Lil' Fit Birdie

I used to strictly count the amount of calories I consumed to ensure that I was meeting my daily caloric intake and not exceeding it. But it came to a point when it was just too much!

I categorized this post under mental health because calorie counting can become obsessive and in some cases, lead to eating disorders. While it is essential to be aware of the amount of calories we’re consuming, we have to be careful. You can find your approximate caloric intake here: http://www.webmd.com/diet/calc-bmi-plus.

We must ensure that we’re reaching our daily caloric intake, whether you want to maintain your weight or lose some weight.

If you’re trying to maintain your weight, you should eat your given amount of calories, and if you work out and burn say, 300 calories, have a 300 calorie snack! Exercising is important for maintaining weight.

If you’re trying to drop a few pounds, you’d want to burn calories while still consuming the necessary amount of calories for your body type. Generally, you’d want to burn about 500 calories less than your daily caloric intake. But it’s important that you don’t skip out on meals; you want to eat at least 3 meals a day to keep your metabolism up!

Consuming significantly less than our caloric intake (less than 1,200 calories a day) can be dangerous to our health, and it can slow down our metabolism, causing us to gain more weight in the future.

The trick is to sustain a balance and spread out your caloric intake. You don’t want to eat a thousand calories in one meal, but rather three 500-calorie meals, or better yet, five 300-calories meals to keep your metabolism running. Knowing your portions can help maintain caloric intake. Make a healthy routine and stick to it!