Learn How To Make Calorie Counting Work For You
When the words ‘weight loss’ and ‘effortless’ come together, you probably sit up straight and pay attention. Who wouldn’t like to lose weight without putting too much work into it? Well, calorie counting is known to do just that.
Even so, calorie counting has its naysayers too. Some people claim that calorie counting by itself doesn’t do too much. We agree.
Here’s what you need to know to make this work for you. Easily.
First Things First: How Does It Work?
A calorie is science-speak for the amount of energy you need to raise the temperature of a liter of water by 1°C. All the food you eat supplies you with a certain amount of energy, which is measured as a number of calories.
The calories that you don’t use for activities like breathing, walking, running and talking? These get stored as fat. When they add up, this is what causes weight gain.
Calorie counting to lose weight simply means that you eat less calories than you spend, making yourself lose weight over time.
Best Practice Methods
When you count calories, you’ll need to get into the nitty gritty details. Monitor the number of calories you consume on an average, and how much you burn on a daily basis. Be careful with the size of portions and servings at meals; a whole grain roti might mean less calories, but too many and you’ll end up overloading the calorie scale.
Another key to success with calorie counting: keep track of your weight loss/gain. Weigh yourself on an empty stomach each morning, and watch the trend. This is how you’ll know which way the calories in / calories out balance is tipped.
A food journal also makes sense, for the same reason.
Another best practice when it comes to weight loss: measure your exercise efforts in terms of calories burned, and not the number of steps, or your heart rate. This way, you’ll have a realistic idea of your calorie balance.
Tips For Success
Quality over quantity: the lesser the calories, the more likely you are to lose weight. But exercise logic: the effect of 100 calories of vegetables on your body is going to be better than the effect of 100 calories of aloo tikki, for instance.
Make sure you get most of your nutrition from high quality plants and animals that have undergone the minimal amount of processing. This way, calorie counting actually becomes easier.
Make calorie counting work for you by using the right knowledge. These tips should put you on the right path!
References:
