–
–
Transcript
Ok so let’s go through a simple example of calorie counting. Like I said in the previous video – this can be helpful for some people to do initially because it is very eye-opening when you actually add all these things up, people realise why they cannot lose weight. And it can be a good exercise to realise what is high calorie and what is not. But remember it is not just about calories but the quality of those calories and after the initial period, I don’t recommend you stress about it long term, but rather just focus on eating good quality food but that is just my opinion.
So if we break your day down into breakfast, morning team, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, dessert, night time and drinks, then add in what you would eat and drink and when. And do a quick google search by typing the food and then the calories.
So this is an example of someone I helped recently who felt their diet was quite healthy.
Breakfast: Cereal (150 cals), full cream milk (60 cals), coffee (0 cals) and milk (150 cals) and a glass of juice (140 cals) = 500 cals
Morning Tea: 3 biscuits (80-200 cals, so let’s say 120 on average hence 360 cals) and a coffee and full cream milk (150 cals) = 510 cals
Lunch – sandwich (420 cals) with chicken and a can of soft drink (140 cals) = 560 cals
Afternoon Tea: – 2 biscuits (240 cals) and a banana (100 cals) = 340 cals
Dinner – meat and 3 vege (500 calories), glass of wine (120 cals) = 620 cals
Dessert – 4 squares of milk chocolate (170-190 calories)
Night – maybe 2 biscuits (240 cals)
Drinks – 4-5 glasses of water.
Total = 2940 calories
For sedentary women, also between the ages of 31 to 50, the average calorie burn is 1,800 per day. So if you are eating 2940 calories a day, that is ~1100 calories extra that will put basically get stored as energy in the form of fat, for later use.
If we want to lose 2kg a month, which would be 24kg after a year, that generally means we need to be in a calorie deficit of 500 fewer calories a day or 3500 deficit calories a week. So in this example that might mean increasing your activity so your daily calorie use is 2200 calories a day, and aim to eat around 1700 calories a day, hence you are in a 500 calorie deficit and will lose weight. In this example this could be easily achieved by just having coffee without milk, cutting out the juice and soft drinks and halving the chocolate at night, so still having some for pleasure. And having fruit instead of the biscuits.
Obviously, for some people, it is much more complicated than this because there is all the hormones, the quality of food, the social and practical considerations and so on, so this is not complete, but it is one thing to understand of many.