What are Calories?

Calories are referred to as Energy, which is the fuel your body requires to carry out its necessary functions like building, repairing & maintaining cells & tissues.

All the energy you need is supplied to your body in the form of calories from the food you eat. You also need this energy to walk, work, drive, hike, dance & run.

If you wonder how your body uses them or you generally get confused counting them, then read on.

This post will touch on the number of calories needed daily; its effect on weight; the ageing process and diabetes; & how to calculate your daily intake.

Why count them?

For long-term weight loss success, you need to have an idea of your calorie intake as the only way the human body drops body fat is by being in calorie deficit.

It has been proved that if you eat more calories in a day than what you burn, you will gain fat.

If you burn more calories in a day than you eat, you will lose fat and if you eat the same amount of calories in a day as you burn, you will remain constant.

So, regardless of how great your workout is, your Food intake is the key factor that will determine either your success or failure as far as body weight loss goes.

It is possible to just exercise and lose weight, but sooner or later, you will not lose any more weight without having to change your eating habits as well.

As an athlete or a sports woman, your body needs a customized sports nutrition and you may choose to keep an eye on your calories.

This is an absolute requirement to build muscles for peak performance, for endurance and for rebuilding after workouts.

Calories in food choices; you are what you eat

Every food or drink that enters your mouth gives you energy.

The type of food, determines the number of calories or amount of energy you get from that food.

Daily Calorie Requirements

When you eat or drink anything, you are simply taking in energy/ calories into your body. This will help you make important lifestyle decisions.

If your level of physical activity is equal to the energy you put into your body, then there’s a balance.

On the other hand, if your physical activity is lower than the energy you put in, your body stores the excess energy as fat.

This makes it necessary to ensure you take in just enough energy for the day considering your physical activity for that day.

Energy needs differ from person to person and vary according to age, gender, body composition, health status, diet and activity level.

Men, children and young adults undergoing developmental changes in height, weight and body composition need more energy or calories than women do.

On the average, a woman needs an average/ estimate of 2000kcal (8400kj) per day , while a man needs about 2500kcal (10500kj).

Calories, Stress and Weight gain

The effect of stress varies in different people. When your body is under stress, the adrenaline and cortisol hormones are released.

This sends ‘danger’ signals to the brain to get ready to either fight or take flight and when this happens, for some people there is loss of appetite.

For others, there’s an increased urge to eat but no matter which way the pendulum swings, calories are either accumulated or completely restricted.

Stress causes lots of other symptoms like having short-term memory, low sex drive, headaches, sleeping difficulties, tiredness, and so much more.

In a study, researchers examined the effects of calorie restriction on 53 healthy, non-obese men and women ages 21 to 50.

The participants were randomly assigned to either a calorie-restriction group or a control group that ate what they wanted.

After two years, those in the calorie-restriction group lost nearly 20 lbs. (9 kilograms) on average, while those in the control group maintained their weight.

Calories and the Ageing process

According to Mark Mattson, PHD, chief of the laboratory of Neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging  “There seem to be two mechanisms by which a restricted-calorie diet increases life span”

The first mechanism is the reduction of free radicals production while the second is the increased resistance of cells to stress.

Calorie restriction result in reduced inflammation protecting you from cancer, dementia, cardiovascular diseases & other life threatening diseases.

Calorie-restricted diets apart from increasing life-span have also been shown to improve blood sugar levels while reducing cholesterol.

Calories and Diabetes

Over 462 million individuals worldwide have Type 2 diabetes. The World Health Organization states:

Diabetes can be treated and its consequences avoided or delayed with diet, physical activity…..

WHO newsroom 13th April 2021

Diabetes, indicated by high blood sugar levels, develops when the insulin produced can no longer be utilized or not sufficiently produced.

Eleven people who had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes slashed their calories for eight weeks, sticking to a liquid diet and non-starchy vegetables.

After one week, participants’ fasting blood sugar levels had reduced and 3 months later, after going off the diet, seven people out of the eleven, were free of diabetes.

It was discovered that the low-calorie diet reduced the amount of fat in the pancreas & the liver, which allowed insulin production & function to return to normal.

Understanding Food labels

It can be confusing and may even stress you out knowing what to eat and the number of calories each food contains.

Not to worry, here is a simple way of checking calories during grocery shopping bearing in mind that calories is interchangeably called energy.

Food packages have nutritional information tables on them with measurements that are either in calories/ kilocalories (kcal)  or joules/ kilojoules (kj).

calorie count; nutritional information label of a snack or protein bar
1 kilocalorie is equal to 1 calorie and 1 calorie is equal to 4.184 joules/kilojoules.
calorie count; nutritional information of brown pasta

Based on your age and weight, you can calculate your daily calorie requirement here.

Meal planning

Bearing in mind that calorie calculations are all estimates, meal planning helps with this monitoring.

Ideally, a plan spreads your calorie intake evenly through five small meals enabling your metabolism work its best.

The best approach to healthy eating encourages you to abandon a “dieting” mindset & enjoy delicious, nutritious foods.

These are healthy meal choices including snacks. When you constantly give your body small meals, it would not feel the need to store fat.

When you eat large, infrequent meals, your body feels the need to store some food as fat, since it is uncertain as to when it will be fed again.

