There are a number of free calorie counters available on the internet.  These programs allow you to select a specific food and it will tell you how many calories are in one serving.  It will also tell you what the recommended serving size is.  If you are on a diet, you owe it to yourself to check out the free calorie counters out there.

What should you look for in a calorie counter and how will you know when you have found a good one?  This article looks at the basic components of free calorie counters and shows you some of the sophisticated options out there.

Free calorie counters should include basic groceries.  An apple is an apple is an apple, no matter how you slice it.  Included in this category is dairy, eggs, fruit, meat, poultry, seafood, and vegetables.

But, so much of what we eat today is processed food.  So, a good program will also include various branded foods.  For instance, you should be able to find out that one serving of Jif Extra Crunchy Peanut Butter equals 2 tablespoons and has 190 calories in it.  Additionally, you might find that 16 percent of the food comes from protein, 71 percent from fat, and 14 from carbs.  It has 2 grams of fiber.

Sophisticated free calorie counters also include sections for popular recipes.  You might learn that the popular Indian dish Chicken Tikka has 232 calories.

Additionally, many free calorie counters include the foods from popular restaurants and fast food outlets.  You might be surprised at just how many calories some of your favorite restaurant foods have in them.  And, you should take note that most of the time you will consume fewer calories if you go to a hamburger shop than a sit down restaurant.

The calorie counters depend on your ability to judge a serving.  Too many times what we judge to be enough for a meal is really multiple servings.  To help you with this, the free calorie counters divide foods into their standard suggested serving sizes and tell you what the weight in grams for that amount is.

While most programs simply list the calories in foods, some free calorie counters have a companion program that shows you just how many calories you’ve burned by doing specific activities.

Everyone knows that the way you lose weight is to burn more calories than you consume in a given period.  To lose 1 pound, you must burn 3500 extra calories than you eat.  These calories burned calculators help you determine just how much you can eat based on how much activity you have in a specific day.

Further, if you have an extra cookie at lunch, you will know how many extra minutes you have to hit on the treadmill after work with these programs.

If you are trying to lose weight, a simple search for “free calorie counters” on Google will give you a large choice. There are a lot of free calorie counters available! Take your pick!

Calorie counter charts allow the millions of people that are on a dieting plan a way to track their food intake.  Half of the people on a diet at any given time don’t know how to properly diet.  Calorie counter charts help to rectify this problem.

Many companies claim to have perfected calorie counter charts including Weight Watchers and Nutra-Slim. There are also all kinds of free calorie counter charts available on the internet if you do a basic search.

The reason that calorie counter charts are all the rage is because people are beginning to see that fad diets, miracle diets, and fat burning pills don’t work.  The basics of dieting are that you have to consume less than you burn.  In fact, to lose 1 pound, you have to burn an extra 3500 calories.

Calorie counter charts simply systematize the process of dieting.  Here are some basic tips when starting your calorie counter charts.

1. Don’t supersize your meals.  Okay, McDonald’s has technically removed the “Super Size” designation, but now they want you to “go large.”  One of the biggest advantages to calorie counter charts is that you must record just how many calories that large fry has.  Perhaps that will make you decide to choose the small size – or go without.

2. Rather than having 3 “big” meals, eat several small portions each day.  Having an egg and an orange when you wake up, an apple and a slice of cheese at 10 or 11 a.m., three ounces of tuna with a green salad at 1, a snack of yogurt at 4 and a small dinner of a steamed chicken breast and broccoli will keep you full all day with fewer calories than a more traditional food plan.  You can keep track of all of this on your chart to make sure that you don’t go over.

3. Make sure you stay on top of your calories consumed and also keep track of your calories burned.  When you record everything on your chart, you will begin to lose weight.

4. Figure out how many calories you need to maintain your weight, and drop a small amount below that.  If you normally need 1800 calories, don’t drop to 1200 just to lose weight quickly as you will slow down your metabolism.  A 1500 calorie diet would be about right.

5. You can’t eat what you don’t have on hand.  Therefore, you should never shop when you are hungry.

6. Eat slowly.  You will consume fewer calories when you take the time to enjoy your meal.  In our fast food culture, this might be hard to get used to, but your waist line will appreciate it.

7. Be gentle with yourself.  Sometimes a donut will find its way onto your calorie counter charts.  If you “cheat” with a small item once or twice a week, you may actually last longer on the diet.

When you want to lose weight, you should start by developing your own calorie counter charts.  Keep a journal of the foods you eat each day along with their calorie count.  Make sure you are accurately recording the portions you ate.  You will soon begin to fit into your skinny jeans when you keep calorie counter charts.

