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Nutrition How Weight Loss & Weight Gain Work
Body fat is a means of storage for energy in your body. Your body will use this energy through out the day, therefore fat is necessary for your body. However, like most things, in excess fat can be harmful to your health. You get fat from your diet in the form of Calories. For one pound of fat you get 3500 Calories. Calories are the like the fuel your body uses for energy. So if you do 3500 Calories of work you will burn off one pound.
So the key to loosing weight becomes balancing your diet with your physical activities. If you use more Calories through physical activities then you gain through what you eat you will loose weight as your body will need to use the stored Calories in fat. So if I eat 2000 Calories and use 2500 Calories through physical activity in a day, I will loose 500 Calories in that day. Do this for a 7 day period and you will loose a pound.
Disclaimer
This may sound like if you stop eating and keep your daily activities up you will loose weight. Though this may be true, it would be extremely unhealthy and dangerous and it is in no way recommended. Raising the amount of daily physical activity is the ideal way to loose weight while maintaining a healthy diet.
Recommended Daily Intake
So how much do you have to eat to maintain a healthy diet? The answer depends on numerous factors including; your age, weight, height, sex, and your physical activity level. There are other factors that affect your exact recommended Calorie intake but looking at these factors will give you the best estimate. The table below shows a range of recommended daily intakes in Calories. These are just estimates for people that do not particapate in much physical activity. For a more accurate estimate for yourself use this Calorie Calculator (Intake).
Counting Calories
You can easily count the calories you intake using the labels and nutritional facts that come with all food now. But calculating the amount of calories you burn is more difficult. Everything you do will use calories from walking to running to talking. Some things will obviously use more then others. An exact amount of calories you burn while exercising is very difficult to measure but using Calorie Calculators (Output) can give you a reasonable estimate of the Calories you burn through out your day. Here is a good Calorie Calculator (Output).
LBS
Age 20 30 40 50 100 1670 1471 1610 1411 1550 1351 1490 1291 125 1806 1607 1746 1547 1686 1487 1626 1427 150 1942
1978 1683 1822 1623 1858 1658 175 2174 1975 2114 1915 2054 1855 1994 1795 200 2368 2168 2250 2051 2190 1991 2130 1931 225 2504 2305 2444 2245 2384 2185 2324 2125 250 2640
2381 2520
2460 2261 M F M F M F M F Sex Balanced Diet
Calories come from everything you eat, not only the fat in the food. There are three main groups that provide Calories to your body; carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Fats yield the most Calories per gram. Each kind is absorbed and used differently by your body. For example carbohydrates are really good for short high intensity activities and fats are used more during longer more endurance activities. It normally takes about two minutes of activity for your body to start using fats as fuels. Keeping this in mind you need to make sure your diet includes these kinds of food. This link is to another helpful tool that can give you more accurate numbers as to the ratios you should have between the three groups in your diet. Maintaining these ratios can be difficult with a busy life style but being conscious about what you eat can go a long way.
