At a Calorie at a Time, Losing One Pound is Profound

Highly successful people tend to be big thinkers. Your return to radiant, excellent health is the exception. It would serve you well to think small. Think small and you will get BIG results.

When we ponder the task of losing weight, we tend to think in terms of fewer pounds. But if we think even smaller, in terms of calories, fewer pounds will inevitably be the successful result.

Instead of focusing on pounds, think 3500 times smaller. Think in terms of one calorie at a time. Why? Because when we eat 3500 more calories than we expend, we gain one pound of weight. It may sound like a lot, but in reality, eating 3500 calories is frustratingly easy to do.

The news isn’t all bad. Each time we expend or metabolize 3500 calories more than what we take in, guess what? We lose one pound of weight. And that isn’t as difficult to do as you might think.

We don’t have to become mathematics wizards or even keep a running tabulation of the exact number of calories that we eat, but to completely ignore our daily intake of calories is to ignore exactly why it is that we put on weight or reduce weight.

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Why? It’s because of what calories are to our metabolic system. A calorie is the unit of measurement of energy generated by food when it is oxidized (or metabolized) in our body.

In essence, calories are the fuel that provides the energy that drives the activities that we do. Whether it’s running a marathon or merely typing these words on my computer keyboard, calories, which is to say energy, are being burned.

Every day is a matter of simple arithmetic. We either create a surplus of calories that causes us to gain weight or we create a caloric deficit that causes us to lose weight.

Sorry, but there is no getting around it. The relationship between calories and body weight is as old as humankind itself. Calories are either our friend or our enemy. And that is completely up to us via the food choices we make.

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Regardless of what you may have heard, being conscious of food choices and caloric intake needn’t be painful, bothersome or inconvenient. There is no need to deny yourself any food that you like. The key is to eat smarter.

EVERY CALORIE COUNTS

On the surface, it would appear that there are good calories and bad calories, especially when we consider the following:

• Fat contains 9 calories per gram
• Alcohol contains 7 calories per gram
• Protein contains 4 calories per gram
• Carbohydrate contains 4 calories per gram

Common sense would suggest that we limit fatty foods and alcohol since they have the most calories per gram. You’ll get no argument here.

However, to suggest that proteins and carbohydrates should be eaten equally because they both contain four calories per gram is both misleading and unhealthy. For starters, not all calories are created equal. Secondly, if we eat or drink excess calories of any kind, weight gain is assured.

For instance, while the Atkins’ Diet cultists would have us believe that calories from proteins are superior to calories from carbohydrates, it is not true. In fact, both the Canadian and American government food guides recommend daily servings of carbohydrates at almost a 3 to 1 ratio over proteins.

In some regards, the fact that carbohydrates and proteins all contain the same four calories per gram is secondary to their impact on our health.

While calories and nutrients from both carbohydrates and proteins are essential to our well being, I must remind you that calories from specific carbohydrates, as you will learn, burn and convert to energy much more efficiently than calories from proteins.

Since this metabolic process is what determines the status of our health, I respectfully submit that total caloric intake is not our only concern when it comes to managing our weight. We must be equally aware of the source of each calorie.

Yes, every single calorie matters for two reasons:

• At the end of each day, the sum total of calories (caloric intake minus caloric expenditure) determines whether we maintain our current weight, add weight or reduce weight.

• Every single calorie we eat or drink has either a beneficial or harmful impact on our health in a multitude of ways.

As an example, if you are a 200-pound (90.8-kg) man, you need 2400 calories each and every day to maintain that weight (12 calories per pound of body weight). Similarly, if you are a 110-lb (49.5-kg) woman, you need 1320 calories each and every day to maintain that weight. This assumes no caloric expenditure via exercise.

Quite simply, if a 200-pound man consumes more than 2400 calories on a daily basis, he will gain weight, as will a 110-pound woman if she consumes more than 1320 calories daily. The good news is that if the same 200-pound man consumes less than 2400 calories daily or the same woman consumes less than 1320 calories daily, both will lose weight.

For our growing senior population, losing weight can be even more problematic because not only do we tend to slow down and become less active as we age, so does our metabolism.

Since a slower metabolism burns calories less rapidly and efficiently, weight gain can occur if our appetite doesn’t decline at the same time. Have you ever wondered why we tend to pack on a few pounds after we reach the age of 40? It’s simply because our metabolism starts to slow and we become less active, yet we typically continue to eat the same volume of food as we did in our 30’s.

The two healthy ways to increase our metabolism in the face of aging or illness are as follows:

• Eat well and eat less more often. Instead of three larger meals each day, eat four or five smaller meals evenly spread throughout the day…or eat three smaller meals with healthy choice snacks in between. By making smarter snack and food choices and eating less more often, we consume digestive-friendly foods that keep our metabolism at work.

• Add MODERATE activity into our daily living, such as walking. Even mild exercise activates our metabolism, which can burn calories for a good 30 minutes even after we stop.

Now you know why every calorie counts and when it comes to losing weight, why One Pound is Profound!