What Are Calories?

If you are trying to lose weight then you need to know what calories are. Quite often we eat rely on myths like ‘peanuts make you fat’ or ‘bread will give you a big belly’ to make food choices. The reality is most of us don’t know what and how much we are eating. 

 In simple terms, a calorie is a unit of energy. We often associate calories with food, but they generally apply to anything containing energy.

 Now, why are calories important in weight loss? 

Think of it this way.   A woman, lest call her Rose, require 2,000 calories a day to be able to get out of bed,  walk to the bus station, work and go back home and sleep without gaining weight. Now, if Rose eats 2250 calories, she will spend 2,000 and be left with 250 as extra. If she does that every day, by the end of the month she will have accumulated an extra 7,500 calories.

One kilogramme is equivalent to 7,000 calories. So by the end of the month Rose will have gained a Kg. Easy huh?

To lose weight Rose has to eat less energy [calories] than she spends in a day? She can also eat the 2,000 calories or more but exercise, like go to the gym to burn off the extra energy. So how do we know how much calories we are eating? First, this depends on the food and the portions. Please note that water has ZERO calories!

 Here is a simple food guide:-

Strawberries, frozen sliced, 1 cup, with sugar	278
Watermelon, 1 cup	45
Pineapple, diced, 1 cup	80
Plum, each	35
Lemon, each	30
Cheese pizza, 1 slice, 16 in. pizza
Pizza, sausage & mushroom, 1 slice, 16 oz. pizza	215
Egg, fried in butter, 1 large egg	99
Egg, raw, boiled, or poached, 1 large	82
Scrambled eggs, 1 egg with butter & milk	111
Scrambled eggs, 1 cup, with butter & milk	325

For a more comprehensive list of foods go here: https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/foodcalories.html

When combining your foods please remember that women should aim for no more than 2,000 calories a day and men for 2,500.  Remember that healthy living involves a combination of healthy foods and exercise.

 

Df