The truth about counting calories

Counting calories is a quite complicated business, there are so many books and articles on internet about this but the truth is that “good” and “bad” fats, proteins, carbs and sweets created calories; so, the big query is knowing which is better than others or if maybe all are equal to our body.


There are so many ways to count calories to maintain your weight, and you could base your all food choices depending of the calorie content, but this is not the only criteria to ponder. Experts explain that there are a million of reasons to consider other important features in our food than just calorie content.

For example, if the food you are going to eat today contains fiber, like corn, avocado or kidney beans, it will keep you feeling full longer, and after eating maybe you would think that you ate so much, but the really is that it does not have so many calories. And when you feel full, it can prevent you from reaching extra calories when you try to eat something else, in order to fill yourself up.

 

Right choices

One of the many benefits of choosing fresh fruits, vegetables or another lower-fat food to your daily diet is that you get more foods (and healthier) for less money.

The really is that carbs and protein foods have about 4 calories per gram, but all kinds of fats have more than twice, about 9 calories per gram. And you maybe could think that you should eat according the calories. But it is not good eating higher-fat every day just because is a little bit.

Besides, if you want to lose weight counting calories, better choose carbs and proteins for the breakfast. For your lunch you can cook a delicious egg white omelet with vegetables like onions, carrots and lettuce, also mushrooms and low-fat cheese or grilled chicken.

With this kind of meal for your day, you will able to eat some snacks in the afternoon. But if you prefer to eating a lot of fat foods like fried chicken, French fries, bacon and full-fat cheese, you will consume most of the calorie portion recommended by the end of breakfast.

 

Calories means energy

You cannot avoid consume calories; this is not a logical thing. Everyone needs calories to make activities, like walking, working, and caring children. So if you are trying to feed you with low calorie foods and water just to feel your stomach full and do not gain weight, you will not have energy to do anything. You will feel tired and sleepy if you do not eat protein, carbs and fat.

Calories are the amount of energy that a food can provides you, and everyone should has a personal calorie limit. But the most important of this is that you should balance your energy in (foods you eat) and your energy out (calories you burn). The secret for eat what you want is making some physical activity every day to burn the calories you gain eating a delicious chocolate ice cream; so, take the stairs!

 

Mix it all

Although carbohydrates have less calories content than fat, you should not eat them with wild abandon. Everything is about balance; for that reason the best diet plan to you is about eating a healthy mix of all most known three energy sources. Nutritionists recommended that a good meal needs about 45-60 percent of calories and just a 15 percent should come from carbohydrates.

But like we said before, you need to eat protein (meat, fish, milk, eggs, and vegetables), carbohydrates (bread, rice) and fat (olive oil, nuts, cheese, cream, butter). Some foods produce good hormonal effects in the body, others build muscle and store good fat, and if you set a calorie limit but with different proportions of protein, fat and carbs, you will get good results about losing weight.

Then you need to mix all these types of energy source to create a balance diet for you.

 

Write a food diary

Most experts recommend having a food diary to keep track of the calories you eat every day (including a weekend). This should be the first step for getting a handle on how many calories you consume and how healthy you could be eating some foods.

Also you can include the physically activities that you do and you will compare if it is enough to balance the calories consumed or if you need to do something else. You can find on internet the amount of calories you burn with some common activities, like walk or cleaning the house;  so write these kind of activities too.

But it is important being completely honest with yourself, the cake of your friend’s birthday, your mom’s cookies or the lunch you finished from your son’s plate.

If you do not write this you will think that everything is fine, and you really do not know why you cannot lose weight. Track every food you eat and you will be surprised about all sources of calories that you are eating.