Freelance Writing Jobs | Today's Articles | sign in

Count Calories to Lose Weight

Calorie Intake and Weight Loss

Sep 18, 2009 Robin McDaniel

You can experience weight loss and fat loss by counting calories. Calorie reduction can help you to lose weight and keep it off.

Most people consume more calories than they need on a daily basis, and may experience significant weight gain over a period of years. Recommendations for calorie intake are set forth by the USDA by age and activity level. Men who are 19-30 should be consuming around 2,600 to 3,000 calories for activity levels sedentary to active respectively. Women should be taking in 2, 000 to 2,400 following the same guidelines. Anywhere above and below this age group, reduce calorie intake by about 200 or so for every decade. To lose weight by counting calories, keep a calorie diet diary so you are aware of caloric consumption.

Calorie Sources

Calories that come from fat, protein and carbohydrates do not matter significantly in the weight loss battle. The key is to stay within or below your recommended caloric diet range. Fat has 9 calories per gram, and carbohydrates and protein both have 4 calories per gram, so be sure to count these towards daily intake. Foods that say they are fat free may be high in calories and contribute to fat stores. A pound of fat is 3,500 calories, so if you take in an extra 500 calories per day you will gain one pound of fat per week. To lose weight and burn fat fast, reduce calorie consumption by 500 or more calories per day.

Exercise

When on a calorie restriction diet, perform exercise daily to burn calories and lose weight. The USDA defines sedentary as daily activity like light housecleaning or watching television, moderate activity as walking 1.5 to 3 miles daily as well as daily activities, and active as 3 or more miles per day, including daily activities. Try to do 30 or more minutes daily of activities that increase your heart rate to help you burn calories in order to lose weight. Whether you want to lose belly fat or overall weight, exercise is an important tool in the weight loss battle.

Read Nutrition Labels

Labels on many foods can be very misleading regarding calorie content. When you are on a diet and counting calories to lose weight healthily, you have to become very aware of the hidden calories in many processed foods. A product might claim to have a low calorie count, but when you look more closely, you might notice that the serving size is often more than one serving, and sometimes up to four or five servings. In order to get an accurate calorie count, you need to multiply the number of servings by the calories per serving. You might be surprised at the number of calorie there are in many foods.

The copyright of the article Count Calories to Lose Weight in Weight Loss is owned by Robin McDaniel. Permission to republish Count Calories to Lose Weight in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Calories Count