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Calorie Counting an introduction to Calorie Counting by David Bush |
To lose weight, you need to use more calories in a day than you eat. If you do this, your body will still use the same amount of energy, but it will not have food to get the energy from. It will then start using your stored energy (your fat) to provide the energy you need. By consistently eating less than you use each day, your body will continue to use the stored fat on your body, and you will start losing weight. If you lose a lot of weight, you should do it with care: as soon as your body is done using your stored fat, it will start using your muscles for fuel. Most of us are a bit far away from this point , but it is good to know. An interesting thing about your body is that the energy you eat does not directly go to your muscles and other parts of your body. Instead, it is turned in to energy that is stored in your blood stream and liver. This built in bank of calories is about 1000 – 2000 calories for most people. So if you do eat less or more than you need, your blood stream will "keep it in the bank" for you. If you have extra calories over a period of time, your blood stream’s bank will begin to deposit the calories as fat. If you do not have enough calories, your blood stream and liver will provide the energy for a while, and then it will start to get the energy from your fat stores. Because of this "bank" effect, it is not possible to instantly lose weight. Instead, weight loss or gain will occur over the course of two to three days. Your scale is too accurate! The small weight changes you see throughout the day are mostly the result of water gain or loss and the raw (undigested) weight of food that you eat. That is why it is better to take your average weight over a number of days. For a realistic reading, you should take your weight at about the same time of day such as before breakfast or right after breakfast. On any reasonable diet, you should be unable to detect weight loss over a single day. You should, however, be able to see clear sings over the course of a week, and there should be no doubt over the course of a month.
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