Yesterday’s gym session was quite an adventure! I used the gym at my apartment complex and the treadmills were quite old. The decrease speed button on my particular machine was not working! While it did make me work harder, it was difficult for me to transition between walking and jogging, as I had to pause the machine and increase the speed back up from 1.5mph each time I wanted to walk or jog a little slower. One great thing: I achieved a faster 3-mile jog than ever before and burned more calories! While 36.5 minutes is no speed racer, it felt great to get closer to that 10-minute mile! I am toying with some speed variation, which helps me burn more calories, get used to jogging at faster speeds, and whip my heart into even better shape.
My determination for the week is high which gives me great hope. With 2 workouts down, I hope to get in 3-4 more as I finish out the week. My real day-to-day challenge is keeping my food and calorie intake in check. Today was good but I am still fighting the urge to eat something yummy and sweet – it’s a hard habit to break!
Tonight I am drawing my strength and serenity from a great quote that will keep my head in order:
Do not give up what you want most for what you want at the moment.
Wish me luck and I hope everyone out there is one step closer to their ultimate goal!
My determination for the week is high which gives me great hope. With 2 workouts down, I hope to get in 3-4 more as I finish out the week. My real day-to-day challenge is keeping my food and calorie intake in check. Today was good but I am still fighting the urge to eat something yummy and sweet – it’s a hard habit to break!
Tonight I am drawing my strength and serenity from a great quote that will keep my head in order:
Do not give up what you want most for what you want at the moment.
Wish me luck and I hope everyone out there is one step closer to their ultimate goal!
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What are calories really?
Today I wanted to take some time to talk about calories! Food has always been the hardest part of my journey to better health. Calories are our best friends and worst enemies. We cant live without them yet most of us are in a constant struggle to create balance. Calories are used for energy in the body – we burn calories to stay alive which means we use calories when we sleep, walk, eat, brush our teeth, exercise, and watch TV.
Viewing calories as energy will hopefully help to change your view on food. Energy is like fuel, and if we fuel our bodies right it will run with more strength and efficiency. We all know that your car needs only as much gas as will fit in the tank to run. So why is that so hard for so many of us to grasp with our own bodies? No one would continue to try and pour more gas into their tank after it is completely full, allowing excess fuel to spill out all over the car and the ground. Yet, humans consistently attempt to provide their bodies with more fuel than is necessary to survive.
A single calorie is classified as the amount of heat needed to raise 1 gram of water up by 1 degree Celsius.
So what does that mean? Our bodies need to break down and utilize calories for life. Our body’s metabolism breaks food into more manageable building blocks. These include: sugar, glycerol, fatty acids, and amino acids. Calories that the body does not use are stored as fat. This is why so many people strive to have a fast metabolism – it means that the body is faster and more efficient at breaking down calories and using them.
Different types of foods have different calorie contents. As a rule: 1 gram of carbohydrates has 4 calories, 1 gram of protein has 4 calories, and 1 gram of fat has 9 calories. While our body needs all three of these components (but more on that a different day) you can see why low fat diets are so popular – they cut calories more drastically.
3,500 calories is equal to one pound of fat in our bodies. As stated earlier, if your body cannot break down the calories you ate today into nutrients needed throughout the body, they will be stored for future use.
So, what does that mean? If you eat 250 more calories a day than your body can burn, you will gain 1 pound of fat every 2 weeks. It is more common to eat these excess calories in foods like chocolate, chips, white breads, sugar, and syrups; however, overeating on healthier foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and protein is also possible and probable for many of us.
Weight loss in maintenance is theoretically as simple as balancing calories in and calories out. If we eat more calories than we can use each day, we gain weight. If we eat fewer calories than we use each day, we lose weight.
It is EXTREMELY important to find the right balance for you. Countless nutritional and health organizations advise not to cut calories to less than 1,200 per day. A great way to start is to determine your BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate. This is a rough estimate of how many calories your body burns just living. See my sources and site recommendations to learn more about calories and BMR’s. These websites are all an estimate…. It is difficult for a computer to estimate the calories you burn without more invasive testing. These results will give you a great estimate of what your body burns just staying alive. Eating less than this number, within reason, will allow you to lose fat mass. Eating more than this number will allow you to gain muscle or fat mass.
