Understanding Calories and Their Relationship with Weight Loss

What the heck are calories?

Calories are a measurement of energy. When you eat food, your body acquires energy from the calories embodied in that food. The food is then digested and turned into nutrients that your body requires, such as proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Your body simply requires a set amount of calories each day for your body to operate (see below for more on this). A few examples are growing hair, repairing muscles, and giving you energy throughout the day. Any spare calories that your body intakes, it stores as fat. Here is an analogy to simplify it.

Imagine calories as money, and your body as your bank account. Each day, you require a set amount of money for you to get by, such as paying your bills, buying food, or gas for your car. You have a set amount of money to use each day (depending on your salary). So if you spend more than you can afford, you increase your debt (think of debt as fat).  

How many calories do I need to eat in a day?

The amount of calories that are required for each day will be different between people. Your gender, your weight, how old you are, and how active you are will tell the number of calories your body requires. For example, a 200 pound male will typically require more than a 120 pound woman. Likewise, an athlete will likely need more calories than the same person but who is not physically active. That being said, This being said, here are some broad figures that you can use as a guideline to help you understand calories. The average male needs 2,500 calories a day, and the average woman needs 2,000.

Understanding weight loss

The relationship between weight loss and calories can be simplified and summed up by the following.

Intake more calories than you burn and you gain weight. Burn more calories than you intake and you lose weight.

Going back to the money analogy, here is how it looks.

Spend more money than you earn and you gain debt. Earn more money than you spend and you lose debt.

In order for you to drop 1 pound, you will need a deficit of 3500 calories. Quite often, people will target to get to this deficit by reducing their daily caloric intake by 500 calories. Of course, there are numerous other factors to look at other than just counting calories. Different foods will contain various types of nutrients, and all calories are not the same. It can get quite complicated and confusing, so keep in mind that this article has simplified much of this field to ensure that you really understand the essential principles of calories and how they affect gaining and losing weight.

If you look around, there are countless ways to be healthy and keep active. Repeatedly, individuals get caught up in the frustration of long term weight loss plans and miss the best way to instantly drop pounds and look amazing. Surprisingly, the number 1 way is via the use of body shaping underwear. These shaping corsets give you a tight body, provide lumbar support, and many can actually help you slim down by loosening fat cells around your belly area. Furthermore, there is no dieting needed, running, or hard labour of any sort. 

Thirty years ago, these stomach shapers were very uncomfortable and you often needed assistance to put them on.  The materials used did not grant much plasticity, and would not form the body perfectly.   Currently, not only is the quality of the material much higher, but they are designed in such a way that they are easy to wear, aerated and durable. There are numerous diverse choices of body slimmers for both men and women. For instance, postpartum bands are one of the most popular products these days.