Okay lets be honest! Who LOVES food?? I DO!!! I love to go out with my husband and get a nice juicy burger from our favorite burger place, Burger Republic! OH! A burger with fresh and fried jalapenos! Oh its awesome! But I also have been trying to lose weight. So how do you manage losing weight without missing out on your favorite food? Well lets take a look at how to manage your calories.
Okay so your body need a minimum amount of calories to function. Why? Well if you go below that your body doesn't have enough calories to do even the basic functions breathing, heartbeat, blood flow, etc and this is while your body is at rest. As if you just laid in bed all day how many calories would your body burn.This number of calories is called your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR).
There is another part to calories. We talked about RMR and now we need to add in Activities of Daily Living (ADL). These calories are an estimate of the calories required to do things like shower, getting dressed, household chores, etc.
If your body can't get enough calories from at least your RMR then your body will enter starvation mode. This causes your body to hold onto every last piece of nutrition it can get its hands on. The body will then store it as fat. Fat is a great source to feed your body when it is in starvation mode. It will store it and late burn it for calories when the food intake runs out.When calculating your calories you will notice that your RMR for everyone will be over 1200 calories. Studies have shown that there is a magic number to calories for staying out of starvation mode. 1200 calories is the MINIMUM to fuel your body.
Now lets talk about fat. One pound of fat equals 3500 calories. So if you want to lose 1 pound a week you need to cut out 500 calories from your daily diet. WITHOUT going below 1200. If you want to lose 2 pound a week you cut out 1000 calories from your daily intake. When focusing on weight loss and calories you don't want to try and lose more than 2 pound per week by cutting more calories. With working out, there is a possibility to lose more.
We have talked a lot of numbers, but the most important thing is that you enjoy life. On nights where I go on a date out to eat with my husband I don't worry about calories that day. But that is only one night a week. I don't want food to become the enemy. If you like a bowl of ice cream at night after dinner make sure you plan for it with calories.
I LOVE Dr Pepper. I tried to manage drinking one can a day but that wasn't working. Now I only indulge once or twice a week. But I can still enjoy it!
That is the most important thing I want to share. I want to give you power over calories! Don't let the calories rule your world. Make them work for you!!
Some great resources to figure out your calorie limit one is the My Fitness Pal app. You will sign up and input your height, weight, age, gender and how many pounds you want to lose in a week. If you are a nerd like me and want to know the ins and outs of the equations and goes into more details of calories and exercising is the book "A Time and Season for Change" by Lynn R. Perkes.
Enjoy your life! Enjoy the things that gather loved ones! Enjoy your food without feeling guilty if you indulge a little bit. Everyone needs a slurpee sometimes!
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