Count Those Calories to Lose Weight!It’s important that you count the number of calories you’re eating each day so you won’t overeat and put on fat. To count calories all you need to do is simply look at the Nutritional Facts food label on the back of any food product. Below is an example of what a typical Nutritional facts Food label looks like:  The only 2 things you need to be concerned about when counting calories is the serving size and calories per serving. As you can see from the Nutritional Facts label for a can of Pringles on the right a serving size is 1 ounce or 16 crisp/chips. The Nutritional Facts label for raisin bran cereal on the left has a serving size of 1 cup. According to both nutritional facts labels 1 serving of Pringles has 140 calories and 1 cup of raisin bran has 190 calories and it also tells you if you add ½ a cup of skim milk you’ll eat 230 calories. 
When you go out to eat to a restaurant or fast food place, in order for you to find out how many calories are in the foods you’re eating, you may have to ask an employee how many calories are contained in the foods you’re eating. Some restaurants and fast food places have charts posted listing the amount of calories in the foods they serve. A list of websites in the nutritional log tells you all the calorie information on the foods served at some fast food places and restaurants. Watching what you eatIf you take a look at any nutritional facts label you’ll see that the amount of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats are listed. Most of the food you eat will contain some amount of carbohydrates (better known as carbs), proteins, and fat. Each gram of carbohydrate and protein contains 4 calories and each gram of fat contains 9 calories-more than double the amount of carbohydrates and protein. Take a look at the amount of calories per serving (¼ recipe) listed on the nutritional facts label below. 
One serving has 209 calories: 31g of Carbohydrate (31 x 4 = 124 calories), + 10g of protein (10 x 4 = 40 calories), + 5g of Fat (5 x 9 = 45 calories) = 209 total calories As you can see the amount of calories per serving listed on the Nutrition facts label are at times underestimated You should not only watch out for the amount of fat contained in foods for health reasons, but since a gram of fat has 9 calories, you will not be able to eat that much fat without going over your daily calorie limit to maintain your weight. You can eat over twice as many carbohydrates and protein before you reach your daily calorie limit to maintain your weight. For Example:
Since the Soy sauce is made up of only carbs & protein you can eat over 3 times more (3.5 tablespoons) than the peanut oil that is only made up of fat. Eating a balance amount of carbohydrates, protein, and fat will also help you maximize your weight loss. You may still lose weight without eating a balance amount of carbohydrates, protein, and fat but you will not be able to:
CarbohydratesCarbohydrates are your body’s main source of energy. If you don’t eat enough carbohydrates your body will have to break down muscle building proteins for energy. If you eat mainly carbohydrates you will not be eating enough protein to build and repair the muscle that maintains your good looks. There are basically two types of carbohydrates, the Bad simple carbohydrates and the Good complex carbohydrates. Simple carbohydratesSimple carbohydrates include foods like white sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, honey, maple syrup, candy, sodas, cookies and pastries. You really want to limit the amount of simple carbohydrates you eat. All simple carbohydrates do is make your energy levels rise quickly and then back down again quickly. After you come back down after this sugar/energy high you’ll be craving for more simple carbohydrates to get your sugar/energy fix. Eating a lot of simple carbohydrates creates a constant cycle of overeating by making you crave for more and more simple carbohydrates to get your energy/sugar fix. The simple carbohydrates are what mainly put you at risk for type 2 or adult onset diabetes. Complex carbohydratesComplex carbohydrates do the exact opposite of simple carbohydrates and give you a longer supply of energy keeping your cravings way down. Complex carbohydrates are foods like whole grains, cereals, beans, fruits, and vegetables. Since complex carbohydrates take longer to be digested and absorbed your body burns more calories digesting complex carbohydrates than it does simple carbohydrates. For every 100 calories of complex carbs you eat, about 20-25 of those calories are burnt during digestion. If you just can’t resist and have to eat simple carbohydrates, it’s definitely a good idea to eat it with some protein, healthy fats, and complex carbohydrates. Doing this prevents the simple carbohydrates from being absorbed so quickly by your body. This means your energy levels will stay constant much longer rather than your energy levels jumping from a high to a "I need more sugar again" level when you eat simple carbohydrates alone. ProteinProtein is used by the body to maintain, repair, and build muscle in the body. Eggs, milk, lean meats, chicken, fish, & cottage cheese are all sources of protein. If don’t eat enough protein your body will not be able to maintain, repair, and build muscle. If you eat mainly protein your body will break down muscle for energy because there’s not enough carbohydrates to use for energy. Protein takes even longer than complex carbohydrates to be digested by your body. For every 100 calories of protein you eat, about 25-30 of those calories are burnt during digestion.
