Calories’ Role in Effective Weight Loss

June 2, 2009 by admin
Filed under Articles

From various research and sources, we now know that a woman has a limit of 2,000 calories per day while men can have as much as 2,500. However, majority of people are still clueless about the relevance of calories in their lives.

In a general sort of way, they more or less know that calories might have something to do with weight gain.

Let us try to know more about this oft mentioned term. Calories are energy parts that are employed to heat up the body. One calorie is enough to produce heat up to 1 kilogram of water to 1 degree Celsius.

There is another way of measuring food energy but never used by in food labels, the joule, understandably so because one calorie is equivalent to 4,184 joules.

Thus, with calories, we can measure the amount of energy each food type gives.

Let me give you an illustration. There are two individuals who have targeted to lose 2 lbs per week. The other person is heavier by two pounds.

I hope that did not make you give up on measuring calories. The secret of losing weight as regards to calories is to know how much calories you are allowed to have based on your current weight.

Logically, the heavier person will use up more calories to lose the same two pounds as her friend.

If you weigh more, you need to have more energy to be able to move and achieve weight loss. If you have very low calories you will not have enough energy to do anything.

Meaning, when an overweight individual starts to lose weight, then he/she has to lessen calorie to adapt to the new weight.

The right calorie level will make your weight loss program possible. For instance, you have to burn 3,500 calories to shed off 1 pound, which is more than your normal calorie allowance.

You might think that to hasten your weight loss, you have to cut your calorie consumption till you are nearly starving. The ideal reduction is by about 250-500 calories daily which will allow weight reduction and maintenance.

Excessive calorie cut in the hope of rapidly losing weight is not recommended. A mere 250-500 reduction could do the trick,

VERY IMPORTANT REMINDER: Calorie level should not go down below 1,200 per day lest your quest to loss weight for improved health will result to illness instead.

Now that we now know the importance of knowing how much calories we should have, how will we know how much calories do each food has?

We have already defined calories and their role in the body system. To make this knowledge work for you, you have to know as well what the daily requirements are for each substance, such as fat, protein and sugar.

As much as you want to count all the calories and the daily allowances for everything, you can only do so up to a certain extent. For foods that are properly labeled, the process is simple as you can just go through the nutrient count indicated in the label. But for everything else that you eat outside, from restaurants, cafeterias, etc. it could get more complicated as you will not be able to exactly tell. At best you can break down what you see in your plate and approximate the number of calories as you as you can make out.

Let us go through the woman’s daily requirements, basing it on a 2,000 calorie level:

Total fat - 65g
Saturated fatty acids - 20g
Cholesterol - 300mg
Sodium - 2400mg
Potassium - 4700mg
Total Carbohydrates - 300g
Fiber - 25g
Protein 50g

The information above tells us that that you need more than the basic fat, protein and fiber in your diet, but other nutrients as well such as fatty acids and potassium.

The labels of the food product can give us a complete count of all the ingredients there. Unfortunately, not all foods we eat are factory-processed and labeled. So when eating out, you can mentally take note of the individual ingredients and start counting.

It is possible to enjoy a hearty meal at a restaurant and still be in line with your loss weight program. You will just have to know your maximum allowances beforehand so you can order food that will fit in that structure.

Following is a list of the more popular food types you see on restaurant menus. You can pick the ones that you love and still fall within your daily requirements: