Some Things You Should Know About Calories

by Mandy Gibbons

There is nothing wrong with having some knowledge of calories but how you use that knowledge is what concerns me the most. You will see by the examples that I give below why it is so easy for people to "freak out", so to speak, over their calorie intake.

Common occurrences, symptoms and stupid things to do when going over the top with calorie controlled diets:

Unless there is some medical reason, that has been advised by your doctor, aim for at least 1500 calories when using a calorie controlled diet. The larger your body frame and training needs the more calories your body requires.

Example of a reasonable calorie intake: A female who weighs around 56 kgs, is 1.7 m tall, around 30 years old and performs light exercise 1-3 days per week should be consuming around 1800 low fat calories per day.
This same woman's basic caloric needs, just to keep her body running (without the exercise) is around 1300!

Choose low fat calories to fill you up and lose body fat!

Don't let yourself get to the point where you are nearly crawling on the floor with hunger, headaches and feeling lethargic. If you are constantly feeling like this you need to "up" your calorie intake.

Just because you are losing weight it doesn't mean you are healthy. Keep your eating program balanced. If you think your nutritional needs are lacking take a good quality daily allowance vitamin and minerals supplement - I am sure your doctor could recommend one for you.

Just because your stomach and body is reducing in size this doesn't mean you are going to increase muscle tone. To prevent yourself from losing firmness exercise regularly with resistance and fat burning programs.

If you decide you can't follow your program don't rush out and gorge yourself with ridiculous amounts of food. Change your diet to a more adaptable eating program that you can stick to long term.

If you have lost weight fairly dramatically you will probably find that you will put it back on again just as fast when you have completed your eating program. So slowly introduce new foods back into your diet and keep up with your exercise too.

WHAT EVER YOU DO ...... DON'T think that because you have an allowance of 1200 calories for the day you can eat a large bag of potato crisps and nothing else. WOW! Just some food for thought there... excuse the pun!

Keep this in mind! In place of a 1 large packet of potato crisps, you could have a small bowl of cereal with skim milk, a lean meat and salad sandwich, grilled fish and veggies plus a low fat snack. WOW!

Just one more thing...
If you really want to be successful in losing weight and keeping if off, then concentrate more on reducing your fat intake. You can still have your naughty food days here and there and you can use these days as rewards for the hard work you have put in up to that point in time. As they say "everything in moderation". Don't make your eating program a chore. Make it enjoyable to stick to.

• 1 kg of excess body fat = 7600 calories
  
• Fat is higher in calories than carbohydrates
  
• Energy Values Per Gram
  1 gram of Carbohydrates = 4 calories
  1 gram of Protein = 4 calories
  1 gram of Fat - 9 calories
  1 gram of Alcohol = 7 calories
  
• If once per fortnight you didn't have those 3 slices of your favorite pan fried pizza you would deduct over 23000 calories from your eating program in one year.
  
• If you changed from 2 cups of full fat milk per day to 2 cups of skim milk per day you would reduce your calorie intake by over 57000 calories