A change of pace today, I figure you deserve it after your busy week of changing your training program and turning your eating habits upside down. Today I wanted to draw your attention to two things, firstly how many calories should you consume during a day and secondly make sure those calories really count toward helping your body so it gets all the vitamins and minerals it deserves.
Research tells us, and the evidence is everywhere, that we are a nation…. World… of over consumers. Thanks largely to our western diet, our desire for convenience and in large part our laziness (sorry if that last one stung a little). Look around next time your eating lunch and see what the person/people next to you are eating chances are it contains A LOT more calories than they really require, the sad part is that most people don’t realize this or care enough to fix it. Why? Because they are the busiest person in the world, and their health is only something they have to worry about when they ‘get old.’ Living under the assumption of course that they will live long enough to actually ‘get old.’
Did you know that for the most of us we require about 30% less calories than we are currently eating? This is why most males have an energy storage unit at the front around their bellies and most females have the same sized energy storage unit at their back around their hips.
Something for you to consider,
- Most females require between 1600-1800 calories a day
- Most males require between 1800-2000 calories a day
Obviously there are exceptions to the rules, particularly busy people, athletes, people who work night shits, lactating mothers etc will all require something slightly different, but for the most of us – time for an energy intake rethink.
This brings me to my next point; you really need to start paying attention to what the back of the packet says….. After all that is what it’s there for! You need to become familiar with what food types you’re eating and the energy density of each meal, it might just begin to scare you a little. Did you know that a can of Coke has over 30 grams of sugar in it? Did you know that some bottled WATER has over 30 grams of sugar in it? Did you know that a pie has over 40 grams of fat in it? Did you know that almost any burger from that place with the golden arches and the clown mascot is just as high in fat as a pie, and better yet the bun is rich in sugar also? Mmmmmm McDonalds, what a great combo, fat and sugar! They are right with their ‘I’m loving it’ marketing campaign, at least your hips and your arse are, your heart and your blood glucose levels not so much …..
| Nutrition Information | Avg. Per 45g Serve | Avg. Per 100g Serve |
| Servings per pack: 9 | ||
| Energy | 630KJ | 1400KJ |
| Protein | 6.6g | 14.6g |
| Fat Total | 1.4g | 3.2g |
| Saturdated | 0.2g | 0.5g |
| Carbohydrate | 21.3g | 47.3g |
| Sugars | 5.9g | 13.0g |
| Dietary Fiber | 12.6 | 28.1g |
| Sodium | 140mg | 310mg |
| Vitamin E | 2.5mg | 5.6mg |
| Calcium | 200mg | 444mg |
| Zinc | 1.8mg | 4mg |
So your mission for the rest of today is to have a read of every nutritional label you can from everything you consume and just take a note on a piece of paper how many calories you have consumed today. You might just scare yourself into taking action and getting your caloric intake under control. This action has to happen if you want to burn fat and lose weight. As the old saying goes ‘you cannot out train a bad diet!’
If you have any questions about the calorie content of any food please don’t hesitate to shoot me an email andrew@a2zpt.com.au
Happy reading 🙂
Andrew Zagami