BELOW ARE SOME INTERESTING WEIGHT LOSS INFO I HAVE COME ACROSS ONLINE OR HAVE BEEN EMAILED TO ME SO I THOUGHT I WOULD SHARE THEM!
I FOUND THESE AT FOODNETWORK.COM.
What are Low Calorie Diets?
Since all of the foods that you eat and drink, other than water and diet beverages, contain calories, a low calorie diet, in the simplest terms, is one that restricts calories in order for you to lose weight.
Managing your weight is based on three simple equations:
- Calories in = Calories needed: When the calories you consume are equal to the calories that your body needs daily, your weight will stay the same. For example, most women, depending upon their age and activity level, consume from 1,600 to approximately 2,200 calories daily. When they consume this amount of calories daily, they are able to maintain their body weight. Men typically need from 2,200 to 2,800 calories or more daily, depending upon their activity levels, to keep their weight stable.
- Calories in > Calories needed: When you consistently consume more calories than you need over an extended period of time, your weight will begin to increase as your body will store these excess calories as fat. Unfortunately, many of your neighbors are finding themselves a product of this unbalanced equation, as over 60 percent of Americans are currently overweight or obese. In other words, Americans are chowing down more calories than they need on a regular basis, and their bathroom scales are constantly reminding them of their overindulgence.
- Calories in < Calories needed: If you routinely consume fewer calories than you need, you will begin shedding your excess weight. Since a pound of fat is the equivalent to approximately 3,500 calories, a deficit of this amount of calories, over a period of time, will produce a loss of a pound of weight. For example, if a person who needs 2,200 calories daily to maintain her weight begins to consume 1,950 calories, or 250 calories less daily, she would pleasantly find that there would be one pound less of her by the end of a two week period (250 calories X 14 days = 3,500 calories).
Pros and Cons of Low Calorie Diets
June 15, 2005
The Pros
The beauty of a low calorie diet is that it isn’t complicated to follow. As long as you can measure out your food portions and add and subtract, you can follow a low calorie diet. Simply keeping track of the amount and calories of food that you eat and restricting your intake by a couple hundred calories daily will have you on the road to a more svelte you. Measuring utensils, a pad of paper, and No. 2 pencil, or for the math impaired, a calculator, is all that is needed to begin losing weight on a low-tech, low calorie diet.
The food industry has also helped to make calorie counting a snap. By law, the majority of packaged foods must bear a Nutrition Facts Panel on their labels. This panel not only provides the item’s serving size but also its calories per serving as well as other important nutrient information. Food packages that are too small to house the panel must provide the manufacturer’s contact information on the label so that you can hunt down the calories directly from the food company.
Some restaurants are also helping calorie counters when they dine out by flagging specific lower calorie entrees on the menu and providing their nutritional content. For fast food diners, most eating establishments have the calorie information for their entire menu offerings posted on their website. If you still can’t uncover the calories in some of the foods that you are eating, try FoodNetwork.com’s fat and calorie calculator to find the nutrition information for commonly eaten foods.
Another advantage of low calorie diets is that there aren’t any foods that are forbidden or need to be avoided when counting calories, which is often found in other types of restrictive diets. It’s the total daily calories that are being monitored, not the specific type of food. If you want a scoop of Chunky Monkey ice cream, you can enjoy it. However, you’ll have 300 less calories to work with at your other meals and snacks in order for you to stick to your low calorie diet plan for that day.
The Cons
While the simplicity of counting calories makes this approach seem uncomplicated, unfortunately, there is more to food than just calories. Choosing your food choices solely based on numbers may reduce the calories you consume, but if you are eating a predominately low calorie junk food diet, the weight may come off, but it could be at the expense of your health. A low calorie diet isn’t automatically a healthy diet. While a cup of orange soda contains fewer calories than the same amount of orange juice, the soda can’t hold a candle to the juice when it comes to nutrition. Soda is basically sugar dissolved in water and devoid of any other nutrients. In comparison, eight ounces of OJ will meet your vitamin C needs for the day and is also an excellent source of potassium. To healthfully lose weight, you should follow a lower calorie, well-balanced diet that meets your nutritional needs by providing a variety of foods, such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, fish, lean meats, poultry, dairy, and some vegetable oils.
Another caution about low calorie diets is that if you become overly zealous about calorie counting and reduce your calories too low, you could be putting yourself at risk of missing out on important nutrients, such as calcium and iron. It can become extremely challenging for women to meet their daily nutrient needs if they are consuming less than 1,600 calories daily.
Consuming a very low calorie diet can also cause weight loss to occur too rapidly and may make you feel fatigued and nauseous, cause constipation, and can also perpetuate the formation of gallstones. While losing weight at a rate of approximately ½ to 2 pounds weekly is generally regarded as safe, a more realistic goal would be to lose approximately 10 percent of your body weight over a six-month period. In other words, if you are overweight and need to shed 18 pounds, set your sights on losing no more than 3 pounds a month or less than a pound a week over the next six months.
- By Joan Salge Blake, MS, RD, LDN. Blake is a nutrition professor at Boston University and a nationally known writer, lecturer and nutrition expert.
Prevention.com has a great article called 100 Smartest Diet Tips Ever.
Click here: http://www.prevention.com/article/0,5778,s1-4-57-279-2208-1-P,00.html
