The Truth About Counting Calories

Written by Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS


Do calories matter or do you simply need to eat certain foods and that will guarantee you’ll lose weight? Should you count calories or can you just count “portions?” Is it necessary to keep a food diary? Is it unrealistic to count calories forrepparttar rest of your life or is that just part ofrepparttar 138420 price you pay for a better body? You’re about to learnrepparttar 138421 answers to these questions and discover a simple secret for keeping track of your food intake without having to crunch numbers every day or become a fanatic about it.

In many popular diet books, “Calories don’t count” is a frequently repeated theme. Other popular programs, such as Bill Phillip's "Body For Life," allude torepparttar 138422 importance of energy intake versus energy output, but recommend that you count “portions” rather than calories…

Phillips wrote,

"There aren't many people who can keep track of their calorie intake for an extended period of time. As an alternative, I recommend counting 'portions.' A portion of food is roughly equal torepparttar 138423 size of your clenched fist orrepparttar 138424 palm of your hand. Each portion of protein or carbohydrate typically contains between 100 and 150 calories. For example, one chicken breast is approximately one portion of protein, and one medium-sized baked potato is approximately one portion of carbohydrate."

Phillips makes a good point that trying to count every single calorie - inrepparttar 138425 literal sense - can drive you crazy and is probably not realistic as a lifestyle forrepparttar 138426 long term.

It's one thing to count portions instead of calories – that is at least acknowledgingrepparttar 138427 importance of portion control. However, it's another altogether to deny that calories matter. Is it necessary to count every calorie to lose weight? No. But it IS necessary to eat fewer calories then you burn. Whether you count calories and eat less than you burn, or you don’t count calories and eat less than you burn,repparttar 138428 end result isrepparttar 138429 same. Personally, I’d rather know exactly what I’m eating rather than take chances by guessing.

I believe that it's very important to develop an understanding of and a respect forrepparttar 138430 law of calorie balance (and portion control). I also believe that it's an important part of nutrition education to learn how many calories are inrepparttar 138431 foods you eat on a regular basis – including (and perhaps, especially) how many calories are inrepparttar 138432 foods you eat when you dine at restaurants.

Yes, calories do count! Any diet program that tells you, "calories don't count" or you can "eat all you want and still lose weight" is a diet you should avoid. The truth is, that line is a bunch of baloney designed to make a diet program sound easier to follow (anything that sounds like work – such as counting calories or eating less - tends to scare away potential customers!)

How to Burn Fat Quickly

Written by adrian bryant


1. Start Exercising first thing inrepparttar morning. As soon as you wake up inrepparttar 138419 morning workout for at least 30min to an hour. Studies show that working out inrepparttar 138420 morning has been shown to burn up to 3x as more fat as opposed to working out at any other time duringrepparttar 138421 day. Here’s Why:

Duringrepparttar 138422 day your body’s main source of energy isrepparttar 138423 carbohydrates that you get from eating your meals. As you sleep at night for 6+ hours your body uses up all those carbohydrates as energy for various bodily functions that go on even while you sleep.

When you wake up inrepparttar 138424 morning your body doesn’t have any carbohydrates as energy to use and it will look to burn body fat instead for energy.

For you to take advantage of this morning fat burning opportunity you have to exercise first thing inrepparttar 138425 morning. Don’t eat breakfast because if you do you’ll just give your body some carbohydrates as a source of energy instead ofrepparttar 138426 body fat that you want to burn for energy.

Another great thing about working out first thing inrepparttar 138427 morning is that your metabolism gets revved up after your morning workout. Morning workouts keep your metabolism elevated throughoutrepparttar 138428 day. An elevated metabolism throughoutrepparttar 138429 day only means that you’ll burn more calories and lose more weight.

If you workout at night you may still burn fat while you workout but as soon as you go to sleep your metabolism will slow down and you’ll miss out on allrepparttar 138430 extra fat that you can burn duringrepparttar 138431 day if you had exercised inrepparttar 138432 morning. When you sleep your metabolic rate is always at its slowest.

Other reasons why its good to exercise first thing inrepparttar 138433 morning is that you getrepparttar 138434 workout out ofrepparttar 138435 way, and working out inrepparttar 138436 morning will also reduce your level of stress throughoutrepparttar 138437 day.

Advanced Tip: Want to burn even more fat? Add another workout to your daily routine 4-6 hours after your morning workout. Keep your already high metabolism higher by adding a 2nd workout duringrepparttar 138438 day.

If you're seriously thinking about adding a 2nd workout to your daily routine then try to do your cardio workouts inrepparttar 138439 morning. Mostly fat calories are burned doing cardio at a moderate intensities. Make your 2nd workout ofrepparttar 138440 day a workout with weights. Mostly carbohydrate is burned doing weight-training workouts.

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