Weight Loss Basics – the C,F,Ps of fitness

Counting calories: Get back to weight-loss basics

Calories play a humongous role in the balancing act known as weight loss. They are the ultimate determining factor as to what your weight is.

Despite the innumerate diets, weight loss strategies, and supplements, weight management basically boils to the calories – that is the number of calories you take in (eat) versus those you burn off.

So, forget those fad diets and miracle pills and get ready to dig into the leanest morsels of weight loss information you can sink your teeth into!

Calories – your body’s main fuel source

Despite their reputation, calories are not bad – they are simply the energy in food. I know what you’re thinking, if it wasn’t for those pesky calories, you would have never thrown out that pair of jeans which is now two sizes too small … well, it turns out that your body has a constant demand for energy and uses the calories from food to keep functioning.. Energy from calories fuels every action in your body, including brain function, involuntary and voluntary muscular movements, etc.

C, F, Ps explained

Carbohydrates, fats and proteins are the types of nutrients (macronutrients) that contain calories and are the main energy sources for your body. Most everything that you eat has a certain amount of calories from the three categories above. The amount of energy in each varies. Proteins and carbohydrates have about 4 calories per gram, and fats have about 9 calories per gram. Alcohol also is a source of calories, providing about 7 calories per gram.

Now that you know where the calories come from, it is important to understand what happens to them once you eat them. Regardless of where they come from, the calories you eat are either converted to physical energy or stored within your body as adipose tissue (the fat everyone hates). These stored calories will remain in your body as adipose tissue (fat) unless you use them up, either by reducing calorie intake so that your body must draw on reserves for energy, or by increasing physical activity so that you burn more calories. Remember, this fatty tissue is not the same as dietary fat, so please try to not confuse the two.

Tipping the weight loss scale in your favor: Cutting calories

Simple equation for balancing the weight loss scales:

• If you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight.
• If you burn more calories than you eat, you lose weight

I told you this would be simple!

On to some real math … don’t be scared, this is painless, I promise.

One pound of bodyweight equals 3,500 calories … this is true for all body tissue – to burn off that 1 pound (0.45 kilogram) of adipose tissue, you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you take.

Simple Strategy

So if you cut 500 calories from your typical intake each day, you’d lose about 1 pound a week (500 calories x 7 days = 3,500 calories).

Cutting calories doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, it can be as simple as:

• Opting for less calorie dense drinks
• Skipping one extra high-calorie indulgence a day
• Swapping high-calorie foods for lower calorie options
• Reducing portion sizes

Saving calories by cutting a high-calorie item

• A good place to start if your goal is to cut those 500 calories per day is to delete one or two high-calorie items from your daily intake. For example, you could remove your morning latte at breakfast or that bowl of ice cream you always have after dinner.
• Itemize what you eat daily – think about what you eat and drink each day and identify items you could cut out. If you think that skipping your indulgences will leave you with a craving, try a low-calorie substitution.

Tags: exercise, health, nutrition, weight loss