Day 2

Day 2 : Calorie Counting, Friend or Foe?

Today is a rainy day in Montreal even though it is la St-Jean, a very much celebrated holiday. My plans to hit the gym or stock up on greens was busted so I spend the day playing with my dog, cleaning and researching a good topic to post on today. I chose to post about calorie counting. 

1. What are calories? How many should I be eating

Calories are the measure unit of energy. To break it down very very simply, your body needs energy. This energy comes from food. You eat the food, transform it into energy and you spend the latter afterwards.

Different foods have different calories in them. In one cup of strawberries, there are about 57 Cal. A Big Mac sandwich contains 540 Cal. How do you read this? I will take in more energy from the Big Mac Sandwich than from the cup of strawberries.

The next step to understanding calories is to know how much you should be eating. In a Shape Magazine article, they give you a formula to find out how many calories you should consume. The link will be below.

2. Why should you count them?

Depending on your lifestyle, you might be eating too much OR too little calories. Eating too many calories everyday results in weight gain and vice-verse when eating too little. Depending on your goal, you can adjust your calorie intake to reach them.

Another good thing about calorie counting is that it raises awareness of what you are eating. To touch on the strawberries vs Big Mac battle from earlier, what you can also read is that you need to eat almost 10 cups of strawberries to get the same amount of calories from them.

3. Why you shouldn't counth them?

It is sometimes quite impossible to count calories and not always convenient. At a restaurant, you dont always know what type of oil is used, how much, you cant eyes ball properly the quantity of potatoes in front and just don't know the full list of ingredients.

Another reason not to count calories to that once you start, you can become quite obsess with it. During 2011 weight loss, all I did was calorie count. I would skip a meal if I had eating too much earlier in the day or I would eat a bit more not to have to low calories.

Lastly, calorie counting is just that. Calories. It doesn't tell you how much protein, carbs or fats you took in. So yeah, those  cups of strawberries might make you fuller, but they don't provide you the protein that comes from the Big Mac. You see the issue.

4. My 2 cents

I decided to calorie count for the 100 days of healthy. The reason behind this is to help realize what food in my plate translates into when it comes to my body. I will not obssess over it. Eating once over your calories just mean you have more energy to spend :)

To do my calorie counting, I chose the food diary app "My Fitness Pal". On top of calories, it gives hints when it comes to protein, sodium and fat content of the food you are eating. You can also change the settings to fit your diet needs.

That's a wrap for today!

Russy

Links :

Shape Magazine : http://www.shape.com/weight-loss/weight-loss-strategies/ask-diet-doctor-how-many-calories-should-i-eat-lose-weight
My Fitness Pal : http://www.myfitnesspal.com