Search This Blog

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Gain Weight, Can We Avoid It?

To gain weight is something people want to avoid as much as possible. We have all kinds of excuses, do we not? I lost my diet during the holidays is one of them. I got so busy, I didn't have time to exercise. But really the real culprit is... calories!

The thing is we need a certain amount of food in order to survive. We do not want to join the almost cult-like group whose members are dying to be thin. The trouble is, overabundance is a problem. So to address the issue of avoiding food so as not to gain weight, gives us this question: Are we eating to live? Or are we living to eat?

The fuel that runs the body comes from food. We need it in order to be able to work, think, play and in all the other things we have to do. The question is we take in more fuel than we need. The extra fuel in the car sits there until we use it but the extra fuel we have is stored in our body as fat. Bummer, why can't it just sit there until we need it?

This really is the simple math on why we gain weight. Fuel in minus fuel out is equals zero if the activities use up the same amount of fuel that was taken in from all that eating of the meal plan we did. So we have to make sure there is no imbalance between these two. It can't be any simpler than that.

This fuel brought into the body is burned from all the daily processes in the body even if we are at rest to keep the body working like the beating of the heart, maintaining body temperature and all the work that the different parts of the body have to do. We need around 2000 calories for these even if we're just watching TV all day long.

We also need 50 to 100 calories spent just to be eating. We really need these calories for everything we do, even just for walking to the fridge, opening it and getting the food out. And more calories are needed for more strenuous physical activity like jogging or swimming.

So when we have more energy coming in than the energy going out to maintain the bodily functions, what do you suppose happens? Simple, we just gain weight. So if we decide to take the car to go to the store that is just a few blocks away or take the elevator rather than use the stairs, then we are just spending around 100 fewer calories a day.

1 comment:

Roevel said...

I love this article...espcially clicking on "meal plan" and reading about fruit as a sensible part of one's diet ! - Roevel