Simple Ways To Balance Calories And Manage Weight

Stabilising your weight will reduce your chances of getting serious diseases

It is a well-known fact from the people of Okinawa in Japan that they always control their calorie intake in stabilising their weight. They do this by just eating enough, not too much each time, every time, without feeling deprived.

You may ask, why Okinawa Diet? It is because the region has the longest life expectancy and the healthiest too. They do this by maintaining their body weight across their lifespan. It is a diet high in vegetables. The Okinawans eat about one thousand, five hundred calories a day.

Calories Fuels Your Body

The body has a constant demand for energy from the foods we consume. The energy is used in all bodily activities and functions. The foods that produce energy are proteins, fats and carbohydrates.

Unused energy from foods is stored for future use as fats. Too much-stored fats in the body will make you tip the scale, which can result in obesity.

There are therefore ways you can control the burning of the body fat. You either allow the body to use the excess fat in your body, or you burn them off by physical exercise. And then control your calorie intake by balancing out what you use to what you take in.

Controlling calories is what nutrition scientists confirm as having a positive impact on longevity. Metabolism indices (how each person burn calories) differ across the board from person to person, and so difficult to control, but one can always control what one eats. It is important for the intake to balance out the burning to maintain a constant weight.

Ways to Control Calorie Intake

Practice Intermittent Fasting — Contrary to popular opinion, intermittent fasting produces mild stress, which triggers the production of stress-resistant proteins, which also make the body less resistance to certain diseases.

Intermittent fasting also increases the production of a brain chemical which helps in memory, growth and survival of nerve cells.

Control Your Stress — That might be a bit difficult in this fast-paced day and age, where everyone is pursuing wealth. Work-related and social stress actually make people crave for sugary foods, which they don’t burn on time.

Eat More Protein — This is because proteins take longer to digest and make you full up longer. Proteins foods are legumes, lean meat, fish and poultry.

Cut Down On Portion Size — Cutting down on the quantity each time will help tremendously to reduce your calories intake. The Okinawans are known to stop eating when they are eighty per cent full.

Cutting down portion size is better than not finishing whatever is in the plate, as some people suggest. Leaving some foods which you will throw away to me is a waste. So it is better to reduce whatever is in your plate right from the onset.

Use Side Plates For Snacking — If you snack from a bag (of crisps or biscuits) for instance, there is a tendency to finish the whole bag. Rather take out a portion on a small plate.

Actually it is better to avoid snacking on these types of bites because they are triggers and you always want more.

Cut Down On Alcohol — Alcohol contains a high amount of calories which are easily converted to glucose, and stored in the body. Moreover, alcohol has little or no nutritional value.

Eat Whole Foods Instead Of Processed Foods — Processed foods contain more sugars, saturated fats and additives that soon add up to more calories in the body. Rather, cultivate the habit of preparing meals from scratch with whole natural ingredients.

Regular Exercise — As mentioned above, there are two ways to burn off body fat. Either by the body using it as an energy or you burn off by physical activities. Regular exercise need not be gym-based, walking, dancing, rope-skipping in the house, or follow one of the free YouTube exercise videos.

Get Active — It is a known fact that a sedentary lifestyle does not help in burning calories. Get active with housework (especially cleaning) for instance, instead of employing someone to do it. Or if you will rather employ, get a day that you want to get busy on housework to help you get active.

Cut Down On Coking Oil — Contrary to popular belief, it is not necessary to cook with oil, at least always. If you must cook with oil, use olive oil, and even with that, use sparingly. Most of our foods have their oil, especially flesh proteins. There are even some special pots you can use to cook without oil, and they will cook to perfection. Bottom line, oil is always not necessary for cooking.

Limit Eating Out — Especially Buffett because varieties make you eat more. It is normal to want to taste virtually every different food on the table. And these make you put on calories.

Beware Of Hidden Sugars — Most sauces contain hidden sugars and salt. If you must use ready sauces like tomato ketchup and salad cream, use sparingly. It is best to prepare your own sauces from fresh ingredients.

The Experiment On Laboratory Mice

Laboratory mice were more agile and stay younger longer when their calorie intake was halved. Although some dismissed the result of this experiment because the mice had no normal activity, and were caged.

It is also a known fact that it is not easy to start counting calories for each meal, and this system may not work for a lot of people.

A friend here in Medium, Steven Anthony will definitely disagree with calorie counting in eating. He has tested a KETO diet (high protein, high fat, low carb diet), personally and has written a book on his personal experience. Here are two of his blog in case you want to read further.

And the science of weight gain from another friend Shin Jie Yong

This is from JJ Lim, again on Medium.