Perhaps it is not a matter of discussion, but it is important to clarify that the word “diet” is misused most of the time. Strictly speaking, diet is the combination of the foods we eat and nothing more. Therefore, in a strict sense, what we eat everyday is what is considered to be our diet. Since a diet is what people eat, then diets are as varied as each person.

          Because of the desire to lose weight, diets began to be designed in order to achieve that purpose. A diet designed for the purpose of losing weight normally pays attention to the calories that it contains. In order to lose weight it is absolutely necessary to consume an amount of food that will provide fewer calories than our body needs. Each body needs a different amount of calories because calories is the energy that each body needs to sustain itself and since not two bodies that exactly alike, then each body has its own needs. There are many factors that determine how many calories a body needs such as gender, age, type of metabolism, amount and type of activities performed, size, height, and general health. There are tables that have been developed to help people to know how many calories their body needs approximately.

         In the web there are many sites that contain this information such as: www.buzzle.com/articles/calorie-intake-chart.html and www.indiacurry.com/pyramids/caloriechart.html. If you want to get a bit more accurate www.ExRx.net has a very good calculator. The government offers a PDF file of the dietary guidelines for Americans and can be downloaded from www.cnpp.usda.gov/publications.

          Once we know more or less how many calories we must consume to provide our bodies with the needed energy we can determine if we are eating more or less of what we should. We all know when we are overweight or heavier than we should be. In order to lose unwanted pounds we diet. When we diet we restrict our caloric intake to a minimum. It has been calculated that 3,500 calories is equivalent to 1 lb. Therefore, each 3,500 calories that you overeat makes you gain 1 lb of weight and each 3,500 calories that you drop from your diet makes you lose 1 lb.

          In other words, if your body needs 2,000 calories a day to sustain itself and say you eat 3,000 calories a day (an excess of 1,000 calories a day) it will take you 3 and a half days to gain one pound. If you diet properly (without starving, which could bring health complications) let’s say that you drop 500 calories a day, so instead of consuming 2,000 calories you consume only 1,500 calories. It will take you 7 days to lose one pound.

          Eating well is another story. Our body not only needs the energy from foods (the calories) but the many organic compounds (nutrients) found in foods in order to function properly and increase the probabilities of being healthy most of the time. We end up being what we eat. The more you eat foods that provide the required nutriments for your body, the healthier you will be not only physically but also mentally as well as emotionally. Again, there are tables that have been made to help us find the approximate minimum amounts of nutrients that our body requires in a daily basis (amount of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, etc.). As long as we fulfill the daily requirements we are in the right path to a healthy being.

          In the upcoming parts of this series I will be providing more information of how we can achieve the goal of learning to eat well. Do not miss this!!!!