Tag - calories

On My Way To Health Revival After 50 Years Of bad Carbs

scan0101                                                           CIMG1607

1964                                                50 years later                                                         2014

11/07/2014

I went back to get on scale and I have lost another  pound (wearing exact clothes).  One pound loss.  I am OK with that.  Here is an interesting point.  My blood pressure has always been about 130/80.  Not really bad, but start of hypertension.  Blood pressure is 107/72 today.  I will let you know how I am doing.

11/03/2014

This article was originally written on August 11, 2014.  I had all of the best intentions to start dieting and exercising.  Well that lasted about 1 week, and then I fell off the wagon, like so many of us do.  In fact, about 6 weeks ago, I had a follow up appt. with my doctor.  I jumped on that scale and boom, I had gained 3 more pounds.  Now, I was 258 pounds.

Still, I did not commit to going back to dieting and exercising. but I did start eating better and cutting my portions.  I did not write any plan down, just cut back and eliminated some bad foods.  About 5 days ago, I went to an Pharmacy clinic to get my annual flu shot(as you should) and I jumped on their scale.  Lo and behold, I had lost 18 pounds down to 240.  I could not believe my eyes.  I was thrilled.

So here is the deal.  If I could lose 18 pounds in 6 weeks, just by cutting my food portions, I am back on that wagon.  I know, there is no way to get to 180 by Jan 1st, 2015.  So, with some steady exercising and good eating, my new goal is this 205 by Jan 1st.  35 pounds in a little over 7 weeks. Have a Happy Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas.

America has approx. 36% obese people.  I’m just another one of them.   The before picture, I was 180 pounds.  The after picture, I am 255 pounds.  Where did those 75 beautiful pounds come from?  They came from every fast=food restaurant you can think of.  Tacos, french fries, hamburgers, sugar filled soft drinks, and the list goes on and on.All that processed food with bad carbohydrates helped me get here.

Until recently, I have led a sedentary lifestyle, which means, I sat around and watched tv or the computer for hours and ate anything I wanted.  So many of us are addicted to the tv and our computers.  I knew, I had to make a change in my lifestyle.  Either that, or get ready for the “BIG ONE”.  I have started going to the gym and walking the treadmill. Starting off easy.  Two miles per hour for 20 minutes, which knocks off about 100 calories.  I will increasing time and speed as I progress.  Within the next two months, I hope to be walking at 3 mph for 60 minutes.

I calculated that to maintain my 255 pounds, I would have to eat between 2250 to 2450 calories each day.  Well, that is pretty easy to do.  Let’s figure it out.  Breakfast of 2 fried eggs, 4 strips of bacon, hash brown potatoes and coffee w/3 spoonfuls of sugar.  Lunch could be a double cheeseburger, large order of fries and a chocolate malt.  Dinner, ah dinner, one of my favorites.  Three slices of a 14 inch, deep dish, double meat supreme pizza and a couple of diet cokes.  There, I have succeeded in maintaining my grandiose figure.   Sound familiar?  That is all about to change.

Since my goal is 180 pounds, I have calculated that I would need to eat 2141 calories per day.  At that rate, it would take me another 50 years to get to 180.  To reach my goal in 8 months, I need to eat approx 1500 calories per day.  Here is my planned diet consisting of 1500 calories per day.  Low fat content(20-25 %), 75 grams of protein and approx 250 grams of unprocessed carbohydrates.  Unprocessed carbohydrates are raw or cooked fresh fruits and vegetables.   In fact, fresh frozen fruits and vegetables are great because they are picked and frozen when perfectly ripe.

I have been on this diet for 7 days and have averaged 1517 calories.  I have not weighed myself, but 3 pairs of pants that hadn’t fit, do fit now.

Come back and visit CarbaholicAnonymous to see my progress.  Try it for yourself.  Let’s get back in shape together.  Contact CarbaholicsAnonymous with any questions you may have.  Hey, don’t forget to press the “Subscribe” button.  See you next month.

How Many Grams Of Carbs In A Day Should I Eat Everyday?

how much carbs should you eat everyday
One of the most common questions Carbaholics Anonymous gets asked is how many grams of carbs in a day is necessary for healthy living.

