Cut out some calories this year

05 Jan 2022 by Ted Escobedo 2 min read

Loosing excess weight really centers around one thing — calories. Despite all the diet strategies out there, weight management still comes down to the calories you take in versus those you burn off. Fad diets may promise you that avoiding carbs or eating a mountain of grapefruit is the secret to weight loss, but it really comes down to eating fewer calories than your body is using if you want to shed pounds.

Type of calories count

Carbohydrates, fats and proteins are the types of nutrients that contain calories and are the main energy sources for your body. Regardless of where they come from, the calories you eat are either converted to physical energy or stored within your body as fat. These stored calories will remain in your body as fat unless you use them up, either by reducing calorie intake so that your body must draw on reserves for energy, or by increasing physical activity so that you burn more calories.

Tipping the scale

Your weight is a balancing act, but the equation is simple: If you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight. And if you eat fewer calories and burn more calories through physical activity, you lose weight. In general, if you cut 500 to 1,000 calories a day from your typical diet, you'll lose about 1 pound (0.5 kilogram) a week.

Here are a few tips:

Skip high-calorie, low-nutrition items

Swap high-calorie foods for lower calorie options

Reducing portion sizes

Tags:
Food & Nutrition

Healthy Living & Prevention in El Paso

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