because you value your body

Ever since I started my freelancing, I’ve been able to use my time efficiently for important matters such as health. I’ve been attending a nearby gym to exercise daily, arranging my own food and having enough sleep every night. I rarely exercised when I was in university and because of that, I grew a balloon belly. When I started working, I became more conscious of my health. I realized that my eating pattern was important. After all, we are what we eat. And so, I started noticing the nutrition facts located in every pack of food that I buy. I did some research and found out that we should count the calories instead of carbs.

Weight loss is ONLY possible when there is a calorie deficit. I can eat simply anything that I want but unless I eat less calories, nothing will change. Knowing how much carbs or fat you’re eating doesn’t help because it doesn’t take into consideration everything you’re eating. Everything put into the body requires energy to burn, whether it be vegetables, fruit or a hamburger and fries. It all counts when you’re trying to lose weight.

Here are 2 basic things that you can do.

Calculate your daily calorie needs

The American Cancer Society has this nifty tool to calculate your daily calorie needs. Just enter your weight in pounds, gender, lifestyle activity level and you will get the number of your daily calorie needs to maintain your current weight. To lose weight, enter the desired weight and get the recommended calorie needs. Here’s a screenshot of my daily calorie needs.



Anne Collins’s Calorie Table

Congrats to Anne Collin who has made a huge collection of calorie tables divided into 8 different categories which are

Alchohol

This includes beer, cocktails, spirit, wine …

Soft Drinks

Coffee, milk, juice, coke, soda, shakes …

Eating Out

Burritos, Chinese, fast food, pizzas, sandwiches, sushi, tacos …

Snack Foods

Cakes, candies, chewing gum, chocolates, cookies, ice cream …

Meats

Beef, chicken, duck, lamb, pork, steaks, turkey, veal, venison …

Fish

Anchovies, caviar, clams, squid, salmon, tuna …

General Food

Apples, beans, bread, cereals, dairy products, vegetables, fruits …

Food Nutrients

Calories in carbs, fat and protein

Basically, just avoid refined carbohydrates and sugar. Refined sugar is sugar in processed food which is bad carbs. Sweetness from fruits is much more healthier and enjoyable. Also learn to enjoy whole foods like brown rice, wholemeal breads and wholemeal pasta. Reason is they are full of fibre and will fill you up for a lot less calories because you’ll be eating less. Drink a lot of water when eating fibre to prevent constipation.

ASC Calorie Need Calculator
Calculate your daily calorie needs.

Table of calories
Huge collection of calorie content in food.

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