Home Cooking Will Reduce Your Calorie Intake

 New research on healthy eating has found that home cooking is better than restaurant fare, and that kids who are offered more nutritious food in school cafeterias rarely eat it.

In the study on meals, researchers found that people who eat the most home-cooked ones end up eating healthier and consuming about 130 fewer calories daily, on average, compared to other people.

When people cook most of their meals at home, they consume fewer carbohydrates, less sugar and less fat than those who cook less, or not at all — even if they are not trying to lose weight. Researchers found that those who cooked dinner six to seven times a week ate an average of 2,164 calories daily, while those who ate out the most, cooking dinner no more than once a week, consumed an average of 2,301 calories per day. That might not sound like much, but multipled times 7 si over 900 calories saved in a week.

The study, based on an analysis of national survey data from 2007-2010, will be published online in the journal “Public Health Nutrition”.

Obesity is an escalating public health problem that contributes to other serious health issues, including diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. The evidence shows people who cook at home eat a healthier diet. Moving forward, it’s important to educate the public about the benefits of cooking at home, identify strategies that encourage and enable more cooking at home, and help everyone, regardless of how much they cook, make healthier choices when eating out.

Remember when eating out, restaurants make food that taste good, which doesn’t mean it’s good for you. The best change for the consumer, that has recently happened, is the calories will now have to be listed on menus starting next year in all the restaurant chain of more than fifteen locations.

In the other study, the researchers, also from the Bloomberg School, reported that most kids put vegetables on their school lunch trays, but only one in four actually eats any. We have been thinking that if young children choose healthy food, they will eat it. But our research shows that is not necessarily so. I’m not surprised, I have 4 grandchildren and little kids don’t eat vegetables. When they’re in a highchair they don’t know any better, but by the time they’re three my grandkids won’t eat anything green.

The findings are based on an analysis of 274 New York City kids in grades K-2 who were observed by researchers during a single lunch period.

Almost 60 percent chose vegetables, but only 24 percent actually ate them. Meanwhile, kids were more likely to finish their food if their teacher ate with them, and distractions appeared to make a difference in consumption of healthy food.

As much as we are focused on menus in the school lunch program, we need to look more at our cafeteria environments, especially with our youngest children. We can give kids the healthiest food possible, but if they don’t have time to eat it or they are distracted by how noisy the cafeteria is, they’re not going to eat.

Personally, I believe it’s not only the food choices that need to change in the school cafeterias, it’s food preparation and the menu items. There’s a hundred ways to prepare corn. Just because the kids aren’t eating the corn doesn’t mean they don’t like corn. It just means they don’t like the way they made the dish with corn.

Nutrition is very important to our health. Students don't know enough about making healthy choices and "why should they". Most of our health problems stem from the food we eat. Or maybe I should rephrase that. Most of our health problem stem from not eating the right foods. Real food will give you the nutrition you need if your buying fresh foods. Manufactured foods usually stripe out the nutrition in the processing and then have to add back chemical nutrients to supplement their product. Sounds ok, right? Not really artificial nutrients won't be absorbed the same way as the nutrients in fresh produce. You can buy fresh produce in the open bins at your grocery store. But you have to eat them everyday because your body uses them everyday. 

We eat out a lot today, everyone does. The problem comes from the fact that in restaurants we order the food we like to eat, rather than the food we should eat. Eating healthy foods is the key to a healthy life.

My book will give you a lot of tips on diet, exercise, and how to stay healthy. 

Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want to Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.

If you really want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want to Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores s

elling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

The Problem With Cheat Days

I just finished a sugar detox, no foods with added sugar for 10 days and I found it was tougher than I thought but only the first two days, and after that no problem. Many of us try to fit a cheat day in the schedule somewhere. They want to do a detox but they feel they should have a cheat day. There’s a problem with that and you should read the following to learn about the problem with “cheat days”.

