Some useful numbers

Over the past few weeks I have been accumulating some useful numbers (mainly in my head). I'm referring to calories - so I thought I'd post some here:

3500 calories is equivalent to 1 pound.

For someone of my weight, and female, a daily calorie intake of about 2250 will maintain my current weight (click on the image link or on the title above for a really useful tool which will calculate your daily calorie requirement - based on height, current weight, and level of activity).

My pedometer (available from Healthier Weight) calculates energy output in calories - for me this is typically 500 per day.

Each day I am consuming about 950 calories.

This means that my NET daily calorie intake is 950 - 500 = 450.

If my body needs 2250 per day to maintain my current weight, then I am consuming 2250-450 = 1800 calories a day LESS than I need to. Given that 3500 calories equates to 1 pound, this means that I should lose 1 pound about every two days (2 x 1800 = 3600). This level of weight loss will only be maintained if I continue to exercise at my current level. Also, the amount of calories you need each day to maintain weight, decreases as I lose weight (so you need to re-do the calculations every so often). In reality, my activity level is likely to decrease when I get back to work next week and so my weight loss will slow down a bit.

A few other useful figures:

• 1g of fat is equivalent to 9 calories
• 1g of carbohydrate is equivalent to 3.75 calories
• 1g of protein is equivalent to 4 calories
• 1g (or ml) of alcohol is equivalent to 7 calories

This is one reason why providers always recommend using a low fat diet and avoiding alcohol! Proteins, also, are more likely to fill you up more quickly than other foods. My provider says that my side pate should be one quarter filled with starch (eg potato, rice etc), one quarter filled with protein (eg fish, beans, meat - for the carnivores!), and HALF filled with vegetables. This is because they are very good for you, have relatively few calories, and also contain lots of useful minerals and vitamins.

Here are the calorie counts (per 100g) for a few vegetables that I eat a lot:

Green beans - 25
Mushrooms - 13-16*
Red onion - 37
Yellow pepper - 25
Tomato - 19
Aubergine and courgette - 18
Cucumber - 10
Broccoli and cauliflower - 31
Butternut squash - 38

Watch out for some high calorie vegetables such as sweet potato - which is 80/100g!

* Corrected 07.01.09