I hope this was enlightening in even the smallest way! As always, if you have any questions, concerns, comments, or thoughts feel free to share =)
Today I wanted to take some time to talk about calories! Food has always been the hardest part of my journey to better health. Calories are our best friends and worst enemies. We cant live without them yet most of us are in a constant struggle to create balance. Calories are used for energy in the body – we burn calories to stay alive which means we use calories when we sleep, walk, eat, brush our teeth, exercise, and watch TV.
Viewing calories as energy will hopefully help to change your view on food. Energy is like fuel, and if we fuel our bodies right it will run with more strength and efficiency. We all know that your car needs only as much gas as will fit in the tank to run. So why is that so hard for so many of us to grasp with our own bodies? No one would continue to try and pour more gas into their tank after it is completely full, allowing excess fuel to spill out all over the car and the ground. Yet, humans consistently attempt to provide their bodies with more fuel than is necessary to survive.
A single calorie is classified as the amount of heat needed to raise 1 gram of water up by 1 degree Celsius.
So what does that mean? Our bodies need to break down and utilize calories for life. Our body’s metabolism breaks food into more manageable building blocks. These include: sugar, glycerol, fatty acids, and amino acids. Calories that the body does not use are stored as fat. This is why so many people strive to have a fast metabolism – it means that the body is faster and more efficient at breaking down calories and using them.
Different types of foods have different calorie contents. As a rule: 1 gram of carbohydrates has 4 calories, 1 gram of protein has 4 calories, and 1 gram of fat has 9 calories. While our body needs all three of these components (but more on that a different day) you can see why low fat diets are so popular – they cut calories more drastically.
3,500 calories is equal to one pound of fat in our bodies. As stated earlier, if your body cannot break down the calories you ate today into nutrients needed throughout the body, they will be stored for future use.
So, what does that mean? If you eat 250 more calories a day than your body can burn, you will gain 1 pound of fat every 2 weeks. It is more common to eat these excess calories in foods like chocolate, chips, white breads, sugar, and syrups; however, overeating on healthier foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and protein is also possible and probable for many of us.
Weight loss in maintenance is theoretically as simple as balancing calories in and calories out. If we eat more calories than we can use each day, we gain weight. If we eat fewer calories than we use each day, we lose weight.
It is EXTREMELY important to find the right balance for you. Countless nutritional and health organizations advise not to cut calories to less than 1,200 per day. A great way to start is to determine your BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate. This is a rough estimate of how many calories your body burns just living. See my sources and site recommendations to learn more about calories and BMR’s. These websites are all an estimate…. It is difficult for a computer to estimate the calories you burn without more invasive testing. These results will give you a great estimate of what your body burns just staying alive. Eating less than this number, within reason, will allow you to lose fat mass. Eating more than this number will allow you to gain muscle or fat mass.
I hope this was enlightening in even the smallest way! As always, if you have any questions, concerns, comments, or thoughts feel free to share =)
Sources and suggestions:
http://health.discovery.com/tools/calculators/basal/basal.html
http://www.calculator.net/bmr-calculator.html?c&cage=24&csex=m&cheightfeet=5&cheightinch=6&cpound=175&cheightmeter=180&ckg=60&cactivity=1&x=62&y=12
http://www.choosemyplate.gov/weight-management-calories/weight-management/better-choices/amount-calories.html
http://www.hussmanfitness.org/html/TFCalories.html
http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/human-biology/calorie.htm http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/DGAs2010-PolicyDocument.htmhttp://www.cod.edu/people/faculty/osulliva/phys1554/WeightMatters/calories.html
http://health.discovery.com/tools/calculators/basal/basal.html
http://www.calculator.net/bmr-calculator.html?c&cage=24&csex=m&cheightfeet=5&cheightinch=6&cpound=175&cheightmeter=180&ckg=60&cactivity=1&x=62&y=12
http://www.choosemyplate.gov/weight-management-calories/weight-management/better-choices/amount-calories.html
http://www.hussmanfitness.org/html/TFCalories.html
http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/human-biology/calorie.htm http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/DGAs2010-PolicyDocument.htmhttp://www.cod.edu/people/faculty/osulliva/phys1554/WeightMatters/calories.html
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