Not surprising , because carbs are pretty much always the nutrient that people are most often confused by these days.  All of this talk about good carbs and bad carbs, simple and complex, the glycemic index and the various low carb diets and low carb foods is enough to drive a person crazy.

Let’s figure out exactly how many grams of carbs you should eat per day to lose weight or build muscle, and cover what types of food sources they should come from.

How Many Carbs Per Day?

Let’s start with the biggest question first… how many grams of carbs should you actually eat per day? Answering this question is actually easy once you understand a few simple facts about how the rest of your diet should ideally be set up.

What I mean is, before we can figure out your daily carb intake, we need to take 3 other steps first. Let me show you what I mean…

Step 1: Figure Out Calories

Whether you want to lose weight, build muscle or do anything similar, every diet plan starts with calories. They are always the #1 key to making your body do what you want it to do, so they are always the first thing that needs to be figured out.  Go to   www.calculator.net    and calculate the amount of calories needed to maintain or lose weight.

Step 2: Figure Out Protein

Once your calorie intake is all figured out, you then need to figure out how many grams of protein you should eat per day.  Because protein is the next most important part of every diet plan.

To save you the time, 0.8-1.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight is usually the ideal range for most people.

Step 3: Figure Out Fat

With calories and protein set, we’re still not ready for carbs just yet.  Fat is actually the next most important part of your diet. To save you the time, usually about 25% of your total calorie intake should come from fat in most cases.

Step 4: And Now We Can Figure Out Carbs

With all of that out of the way, we’re finally up to the least important part of our diet… carbs. Surprised how unimportant they are? Don’t be. Calories are the key to controlling our weight, and protein and fat are the only macronutrients that are truly essential to the human body. Carbs on the other hand are not. We should definitely eat a sufficient amount of them each day, but they are no where near as important as calories, protein or fat.

So, how many grams of carbs should you eat per day? Simple. Carbs should be used to fill in whatever amount of calories are still left over after protein and fat have been factored into your diet.

Let me show you an example…

  1. Let’s pretend you calculated that you need to eat 2000 calories per day to lose weight or build muscle or whatever your goal is.
  2. Next let’s pretend you figured out that you need to eat 150 grams of protein per day. Since 1 gram of protein contains 4 calories, that means 600 of this example person’s daily calories will come from protein.
  3. Next, since 25% of your calories should come from fat, this example person can calculate that 500 of their 2000 daily calories will come from fat.
  4. So that’s 600 from protein plus 500 from fat which gives this person 1100 calories accounted for so far. Now they’d just subtract 1100 from their 2000 total and get 900 calories. Since 1 gram of carbs contains 4 calories, this example person can see that they should eat 225 grams of carbs per day.

And that’s why the 3 other steps needed to come before carbs. We needed to figure out calories, protein and fat in order to figure out how many carbs we should eat per day.

Once again keep in mind that the amounts used in the example above were just made up examples. You’d obviously need to use the amounts that are specific to you.

What Sources Of Carbs Should I Eat?

Now that you know how many grams of carbs you should eat per day, you also probably want to know which foods you should get these carbs from.

For the most part, people trying to lose weight, build muscle or just be healthy should get the majority of their daily carb intake from higher quality nutrient-dense sources as opposed to simple, high glycemic, processed crap. Some ideal examples include…

  • Vegetables
  • Fruits
  • Beans
  • Brown Rice
  • Oats
  • Potatoes (sweet, white, etc.)
  • Various Whole Grains & Whole Grain Products

Foods high in sugar (candy, cookies, cereals, soda, etc.) should be avoided most of the time, and typical refined sources of carbs like white bread, white rice and white pasta should usually be limited to some extent in favor of the foods on the list above.

Now, the reason for avoiding or limiting these types of carbs is NOT because they make you fat. That’s a myth. The type of food you eat is NEVER what makes you fat. Eating too many total calories is the only thing that does that. It doesn’t matter where those calories come from (protein, fat, carbs) or how  healthy or unhealthy (or “good” or “bad”) they are. Too much of anything will cause fat to be gained just the same.

Instead, the reason for avoiding/limiting these types of carbs is mostly for the purpose of controlling hunger and choosing better sources that are higher in various important nutrients, which is crucial for overall health.

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