Girls Just Wanna Have Lunch... Infographic

Loosing My Nerve...

WHY oh WHY is it so hard to diet!?!?
WHY oh WHY do I always feel like I am hungry?!?!
Does that happen to you too!?!?
It really gets on my nerves!!

Talking about NERVEs: Believe it or not, they are actually responsible for the struggles of feeling hungry or satiated... Did you know that!? I certainly didn't. How did I find out? My oh so clever and intelligent ♡ told me the other day thinking that telling me this scientific fact (with plenty of detail) it will be easier for me to carry on and not give up - talking about support, eh!? :-o
Believe it or not, it did make me think and because I was busy thinking (and researching and now writing this post) it did take my mind off food and made me somehow get over my need for food in that moment after all... Crisis overcome! PHEW!

Well, if it worked for me, maybe it will work for you too: so allow me to distract you with a couple of facts regarding our stomach-nerve (as I call it) :-)

So again: WHY oh WHY do I always feel like I am hungry (especially when I am trying to diet)?!?!

To feel satiety (a.k.a. full), your brain needs to receive neuronal signals from your stomach. This signal can also be influenced by other factors like our senses: if the food looks, smells, tastes too good ;-) 

Bottom line: it's a complex feedback mechanism that actually regulates the sensation of hunger or satiety. 

One of these feedback mechanisms is in the stretch-receptor nerves of your stomach-wall. What does that mean? Your stomach adapts to the amount of food you are eating. The stomach wall starts stretching when you start eating: the nerve stretch receptors send signals to the brain that the stomach is expanding and you can begin to slow down and stop eating. 

It takes some time though for these messages of satiety to 'travel' from your stomach and reach your brain. In general it takes about 20 minutes till you realize that you are starting to be full. That's why it makes sense to not just shovel your food into yourself but instead enjoy and savor each and every bite...  If you eat a roasted pig in 20 minutes or if you chew your way through a lovely salad in the same time... Well, let's just say that it's a HUGE difference: both in calories and nutrients!!!

Now when you are dieting - eating less - your stomach needs to get used (= habituated) to expand less: This takes time! Thats why: your stomach will not just shrink itself right after one smaller meal! The stomach-nerve (as I call it ;-)) needs some time to get used to only expanding a little compared to a lot from before...

It will take some time for your brain and for your 'stomach-nerve' to get used to this 'news' and if you resist your cravings and breaking the rules...
and give your brain and stomach a little bit of time (about two weeks)...
eventually you will be happy and satiated with your diet-portion and not crave or hunger for more.

So just remember this the next time you (or I for that matter - happens all the time to me too!!) oh so desperately want to eat more or snack in-between meals on unhealthy fatty snacks (you know you want to, so don't even try to deny it!!) or or or...
Remember that if you give your brain and stomach just two weeks - be a little patient with yourself!!! (if you won't, who will?!) - it won't be hard to be faithful to your diet anymore and you won't feel like you are constantly starving and hungry anymore but your brain will be filled with the happy feeling of satiety...

Crunching Numbers... Infographic

Images courtesy of my ♥ ©RR - Thank you!

Crunching Numbers...

There are many great sites online that allow you to calculate your health status regarding to weight and physical activity... and they do it within seconds! Like these links on WebMd, SELF, CalorieCount or CaloriesCount and many more...

Ever wondered how they do it? What calculations and what logic is behind it? I did!! So I sat down, studied around and started crunching numbers... Let's get to it!

STEP 1) 

No matter if you are trying to gain, maintain or loose weight, an objective measuring factor of what you SHOULD do to truly be healthy in regard to your weight is the Body Mass Index (BMI): 

There is a simple chart (but there are more elaborate ones too) that tells you how to interpret this BMI number:

Just to make the calculations easy let's say your friend BOB weighs a 100kg and is 2 meters tall: then his BMI will be 100 divided by 4 which equals 25. Same will work with pounds and inches (try it! :-))... BOB is exactly on the line between being overweight but let's just cut him some slack and say that he can consider himself a person of a healthy weight.

Once you determined your BMI you know exactly where you stand: Am I overweight or obese and need to loose weight? Am I underweight and need to try to put on some weight? If you are lucky you are in the healthy weight range and only need to maintain your weight as is.

STEP 2)

In a next step it would be helpful to find out what my daily calorie-intake should be in order for me to maintain, lose or gain weight: This can be done by calculating your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) or Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR). 

When we say metabolism, we refer to all the basic processes that the body needs to purely function like breathing, blood circulation, controlling the body temperature, cell growth, brain and nerve function, contraction of muscles etc. All these processes that happen automatically in our body already burn some calories before we even move a toe (AWESOME!!!).

The BMR measures this energy based on your age, gender, weight and other factors. There is an elaborate equation that can help you calculate your BMR:
So let's try to calculate BOBs BMR. We said he was 100kg and 2m and lets add his age of 30 years which will make the equation look like follows:

BMR = 66+(13.7x100)+(5x200)-(6.8x30) = 66+1370+1000-204 = 2232 calories.

