Low Calorie Meals
Improve Your Health Eating Low Calorie Meals
One of the biggest issues among America’s population is that of obesity; a problem that could be reduced drastically by exercise and eating low calorie meals. Most people eat as much as three to four times the amount of calories their bodies need to function optimally each day! The additional calories are stored by the body’s fat cells; an automatic defense mechanism to help keep us from starving. If you are not burning those calories through exercise, they will remain stored.
Know Your Calories
Each person develops their own specific number of fat cells. Once these cells are developed, they will be with you for life, unless liposuction is performed to remove them. Over time with continuous overeating, the cells accumulate all of the fat they are able to hold; after which, the body responds by producing even more fat cells to store the extra fat. This results in weight gain, which begins to threaten your overall health. You can improve your health by eating low calorie meals; a method which reduces the amount of calories taken in, and reducing the stored supply of fat.
The number of calories that a person requires to allow their body to work efficiently depends on their age and body frame. Maintaining your current weight requires that you consume a number of calories; a different number for each person, based on height, weight, age and level of activity. A “guesstimate” of the calories needed to maintain your weight can be obtained by multiplying your current weight by 11. If your current weight is not a healthy weight, you can use this number to calculate how to cut back on calories.
In order to lose one pound, a person needs to burn 3,500 calories more than is consumed, or 500 calories per day. Cutting calories is not the only part of the weight loss equation, however. Exercise must be incorporated as well to tone the body. Add enough exercise to burn an additional 200 calories, and plan to cut back 300 calories each day in your food choices in order to achieve a one pound per week weight loss. Healthy weight reduction that results in pounds that are able to be kept off according to medical professionals is 1-2 pounds per week.
Methods for Cutting Calories
Low calorie meals that replace unhealthy eating habits of snack foods, high carbohydrate foods and fast foods can be very beneficial to drop the weight you need to lose. While many think they need to nibble on “rabbit” food or starve themselves in order to lose weight, you can actually continue eating the same foods you have been eating when working on weight loss; just prepared differently. For example, if macaroni and cheese is one of your favorite foods, the recipe can be altered slightly to lower its caloric count and fat content. Instead of preparing the dish with whole milk, full fat cheese and butter, substitute fat free milk, low fat cream cheese, less butter and incorporate vegetables such as broccoli, spinach, carrots or chopped red peppers for a healthier and more nutritious fare. Slight changes to the recipe make little change to the flavor, but achieve big changes in caloric value.
Meat dishes are also easily adapted to meet your new lower calorie commitment. When making meatloaf, meatballs or hamburgers for dinner, substitute ground beef with a lower fat content or ground turkey. Low calorie meals like this can include added chopped vegetables or mashed chickpeas which contain fiber; a natural ingredient that is more difficult for the digestive system to break down, requiring it to work harder. Working harder results in more calories burned; plus, adding the chickpeas provide the added benefit of more protein without adding fat.
Cutting back on simple carbohydrates is also a key factor in reducing calories. White bread, pastries, pastas and white rice offer little in the way of nutrition, but add a lot to the problem of the body storing fat. Introduce instead whole grain breads and pastas, and long grain, wild or brown rice. When a hunger for pasta arises, enjoy instead cooked and shredded spaghetti squash, topped with diced tomatoes and a mixture of sautéed vegetables containing colorful bell peppers, black olives, broccoli, mushrooms, summer squash and zucchini. Sprinkle lightly with parmesan cheese, and presto! A delicious dish; similar to pasta that is filling, delicious, satisfying, nutritious and low in calories. (continued...)