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Understanding The Body And How A Calorie Counter Can Help Reducing Weight

For years, doctors and successful dieters alike have acknowledged that the healthiest and most effective form of weight loss is by combining a Calorie-controlled diet with regular exercise. Now that the body's metabolism is understood more fully and extensively, the informed dieter and health-conscious eater may want to know not only the Calorie content of food he is eating but also its composition. This is where calorie counters step in to help the dieter in his quest to have a successful diet.

The body is often compared to an engine and the food that we use is the fuel that powers the body. We can then consider a calorie counter as a means to gauge the potency of each fuel that our bodies use. About half the energy provided by food is used to keep the body functioning normally. The other half of the energy produced by eating is used to fuel our body for manual work and recreational activities. By using a calorie counter we can find out which foods are best to eat when we are about to go out and have a day of either recreation or a thorough work out. Generally speaking, people who are very active use more energy and, therefore, need to eat more to meet their energy requirements. If a person consumes more energy than he or she expends, the excess will be stored by the body as fat, and the person will put on weight. To avoid this from happening, a person can use a calorie counter to guide him in what food to eat so that there won’t be any excess energy left therefore no fat build up.

The energy provided by food and burnt up by the body is generally measured in Calories, also called kilocalories (kcal). It has been calculated that one pound of body fat is equal to 3500 Calories, so for every pound required to be lost, 3500 Calories must be burnt up or cut out of the diet over several days. This data has been used in most calorie counters as the basis as to how hard a person should work out and what he should eat so that weight loss could be effective. The Hourly Activity & Calorie Guide gives the average number of Calories used in an hour whilst taking part in certain activities. However, the rate at which the body uses up Calories varies from person to person, and depends on many factors such as a person's age, sex and general state of fitness, as well as the composition of their diet.

The food that we eat is made up of three major kinds of nutrients: proteins, carbohydrates and fats. It also provides the body with vitamins and minerals; these are called micronutrients because they are required in much smaller quantities. Nutrients all have important functions within the body. A calorie counter helps the dieter by listing every possible amount of these nutrients exists in every kind of food that we eat.

Calorie counters will help to give a dieter a realistic target as to how much weight he can take off and keep off and what kind of physical activities the dieter can engage on without risking over fatigue. Anyone considering trying to lose a lot of weight should consult their doctor, and those just keen not to overdo it should remember that the best way to lose weight is to eat in moderation and to take regular exercise.