The hectic and fast-paced lifestyle of today has left many of us with little time to sit down and eat a healthy and decent meal.  We are always running after time that we don’t really care what we food we stuff into our mouths as long as we eat.  The irony of it is that we wonder why we gain weight, why our skin looks dull and older than it should be, and we feel tired all the time. 

The reason for this weight gain is quite simple really.  Our bodies require a specific number of calories in order to function properly.  For women it is around 2000 calories and for men about 2500 calories and a bit more for those who are physically active.  There are actually two types of calories—large calories or the energy/heat needed to increase the temperature of 1 kilogram of water 1 degree Celsius or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, and the small calories which refer to the amount of energy/heat needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit.  The former is often associated with food and is expressed as the amount of kilocalories contained in them.

The body uses calories in order to produce the energy needed by our metabolism.  These calories are consumed through physical activity.  If the body does not use the available calories, they will be stored as fat which in turn is manifested as added pounds on the weighing scale.  The problem is that as we get older, the less time we have for physical activity or any form of exercise.  This is further compounded by the fact that body’s metabolic rate also slows down with age.

The most natural thing to do in order to arrest weight gain is to decrease the amount of calories we consume and increase our physical activity.  One good way to control calories is to eat a diet that is based on low calorie foods which include:  brown rice, tofu, spaghetti, carrots, broccoli, natural yogurt, muesli, fish, chicken, garlic, salads, tofu, berries, lemon, mango, orange and green and black tea.

In order to do this, we need to have a list of foods with their corresponding calories.  We will then use this list to design a diet plan.  The amount of calories should be reduced but not too drastically that our health becomes compromised.  The World Health Organization or WHO recommends a daily caloric intake of 1300-1400 calories when on a weight loss diet.  Anything lower than this prescribed amount is not allowed unless recommended and supervised by a physician.

Don’t let your desire to lose weight make you lose your good sense of judgment.  Keep in mind that a good weight loss diet is not one that will cause you to starve or deprive your body of the minerals, vitamins, carbohydrates, proteins, and fibers it needs.  Stay away from diets that focus only on one type of food and do away with the others.  Fad diets and starvation diets are bad news.  There is no other way to go about it.  The only way to get rid of excess weight is by doing it the healthy way.