Losing Weight: If You Are Take Extra Calories Without Realizing It

Losing Weight: We are not usually aware of how much we eat, but we can consume 500 kcal more than we need, an excessive amount that damages our losing weight and our health. We help you know if it happens to you and how to avoid it.

Day by day, everything is adding up. And taking 125 kcal more per day throughout a year can mean gaining more than 6 kg of fat in those 12 months.

Multiply that small but continuous amount by the years you have been noticing those extra pounds, and you will have an entirely accurate explanation of why it has happened.

It is not about counting every calorie took (we would go crazy for the difficulty and, also, and it would suppose excessive stress), but it does have an approximate idea of ​​the daily total. Only then can you reverse the trend.

1. What Are Calories?

When we talk colloquially about calories, we refer to the amount of energy provided by food when metabolized by the body. It is expressed in kilocalories: 1 kcal equals 1,000 calories.

The body needs that energy to carry out all its vital functions: the pumping of the heart, the functioning of the nervous system, muscular work, digestion, the maintenance of body temperature, etc.

Stored. The advice of the World Health Organization establish a caloric intake of 2,000 to 2,500 kcal per day for an adult male; and 1,500 to 2,000 kcal daily for women.

And how do you know how many do you need? 1,500 or 2,000? It seems complicated, right? Although a mathematical operation can calculate it, you need some signs to tell you if you are exceeding.

2. Signs That Your Diet Does Not Work for Losing Weight

There are three that are definitive:

Gain little, but continuously. Have you noticed that every two or three months, you have added grams? Most people do not get fat in a short time (it is frequent when following certain medications), but the increase is occurring slowly but steadily. When you realize it, you have already accumulated 4 or 6 kilos that are not convenient or necessary for you.

Age. In women, from the age of 40 or 45, the body tends to slow down and be somewhat less effective in burning fat.

Keep in mind where calories are hidden and exercise.

Do not do 150 minutes of exercise a week. If you are not regular, the above factors will take care of increasing your body volume. Getting around at least half an hour a day (and reaching those weekly minutes) is the best antidote. And it can make your body activate, avoiding the “Sumakilos” effect of age.

Do you want to know how to reduce calories without doing anything but choosing well? Keep reading.

3. What You Need to Know About Fats

Our bodies would not function without them. What’s more, it would make you sick because they are part of cell membranes and are precursors of some hormones, among other vital metabolic functions.

Therefore, it is unnecessary to eliminate them from our diet but choose the adequate ones and the quantities that we need. Look at these examples:

3 slices of chorizo (about 30 grams and 135 kcal) on a slice of whole wheat bread (30 g and 87 kcal) add up to 222 kcal

1 slice of Serrano ham (about 30 grams, which provide 42 kcal) on that same slice contains only 129 kcal.

Another good example is the sauces. The fats can be converted into lighter versions when choosing the ingredients well:

• A tablespoon of mayonnaise (28 grams that provide about 195 kcal) to dress a dish with 100 g of assorted salad (35 kcal) is 230 kcal.
• Using a tablespoon of homemade yogurt sauce (28 g and about 40 kcal), that same dish stays at just 75 kcal, and you have not lost any flavor.

Whenever you can prepare them at home (most are quick and easy to make), and that allows you to substitute the fattiest products (cream, butter ) for lighter ones (skimmed or evaporated milk, yogurt, broth ).

Make the sauces with broth, yogurt, or skim milk.

Use condiments like garlic, lemon, or vinegar, which are healthy and hardly add calories. And to add aroma and flavor, turn to spices and aromatic herbs.

For example, a yogurt sauce (with turmeric, mustard, pickles) adds a few calories and enriches dishes with its nutrients.

4. The Case of Cookies and Pastries

Industrial varieties often contain fats (saturated and trans), refined flours, and sugars. That is, they not only increase your weight; they can also unbalance your health. Therefore, they should not be part of your regular intake.

The numbers clearly show us:

• 1 medium croissant contributes around 370 kcal! And a chocolate palm 428 kcal!
• If you have gone looking for something lovely, surely you do not feel like substituting it for an apple (a 200 gone contributes only 98 kcal), but perhaps yes for half a whole sandwich (40 g of whole wheat bread with 30 g of hummus) that stays at 163 kcal.

5. And the Precooked Ones?

Pizzas, lasagna, croquettes There is so much on offer (and sometimes so cheap) that it is hard to look the other way. But remember that surely, in the medium term, it will be even less expensive to prepare it at home.

• A 100g slice of homemade red pepper pizza adds 192 kcal to your menu.
• The same amount of 4-cheese pizza, but industrial, shoots up to 285 kcal.

That is, cooking at home, you save and get your menus to be more calorically adjusted. Get well organized; it’s worth it.

6. 4 Enemies of Your Losing Weight

Maybe you haven’t noticed and have integrated them too much into your weekly diet.

• Table sugar. It is a simple carbohydrate that does not provide vitamins or minerals. If you add a sugar sachet to a single coffee, whose caloric value is 0, you are adding 32 kcal. Imagine two! If you take it with a vegetable drink (soy, almond), do not add sugar.

• Fried, breaded, and battered. They shouldn’t be at your table for more than a day or two a week. Look at how the chicken changes with these preparations: grilled; it gives you only 138 kcal; if you fry it, it increases its caloric value until 306.

It is not about prohibiting everything but dosing and compensating.

• Commercial soft drinks. They can be taken on special days, but should not be drunk like water. A glass of lemon soda can contain up to 26 g of sugar and 110 kcal. Homemade lemonade? 32 kcal.
• Salty snacks. They are small, delicious, and hypercaloric: 100 g of potato chips are 536 kcal; 100 g of fried potatoes, 315. If you prepare your baked chips (cut thin with a mandolin), the caloric intake will be 93 kcal: vegetable crudites, only 40.

7. And Your Great Allies Losing Weight

It is convenient for you that non-starchy vegetables have a lot of presence in your dishes. Full of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and phytochemicals, the more you take, the less empty calories (without nutrients) the body will ask for.

• Greens: Swiss chard, artichoke, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, kale or kale, beans, cucumber, bell pepper.
• Whites and oranges: Onion, cauliflower, turnip, pumpkin, carrot.
• Reds and purples: Radishes, aubergine, beets, tomato.