This is an excerpt from my book on calories and how they affect your life - and believe me they really do! Unlock your maximum potential is now available on Amazon in kindle or paperback form
I hear so many times that as long as you eat so called 'healthy food' you don't need to know how many calories you are eating. In my opinion this is totally untrue. If you have a weight problem and suddenly introduce a handful of nuts or half an avocado a day you will put on weight - there is no doubt about this! If you have 5 fruits a day rather than 5 veg you can start off with a calorie count of nearly 500 calories which are full of sugar - however natural it might be. Whereas if you had 5 veg it would be nearer a 100. If you have a healthy salad it may have 200 calories of dressing - well oil is ok for you but not in that quantity!!!
Very often healthy food is high in calories and some people are saying that the body burns these off differently but in my research it doesn't. Most people who have more than 2 stone to lose need less than 1200 calories a day. You can, in fact, lose weight with McDonald's if your food intake in less tha 1200 calories and this has been proved by various bloggers.
If you look at the prepared diets such as Weight Watchers, Slimming World, 5:2 etc you will see that although you dont need to calorie count when you look at the points etc you can see that they have been calorie counted for you. Where on Weight Watchers can you have a whole avocado or handfuls of nuts?! If you are cutting out bread and butter, as you would on the 5:2, your calories automatically decrease.
I think it is a good idea to eat a different amount of calories each day so your body doesn't get used to just eating a set amount. I find a journal where you write down what you eat (approximately don't stress) and tot up the calories etc so that gives you an idea where you can make adjustments.
I find that if I want to eat something (like scampi and chips) I will eat and enjoy it but cut down the day before and the day after. AFter all this is an eating plan for life and it has to fit in with your schedule and life style. Planning is also good so you will always have something healthy to eat or whip something out of the freezer.
I never fry onions or veg for a soup or a stew and this cuts the calories down immediately. Always have a skinny lattee or salad dressings.
Dont eat three meals a day and snack because that is what the experts tell you to do. If you aren't hungry don't eat - perhaps two meals are OK for you. I find that when clients have snacks they are thinking about food all the time which means they want to snack more.
If you learn how to muscle test (instructions in my book) you can test what food is good for you to eat and what is not. You can also test how many times a day you should eat and what you need for maximum nutrition.
