Calories are a measure of energy: food contains calories, and your body burns calories. Every day your body burns a certain amount of calories (on average about 2000) and if you eat less you lose weight, and if you eat more you gain weight. You can find out how many calories your body needs on a daily basis using online calculators - Calorie Counter is a good one, but bear in mind that it is not accurate if you have a lot of muscle (if you have more muscle you burn more calories per day and therefore need to eat more). To lose 1 pound of fat you must burn 3500 calories; so for example if you burn 2000cals on an average day, cutting your calories down to 1500cals means you would lose 1lb in a week.
Being aware (but not obsessive about) the calories in food is very useful for weightloss. Sites such as Calorie Count have a database of calories in different foods, and sites such as this shows you how many calories you burn doing exercise. Some foods such as fruit, vegetables, salad, ricecakes and soup are very calorie-sparse - this means that you get a lot of food for relatively few calories - therefore these foods are wonderful to fill you up (trust us - we swear by them!!).
You must never aim to burn too many calories or eat too few calories - this makes your body start burning muscle, organ and bone as well as fat for energy (which slows your metabolism and is very unhealthy), and makes your body give you cravings for fatty sugary foods. If you do do this you may lose a lot of weight - but no more than 1 1/2 lbs lost per week would be fat - all the rest would be muscle, bone and organs, and you will end up binge-eating and gaining back all the weight lost as fat. "The faster you lose, the faster you gain" and "The more you eat, the more you lose" are really good quotes to remember - though only remember that the second quote is only true to some extent!
Different Food Types:
- Fruit and vegetables: these should make up about one third or more of your food intake - it's best to aim for 5-8 portions a day. These are high in vitamins, minerals and fiber, are low in fat, and low in calories.
- Carbohydrates: these should make up about one quarter to one third of your intake. There are two different kinds of carbohydrates - refined and complex. Refined carbohydrates are things like white bread, pasta, cakes, cookies, candy, chocolate, sugar, and white rice - these are best avoided as they are low in fiber, don't give you long-lasting energy and make you have cravings for more. Complex carbohydrates are things like wholemeal bread, wholegrain pasta, wholemeal ricecakes, brown rice, and vegetables - these contain plenty of fiber and give you long-lasting energy for the same amount of calories as the refined euqivalents.
- Protein: this should make up about one quarter of your intake. Sources of protein include meat (chicken and turkey are the lowest-calorie), fish, dairy products (which contain calcium which aids weightloss), nuts, eggs, seeds and beans.
- Fats & Oils: it is important to not completely cut fats out your diet as you do need some for health and actually for weightloss. You shouldn't have too much though if you're trying to lose weight because it has twice the calories of carbohydrate or protein. There are different kinds of fat and it's best to avoid saturated because this can cause poor health, however unsaturated fat is good for you. Sources of 'good' fats include fish, nuts and oils (canola, olive or sunflower).
- Sugar: this is best avoided as much as possible because it makes you hungrier, it's addictive and it's "empty calories" (a source of calories which has no additional benefits such as vitamins). However many people are addicted to sugar, so be careful cutting down or cutting it out your diet because you may get bad cravings and binges.
- Salt: for health reasons it is best not to have too much salt; it can also make you bloated which isn't great when you're feeling fat!
- Drinks: it is best to drink only water - totally calorie-free! Try bottles of different mineral waters if you don't like tap water, or try adding a little juice or squash to give it flavour. Tea is also great - it has no calories if you drink it without milk and sugar - it also comes in lots of different kinds (including green tea which we love because it boosts the metabolism!) and it can be drunk hot or iced.