Counting calories to lose weight...ZZZZZZ!The idea of counting calories to lose weight is so tedious and boring, isn't it? I will try and make it as “exciting” as possible. How many calories do you need?This is a good place to start. As with most things relating to weight loss there are many variables. There are many very complicated formulas you can use to calculate the number of calories. As always the goal of my site is to keep things easy for us. So we can use this easy formula: A sedentary person needs:weight in pounds X 14 A moderately active person needs:weight in pounds X 17 A very active person needs:weight in pounds X 20 Try not to get too hung up on numbers, it's tedious, boring and not necessary. Just have a basic idea. Learn to read food labelsAn important part of counting calories to lose weight is to start reading food labels. To keep things easy, the only parts of the label you need to read is the “kcal” number and the weight. This is telling you the number of calories in the food item. If you want to know more about food labels, be sure to check my how to read food labels page. You may well be surprised at the high number of calories in certain foods, it may help your weight loss goals to cut these out. Do you need to weigh foods?Weighing foods can be beneficial, food labels often give nutritional information for 100 grams of the food item. If the amount you eat is only 50 grams, you will obviously only be eating half the number of calories.
All this is too complicated, can you just tell me which foods have a lot of calories inI will do my best. I have put together a list of commonly ingested foods that are very high in calories.. I also give you some alternatives to consider. Milkshakes Yes, I know they are tasty, but these really loaded with calories. In some cases they are more than half the number of calories that you take in when having a main meal. An alternative to these is mineral waters, herbal teas and tap water with a slice a lemon. Fast Food Yep.. It tastes good, it's quick and easy. The truth is that most forms of fast food are terrible when it comes to calories. They are loaded the carbohydrates and saturated fats. Many fast food restaurants now offer healthier alternatives like salads. They might not taste as good but they contain a lot fewer calories. Nuts Whilst nuts do contain many health benefits, they are very high in fat and calories. An idea might be to avoid getting those big packets of tasty dry roasted peanuts. Get a small pack and share them with your family. Cakes We all know that cakes have a lot of calories. Unfortunately, these have to go if you want to lose weight. How about replacing them with fresh fruit? Chocolate Now I don't know about you, but I am definitely a chocoholic. I love chocolate, but it is again very high in calories. A great substitute again is fresh fruit. It does seem boring at first, but fresh fruit can be tasty too. Is there somewhere online I can check the number of calories in foods?Yes, on the USDA.gov site there is a search database of foods. If you search for a food it will come back with very detailed nutritional information including calories, fats, proteins, carbohydrates etc. In conclusion, I hope I made the counting calories to lose weight guide interesting. I know it is a very boring topic and none us really want to read it. It is however very important when losing weight. With this said, there is no need to measure everything to the last calorie and be ultra precise. It's best to just apply common sense. |
