What you NEED to know in order to keep the body fat off

We all need a bit if a nudge here and there or a reminder of how to keep lean and toned..... You have to understand how calories work in order for you to keep that body fat off!  ;-)

One of the reasons people keep on gaining weight is that it sneaks up on you!

If you look back at photo's of yourself from 7 or 10 years ago most will notice they have gained quite a bit of weight! But if every year you put on 2-3 kilo's you don't really notice it. Add up the 2-3 Kilos over 5 years and you have over 10 kilos of gained weight!!

For example 1 kilogram of body weight is approximately 7200 calories. Just one extra pat of butter each day (85-100 calories) will add to approximately 5 kilograms a year to your weight!

It's that little snack here and there... that one holiday where you think, "its okay I'll go to gym when I get back" and so on....

That's why it is important to understand Calories and how they work so that when you do cheat and indulge you understand what goes into burning it off and not gaining weight but maintaining or losing weight depending on your goals.

Counting Calories and increasing activity

A calorie is a unit of heat or energy, created by the body "burning up" the food we eat. This calorie is the basis for determining what our weight should be and what our diet should be.

Scientist use specific terms to indicate how many calories you need to stay alive, keep your heart pumping and your temperature normal.

We need approximately a calorie each minute,simply to keep living.

The good news is you burn calories EVEN WHEN YOU SLEEP!!! Thank God ;-)

Most men and women need from 1000-1500 calories as their base requirement...HOWEVER when you work, talk,think,walk etc you burn up additional calories and therefore need to take in more calories.

To give you an idea:

• Sitting & resting- 20 calories p/h
• Standing -25 calories p/h
• dressing -35 calories p/h
• Mental work -10 calories p/h
• Walking (easy)-100-125 calories p/h
• Light house work - 70 Calories p/h
• Strenuous exercise- 200-500 Calories per hour
• swimming -200 calories p/h

Before you go on another crash diet educate yourself on how to eat properly, track your calories and burn them off. I'm not saying you need to walk around with a calculator but have an idea in mind.

For an active women going to gym 3-4 times a week burning over 500 Calories at the gym try not eat more then 1800-2000 calories per day. If you're trying to lose weight you want to create a calorie deficit meaning you burn more calories then you eat. The easiest way it to get a heart rate monitor and calorie counter . It will calculate the calories you have burned according to your hear rate, weight, age and gender. I have a Polar watch and I'm loving it. You can also try phone/ipad apps.

 For blackberry I like the "CALORIE COUNTER BY FATSECRET and for ipad try the LIVESTRONG CALORIE TRACKER. It's a great way to keep a diary of what calories your burning and eating.

Try create a 500 calorie deficit so if you're eating 1800 calories a day you want to burn 2300 calories in total. If you burn 500 calories at the gym and eat healthy you know for sure you've managed to burn 500 more calories then you've taken in. You'll lose half a kilo a week ;-)

Here's an average 1600 calorie daily diet intake:

Breakfast:

1starch- cup of bran flakes, 250 ml fat free milk

1 fruit

1 tablespoon nuts

Snack 1:

2 fruit

1 hard boiled egg

Lunch:

1starch- slice of Low GI bread 

1 protein-chicken breast and salad with 1/4 Avocado, olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Snack 2:

Whey Protein shake or

2 table spoons of Hummus, salad/Veg

1 fruit

Dinner:

1 protein-180 gram grilled fish

1 starch-1/2 cup brown rice

Steamed/grilled veg, 5ml Olive oil

Evening snack:

1 small tub of fat free yoghurt

(Please remember to consult your doctor or dietician before making any drastic diet changes, especially if you're diabetic or have a medical condition)

Now THAT ISN'T SO BAD IS IT??!! :-))

PS. all fatty foods you can roughly give them a 8 calorie per gram estimate. So if you're eating 5 grams of butter its already 40 calories!

Keep active, at least 30 minutes of cardio a day as well as some toning or weight training and make smart food choices ;-) If you're going to indulge keep in mind you'll have to work it off at the gym so those centimeters don't sneak up on you.

XXX

K