The Problem with Cheat Days

You’ve committed to eating healthy. You want to look and feel great, and you’ve stuck to your diet for an entire week. You feel good about how you’ve done and think you deserve a gold star… or that cupcake that’s calling your name (especially the one with the extra layer of frosting on top). Maybe you even think you deserve a day off—a designated “cheat day.”

But are “cheat days” a good idea? Do these special days of indulgence help you reach your health goals? Or do they set you up on a seesaw of destructive eating habits?

The Argument for Cheat Days: Rewarding Yourself

Some say that giving yourself days of indulgence is giving yourself a needed break from your diet. These cheat days are a relief valve that helps you stick to healthier foods.

The philosophy behind this basically goes something like this: Healthy eating requires some willpower—willpower you’ve used to keep yourself from forbidden foods—so to reward your constraint, it helps to have one scheduled day (or meal) per week where you’re allowed to eat some of the treats you’ve been avoiding. When you give yourself a window to enjoy these off-limit foods, it’ll satisfy your cravings, replenish your depleted willpower, and, some studies suggest, even increase your production of the hunger-dampening hormone leptin while boosting metabolism.

The Argument Against Cheat Days

So cheat days sound like a good thing, right? Not so fast. The logic behind these days has more than a few flaws, and it’s due to the psychology and physiology behind them.

The Name Is to Blame

The trouble with cheat days starts with the wording.

“The very phrase ‘cheat day’ sets up enjoying a meal as something forbidden,” says Sondra Kronberg, R.D., executive director of the Eating Disorder Treatment Collaborative. “Separating foods into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ categories encourages you to associate eating with guilt and shame.” This means that instead of enjoying everything we eat, we feel bad about ourselves when we eat something we consider “bad.”

What’s more, when we deem certain foods “bad” or “cheating,” the negative name doesn’t help us pump the breaks.

“When a food is off-limits, it can develop a specific, emotional charge,” explains Melanie Rogers, RD, a nutritionist, and eating disorder specialist. “You begin obsessing over it, fantasizing about it, and looking forward to that ‘indulge day’ all week. Then, when you finally have access to it, you overeat.”

On the flip side, labeling foods as “good” or “healthy” can also backfire. Science shows when we think something is healthy, we’re not concerned with portion control and thus overdo it—whether it’s a “normal” day or a “cheat” day. Yes, there can be too much of a good thing.

Along these same lines, thinking of a meal or snack as “healthy” can have a surprising effect on our hunger. Studies show merely considering items we put in our mouth as “healthy” can literally make us feel hungrier—especially if we select a “good-for-you” item out of obligation over something we’re truly hungry for.

Attack of the Calories

Folks who assume they can compensate for giving in to temptations—say, by holding themselves back on all days except their cheat days—are actually less likely to reach their dietary goals. This is because they’re more likely to consume a more significant number of calories, not just on their cheat day but on the days following it.

Restricting ourselves throughout the week and then slamming our bodies with sugar and fat once our cheat day rolls around, can have “a massive impact on blood sugar and insulin levels,” Rogers says. “You’ll wake up the next day craving more sugars and simple carbs, and you’ll find yourself feeling pretty ragged. And if you repeatedly increase your caloric intake above baseline, you may inadvertently end up gaining more weight over time.”

Cravings serve as a sign that your nutritional approach isn’t sound. “Most cravings come from overly restricting your food intake, using food as a drug, or over-exercising,” Kronberg says.

Bingeing Leads to Extra Cheat Days

There’s a very fine line between a cheat day and a free-fall into food bingeing, especially if you’re, “white-knuckling it during those other six days of sticking out a meal plan you don’t particularly like,” says Ryan Andrews, R.D., author of Drop The Fat Act and Live Lean and coach with Precision Nutrition. Once that day of indulgence comes, it’s not about enjoying the foods you haven’t had all week. Instead, you’re approaching it out of a need to consume all you can before the day goes away. “It feeds into a feast-and-famine cycle,” Andrews says.

