Back in second grade my teachers told me that a diet was simply what you ate.  It wasn’t about how much, what or when you ate.  These days however it can mean any or all of those things. 

There are three basic ways to gain calories.  Each of them is stored and used in different ways.

 

The first is carbohydrates.  That is your quick energy.  It is composed of compounds that are easy for your body to consume and use.

 

The second is protein.  It is used and stored in muscle tissue.  If for some reason you go for long periods with out food, I am talking months here.  You will notice that your muscle tissue will slowly start to dissolve.

 

The third is fat.  This is stored energy reserve.  This can be taken in directly as fat.  It is also can be converted from the other two forms of unused calories as well. 

These are average counts for most foods.  The size of the food will either decrease or increase the amount of calories.  For setting up a basic meal plan it will give you a good idea of what you have eaten for the day.

 

Item                          Calories

1/2 cup of milk           125

1 piece of fruit            100

Slice bread                 80

Sandwich meat           15

Cheese                      100

3 oz meat (any)          325

1/2 juice                     100

1/2 cup vegetables       75

Most people need to eat and drink a certain amount of food each day.  This is listed as follows.

 

Group              Servings

Bread              4-6

Meat                2-3

Fruits               2-3

Vegetables       2-3

Milk                  2-3

These are foods that require more calories to digest then they provide to the body.  They consist mostly of food that isn't an animal by product. 

 

Most fruits, vegetables and grains are like this.  That does assume that the product hasn't been processed, the more natural the form that harder it is to break down.  Pasta is the major exception.  That may be the way it is stored and packed when it is created. 

It is possible to figure out by your weight how many calories you are eating.  For the average person will gain around 15 pounds give or take for each calorie they eat.

 

This means that if you normally eat 2000 calories you will weight around 200 pounds.  A person who eats 1500 calories will weight around 150 pounds.

 

The average person should weigh no more then 150 pounds.  That does assume you aren't a muscle builder.  This does assume normal height as well.

This is basically a fancy way of saying how quickly your body uses up calories.  Obviously some people burn it up quicker then others.  There are several ways to increase your metabolism.

 

The first is to put on more muscle mass.  Muscles burn up the same amount of calories both day and night on an average period of time.

 

The second is to have plenty of exercise.  The constant movement will also act to burn off the calories.

 

The third method is to eat small meals constantly.  Think of your body as a stove.  When the stove is turned off it takes a while to warm up enough to cook the food that you put in it.  If the stove were always on the food would always cook much faster.

 

The human body works the same way.  If there were always just a little food being digested the process that converts and burns up food would always be on.  You would also find you require less food in any one meal.

This is when your body consumes so little food that it forces your metabolism to slow down in order to conserve what calories it has stored.  There are several ways to cause this condition to occur.

 

The first is if you don’t consume enough calories on a normal basis.  I have read this number should be anywhere between 900 and 1200 calories the body requires as a minimum each day.

 

The second method is if you are a heavy eater and you drop the amount you eat quickly.  This will also shock the body into starvation mode.