Use the Free Calorie Counter!

Play with the Free Calorie Counter to answer the following questions:

• How many calories am I supposed to eat to maintain my weight?
• If I want to lose weight in a healthy way, how many calories do I need to cut out?
• How do I spread those calories across the kinds of food I am eating to maintain good food balance?
  
• What's the least number of calories I can eat for a more rapid weight loss without making myself unhealthy?
  

Simply add your information to the Free Calorie Counter.

Use the drop down menu for inches and pounds.

Adjust the number of pounds per week you would like to 'lose' or 'gain'.

Click 'ReCalculate' for your results!

Do you want to play with the Percentage of Proteins / Carbohydrates / Fats?

You can!  If you want a more specialized diet, like a 'high protein diet', simply t ake the total number of calories you need daily from above and go to:

FreeDieting.com's Macronutrient Calculator.

You can play with the percentage of food macronutrients you are eating and come up with custom guidance!

What is a Calorie?

Think about a calorie as a packet of energy stored in the food you are eating.  When you eat, the food is metabolized (broken down) and the energy is released to fuel the body's energy requirements to move and 'live'.

The number of calories contained in food depends on the 'building blocks' contained within the food.  This can easily be calculated with the following formula:

• 1 gram of Protein = 4 Calories
• 1 gram of Carbohydrate = 4 Calories
• 1 gram of Fat = 9 Calories
• 1 gram of Alcohol = 7 Calories

Therefore, your calories can be calculated simply by knowing the amount of these three building blocks in the food you are eating!

Good news!  You can read the nutrition label on most foods to see the number of calories per serving already calculated for you.

• Be careful!  You have to multiply the number of servings in the package by the number of calories printed to get the total calories inside the package.
• (When it says 100 calories per cookie and there are 30 servings in the box, you could devour today's and part of tomorrow's calories during your evening's TV shows!)
  

Scientifically, a calorie is a unit of energy:

• Technically a calorie is the amount of heat energy required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water up 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit).

Are all Calories the Same?

A calorie is a calorie.  A calorie from a protein has the exact same amount of energy stored in it that a calorie from a fat contains.

Don't confuse the calorie count with the NUTRITIONAL VALUE contained in the food!

• There can be 120 calories in a cookie or you can eat 120 calories from two slices of whole wheat bread.
• The amount of energy released will be the same, but there is more nutritional value in the bread.
• The bread likely has more vitamins / minerals your body can use to stay healthy.
  

The way each is METABOLIZED (broken down by your body) is also important. 

• The calories from the cookie will be metabolized quickly causing a more rapid rise in blood sugar.
• That rise in blood sugar triggers other chemical pathways...increasing the chance that energy will be stored as fat and not used as fuel!
• Whole wheat bread is metabolized slowly, allowing the body to use the calories more efficiently!

There is a theory called 'THERMIC EFFECT' of food.  That is the amount of energy it takes to break down the food with the body's enzymes and absorb it in a form that can be used.  It can slightly impact the calories used.

(A Quick Nutrition Guide...)

Fat Secret Website has a great calories-nutrition page that breaks down calories and nutritional value for most foods.  It is very well laid out easy to read!

Combine it with your Free Calorie Counter results to help guide you along your Inspiration Roadmap!

Basal Metabolic Rate and Calories Burned

Note your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is also calculated by the Free Calorie Counter above!  That is how many calories you burn in 24 hours...simply by resting and watching your favorite TV shows!

Take your results from the Free Calorie Counter and combine it with the calories burned from the calories burned determined by the Exercise Calorie Calculator.  You have a very powerful set of tools!

Then, you can also see how your exercise can burn more calories to keep your Health and Fitness 'Awesome!'

Please take your Free Calorie Counter
results and put them on your Inspiration Board!