I think we all know by now, the caloric content of the foods we eat every day is very important to know if we want to avoid gaining excess body weight.
Exercise generates heat, the body heats up and thereby burns calories, and the more you exercise the more calories burned …simple right?
-You can see how critical the caloric content can really be.
The Calorie Calculator below gives a clear picture of the caloric content of many popular foods, including fat grams, protein and the sodium in foods.
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For optimum health you really do have to watch what goes into the body. The additional exercise needed to burn off a high intake of calories/fat can be more than you think.
As good as exercise is for your health and as an aid to any fat loss program, it's just not realistic for most of us to think that we'll get enough.
Healthy Eating Tips
We suggest making a list of as many of the foods you like as possible, pick those that are high in protein as well as vitamins and fiber, but keep them as low as possible in total caloric content, cholesterol, sodium and fat grams. (especially trans fats, very bad for the cholesterol)
Try to eat foods from your list whenever possible, and add new low-fat, low calorie foods when you can. (pick a new one every week from above)
-Knowing the caloric content of the foods we eat, even if you don't plan on keeping track all the time, can still be a huge help.
Just realizing that the bacon double cheeseburger you just ate had 540 calories, 32 grams of fat and little if any food fiber, may just keep you from having another one, or at least skipping the fries.
-Many people go about their day eating pretty much whatever they want, with little regard to any of these things, never mind the carbohydrates in food, or food fiber. (a quick look at obesity rates tells us that)
The amount of fiber in food can be extremely beneficial to our digestion, and helps you feel full and eat less of the fatty stuff that can be so unhealthy, not to mention the number it does -expanding the waistline.
See our That's why watching the caloric content, the fats in food, food fiber, as well as the cholesterol and sodium in food can be so helpful for weight loss, and even more importantly -so beneficial to our good health.
Whatever you're watching for most, calories, fat or both -if you can get in the habit of checking the labels as much as possible, you'll find you don't always have to eat less ...you just eat differently.
-By watching the caloric content and the fats in food, you can make better choices without sacrificing taste or the amount you eat.
Of course, less is best, but if you can trade in the bacon cheeseburger for a salad or a veggie burger, your butt and your heart ...will thank you.
It's All In The Label
Labels tell us the caloric content, sodium in foods, etc, but they also give you a lot of other important information!
They also tell you what kind of calories:
-How many calories are from carbohydrates, protein, and the fats in food.
-1 gram of carbohydrates = 4 calories. If the label says 5 grams of carbs per serving, then one serving contains 20 calories from carbohydrates.
(5 grams/serving x 4 calories per gram = 20 carb calories)
-1 gram of protein is also equal to 4 calories. (same example applies)
-1 gram of fat = 9 calories.
So if the label states a certain food has 10 grams of fat per serving, than 1 serving will have 90 fat calories out of the total calories.
(10 grams of fat/serving x 9 calories per fat gram = 90 fat cal per serving)
What about the percentage of
calories from fat?
One last healthy eating tip...
-And, probably the most important bit of information on that label, that's quite often ignored, is the Percent daily value (%DV).
Generally these are based on a 2000-calorie diet, and tell you the percentage of your total daily allowance of each.
-Using the example from above, you'll find: that same bacon double cheese burger would account for 75% of your Daily value of saturated fat!
I think you can see just how useful this could be as a fat loss guide, and just how beneficial this may be to many of us.
-If you can keep the total % equal to 100% or less, you'll be on your way to a happier, healthier and lighter you!
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