Weight Gain.
Wow most women hate the words. I mean really doesn't everyone want to be a thin as a rail?
Well the answer is NO!
There
is a balance to everything and that includes one's weight. In a time
before I had a smaller frame and so being under 100 pounds wasn't a
problem. Now life has taken over, my hips are wider and gravity is
fighting harder than ever I notice myself looking sickly and older than I
should. I always receive comments that I look tired
and I never can seem to get ahead or even just comfortable in my skin
like I was before.
First let me state for the record, I do not starve myself, I eat regularly.
I
just don't eat enough to get ahead of my metabolism. That changes now!I
am counting my calories and watching what I eat. I want to gain weight
in a healthy and structured fashion. Sure I could just go out and but 50
big macs but that doesn't help me. I might like how I look but hate
myself inside.
This body is the only I got and I want to keep it
lean and happy just with a few extra pounds here and there if you know
what I mean. When I was young finding time to workout was not a problem
now my life is much busier. Working out seems like a distant memory. I
resolve to change that. With the help of pinterest and the internet I
hope to reclaim what is rightfully mine, comfort and happiness.
I hope to record my progress here for the few that have this same problem and want to over come it. Those who for health and happiness need to adjust some habits in order to get to the sweet place of balance.
So here is the Skinny....
According to this graph on WebMD http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/estimated-calorie-requirement
Says I should be taking in 2400 calories. I choose the active column for how high my metabolism is but you can see what works for you. I will post the graph at the end because I don't know the ends and outs of the blog thing and graph was making problems for me.
Now a calorie is defined as either of two units of heat energy. When spoken of in terms of food is a a unit measuring energy of food once eaten and digested. So I understand that this is telling me if I want energy I have to eat. Right. I have energy even if I don't eat but I'm listening. I looked up How calorie intake really relates to our lives and I found articles telling me that a reduction in calories actually extends your life. This is not working for me. I can not listen to this because I have a different goal. But also I do believe in the health benefits of fasting and eating healthy. As I go through this adventure I will speak on those benefits in a later post.
I found a site on science.howstuffworks.com that gave a great explanation of this calorie thing. Apparently 3,500 calories is a pound of fat. Your fat on your body is you storing those calories for later when you need more energy. If you exercise or have an active lifestyle the metabolism increases. after high energy routines your metabolism can not return to normal until about 2 hours after you stop the activity. So you are burning more calories than you think after high energy activities. Makes sense to me. Now a calorie is a calorie. All sources of calories are the same. Example: whether they are protein, fat or carbohydrates. But where the calories comes from is very important to know and balence correctly in your diet. You need a certain portion o ffat from your body to digest vitamins and minerals. but most of your calorie intake has to come from carbohydrates and proteins. Which are healthier sources of calories. It is suggested by the food and drug administration that about 30 percent of you calorie intake be fat.
Example: If I am to gaol for 2400 calories each day then out of that needs to be about 740 calories of fat. 2400total intake of calories * 30% for fat intake = 740 calories of fat intake every day.
Following me?
Back to these three forms of Calories.
The difference in the calories is how they are burned.
A carbohydrate uses more energy to store in your body. 25% of the carbs you ate are burned up in storing the rest. So if you eat 100 carbs you will only store 75 becuase you used up the rest in the process.
A fat calories in indeed fat. Since it doesn't have to convert to fat it only uses 3% of energy to store it. So you retain 97 calories out of 100.
What I understand about proteins is that they first have to be converted to glucose and then if there is an excess of glucose that will be turned into fat and stored. But this process uses enough energy doing so that protein calories hardly ever get stored as fat like the others.
Carbohydrates, proteins, and fats are called the “macro nutrients.” Carbohydrates gives our bodies energy, and proteins help all our
muscles and glands to be healthy, and we need fats for hormone production and
for a healthy nervous system.
I will post further examination or the calories like where do we find these proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. But for now I am back to balance.
For Now I am going to keep a diary of the things I eat and when. I will record the calories of the nutritional facts and do so for a few days to see the path I heading down. As of today I weigh 93 pounds. and my goal is to get to 105 first. If I feel like I want 5 more when I get here I will cross that bridge but for now I want to be as realistic as possible and the fruit of all this research.
Please leave any comments about his topic. If you have had weight gain or loss issues leave a comment and tell me about your progress and hopefully I can help you and y'all can help me. Thank you for your time.