We can thank our biology for cheat days turning into these all-out food fests. We’re wired to chase down food when we’re caught in the feast-and-famine cycle. “People will eat beyond satiety when they’re coming from a fear of scarcity,” Rogers explains.

Bingeing on a cheat day also makes it challenging to confine cheat-day foods only to that designated 24-hour window. “It’s very hard for people to compartmentalize their diets,” Rogers says. “‘I’m only going to have those cookies on Saturday’ can easily spill over into ‘I’ll only have a few cookies Sunday too.’”

The Solution: Stop Restricting, Start Enjoying—in Moderation

So if cheat days don’t work, are we all better off eating whatever we want, whenever we want?

Well, not quite, says Corby K. Martin, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and food intake researcher at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. “Following a healthy diet means including a number of foods—all of which are consumed in moderation,” he says. “If weight loss is the goal, this usually means three square meals a day with planned snacks, incorporating treats but in smaller portion sizes.”

Research suggests eating a balance of foods—with none of them off-limits or labeled “bad”—is the best way to reduce the kinds of cravings that can lead to a binge.

During the first week of a new diet, most people experience an increase in cravings for coveted foods, but when people stick to a balanced weight loss diet, the tendency to occasionally overeat actually goes down over time, Martin says.

So what does a game plan for healthy eating with no cheat days look like? Remember these three things:

1. Listen to your appetite.
“If you want to eat spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, have it!” Andrews says. “Don’t find the low-carb version with the fat-free sauce. If you actually eat what you want, you’ll likely end up eating a more reasonable amount of it.” Eating in tune with your hunger is a principle of intuitive eating, and it’s shown to have a positive effect on both your weight and your well-being.

2. Enjoy treats from time to time.
Research shows (and experts agree) that sprinkling reasonably sized desserts or treats into your daily diet encourages you to find pleasure in meal time again—and that pleasure will help ensure you don’t feel the need to go overboard.

So instead of confining your treats to one single day, drop them into places throughout the week. For example, enjoy: “a cookie or a few pieces of chocolate after dinner on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays,” Rogers says.

3. Savor every bite.
Once you place any item of food into your mouth, take a moment to: “taste, smell, and experience it as a whole,” Rogers says. “When you take the time to be mindful about what you’re eating, you tap into your satiety cues.”

The Takeaway

Forget about designating a cheat day to reward yourself. Denying yourself most of the week and then indulging like crazy on your one day “off,” just promotes bingeing, anxiety, and shame around eating, —which means you won’t likely get the health outcome you’re looking for. Instead, make every day a great day by listening to your appetite, periodically adding in some of your favorite foods in small portions, and savoring each and every bite of everything you eat. This sustainable approach will help you think of all of your eating as enjoyable, and that’s what gets you down the road to where you want to be.

Using this type of sensible diet instead of a restrictive diet is the best way to go. How even this doesn’t mean you should continue eating the same foods you’ve been used to. This is where I think you should consider the Mediterranean diet. The foods and the diet of the Mediterranean people have astonished science for decades. These people have far fewer health problems than the rest of the Western world. For one thing, they eat less animal protein, which means less animal fat. They eat almost no red meat. You can find information on the Mediterranean diet on this blog, in some of my posts, and on the diet page.

Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.

If you want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. 

Look for my book. at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

More Frequent Meals Can Lead To A slimmer you

 This article in Reuters will verify the same things I’ve talked about for years now. The more calories you eat at a meal, the more of your food will turn into fat. We can only process so much food at a time and the rest will just get stored as fat. That’s how we gain weight.

Reuters Health – Adults who had multiple small meals every day tended to eat better, and weight less, than those who had fewer but larger meals, in a recent study.

People eating fewer meals tended to eat the most at night, and to drink alcohol with meals, both of which might contribute to their higher body mass index (BMI), a measure of weight relative to height, the researchers said.

