How important is it to have a calorie counter? If you are working on reaching your healthy weight range it is very helpful to have an idea of how much you’re eating.

Rule of thumb for women is you will need to shave off at least 500 calories from how much you’re eating now. Chances are this can be done by reducing the size and number of your portions. Of course what you are eating is also critical but right now I am talking only about amounts of food.

These are the calories needed to lose weight and keep it off. Women who are inactive shouldn’t be eating more than 1000 – 1200 if you want to lose fat. If you are very active you may be able to eat 1500 calories if they are low glycemic calories. Men who are non –active can eat 1200 – 1500; active 1500 – 1800. Teenagers can eat 1200 – 1800 calories a day. Let’s hope that everyone is active because you will not be at a healthy goal weight unless you are active!

Calorie intake for weight loss and to maintain your healthy weight range are the same! Not to worry, you can do this. It is what you eat and how you eat it that will enable you to eat the right number of calories for a healthy weight range. I don’t recommend that anyone become obsessed with calorie counting, it is tedious and distracting.

You may become bored and tired of doing it and give up on your goals. However, you still need to have an idea of the size of a reasonable portion and how many servings to eat of each food group. When you add the quality of food to the equation, nourishing food that helps you lose body fat, you are on your way to your ideal goal weight.

So, what’s the most convenient way to calculate portion size and servings? There are lots of calorie counters online but they don’t tell us whether the food will cause a blood sugar spike and trigger fat storage. I’ve taken into consideration the low glycemic factor in coming up with some facts to guide you to be your own calorie counter.

Grains (eat 6 servings a day):

1 slice wholegrain bread (1 oz) ½ wholegrain bun, bagel or unsweetened (with refined sugar) muffin 4 small low wholegrain crackers ½ cup cooked cereal or pasta Vegetables (5 – 8 servings a day): 1 cup raw leafy vegetables 1 ½ cup raw chopped vegetables ½ cup cooked vegetables ½ – ¾ cup vegetable juice Fruits (3 – 5 servings a day) 1 medium apple, orange, peach, nectarine, pear 1 cup fresh or frozen berries ½ cup fruit juice unsweetened mixed with water 1 cup fresh figs 1 bunch fresh grapes 2 plums 1 pomegranate ¼ avocado Milk (2 – 3 servings a day) 8 oz. cow’s milk or almond milk 8 oz. good quality yogurt (not the sugary, commercial brands) 1 ½ oz. cheese ½ cup cottage cheese 8 oz. kefir sweetened without sugar Meat and Beans (2 – 3 servings a day) 2 – 3 oz. cooked chicken, fish, turkey or buffalo 2 eggs ¼ cup of nuts (approximately 7 raw nuts) 1 cup cooked dried beans, lentils or garbanzo beans 4 T. almond butter If you eat this way you will be eating roughly 1000 – 1200 calories a day after you add in 2 teaspoons of olive oil. But for those of you who are still weaning yourself from fast food calories, let me give you a few interesting numbers. A quarter pounder with cheese has 530 calories including 30 grams of the worse type of fats(trans fatty acids.) This is half the calories you need for one day! If you add a small bag of fries (210 calories) and a small 8 oz. coke (100 calories) you are up to 810 calories and these are the types of food that trigger fat storage. Fast food calories not only add up quickly but these are foods that metabolize quickly (high glycemic foods) and trigger fat storage.

Calories do matter but you can manage them quite nicely by paying attention to portion size and number of servings eaten. Once you understand a little more about the glycemic index you are on your way to permanent fat loss. This is a much easier and more convenient way to take charge of how much you are eating which is what you are looking for in counting calories.