We talk a lot at the spa about calories and losing weight. We often go over a specific calorie range for your height, weight and age that would be appropriate for you to achieve your weight loss goals. A calorie is a calorie and if you stick to that range, you should lose weight. But I try to take that concept one step further in my lectures by helping you to choose high quality calories. Those calories we can make work for you in keeping you full, healthy and feeling great. In other words, I help you to choose nutrient rich foods.
There has been a new website launched and I wanted to give you the link here. They focus on the same topic of making your calories count in terms of nutrition, volume and satisfaction. Pay particular attention to the shopping lists and recipes. They also provide you with a link to the MyPyramid plan where you can enter your weight, age, height and level of physical activity to give you a calorie goal. What I particularly like about that is that they also break down that calorie goal into servings from each of the food groups. It is easy to tell someone to go eat 1400 calories per day. In theory they could eat anything and still lose weight. But by focusing on the number of servings from each of the food groups within those 1400 calories, then you will be choosing well-balanced meals and snacks. In fact, I think you are better off counting food groups this way than counting calories. This website also offers tips on label reading, portion control, fitting in “fun” foods and eating out.
Spend a little bit of time on this site for their fun tips and ideas. Let me know what you think!
Emily Fonnesbeck RD,CD
