DIET HOW TO: Counting Your Calories

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By ae_d


"An active person uses more energy daily, and therefore needs to consume more calories to stay healthy. Your caloric needs are estimated based on your height, age, sex, body weight, and activity level." - Fitnessmagazine.Com


Start Counting Your Calories

Calories are energy units found in food. The key word is - energy. You can't go through with any day without energy - food. Yet too much is just as threatening - threatening to your weight, shape, and most importantly - health. If you already are having problems with your weight then you ought to know what I mean. Unfortunately, tracking and controlling your food intake is the most challenging part of any weight-loss regimen. "I want to eat this brownie so I will. I'd just burn it out in the treadmill." - sounds familiar? It is advisable then to take more measures and motivation in counting your caloric intake. I hope these suggestions help:

HOW TO TRACK DOWN YOUR CALORIES:

  • Know the basics about calories - all other information relating to it like your activity level and your necessary nutrient intake. You can subscribe to Fitnessmagazine.Com for Free Nutrition and Calorie Charts, which also gives calorie information on fast foods and snacks. Or, you can make use of their free-for-visitors Caloric Needs Calculator (also known as Metabolic Calculator). It determines the amount of calories that your body needs (or do not need) and suggests how it should be broken down into the 3 essential nutrients: carbs, protein, and fats.

TIP: The 4 Different Activity Levels as categorized by Fitnessmagazine.Com:

Light: walking at 2.5 - 3 mph, house cleaning, child care, golf, working in a restaurant

Moderate: walking at 3 - 4.5 mph, gardening, cycling, skiing, tennis, dancing.

Heavy: walking uphill with a backpack, climbing, basketball, football, soccer

Exceptional: professional athletic training, world class events

  • Now you can keep a daily record of the calories you are taking in. You can stop watching your weighing scale for a minute. Just keep on exercising to lose weight, but also remember that it'll be much more effective if you combine it with diet. Don't go for the brownie temptation before workout.

TIP: You can start by making it a habit looking into box labels for a food's caloric-content per serving size so you know if it'll be best for you to just stick eating only 1 or a half serving. You can also find information about the calorie content of different foods at Shapeup.Org and Fourmilab.Ch (food calorie tables includes frozen food, popular candy bars, and fast foods as McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Arby's, Burger King, Domino's Pizza, Dunkin' Donuts, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Wendy's).

  • Don't starve yourself. Substitute. Apart from the fact that your body needs all the nutrients it could get, you never should feel deprived from eating. Eating is such a great thing but only if you substitute that hi-carb brownie into a low-fat one. There are a lot of websites that offer healthier meal plans, complete with recipes - so don't miss the chance.

TIP: Try subscribing to BHG.com then search for their "200 Snacks Under 100 Calories;" Or, have fun preparing your meals with Shapeup.Org's Cyberkitchen.

  • Lastly, always remember that eating right would just be the easiest and surest way to keep your body's weight at a healthy level. You might want to just take up the challenge. Do it and sustain it. Keep yourself busy making more ways to eat more healthy :)


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