“The major hypothesis that can be taken away from this study is interesting but not so mind-blowing – eating more frequently throughout the day leads to a greater intake of healthier, lower calorically-dense foods, which in turn leads to a lower overall caloric intake and BMI,” said Elena Tovar, a clinical dietitian at Montefiore Medical Center in New York who wasn’t involved in the study.

“This just makes sense – eating more often staves off hunger so that we don’t end up eating whatever we can get our hands on later on, thereby making it more likely that the foods we eat are healthier,” Tovar told Reuters Health in an email.

Researchers in the UK, at Imperial College London, and in the U.S., at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, analyzed data from 2,385 adults from a study conducted between 1996 and 1999.

They found that participants who reported eating less than four times during a 24-hour period had an average BMI of 29.0 and consumed an average of 2,472 calories.

A BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 is considered normal weight and BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight. A BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese.

Participants who ate six times or more over 24 hours had an average BMI of 27.3 and consumed an average of 2,129 calories.

People who ate more often tended to consume foods that were lower in calories and higher in nutritional value, such as vegetables, the researchers found.

Meanwhile, people who ate less than four meals tended to consume more calories in the evening, and to have alcohol in the evening. This pattern is consistent with meals eaten at restaurants, where food tends to be rich or fried and it’s harder to get fresh, healthy foods, the authors note.

“Our findings demonstrated that lower BMI levels in more frequent eaters are associated with consumption of lower dietary energy density and higher nutrient quality foods,” the authors write in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

“Modifying eating behavior through more frequent meals of low dietary energy density and high nutrient quality may be an important approach to control epidemic obesity,” they note.

They also acknowledge limitations to the study, including the fact that it doesn’t prove that timing or frequency of eating caused the differences in BMI.

“Although this relationship requires further testing, it seems to support the idea that eating large meals later in the day may not be doing our waistlines any favors,” Tovar said.

Tovar highlighted the study authors’ speculation that the apparent effect of meal timing might be related to an increase in insulin sensitivity later in the day.

“I would be curious to see more research on this topic in particular, especially because so many people these days are being told by practitioners not to eat after certain times at night without there being much science to back up these arbitrary requests,” she said.

Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want to Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.

If you really want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want to Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

The Reasons To Lose Weight

We lose weight for a variety of reasons. The obvious one is that you want to lose weight, but the actual reason should be to become healthier. Most people want to lose weight to look better. It's all about the image. That's not always going to happen no matter how much you lose. You can't always turn your body into a slim, fit person. But you can lose body fat and that will improve your looks, and your health.

Your doctor wants you to lose weight to become healthier, but it's been proven that the only way you will make a valent effort is if you don't like your appearance. Most of us carry around excess fat. Excess body fat is the bodies enemy. But what is the definition of excess fat. How much is too much? 

Science has defined that very thing. Now we finally know how much is too much. Research shows that even an underweight person can have too much body fat. There is a formula that is pretty actuate. There is a chart online that will tell you how much your bones should weigh. You subtract that weight from your weight.  Then add 5 or 6 pounds for organ tissue, blood and food and beverages you have consumed or use the link below to calculate your skeletal weight and get your BMI (Body Mass Index).

https://knowhowcommunity.org/how-much-does-a-human-skeleton-weigh/

In my case, I subtracted everything, and I come up with 130 pounds. If I have more then 25 % body fat, I have too much fat. You might ask, how can I estimate my percentage of fat? Easy, you don't have to. I used a website called Perfectbody.me, you simply log on. It doesn't cost anything, and you don't enter any personal information like your name. You answer some questions and it tell you what your percentage of body fat is. This isn't perfect but it's close.

My BMI (or percentage of fat) was 21.68% of my 130 pounds. That good, you need to be less that 25%.

It's almost impossible to get a perfect body, but you can get a healthy body. You will feel better and look better.

Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want to Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.

If you really want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want to Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

About White Flour And White Sugar

 My last post was about quiting sugar and I received emails and comments that totally agreed with me. So today I want to add a few more words about refined sugar and refined flour.