If in doubt for what to eat, this will help you with calorie-restricted meal ideas & snacks

To strike a calorie balance, the benefits are huge when you know what your body needs; incorporate portion control plus physical activities.

How to calculate calories in Food without labels

According to the American Dietetic Association, the difference between weight loss and weight gain can be as little as 100 calories a day.

It could be as simple as daily cutting 100 calories from or adding 100 calories to your diet, or a combination of both.

How hard is it to cut 100 calories a day out of your diet? Take a look.

Do you drink non-diet soft drinks? A 16 ounce Pepsi is 250 calories.

Skip one Pepsi a day and you’ll be cutting out two and a half times the suggested calorie cut.

By substituting a plain donut for a jelly donut cuts out 120 calories. A croissant has as many calories as a jelly donut – 289.

Skip the dressing on your salad, or you might as well have a burger. One packet of French dressing has 160 calories.

Are you a coffee lover? If you drink your coffee with whole milk, you can cut 100 calories a day by drinking two cups with skim milk instead.

When you are in a party, drink one less beer. Each 12 oz beer, even a light brand, averages 100 calories.

Restaurant Food and what You can do

Most restaurants state the number of calories in their menu but remembering that calculations are mere estimates, here are ways to make changes.

Skip the Bread and rolls.

Some restaurants still serve a bread basket with your meal. Unless it’s a fresh baked loaf or some really special bread, just skip it.

You don’t need to fill up on ordinary bread when you’re paying good money for a meal. Just ask for it to be taken away or choose not to put a roll on your plate.

If you can’t skip the rolls, at least skip the butter. That’s right. Eat it plain. Whole grain bread is delicious all by itself.

Try it just once and see if you don’t walk out of that restaurant feeling strangely powerful.

Slow Down if You Eat Too Fast!

What’s the rush? Take your time, savor the moment, enjoy the flavors.

A big part of getting in touch with your hunger signals and learning to eat what really will satisfy is learning to recognize the subtle signs of hunger.

You won’t know when you’re approaching satisfaction if you’ve gobbled everything down in five minutes. Take a bite then notice how many times you chew before you start wanting to swallow.

Once? Twice? Make an effort to chew your food and your body will be much happier.

A very large part of digestion begins in your mouth, not to mention you’ll get much more pleasure if you let the food linger.

Say NO to super sizing.

The size you ordered is already too big. Stop super sizing and you’ll save money. Better still, order one dinner and ask for an extra plate.

Many restaurants will do this for a dollar or two, and it’s well worth it. Then share the meal with your friend and you split the cost straight down the middle.

Another option is to order from the so called “appetizer” menu. Two people could order three entrees, one dessert and split the whole thing and it’s still a ton of food!

Stop Ordering Drinks.

Soft drinks are a huge cash cow for restaurants. When ordering “take away” skip the drink & if you’re eating there, ask for water.

Trim Visible Fat and Skin.

Do you love chicken skin like me? it tastes good, but, it’s pure fat. When making the choice to get leaner, its one thing to be avoided.

Trimming off chicken skin and every visible fat hanging off a steak, shows you prefer avoiding the inconvenience of a lifetime of carrying around an extra 40 lbs

Ask for a Take away plate/ Bag

At the Beginning of your Meal, when the food is served, immediately portion off some to take home for tomorrow.

Most restaurants meals are way too much. There is no law you have to eat it all. Do this frequently and soon you’ll find you’re getting an extra lunch out of each meal.

If you really want to get a handle on your calorie intake, look first to where you eat, second at what you eat, and third how much you eat.

Where, What and How Much? Try these steps choosing one tip at a time, and see how easily you can take some of the calories out of restaurant food.

Burning Calories

Want to burn it up instead of avoiding it? Here’s how much time you need to spend at various activities to burn 100 calories.

Swimming energetically for just 15 minutes will burn 100 calories.

You can burn 100 calories for every hour that you do housework.

Only have ten minutes? Jump rope. At 700 calories per hour, you can burn up 100 calories in just 10 minutes!

Knit for an hour & fifteen mins. At 85 calories an hour, it’s not a major calorie burner, but the potato chips you can’t munch while knitting cuts off lots of calories.

Staying an hour later doing office work burns about 140 calories.

Put on some music & hop on the trampoline for fifteen minutes. Moderate aerobics exercise burns 400 calories an hour.

Go for a 10 minute walk – but aim for a brisk pace. Power walking burns 600 calories an hour. You can burn 100 in ten minutes.

Play a round of golf at the club. Half an hour of golfing, without a golf cart burns 120 calories.

You can build any of these into your daily routine, and create a healthy habit that will keep off extra pounds or take off those that you want to lose now.

A Note of Caution

While you may want to jump right in, start exercising and counting calories, this will be risky without the guidance of a qualified health care professional.

When it comes to losing weight, be smart and stay healthy.

Calorie counting alone makes weight loss more difficult to achieve, activity is essential to your overall well being.

In fact, simply reducing your caloric intake can actually slow your metabolism and restrict overall weight loss.

You have to safely increase your physical activity, and get your body moving in order to reach your weight loss goals.

Also, cutting back too harshly on your daily food intake or too quickly will likely have very adverse affects on our ability to lose weight.

Keep in mind that these are just general weight loss principles through Calorie monitoring and each person is different.

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