Clueless

An interesting article from USA Today with a survey showing how few of us know the number of calories we can eat in a day, or how many calories are in the food we eat: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/weightloss/2010-07-07-calorieconfusion07_ST_N.htm?csp=obnetwork

As I've written about in the past, one of the first things you need to do when you're trying to lose weight is to determine the number of calories you need to maintain your present weight. There are a number of calculators on the web that help you determine what your daily caloric intake should be, but it's generally based on your height, weight, age and level of activity.

The first time I calculated my caloric needs, I was shocked to find out that it was only about 1,700 calories. Not much when you realize that a bottle of Snapple lemonade has something like 240 calories in it, or that a Whopper has over 500 calories.

First figure out how many calories you can eat to not gain weight, then figure out how many calories a day you actually consume. If there's a discrepancy, e.g., you're consuming more then you should, you'll gain weight. If you consume less then you need to maintain your weight, you'll lose weight.

A few additional notes. As you lose weight, you have to consume fewer and fewer calories to both maintain that weight, and to continue losing weight.

Also, as you get older you have to cut back on calories to maintain weight.