Actually both white sugar and white flour have been processed to the point where most all the nutrients have been stripped away. When this had become common knowledge the manufacturers changed their product to an enriched white flour by adding chemicals to substitute for the nutrition the product was missing.

The changes were made several years ago before we now know that chemicals in food not only don’t totally get absorbed into the body but can actually be harmful to the body. Not everyone has the same ability to fight off the affects of chemicals in the body.

White sugar in the body isn’t real sugar from sugar cane. Sugar cane or sugar from sugar cane isn’t white it’s more brown in color. In the process of making granulated white sugar the crystals have to be bleached white so whatever nutrients were in the plant have been stripped out so it’s still sweet to the taste but now science thinks that the chemicals used to bleach rawl sugar might be causing a chemical addiction to white sugar. The reason for manufacturing white sugar started because bakers couldn’t use the granulated brown crystals for commerical baking. The same reason for flour. The original flour used for centuries, was too coarse for commerical bakeries, it took too much time for bakers to grind the coarse flour into a fine powder, so something easier to use was created and because it was cheap to make it could be sold on the retail market besides.

Science has proof that when you quit using white sugar which means you have to stop eating any food that contain sugar or sugar substitues that most people will see an improvement in their health.

White flour may or may not be a hazard to your health but is probably the major cause for obesity. All manufacturered products from pasta to bread, cake, cookies, pretzels, you name it, it contains some white flour. You might thing that because you buy rye bread or some other brown bread that it has no white flour but in this country commerical bakeries use some white flour in everything they make. When you read the labels you might see a few different flours in the package of pancake mix or loaf of bread but somewhere on the label it will say wheat flour or bleached wheat flour. Wheat flour is even in your breakfast cereal.

Many diets today want you to avoid all processed foods because of the white sugar, food additives, wheat flour, and other chemicals that can be in processed foods. The weight problem that all humans have today, I believe, can be contributed to manufactured or processed foods. A lot of restaurant food you're eating is processed food created in factories because it cheaper to create the food in large amounts and then ship to stores and restaurants the amount they need. This also helps to keep prices lower to increase the volume.

I’m not saying that you can’t find healthy food because you can. In some parts of the country and the world you can still find the butcher who will cut your meat in front of you, meat that has never been frozen an was delivered to his shop just a few hours before. A good butcher shop will receive fresh meat every day. A busy produce market will get fresh produce every day. Produce that was never refrigerated or frozen. It come straight from the farm.

To sum up this post, I just want to say that cancer is something we put in our body when we eat something the body can’t deal with. The problem with chemicals in the body is that the body stores the chemical because it can’t process it and we eat more every day, and the body keeps storing it and the storage area keeps growing because chemicals in the body will never dissolve or dissipate. Remember that last sentence if nothing else.

You increase your body fat when your body stores the fat you are eating. The body only process a small amount of food at one time. If it can't process the excess food, it will store it as fat. In simple terms that for your body gains weight. If you do the opposite, consume less calories than the body needs, the body burn stored body fat to create the extra energy you need.

Sounds simple, right? It is simple but most people over think, and they don't understand how to lose weight. Eat simple foods that are all natural, with no preservatives or additives.

Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want to Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.

If you really want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want to Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Losing Weight Might Be Easier Than You Think

 If you want to know how to lose weight, there is no need to go searching the internet for diets fads and trendy weight loss programs. The truth is that all successful weight loss plans use essentially the same method. Of course, each diet guru and celebrity trainer put a creative spin on it – which is why you see so many books and programs on the market. But the bottom line is that weight loss is determined by energy balance. And if you can change your energy balance you can lose weight. If you understand how the body will burn your body fat, you will slim down. 

How to Lose Weight with Energy Balance
Experts in the medical field, registered dietitians and health coaches agree that there is one way to lose weight. Don’t waste any more time than you need to. Master the principle of energy balance to slim down once and for all.

Most people don’t think of their weight loss journey as a math problem. But in many ways, it is. There is a simple equation behind every successful diet, every successful weight loss program and every get-slim-quick plan. It’s called your energy balance. And if you can get your numbers to tilt in the right direction, you’ll lose weight and get the body you want.

