Myth: You don’t have to count calories

Fact: Counting calories is important

You definitely need to count calories in order to lose weight. People tend to overestimate their physical activity and underestimate their calories. Don’t rely on eyeballing your caloric intake or trying to estimate it. Instead, every day write down what you eat, the corresponding calories, and your physical activity. To make it easier for you to quantify your physical activity, wear a pedometer. Do this every day. Don’t do it just once or twice a week. Consistency is important for dieting. Sure, this isn’t easy. But if you want to lose weight, this is important to do on a daily basis.

And remember that a calorie is a calorie whether it’s fat, sugar, or protein. Still, some foods are more calorie-dense than others. That means that they contain more calories per ounce. Carbohydrates and protein have the same calories per ounce. Fat, on the other hand, has twice as many, so the calories found in fat add up twice as fast. Eat fatty foods — dairy products, skin on meat, fatty meats — in moderation. You want to limit your intake of fat, but you don’t want to stop eating fat. Fat increases your sense of fullness. Your body also needs a small amount of fat to function. Fat is part of our cell structure. The body can’t make some essential fatty acids on its own, so it needs to obtain them from an outside source.

* Information Quoted from an MSNBC article entitled 10 weight-loss myths that can ruin your diet with Nutritionist Madelyn Fernstrom 2006

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