stuff, its going to be much more difficult to eat it.
I suspect that there are other worst foods out there, and you know what your favorites are. If you want to lose weight or improve your health, you also know what needs to be done. Fortunately, I didnt find beer on any of the lists.
About the Author:
Dave Elger is a well respected authority within the running community having written hundreds of articles on the topics of running and wellness. You can contact him at http://www.daveelger.com. He also supports the Okinawa Running Club.
http://www.oki.med.navy.mil/
Posted by: Best Weight Loss Program