So BOB burns 2232 calories every day just by simply existing: lucky guy, eh!?

STEP 3) 

OK, so far so good:
We know what we need to do based on our BMI (maintain, lose or gain weight)
and we know how much energy we burn simply by existing based on your BMR.

What missing is considering our daily activity level to then be able to determine our daily calorie requirements... The missing variable needed is the Physical Activity Level (PAL). 

NOW comes the time you need to be honest with yourself: how active am I? Not in your imaginary life... Not in the world of dreams... Not in the form of "should've, could've, would've"... BUT in actual reality!!!! Oh, oh...

STEP 4) 

The final step is to calculate what your Daily Calorie Intake (DCI) should be. This is the easiest calculation in the form of the following simple multiplication:
This calculation will give you the approximate number of calories you need to consume on a daily basis to MAINTAIN your weight.

What would BOBs DCI amount to? Let's assume that he is moderately active in his daily life and exercises 3 to 5 times a week. The the calculation would be as follows:
DCI = BMR x PAL = 2232 x 1.55 = 3348
So BOB can happily eat 3348 calories worth of yummy food to maintain his 100kg weight that he started with.

Now to modify this for gaining or losing weight is easy: 

If you want to GAIN weight, you need to consume more calories then what you burn. 

If you want to LOOSE weight, you need to burn more calories then what you consume.
The general rule is that you need to cut down or add about 3500 calories to lose or gain 0.5kg per week - a.k.a. about 500 calories a day.
Keep in mind though that not each calorie is of the same nutritional value! Check out my previeous post regarding Calories VS Nutrients to find out more about that :-) 

SORRY to tell you this:
but after reading all the way down here;
after now knowing exactly where you stand in regard to weight, activity level and necessary calories...
THERE ARE NO MORE EXCUSES!
You're welcome :-o


Images courtesy of my ♥ ©RR - Thank you!

Calories VS Nutrients

I started counting calories.

Yeah I know: ANNOOOOYING! :-o

BUT: It seems to work!! I am doing this counting thing for a week now and I've already lost 3kg. Not too bad, right?

Well, I have to admit though that it would have been three weeks if I would have actually managed to keep up with it the first week (which only went till wednesday) and then the second week (which only went till tuesday) :-o Just imagine how much it could have been by now if I only had the willpower right from the start... But I am on the right track now, so YEEEY ME! :-)

Counting the calories is a bit of a fuss but if you see results you don't mind doing it. This way I am forced to keep track of what I eat and be more conscious of those 'small things' you don't even realize you've eaten and which usually have loads of calories that are so not worth it! 

It's also pretty cool to realize the calories you burn: Even a small stroll is worth counting if it helps to motivate you to not mess the day up with some unnecessary snacks and 'exceptions'... I feel that it helps me not to get off the track... And I do get off track easily. 

I have a pretty good App (MyPlate) that helps with this tracking so you know exactly how much calories you consume and burn per day. This makes the tracking really easy!! I think if I had to keep a hand-written food-journal and look up each and every item for its value online it would drive me nuts... 

But now back to the question: Calories VS Nutrients?!

You could easily eat 2000 calories worth of junk a day without it being a nutritious and healthy diet. Would you loose weight anyway? Well, simple math tells us clearly YES! 

There are certain variables that need to be considered: age, fitness level, etc to determine what the healthy amount of calories per day should amount to. Let's just say, that there is this person who entering all the variables figures out that to loose 1kg a week he should eat 2000 calories a day. Now let's say you eat only and exclusively 2000 calories worth of processed white sugar a day. Will this person loose that 1kg by the end of the week? YES! Numbers don't lie... 

BUT

What is sugar? Unless it is naturally occurring (like in fruit and veggies) it does not provide any nutrients in the form of vitamins or minerals. Processed white sugar is purely calories a.k.a. 'empty calories'. 2000 calories would represent half a kilo of sugar. It might seem a lot in quantity, but because of the lack of nutrients it would not make you feel full. It would ruin your teeth, put you at risk for diabetes, probably even change your behavior... and I dare say, that in the long run it would just plain kill you - from lack of necessary vitamins, minerals and nutrients for your body to function... 

So let me ask again: Would you loose weight if you ate the right amount of calories every day no matter what kind of calories they were?! YES! Would you put on weight if you ate way more calories than your limit even if you ate only good, healthy, nutrient calories?! YES! 

So what is the solution!? Obviously the combinations of Calories and Nutrients. 

It is not Calories VS Nutrients 

BUT 

it's Calories AND Nutrients that make all the difference in the world!

So what now? Keep tracking calories every day but beware not only of the quantity of the calories but also the quality of them to maintain a healthy diet whatever your goal: weight gain, loss or maintenance... Just stay healthy and fit!