User Manual of Calorie Counter

Importance of Calorie Measurements

What are Calories?

Calories are the amount of energy released when your body breaks down (digests and absorbs) food. The more calories a food has, the more energy it can provide to your body. When you eat more calories than you need, your body stores the extra calories as body fat. Even fat-free food can have a lot of calories.

Why is it important to keep track of calories consumed?

Keeping track of your calorie intake helps you better understand the number of calories your body needs to lose, gain, or sustain a certain weight. Whatever your goal, knowing how many calories you are eating is key to getting the desired effect.

One way to count your calories is by keeping a food diary and writing down everything you eat, then looking up each item’s calorie count.

What is the Recommended Daily Caloric Intake?

Generally, the recommended daily calorie intake is 2,000 calories a day for women and 2,500 for men.

How are Calories and Weight interrelated?

If we take in more calories than we expend or excrete, the excess has to be stored, which means that we get fatter and heavier. Your body stores most of the excess calories you consume as fat. Just 100 extra calories a day adds up to 10 pounds in a year. Simply stated, if you take in more calories than you need on a daily basis, the excess calories turn into extra weight. The more you weigh, the more calories you burn.

What needs to be done to burn more calories?

There are eight ways to burn more calories that are mentioned below:-

Exercise to Burn Calories:

Christopher Wharton, Ph.D., a certified personal trainer, and researcher with the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University put it simply: The more time spent exercising and the more vigorous the exercise, the more calories will be burned.

Do Strength Training to Build Muscle:

The most effective way to increase metabolism and burn more calories are from aerobic exercise and strength training. Both are important, Megan A. McCrery, Ph.D., a researcher with the School of Nutrition and Exercise Science at Bastyr University, says in an email interview.

Drink Caffeinated Green or Black Tea:

Caffeine is a stimulant, and stimulants tend to increase the calories you burn. One likely reason is that they give you the short-term impression that you have more energy, which could mean you move more. Caffeine may also cause metabolic changes in the body that can result in more calories burned

Eat Smaller, More Frequent Meals:

Every time you eat a meal or snack, your gastrointestinal tract turns on, so to speak, and starts digesting food and absorbing nutrients. It costs calories to fire up the human digestion machine, so it makes sense that the more small meals or snacks you eat throughout the day, the more calories you burn.

Don’t Skip Breakfast:

Evidence supporting a link between skipping breakfast and increased body weight is growing, according to a recent editorial in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Some research has shown that when people skip breakfast, they tend to eat more calories by the end of the day. Other studies have suggested that skipping breakfast is associated with a higher body mass index in teens.

Eat Low-Fat Dairy:

The calcium from low-fat dairy doesn’t specifically help burn more calories, but it may do a couple of things to help discourage body fat. Results from a recent Danish study suggest that we might absorb fewer fat calories from a meal when we consume calcium from low-fat dairy.

Drink 8 Cups of Water a Day:

Just about everything you call on your body to do burns calories, including absorbing and utilizing water while maintaining fluid balance (sometimes by excreting excess),says Pope. Drinking almost eight cups of water (2 liters) may help burn nearly 100 extra calories a day, according to findings of a small study from Germany, notes Pope.

Fidget:

Any type of movement requires energy, and fidgeting definitely qualifies as movement. Older studies suggest additional calories can be burned each day with fidgeting says Pope.

One study even found that informal movement such as fidgeting may be more important than formal workouts in determining who is lean and who is obese.

Diet and exercise are good topics to discuss with your doctor. Before starting a new exercise regimen or supplementing your diet, it would be good to talk it over with your doctor. If you have certain medical conditions or are taking certain medications, there may be activities or dietary supplements that you should avoid.

How do Your Nutritional Needs change as You Age?

The challenge while eating less overall is to eat more nutrient-rich foods, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, beans, fish, low-fat dairy products, and lean cuts of meat. As you age, your body needs the same amount of protein, vitamins, and minerals and, in some instances, even more nutrients. Take vitamin B-12, for example. After age 50, your body’s ability to absorb the vitamin often fades because you don’t have as much stomach acid, which is needed to break B-12 down from food sources.

The same holds true for vitamin D. Aging skin is less able than younger skin to change sunlight to the vitamin. That, in turn, affects the body’s ability to absorb calcium. You need both vitamin D and calcium to prevent bone loss. Ask your doctor if you are getting enough of those must-have nutrients, and if you aren’t, what foods you should eat and whether you need a supplement. If your doctor isn’t sure, ask for a referral to a dietitian.

If this article helped you in any way, consider sharing it with your Peer group. Till then Have a good day.