I am writing an article to answer the question, “the amount of calories should I intake each day to shed weight?”
This question is an extremely common one, as most health experts have said that people should restrict their calorie consumption as they eat a lot of food with high calorie count.
I have several issues with this approach, mainly because I do not believe that counting calories is critical. This is since the number of people struggling with obesity are still rising regardless of how much they know about their calorie consumption.
It is true that calories matter, but I think this is something regular people should not worry about.
Let’s for a moment assume that the “calories in, calories out” theory holds and ignore the fact that you might be able to lose fat without ever worrying about calories by just giving up fast food.
This theory tells us that people are becoming obese since they eat more food than they “burn” food. Some extra calories are converted into body fat everyday, resulting in weight problems over time.
If you want to drop 30 pounds by using this method, and you wish to decrease a minimum of 500 calories per day, you’d have to weigh in each and every food you eat and know its calorie content for 7 months.
Let’s consider that you have an insanely strong willpower and are willing to let yourself go through numerous months of feeling hungry and energy deprived. Do you think you’ll be good to go after that?
You are going to have to continue doing this, since otherwise you are going to gain that weight back.
Plus there are several problems with calorie counting.:
The body’s metabolism depends on many factors: age, sex, height, weight, genetics along with other factors.
The metabolism changes over time and it will decrease during long periods of calorie restriction.
The more you try to control your calorie consumption, the more your brain will try to raise your hunger and your wanting-ness of food to satisfy your hunger.
Having to weigh every food you eat will be a massive obligation in your life. You won’t desire to do these in front of others, because this is just plain embarrassing, and rude as well.
This theory is just hard. We can not expect people to weigh and count every single piece of food they eat for the rest of their lives, that’s truly what’s necessary to slim down this way.
Also, I think that the entirety of the human race cannot control their desires, and that includes food intake.
I will discuss one hormone that’s important to your body, and I’m sure that you have heard of it already. This hormone is known as Insulin.
Insulin is mostly known for regulating blood sugar levels, and a lack of it makes people become diabetics.
What insulin also does, is to function as a gatekeeper to your fat cells.
When insulin levels are elevated, the body’s fat cells are told to store fat and to make sure that whatever amount of fat already in them doesn’t get out.
With high levels of insulin, even if you are taking considerably low calorie content, you will still have a hard time removing the content from your fat cells.
This will make the body feel energy deprived and your brain will respond. Which then leads to the inevitable “hunger”.
The greatest alternative to this is to select the foods that do not contain too much content of something that affects insulin release.
The macronutrient which releases the greatest amount of insulin is carbohydrate. A single drop of carbs significantly reduces insulin levels.
In this way, many of the fat stored in the body are burnt and the feeling of hunger dissipates. This is confirmed by scientists and experts.
Appetite is decreased and the body starts using its own body fat for energy.
Weight reduction isn’t about calories, it is about eating the types of foods that encourage weight-loss.
So, the question should not be how many calories should I eat?.
The correct question would be: how many carbohydrates each day to shed weight naturally?