The Truth About Food and Your Weight

Obesity is on the rise and a large section of the populace is overweight. Even kids are showing a trend of being overweight. Much of the problem comes down to the food we eat, but one must seperate the fact from the fiction to understand.

There is a lot of money to be made in helping people lose those extra pounds. Tons of companies are doing just this, but all the different approaches to cutting weight makes it difficult to know what is true and what is not. Not anymore.

Eating this or eating that is the answer. In truth, the issue is purely one of calories. If you eat less calories than you expend in energy, you lose weight. If you eat more than you expend, you gain weight. It is as simple as that.

The type of food you eat is important because of its caloric density. Certain foods like vegetables have low calorie counts. An entire head of lettuce has about 100 calories. A fast food specialty cheeseburger may have 700 to 1,000 calories.

Eat your last meal before five in the afternoon and you will lose weight. That's the old folks tale. It isn't accurate. The issue is what you eat, not when and the total amount of calories you take in during a 24 hour period.

Lose a billion pounds in the next 24 hours! Ah, we've all read the ads and hype. Can you lose a bunch of weight quickly. The truth is you can. The problem is almost all the weight is water, which you will gain when you end the diet.

Fat is the reason we are all, well, fat. So goes the story. As with many stories, this isn't entirely true. The body needs monounsaturated fats that are found in nuts, seeds and olive oil for example.

Cut out one of the three daily meals and you will lose weight. More than a few diet gurus have mentioned this one. It is a strategy that almost always fails. Why? You tend to overeat during the remaining meals of the day.

Drinking a full glass of water before a meal helps you lose weight. Ah, this one is true. The water does not do anything to the calories in the food, but it takes up space in your stomach. As a result, you eat less before you feel full.

Bicyclist in the Tour de France eat over 7,000 calories a day. Why? Because they are burning them off like mad riding 70 or 80 miles a day. You can lose weight following their lead. Eat sensibly and exercise every day. It always works.

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