Calorie Intake
Although the nutrients in the foods you eat are certainly important, it’s also important to keep in mind your overall caloric intake as too much of a good thing can be a bad thing, especially where weight management is concerned. In this article, we’re going to explain why keeping an eye on calories is important and suggest some ways to help.
Why Count Calories
Weight gain or weight loss can often be simplified into a math problem based on how many calories you are eating compared to how many you’re burning. If you eat more than you burn, you will gain weight. If you burn more than you eat, you will lose weight. There are approximately 3,500 calories per pound, so if you want to lose a pound, that’s how many calories it’s going to take.
Keep in mind that in order to maintain weight loss, you need to keep your goals realistic. If you want to lose a pound every day, that’s going to be extremely difficult. However, to lose a pound in a week, you can divide 3,500 by 7 days, and you only need to burn 500 more calories than you eat every day, something that is very achievable.
How to Count Calories
Counting calories doesn’t have to be difficult as there are now a number of apps and websites that will do all the calculations for you. We recommend using one of these as a food journal as it is much faster and easier than trying to write it all down. You will need to not only record the food and drink that are going into your body, but you will also need to record exercises to get an accurate count.
Typically, counting calories is a temporary activity that, once you’ve established healthy eating and exercising habits, you can usually do without, as long as you keep eating as if you were counting calories. Keep the app handy, however, because it’s always a good idea to check foods before eating them if you’re not sure about their nutritional value.
Limiting Caloric Intake
The first half of losing weight when it comes to calories alone is by cutting back on the calories that you’re eating. Some simple ways to do that include replacing sugary drinks with water, limiting your portion sizes, removing junk food from your house, starting meals with a low-calorie salad, eating slowly so you recognize when you’re full, ordering dressing on the side, and baking food instead of frying it.
Improving Caloric Output
The other half of managing your weight through calories is increasing the number of calories that you’re burning. There are two main ways of doing this: boosting your metabolism and exercising. You can boost your metabolism by eating smaller meals spread out throughout the day, drinking green tea, getting plenty of sleep, eating enough protein at every meal, and keeping yourself moving.
When it comes to exercising for weight management, you need to do both strength training and cardio workouts. Strength or weight training will help you build up your muscles, which burn more calories at rest compared to fat. Focus on a different muscle group every day to avoid getting sore. Cardiovascular training will help you burn a bunch of calories and can boost your metabolism, so be sure to get in some cardio every day, even if it’s only 20 minutes.