Wellness and Health

So you’ve toughed it out through diet after diet with

seemingly no result. You’ve reached the point where you

have tried everything you can think of to lose weight. You

eat healthy. You exercise regularly. You’ve attempted

“fad” diets like the ones you’ve seen on TV. Short of

gastric bypass surgery, you feel like you have no other

option.

But there may be one simple diet that you still have not

tried. So simple in its design, many people overlook the

diet we will be discussing in this report - Calorie

counting.

Chances are that you have heard the old adage of

dieting. Calories in, calories out. That means that in order

to lose weight, you have to take in fewer calories than

you burn in a single day. Or you can burn more calories

through exercise than you gain by eating. Either way will

work, but since we are talking diets here, we’ll stick with

the first description.

Losing weight then turns into a simple numbers game. As

long as your caloric intake is less than what you burn

each day, you will lose weight. That is really all there is

to it. But do not go running off and starving you just to

shed a few pounds. The five step program we will be

discussing in this report will help you learn how to eat the

right foods at the right times for the rest of your life--so

you can lose the weight now and keep it off for good.

After all, losing a huge amount of weight and then

putting it right back on gets you nowhere. That’s why this

diet and all other diets require you to keep up with your

dieting and get at least a little bit of exercise at the same

time. Then, and only then, will you be able to keep the

weight off for years rather than weeks.

Step 1: Know What You’re Dealing With

Before we get into the proper practice for counting

calories and losing weight, we have to learn what a

calorie actually is.

A common misconception is that calories are, by their

nature, bad for you. This could not be any further from

the truth. Calories are the energy our bodies need to

survive. Without taking in any calories (caloric intake),

our bodies would shrivel up and die due to lack of energy.

After all, our cells need energy to survive and they get

that energy from the food we eat, specifically calories.

From a more scientific perspective, calories are a

measurable amount of energy. One calorie is the amount

of energy needed to raise one gram of water by one

degree Celsius in temperature. It is important to note

that a food calorie is not the same as a regular calorie.

Food calories are actually kilocalories, or one thousand

regular calories. Therefore, the amount of energy in one

food calorie is actually enough to raise one kilogram of

water by one degree Celsius.

Calories are used for everything our bodies do. We

expend caloric energy when we walk, run, eat, dance,

watch TV, type an email, tap our foot to music, and even

when we sleep. There is nothing our bodies do that does

not require energy from calories. Like it or not, we need

calories to keep on living. It’s the amount of calories that

we intake each day that has to change if we want to lose

weight. But more on that soon.

Every person burns a different amount of calories

because of their activities and their genes. People with

higher metabolisms burn calories faster, so they can eat

more each day and still lose weight. People who have

jobs that require a lot of physical activity also burn

calories more effectively, so they can eat more and not

gain weight either. The problem is that these people are

few and far between.

For most of us, we don’t have a job that requires a lot of

activity, and as we get older, our metabolism slows

down, meaning we have to eat less to stay in shape. We

are the ones that this five step calorie counting diet is

designed for.

Step 2: How Many Calories Do You Need Each

Day?

In order to start a diet plan where you lower the amount

of calories you eat each day, you need to know how

many calories your body burns just doing what you

normally do. After all, if you lower your caloric intake to a

level that is still above how many calories your body

burns, you will still not lose any weight.

To calculate how many calories your body burns on a

daily basis, there is a handy formula you should look into.

It’s known as the Harris-Benedict formula. By using data

about how old you are, your sex, your weight, and how

active you are each day, the formula can determine the

amount of calories you burn on an average day. This

number is known as your Basal Metabolic Rate and is the

most important number you can know when trying to

lose weight using a diet based on calorie counting.

While you could input the data into the formula yourself,

there are a couple of easier tools that you should check

out. The first is a chart that was designed by for the

MyPyramid.gov website sponsored by the US

government. You can find the chart here:

http://www.mypyramid.gov/pyramid/discretionary_calori

es_amount_print.html . While it provides some good

data, it is rough and there are better options out there.

A better, more personalized, option in addition to the

above chart is a Basal Metabolic Rate calculator where

you enter in your own unique data. These calculators are

perfectly safe and easy to use. In about two or three

minutes, you’ll be well on your way to knowing exactly

how many calories your body burns on the average day.

Of all of the calorie calculators online, the best is one

provided at this website: http://www.stevenscreek.com/

goodies/calories.shtml . It gives a very precise

breakdown of how many calories you burn both during

activities and resting. Other good calorie calculators

include the one at the Mayo Clinic website

(http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/caloriecalculator/

NU00598) and one found on About.com’s

Calorie Count Plus website

(http://caloriecount.about.com/).

With these tools in hand, you’ve started down the path to

losing weight with a diet based on calorie counting.

Step 3: Choose How Many Calories to Cut and

Learn How to Read Labels

Now that you know how many calories your body needs

every day, you can determine how many calories you

want to cut from your diet. The more you cut, the more

you’ll lose. But if you cut too much, you will notice a

major drop in energy levels and stamina, making it hard

just to get through the day.

A healthy calorie driven diet should allow for 250 to 500

calories to be shaved off each day. So if your normal

calorie intake is supposed to be 2750, consider lowering

that amount to 2500 or 2250 for the best results. Under

no circumstances should you cut your calories below

1200 per day, even if your daily calorie needs are very

low.

Once you’ve decided on how many calories you want to

eliminate from your diet, you need to learn how to

properly read the nutritional labels found on nearly all

foods. Known in the United States as the Nutrition Facts

label, this is a standardized measure designed to help

people learn the various amounts of calories, fats,

carbohydrates, and other nutritional content in a given

serving size. All boxed and bagged food will have this

label and some supermarkets will even post labels for

their fruits, vegetables, and meats as well.

There are two important things you should notice on a

Nutrition Facts label. The first is the serving size. This

tells you exactly how much of the food contains the

amounts of nutritional content specified in the label. The

serving size can range from anywhere between a small

morsel to the entire box.

The other important point to look at is the amount of

calories found in each serving. This is the number you will

be using for your daily calorie counting. Your diet hinges

on your ability to read that number, add it to your daily

total, and keep track of exactly how many calories you

eat each day. Remember where the number is located,

and look for it on everything that you eat.

But what about food that doesn’t even have a label?

Many restaurants are embracing people on calorie

counting diets, and now publish their nutritional

information on their websites. Any time you are

considering eating out, make an effort to check the

restaurant’s website before you go or ask about the

nutritional information before you order. Some

restaurants even provide brochures detailing the amount

of calories and fat in each of their meals.

Step 4: Controlling How Much You Eat

While counting calories is the cornerstone of your diet, it

does you no good if you are not keeping the serving size

in mind. After all, while you may think that a chocolate

bar has only 150 calories, the Nutritional Facts label may

only be measuring a serving size that’s less than an

ounce.

A lot of the food you find at the store will be measured by

the slice, by the square, or by some other arbitrary

measurement. Foods like bread, sliced deli meat, cheese,

and candy are some of the most popular foods that are

measured in this way.

For most foods, however, the best way to make sure that

you stick with the serving size guidelines is to go to the

store and buy a measuring cup. Pour every food you are

going to eat in the measuring cup before you take your

first bite, and only eat as much as the serving size

recommends. You can do this with dried foods like rice or

cereal as well as liquids like soda, syrup, jelly, or iced

tea.

If you find that the serving size on many of your foods is

too small to be measured with a measuring cup, use a

teaspoon or tablespoon. Remember that there are three

teaspoons to every tablespoon.

The tricky part comes when you eat foods that are

measured by weight. For these foods you may need to

purchase a kitchen scale so that you may weigh your

foods before eating them. Alternatively, there are charts

and graphs available online that can convert many of

these serving sizes into a more easily used alternative,

such as cups or slices.

Simply taking the time to measure your portions before

you eat will quickly help you lose weight and make it

easier to total your caloric intake.

Step 5: Tracking Your Daily Caloric Intake

Even the most well planned calorie counting diet is

useless unless you actually count your calories. In other

words, you’re going to have to keep a daily chart of how

much you eat.

The best way to keep a running total of your caloric

intake is to carry a simple paper and pencil with you

everywhere you go. Although, if you have a high end cell

phone or PDA, you can always use that to keep track of

your numbers as well. The important thing is that you

always have some idea of how many calories you’ve

eaten.

At the end of each day, you should total your calories as

well as which foods were the worst offenders in terms of

large amounts of calories. If you are over the daily limit

you set for yourself, see if there are any areas where you

could have cut out some calories or eaten less. Chances

are that there will always be at least one item you could

have lived without.

Furthermore, while it may not directly relate to the

amount of calories you eat each day, you may also want

to use your calorie chart to determine which foods are

healthier for you and which are not. If you drink a soda

and eat an apple each day, and you find that you are

exceeding your calorie limit, cut the soda and keep the

apple.

When it all comes down to it, a calorie counting diet may

seem like a lot of work at first, but the benefits are

completely worth it. In about a week, counting calories

and measuring serving sizes will seem like second nature.

In fact, you’ll probably wonder how you ever lived

without it. Taking a few minutes out of your day to keep

a count of your calories will easily add years to your life

expectancy and make you feel better and healthier in the

process.

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