Do you know how many calories it takes to maintain your body weight?
If you are a woman who is not very active right now cause of the weather, like me, and weigh 124 pounds, also like me, then it takes about 1630 calories a day to maintain that weight. Now consider this, if I drank one Jack and coke, 161 cal, then topped it off with a couple of sugar cookies, 220 cal, then maybe a couple Godiva chocolates floating around this time of year, 210 cal, for a grand total of 591 calories! WOW!
Think about it…that’s almost one third of my daily caloric requirements and I’ve only had a cocktail, a couple of Christmas cookies and a couple of chocolate truffles! And I haven’t even had dinner yet!
Since it takes 3500 to gain one pound, if I eat 500 extra calories a day for seven days, I will have gained a pound in just one week.
So…do yourself a favor. Check out these calculators from The American Cancer Society to help figure out how many calories you are eating everyday to maintain your current weight.
If you smoke, you can calculate the number of cigarettes you smoke in a day and how much it costs you.
Remember, the key to any change is awareness and knowledge. Once you have all the facts, it will be easier to be mindful of what you are putting in your mouth this holiday season.