What is Energy Balance?

Energy balance is simply the relationship between your energy input and your energy output.

The equation looks like this:

Energy Balance = Energy input – energy output

Sounds reasonable, right? To figure out your energy balance you need to gather a few numbers.

How Do I Input Energy?

We input energy in the form of kilocalories, or “calories.” Calories are simply a unit of energy or heat. The food we eat and the drinks we consume provide different levels of energy, or calories. Protein and carbohydrate each provide 4 calories per gram, and fat provides 9 calories per gram.

One of the best ways to start a weight loss program is to determine your current level of energy input or caloric intake so that you can make adjustments to your energy balance. A typical woman may consume anywhere from 1200 to 2500 calories per day depending on her size, activity level and lifestyle factors.

What is My Energy Output?

Energy output happens when your body uses energy. We often refer to this as “burning” calories. Even when you’re sleeping, your body uses energy to perform basic functions like breathing and circulating blood.

You also expend energy during activities of daily living, like washing dishes or shopping, and of course, through physical exercise. These activities make up about 15-30% of your total calorie burn each day. The last 5-10% of calories are burned through the thermic effect of food, when you eat and digest meals and snacks.

There are different ways to calculate the number of calories you burn each day. Many people use one or two methods to determine the most accurate number.

Tip the Scales to Lose Weight

If your energy input and your energy output are perfectly balanced, you won’t lose weight. A perfect energy balance creates a stable weight. To change your weight you need to tip the scales so that they are no longer balanced.

A positive energy balance occurs when your energy input is greater than your energy output. That is, you eat more calories than your body needs. Your body stores excess energy or calories as fat. This results in weight gain.

Weight gain = energy input > energy output

Weight loss occurs when you create a negative energy balance. That is, you burn more calories than you consume. When this imbalance occurs, your body burns stored energy in order to function and you lose weight.

Weight loss = energy input < energy output

When you evaluate your own energy balance, it’s best to get the numbers as accurate as possible. Small differences in energy input and energy output can make a big difference in your weight.

Calculate Your Own Energy Balance

Are you ready to calculate your own energy balance? Here are two sample equations to use as a guide.

Dieter #1: Megan

Calories consumed each day: 2000

Calories burned each day: 1750

2000 (energy input) – 1750 (energy output) = 250 calories

Megan has a positive energy balance of 250 calories per day. That doesn’t sound like much. But over the course of a week, her estimated balance would be 1750 calories or enough to gain a half pound of weight.

Dieter #2: Carol

Calories consumed each day: 1800

Calories burned each day: 2050

1800 (energy input) – 2050 (energy output) = -250 calories

Carol has a negative energy balance of 250 calories. Over the course of a week, her body will need to burn 1750 calories of stored fat to meet its needs and she will lose roughly one half pound of weight.

If the Math is Simple, Why is Weight Loss So Hard?

So if weight loss is just a simple equation, then why is it so difficult to lose weight? Because there are many factors that affect both your energy input and your energy output. Things like your medical status, your age and your mood affect your energy balance equation every day. Weight loss is a simple equation, but finding the right balance requires a little bit more work.

If you are at the beginning of your weight loss journey, or if you are questioning your current diet and exercise plan, the energy balance equation is a perfect place to start. You don’t need to buy fancy tools or invest in an expensive weight loss program. Try to make some changes on your own. Evaluate the factors that affect your caloric intake and caloric output. You have control over some factors (like activity level) and no control over others (age, gender). Simply change what you can to tilt the scales of your energy balance equation and reach your weight loss goals.

