Numerous factors are involved in healthy eating—making diet plans, choosing the best collagen protein powder, and commitment to your diet. Does calorie counting work?
So many diets and nutrition programs promise an ideal body weight in a short amount of time. However, there’s no one size fits all solution to perfect body and health. Each person is unique. Therefore, what works for many may not necessarily work for you, and vice versa.
Calorie counting is a widely known manner to attain weight loss. Many people are curious whether it does help in shedding some pounds. Is it really effective? Let’s find out.
Defining Calorie – What Is It Really?
A calorie measures the amount of energy in the foods and drinks that we consume. It also quantifies the amount of energy that the body requires to perform certain physical activities, including the following:
- Exercise
- Breathing
- Digestion
- Thinking
- Working
- Performing daily tasks
- Maintaining the various systems of the body
A thousand calories are known as kilocalories (kcal). For example, one regular-sized carrot when consumed provides a person with 25,000 calories. That is equivalent to 25 kcal. In contrast, an athlete who runs on a treadmill at a moderate speed for 15 minutes would spend approximately 150,000 calories or 150 kcal.
But saying, “Hey, I just spent 150 kilocalories to exercise this morning” would sound almost awkward. That said, most people use the term just “calories” instead.
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Does Calorie Counting Work for Weight Loss?
Calorie counting has proven effective in losing weight. However, it's just the tip of the iceberg. Self-monitoring of your food intake and calorie counting work successfully when it comes to weight loss. Further, it is even better when exercise is included in your lifestyle.
A study reported that programs for losing weight, which incorporate calorie counting, enabled participants to lose at least 7 lbs or 3.3kg more than people who didn't. On top of that, the more consistent people keep track, the better the results.
The said study showed people who consistently monitored and recorded everything they consumed for more than two months lost twice as much weight than those who observed less frequently. More importantly, people who didn't monitor anything mostly gained weight. That says a lot, don’t you think?
Tracking your calories as accurately as possible can help identify which eating patterns you need to correct or modify to lose weight effectively. When you track what you eat, it informs you of the nearest baseline to work with. It allows you to compare and adjust when you're trying to reduce your total calories consumed per day.
Finally, the most critical aspect is keeping track of your food intake to monitor your eating behavior. This holds you accountable for your daily food choices. Thus, it can help motivate you further to continue progressing onwards.
Not All Calories Are The Same!
Counting calories is not a piece of cake. We can gain calories from protein, fats, carbohydrates, and even artificial food and artificial flavorings. In terms of pure weight loss, 100 pounds of muscle is different from 100 pounds of fat. There is a huge difference there.
Also, eating 200 calories from an apple is not the same as eating 200 calories of sweet donuts. It means 200 calories from apples can satiate your hunger and give you needed vitamins and minerals, while 200 calories from donuts will not. Those sweet donuts can even increase your sugar level and grow body fat.
Different kinds of food have different effects on your body. Therefore it is essential to choose the right types of food. What truly matters is your ability to make a diet plan that works personally and maintain the energy deficit required to lose weight.
Counting calories is merely a tool or a benchmark to help you make better food choices. Proper exercise is still a significant contributor to losing weight and keeping the body healthy. Exercise burns calories and helps keep you healthy and strong.
Steps to Make Calorie Counting Easy
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Honor yourself and your health
How you feel, how you think, how your food tastes, and what food you choose to take will need to work in unity. Therefore, avoid eating food that makes you feel lousy long-term just because they taste good right now or experts say it is healthy. Choose what works best for you. If you remain consistent, you will enjoy more food than your body needs. You will also realize why you need to break away from junk food and other types of food that can hurt you.
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Consider a positive lifestyle change
Consider eating every few hours in small portions and being vigilant with how your body reacts to the food you eat. When a lifestyle change is something you enjoy, something you readily accept and want to do, then it is simpler to make it work long-term.
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Consume fewer calories than you burn
The best method to successfully lose weight is to consume fewer calories than you burn. It is this simple and clear. Many people can lose weight without actually counting calories. On the other hand, many people find that counting calories can help them a great deal in consciously creating and maintaining the needed calorie deficit. Remember, choose well and choose the best sources of calories whenever possible.
How Can You Continue Healthy Eating?
Make sure to build your chosen menu around nutrient-rich and minimally processed types of food. Avoid basing your food choices on mere calories. Therefore, eat mostly whole and unprocessed food daily. Consider taking the best collagen protein powder as well.
In other words, your food choices should compose of the following:
- Fresh produce
- Whole grains
- Protein-rich food
As a result, whole food in your diet will guarantee that you get a diverse variety of nutrients like protein, fiber, and antioxidants. Experts report that consuming a diet full of whole food lengthens life and lowers the risk of various chronic conditions.
Consider taking well-formulated multivitamins and minerals because they are critical. Absorb as many nutrients as possible from your diet. Consuming a wide array of nutritious food will provide a diverse structure of nutrients such as high-quality superfood like Collagen Bone Broth Protein Powder to fill in the gaps. The best collagen protein powder can offer the nutrition and energy you need to nourish yourself.
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Warrior Strong Wellness
Warrior Strong Wellness provides innovative and high quality transformational supplements and raises awareness and funds to fight childhood cancer by giving a portion of our proceeds to childhood cancer research. In our weekly blogs, we share wisdom about wellness and living a Warrior Strong lifestyle.