You should try to eat at least .35 – .7 grams of protein per lb. of bodyweight to build and maintain the muscle in your body. A 170lb person for example would need to eat 60-119 grams of protein each day and about 10-20 grams of protein in each meal.
Dietary FatsThe dietary fat that you eat also provides your body with energy just like carbohydrates. Unlike carbohydrates and protein that has 4 calories per gram, Fat has 9 calories a gram. For that reason alone you should try to limit the amount of fats in your diet. Since fat contains 9 calories a gram you can only eat but so much fat until you reach your daily calorie limit to maintain your weight. Fat can easily be placed in two categories: Good and Bad Fats. Bad FatsThe bad fats include saturated and transunsatured fats. Fried foods, commercial baked goods (donuts, cookies, crackers), margarine, butter, cheese, ice cream, fatty meats, and fast foods are high in these types of fats. Saturated and trans-unsaturated fats raise cholesterol, and increase your risk for heart disease. You should completely avoid these types of fats because of the serious health risk they present. It’s very possible that you could still lose weight eating a lot of bad fats, but what’s the need of losing weight when you’ll be increasing your risk for heart attack at the same time! Good FatsThe Good fats are the polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. Foods like olive, canola and peanut oils, Avocados, safflower, sesame, soy, corn and sunflower-seed oils, Nuts: almonds, cashews, peanuts, pecans, Peanut butter, & Sesame seeds are rich in polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats Good fats help improve your health by lowering cholesterol and decreasing your risk for heart disease. Make sure that most of the fat you include in your diet is good fats Nutrition Facts FOOD labels show all fats
Don’t worry too much about finding the right combination or percentages of carbohydrates, fat, and protein to eat. Trying to decide whether to eat 40% carbohydrates, 35% protein, or 37% fat and then trying to keep all those numbers in check on a daily basis is too nerve wracking and tedious. If you follow these simple rules you can be sure that the carbohydrates, proteins, and fats you’re eating are in perfect balance to maximize your weight loss:
Calories are Calories!You’ve probably heard that eating unhealthy foods like sugar, fatty foods, fast foods, & alcohol will make you gain weight and that eating healthy foods like vegetables, fruits, and low fat foods will prevent you from gaining weight. This is all totally untrue, the truth is that it’s not what you eat that makes you gain weight it’s how much of what you eat that makes you gain weight. You’ll gain weight if you eat too many calories worth of healthy or unhealthy foods.
Coconuts may not be that bad but what if your fantasy island only contained celery? The same rules still apply, depending on the amount of celery you eat you’ll gain, lose or maintain your weight. Some people become overweight by eating these so-called low fat foods because they think that since its low fat and healthy they can eat as much as they want without gaining weight. The point is that calories are calories—and once again if you eat the right amount you can maintain your weight, lose weight, or gain weight. Sometimes It’s Okay to have your cake and eat it too. Can you eat whatever you want and still lose weight?Is it possible to eat foods like candy, fatty steaks, etc and still lose weight? Well, Yes & No. Yes, you can eat the foods you like and still lose weight, but if you do not watch what you eat (esp. the amount of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats) you will lose mostly water and muscle along with some body fat. No you can’t eat the foods you like if you want to maximize your weight loss:
Yes, but you may want to avoid fatty foods and sugars because you can’t eat a large amount of these foods before your calories start to add up. Look at it this way if you eat just 1 regular sized candy bar you eat 300 calories, but you would have to eat 4-5 medium sized apples to eat the same amount of calories contained in 1 small snickers bar!
The healthier you eat the more food you can eat before you reach your daily calorie limit to maintain your weight. Remember as far as weight loss goes, it doesn't matter what you eat, but that doesn't give you a license to eat recklessly harming your own life. Now it’s okay to have some sweets and fatty foods here and there as long as you don’t make these staples of your daily diet. Yes, you can eat anything you want to when trying to lose weight, but NO you can’t eat anything you want to when trying to live a longer and healthier life. When it comes to losing weight it may not matter what you eat, but when it comes to living a healthy life, eating fatty foods, sugar(simple carbohydrates), and drinking alcohol (alcohol actually makes it harder for your body to burn fat) all the time do not fit into the picture of healthy living. Remember when you successfully finish a weight loss program not only do you want to look better after you lose weight (body fat) but you should also want to be healthier. What’s the point in losing 20lbs and then dropping dead from a heart attack days after!
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If you were stranded on an island and the only thing you could eat were coconuts you would gain or lose weight depending on how many coconuts you ate each day.
As long as its not the entire cake!