Most people gain over a long period of time and this is how we differ from our ancient ancestors; they would eat as they needed energy and only as much as they needed to go on. Before there was money and jobs, people only worried about survival. Man was part of the food chain and were being hunted by large animals like we hunt animals today. They were constantly on the move burning energy and eating mostly roots and fruit during the day also hunting for small game that they could eat at night. Man was eating by instinct like wild animals do. If you have ever noticed, animals in the wild always maintain a perfect body weight. But domestic animals that live with us will gain too much weight and end-up with all the diseases that man has; cancer, obesity, joint problems and other illnesses. Animals in the wild will stay healthy except for injuries.

What are we doing wrong, what happened? Thin people like a marathon runner will burn his energy first and then eat something to replace that energy. He will use up all he has before he eats to replace it. We are eating before we need the energy or calories and then we try to burn all those calories we ate. We are working backwards and that’s why we can’t win. When you eat the calories first you will probably never burn all the calories you ate. And you never burn the body fat because your first burning the new calories you just ate. I hope that makes sense to you.

Losing weight for me works best if I have an energy shake in the morning, first thing, then workout, then eat a high-protein breakfast after the workout. I prefer ham and eggs or greek yogurt and fruit. High-protein breakfast cut my cravings and I don’t even think about food until lunch.

Think about your diet this way. If your hungry two hours after you eat then you didn’t eat the right food. Cravings are the way your body tells you that it needs nutrition, but you have to decide what kind. If you decide wrong you will have more cravings and this will continue on until your body get what it needs. Meanwhile you’re adding pounds. Be smart about what you eat and you’ll eat less and spend less money.

Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want to Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.

If you really want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want to Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Habits Of Successful Weight Loss Clients

 Maybe you have wondered how people succeed in weight loss? Well, they all have some regular habits that keep them on track. Permanent weight loss doesn’t just happen. The tips below should help you stay on track.

Have Breakfast
It’s important for a bunch of reasons. It jump-starts your metabolism and stops you from overeating later. Plus, studies show that adults who have a healthy breakfast do better at work, and kids who eat the morning meal score higher on tests. If a big meal first thing isn’t for you, keep it light with a granola bar or a piece of fruit. Just don’t skip it.

Plan Your Meals
It’ll help you save time and money in the long run. Block out some time, then sit down and consider your goals and needs. Do you want to lose weight? Cut back on sugar, fat, or carbs? Add protein or vitamins? Meal prep keeps you in control. You know what you’re eating and when. A bonus: It’ll be that much easier to skip those donuts in the breakroom at work.

Drink Plenty of Water
It can do so many good things for you. Staying hydrated is at the top of the list, but it may also help you lose weight. Another reason to go for H2O? Sugary drinks are linked to obesity and type 2 diabetes. If you aren’t a fan of plain water, add flavor with slices of orange, lemon, lime, watermelon, or cucumber.

Take an Exercise Break
Don’t just grab another cup of coffee — get up and move. Do some deep lunges or stretches. It’s great for your body and mind. Just 35 minutes of walking five times a week may help keep the blues at bay. And if you can’t get all those minutes in at once, short bursts help, too.

Go Offline
Checking your email and social media a lot? Sure, your friends’ and family’s latest updates are just a click away, but do you really need to see pictures of your cousin’s latest meal? Let it wait until morning. Set a time to log off and put the phone down. When you cut back on screen time, it frees you up to do other things. Take a walk, read a book, or go help your cousin chop veggies for her next great dinner.

Learn Something New
New skills help keep your brain healthy. Sign up for a dance class or a creative writing workshop. Better yet, master a new language. The mental work it takes can slow the signs of aging and may even delay the effects of Alzheimer’s disease.

Don’t Smoke
If you light up, quit. It’s a big move toward better health. Your body repairs itself quickly. As soon as 20 minutes after your last cigarette, your heart rate and blood pressure drop. Why wait? Kick the habit, today. Your doctor will be happy to help you get started.

On more important tips tip for weight loss is to stop drinking calories. Most dieters don't realize that half their daily calorie intake is from drinks. When you stop drinking calories and start eating healthy foods you will lose weight and get your energy back.

Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want to Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.

If you really want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want to Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

“Make time for yourself”, that might be the best tip of all.