I think it is important to clarify this common question. First of all, clarify that I do not consider it a healthy habit to be counting the calories we eat and expendWell, in the end, it’s easy to get obsessed with numbers and end up thinking that it all comes down to them.
Having said that, we must be clear that there is no “x” calorie figure that should have a ideal dinner or to lose weight. That you get to lose fat mass will depend on your daily habits. We must pay attention to three pillars when we talk about healthy lifestyle and if we intend to lose weight:
- Physical activity
- feeding
- Emotional management and rest.
Thus, to lose weight, we must focus on more than just “diet.” You should take care of sleeping a minimum of hours and taking care of your emotional health; in parallel at the food level you should being in caloric deficit managing the energy you take in and the energy you spend with activities of daily life and sports. And that implies both business days and holidays. As you can see, more than the energy provided at dinner, to lose fat what you must take into account is the energy consumed and expended in your day to day and not only the calories ingested at dinner.
If you do not lose weight, you should observe these three pillars that I comment on and ask yourself some questions:
Feeding
You can ask yourself some questions such as:
- Is my diet very restrictive during the week and on holidays “I let myself go”?
- Am I constantly hungry?
- Am I consuming fruit, vegetables, protein foods, cereals, legumes …?
- Am I abusing the consumption of products, prepared food, sweets …?
- Do I eat a lot of meals outside the home and in those intakes I do not take into account the nutritional balance too much?
I will talk about this section in more detail in the following points of the article, but I want to emphasize that if by making changes on your own you do not get the result you expected, you doubt if you are providing all the nutrients you need or think that you are doing magic to achieve it, I strongly advise you that put yourself in the hands of a registered dietitian-nutritionist who can evaluate your case and make the necessary calculations so that you lose weight, but maintain your health.