Why in the world do we need to figure out how many calories we are eating each day? Why does that help me stay lean and trim? Well for all of you that love to eat chocolate (who doesn't?) that is perfectly fine, as long as your calories in equal your calories out!
Now how many of you really know how many calories you are supposed to be eating anyways? Here is a simple way to know what your body needs everyday. Take your weight, and times it by 15. That is right, each pound that you have needs 15 calories a day to maintain the weight that you are. Now if you want to lose a pound a week, take 500 calories out of your diet everyday. This is the HEALTHY way to lose weight.
Here is an example. Let's say that I weigh 120 pounds (in my dreams!). I need 15 calories per pound to maintain this weight. So 120 x 15= 1800 calories. Now if I wanted to lose 1 pound this week, I would drop my calories per day to 1300. Get it?
So how are some ways that you can "cut" calories? Well think about your diet right now. What are you munching on during the day that can really be cut out? Do you really need regular soda? When you are making dinner or putting it away, do you munch? How many times during the day do you eat sweets, or have JUST A BITE of something? All of these things really add up. Even though you may not be able to count them as 1 serving... they are still providing your body some type of energy and you will have to burn it off.
So challenge yourself. If you want to stay healthy and maintain or lose weight, seriously write down everything that you eat. EVERYTHING. Even the ONE fruit snack that you had when you opened up the package for you child! DO IT! Then after a week of this, try to see a pattern of where you are the weakest during the day and try to fill that time with something else. Maybe put in a piece of gum and go for a walk or to the park. Don't try to cut out everything all at once or you will FAIL and SPLURGE on everything! Take it slow and steady!!