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Lose Weight by Counting Calories

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If there is one thing that has helped me lose weight, it's actually paying attention to the calories that I eat. A sure fire way of losing weight is to eat less than what your body needs to burn. So, first thing you need to do is to check how much your body needs. It depends on your height, weight and the activities that you do in a day. An average female needs about 2,000 calories daily. According to this calculator, I need about 1,600 calories to maintain my current weight. Now, to lose weight, I'd need to consume less than that and burn more by exercising. (To lose one pound, a person must burn 3,500 calories more than are consumed - 500 calories per day over the course of a week).



Here's just a few tips of what I've done to slim down: ( I actually got a few things on the list from a magazine)



1. Stop drinking calories - Do you know how much calories there are on softdrinks and juices? A can of coke has 143 calories, a 12 oz Iced tea has about 105 calories, and a Mocha Frappe Venti w/o whipped cream has 380 calories! Since I needed to save those calories for food, I just drank water or if Im really craving for something sweet, I'd drink Coke Light. My friends do enjoy hanging out in Starbucks and it's not as if I want to kill my social life and deprive myself of coffee entirely so I'd compromise and allow myself a tall cup of Mocha Frappe Light which only has 105 calories or better yet, I just get a grande sized hot green tea with honey.



2. Cut back elsewhere when you overeat - Once in a while when I eat out in a fastfood and had a big lunch, or just when I know I've eaten something that is very high in calorie, I'd make up for it by having a small dinner or exercising for some extra minutes to make up for the calories.

3. Make exercise work for you - At home, our threadmill is in front of the tv so that we can exercise while watching and not think about how long we've been walking on it. I also have my rubber mat, dumbbells, and stability ball in front of the tv so I can exercise while watching Gossip girl or the latest Korean drama. Haha. I don't sit in our sofa anymore, I'd usually sit in my stability ball and do crunches during commerical breaks or do hip circles while watching.

4. Find a diet buddy - I was able to motivate one of my friends to lose weight and together we'd talk about diet tips. I also found out one friend of mine who is into marathons. I asked if I can go with her and she had me join their organization. We had planned to join a marathon this coming weekend and I also asked her if I can join her when she jogs aroung the UP Oval. I can't wait for the marathon! One thing more, my brothers have also lost weight through diet and exercise and now, both of them are into muay thai, I plan to try it one of these weekends as well. :) It should be really cool!

5. Eat anything - but in moderation - I do indulge myself with my favorite foods once in a while - I can't possible give up on dark chocolates, blueberry cheesecake, vanilla ice cream, chocolate chip cookies, and other junk foods! Having three bites of cheesecake won't hurt but eating a whole cake will! So what I do is portion control. I allow myself to enjoy but I do set limits as to how much I eat. As they say..Everthing in moderation!

6. Look at the serving size - The Nutrition Facts panel has the serving size and the number of servings per package. Make sure that you are comparing what you eat to what the serving size is. A large bag of chips usually has about 3 servings or a cup per serving. So if you eat a whole bag, then you'd need to multiply the calories to 3. What I do to prevent overeating is to get the smallest size bag that they have available or share the whole bag to all my friends.

7. Never starve yourself - I don't let myself go hungry. This just puts the body in starvation mode and lowers the metabolism therefore making it harder to lose weight. I usually just have 2 - 3 meals and a light snack in between, at 2-3 hour intervals. Snacking on a small pack of happy nuts or other 100 calorie packs help me stave off hunger in between meals.

8. Write down what you eat - My nutritionist before asked me to write down everything that I ate in a day and then at the end of the week, she'd check it to see if I was able to stay on my needed calorie intake. This is a great way of seeing exactly what, where, and when I've eaten and helps me to balance my food intake.

I found some sites which has calorie information and nutrition data of everyday foods as well as popular fast food menus.

Check out this out!
http://www.calorieking.com/
http://www.thecaloriecounter.com/

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