If youre confused about the calories to need to cut out of your diet to lose weight, then read on. But first lets get our concepts right.

What is a calorie?

It is a measure or unit of energy. If you say that a food contain 100 calories, this means that if the food is completely metabolized or burnt in the human body, 100 non-metric units or 420 metric units of energy will be released for use by the body.

The body can use this energy for physical activity and for keeping the basic metabolic processes (digestion, breathing etc.) running. Your body may use the calories in the food to do daily work or just to provide energy for your body processes while you are sleeping.

If you take in more energy in the form of calories than your body requires, that energy will be stored in the form of fat. If you take in less energy than your body requires, it will have to get some energy out of its storage depots and break down some fat to obtain the required energy, thus causing weight loss.

How many calories should I eat if I want to slim down?

Generally speaking, we need to reduce energy intake by 500 cal to lose between 0.5 and 1 kg per week a rate that will help to keep the weight you lose from being regained.

An average, moderately active woman between the age of 18 and 50 needs 2,200 cal a day to maintain her weight. To lose weight, she needs to reduce her energy intake by 500 cal down to 1700 cal a day.

An average, moderately active man between the age of 18 and 50 needs, 2900 cal to maintain his body weight. To reduce weight, an average man would have to reduce his energy intake by 500 cal down to 2400 calories a day.

Is food x fattening?

Many of us wonder about specific foods or beverages and whether they are fattening or not. The answer is: all foods and drinks are potentially fattening if consumed in excess.

This means that even if you eat what many regard as good or healthy foods (e.g. Yoghurt, fruits, vegetables, vegetarian dishes etc.) and you eat so much that you push up your energy intake beyond your daily requirement, these good and healthy foods will still make you gain weight.

The fact that a food or beverage has excellent nutritional properties does not mean it does not have the potential to make you fat if you overdo the intake.

Conversely, many foods that have very high energy content, such as olive oil, are so nutritious that its a good idea to include them in your diet, but in moderate quantities.

What are negative energy foods?

The concept of negative energy foods and drinks is also cause for much confusion this theory is based on the fact that we use up some energy to digest foods and drink.

Some foods have such a low energy content that we theoretically use up more energy than they contain to digest them. Thus, one can regard these foods as negative energy foods. Examples include lettuce, celery, tomatoes, cucumber, lemon juice, grapefruit, strawberries and other berries, cabbage, sugarless chewing gum and artificially-sweetened beverages.

The problem is that people think that they can eat only these foods when they are trying to lose weight. No one can live on lettuce and tomatoes for days on end. This is a totally unbalanced diet and will result in variety of negative effects, including deficiencies, constipation, lack of energy, faintness and shakiness.

The ironic thing is that if you try and lose weight by ingesting negative energy foods and artificially-sweetened drinks on their own, your body many react to this starvation regimen by shutting off its weight loss systems and you may stop losing weight altogether.

Negative energy foods are excellent fillers when you are on a slimming diet. For example, having a large salad made up of these foods with cottage cheese and whole wheat bread will make a filling, low-fat, low-energy meal that will keep you satisfied for longer.

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