Weight Loss - Counting Calories for Fat Loss

Here we go, after Christmas, Thanksgiving and Valentine's day and failed New Year's resolutions, I got serious. While eating a big juicy cream filled breakfast pastry, I decided to find out how many calories I was consuming. What do you think came up on my search engine? A plethora of calorie counting weight loss sites and many are free!

You can count calories online, by filling in all the gory details and setting up a profile. Then they teach you to do your diet your way - calorie counters don't give you a special diet. You eat any foods you want as long as you burn more calories than you consume.

They encourage you to keep a food log. Which is helpful, I found many hidden calories in my log, like, sugar in my coffee, 16 calories, and cream. Times that by my usual 3 or 4 cups of coffee and wow! I could use those calories some place else and feel more satisfied and healthy.

They also encourage getting help and support from friends. If you're like me, staying motivated is difficult and I don't like to bug my friends, but you can get the support and encouragement from online communities and forums to keep you on track.

I learned what calories are. They are the amount of energy produced by a quantity of any food and come from carbohydrates, fat, protein, and alcohol in the food.

I found out why counting calories works. If you are eating more calories than your body needs then you gain weight. Figure out what you need for your particular body type. If you are sedentary, (at the computer all the time) you aren't burning a lot, so your needs will be less than someone who runs around all day at work. You have to match the calories you eat to calories burned. It makes sense that you will lose weight if you eat less calories than you burn.

Counting calories doesn't mean you can't eat certain things, but you will figure out what you like to eat, and then cut out things that aren't necessary to stay within your daily calorie needs. So you will likely start watching portions and, as all calorie count sites, start exercising to burn a few extra calories so that you can enjoy a few extra foods.

You should always take into consideration that your body is different from any one else so you will have to adjust your calorie intake based on your age and any health issues you have. If you don't burn calories, you will want to take in less calories each day. Seeking advice from your doctor can help you come to a safe conclusion on how many calories you should eat every day.

The profile that you set up on a site like calorie-count.com will give you a good estimate for how many calories you should consume based on truthful information you provide. A responsible weight loss site will encourage you not to loose weight too fast.

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