Calories In v Calories Out

Numbers don't lie! If you are trying to lose weight you need to burn more calories than you take in. Do you know how many calories your consuming on a daily basis? For most women, we need to consume around 2,500 calories per day. Additionally, one pound contains 3,500 calories. Therefore, if we eliminate 500 calories per day over the course of one week, mathematically speaking, we will lose one pound! Whopee! The tricky part? How do we loose fat instead of muscle? 

First of all, if you want to change the shape of your body you need to do some weight training. A pear shape will remain a pear shape unless you burn out that behind! To burn fat over muscles and change the shape of your body effectively, I recommend this type of workout.

Keep in mind that if you are limiting your caloric intake, it's even more important to fuel your body with nutrition dense foods. 100 calorie packs may be tempting. That small snack may help to curb a sweet tooth, but processed "low-cal" foods are usually low-cal because they are missing essential components to help nourish and satisfy your body. Soooo I recommend eating foods from the earth, in their most natural state.

A couple of things you may be thinking... How many calories should I consume per day? How many calories do I burn in my workout? How many calories were in that delicious lunch? All great questions. To accurately track your caloric intake and out put I recommend:

• Wearing a heart monitor during your exercise (like this one) will show you exactly how many calories you're burning. 

• "Lose It!" (my favorite for iPhone and iPad users), is a web-based food diary. Not only will it tell you how many calories you should be consuming per day based on your age, and goal weight, it will even scan most food items and input them for you!

Overall, don't forget that calories are essential. They are cells of energy, not fat! Whether it's the number on the scale or your daily caloric intake, don't let numbers rule your life. If you eat whole, natural foods and workout, you'll never have to count another calorie in your life....I don't! xo