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How Many Calories Should I Eat
By Alan Leach
Most of us worry about our weight now and again. It is often difficult to know how many calories we should eat to keep the weight down as there are so many factors involved. Here we look at some ways you should use to work out how many calories we should eat.
There are many specialist tools online that will be able to tell you how many calories you should eat. They take basic information such as your age, job, and present weight and height to calculate your perfect with and the number of calories you should eat.
Nevertheless, there are many other ways to work out how many calories you should eat. For example, if you are consistently putting on weight, we can assume you are eating too many calories. Unfortunately, it might not be this simple. The difficult part is working out how much of the weight gain is due to too many calories and how much may be due to other factors, such as too little exercise.
Therefore, it you really want to know how many calories you should eat, you need to approach the whole task in a serious way. You should begin by keeping a food and an exercise diary. Write down everything that you eat and drink and make notes of when and how much exercise you are doing. To make the calorie count more accurate, try to ensure you are doing a consistent amount of exercise each week, as we want to reduce the variable involved.
Also keep a record of your weight, on a weekly basis. Don't worry about weighing yourself everyday, that path may lead to obsession which is never healthy. As long as all the other variable such as exercise are constant, you will now be able to see that if you are still gaining weight, you are taking in too many calories.
If this is the case, it is time to work out how to reduce the calories you are taking in, which is why a food diary is so useful. Go back over the previous two weeks and calculate the calorie intake on a daily basis. While this is time consuming at first, after a while you will know instantly how many calories are in a banana or a glass of wine. Do not be tempted to cheat by writing down a lower figure than you know you actually did consume as in the end you are only cheating yourself.
Now you see how many calories you eat and also find areas you ahould reduce. You should look to get rid of fatty, salty or sugary foods first. They will be the ones that have the most calories and that are doing you most harm. Also keep an eye on your alcohol intake, as wines and beers are high in calories. It mioght even be the case that by simply reducing your alcohol intake you are able to lose the calories.
Do the same thing every week. With a food, exercise and weight diary, you have an accurate record of the important elements of weight control and you are therefore in a position to do something about it.
By using a BMI (body mass index) you can work out what is the perfect weight for you. Then, by using the tools we have already discussed (weigh, food and exercise diary) you can aim for this recommend weight. Once there, all that is necessary is to maintain this weight, thus you have worked out how many calories you should eat. While working out how many calories you should eat is not so simple, in the end it is worthwhile as you should be able to eat and exercise your way to good health.
See Also:
More info on how many calories I should eat
Plan your daily calorie intake
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