Nutritionists measure the energy content of food in “calories” (sometimes capitalized and abbreviated as Cal or sometimes C, or abbreviated kcal as if small calories were being used), where each food calorie represents 4,186 joules. This is equivalent to 1000 of the calories used in chemistry, and thus the food Calorie would be called a kilocalorie if small calories were being used. However, in chemistry calories have been deprecated as a scientific unit of measure in favor of joules, and therefore in common modern usage the word “calorie” usually refers to a food calorie.

This situation provides two ways of talking about the amount of calories in food which look quite different but that express the exact same amount of energy. One may say that dietary fat has nine kilocalories (kcal) per gram, while proteins and carbohydrates have four kcal per gram, or, one may say that fat has nine Calories per gram while carbohydrates and proteins have four Calories per gram.

The amount of food energy in a particular food is measured by completely burning the food in a bomb calorimeter, a method known as direct calorimetry. Dieticians recommend counting calories to avoid obesity. The government of the United Kingdom recommends consumption of no more than 2000 Calories (2000 kcal) by women each day and 2500 Calories (2500 kcal) by men each day.

In physics or chemistry, a calorie (abbreviated cal) is a unit of energy that equals the amount of heat necessary to raise the temperature of one gram of water by 1 degree Celsius, at a pressure of 1 atm. This amount of heat depends somewhat on the initial temperature of the water, which results in various different units sharing the name of “calorie” but having slightly different energy values:

* the 15 °C calorie,
* the 4 °C calorie,da
* the mean 0 °C to 100 °C calorie,
* the International Steam Table calorie,
* the thermochemical calorie,

The slight variations in these units can be seen if you convert them to joules. For example, one 15 °C calorie is the amount of heat necessary to raise the temperature of 1 g of water from 14.5 °C to 15.5 °C. This is approximately equal to 4.1855 J or 3.968×10-3 Btu. The International Steam Table calorie is approximately equal to 4.1868 J and the thermochemical calorie 4.184 J.
Of these various units, what is most commonly meant by calorie in cntemporary English text is the 15 °C calorie.

The nutritional Calorie represents 1000 of these 15 °C calories. Since this could be a source of confusion and error, these units are now deprecated. The International System of Units (SI) unit for heat (and for all other forms of energy) is the joule (J), while the (obsolete) cgs (centimeter gram second system of units) system uses the erg (unit of energy and mechanical work in the centimeter-gram-second system) – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Before start losing weight and counting calories you must first calculate the number of calories your body needs everyday, because this amount changes from person to person, depending on sex, age, weight, muscle content or height. Averages are situated around 2000 calories for women and 2500 for men. An easy, but not so accurate calculation is that for every 500 less than your normal amount of calories eaten every day you will lose up to one pound (453,6g) per week.

Counting calories must be included as part of your diet, because when you loss weight is best to know how many calories your food has, and so ensuring that the amount of calories burned each day is more than the amount stored.  All nutritionists agree that a healthy low fat diet without counting calories could not exists, so take your time and solve that problem with various calorie calculators.

By knowing all the time the amount of calories consumed you can control how much you can eat and how it will affect your body. When dieting and counting the calories you can eat almost anything as long as you do not exceed the number of calories burned every day.

When you eat fewer calories, your body is forced to consume the fat stored to make up the deficit in your calorie count. Nutritionist’s advice is that you must combine psychical exercises with healthy eating in order to create some calorie deficit.

No matter how hard we all try to lose weight, no matter how many gimmicks we buy into, no matter how many miracle foods or super foods claim all kinds of weight loss guarantees, just about any family physician will say the same thing when you ask him how to shed a few pounds.  Exercise more and eat less.  That translates into getting off your butt and move, and following a calorie reduction diet.

The only thing you really need to be concerned about when deciding how you are going to attack your calorie reduction diet plan, is to reduce the number of calories you getting sufficiently enough to make weight loss happen while at the same time getting enough calories (and nutrients) to keep your body from going into “starvation mode.”

We have long known that calories must be cut from most people’s diets if they are going to lose weight, but if you are one of those people who already has a very limited calorie intake and you still find yourself unable to lose weight, you may actually need to eat more calories!  This is what happens:  Your body is designed to survive at all costs.

That means that, according to your bodily system, if you go eating 800 calories a day all of a sudden, your body system begins to think some tragedy has befallen you and you are unable to find food.  So, your body goes into ultra drive to protect you and conserves its consumption of calories so you don’t starve to death.  If you have long been eating carefully-counted food as part of a long-term calorie reduction diet and you have stopped losing weight, consult your physician for advice about whether or not to add more calories to your eating plan.

Even though many people find themselves in the above category, most of us still eat more than we can burn off, so we need to follow a calorie reduction diet.  The easiest way to do that is to cut out anything we know is “fattening.”  It really isn’t all that complicated.  If food is naturally occurring, it is likely to be the best for you and most likely to be a good part of a calorie reduction diet.

That means you should be spending ninety percent of your grocery shopping time in the produce and meat sections.  Eat lots of raw or steamed vegetables, consume a moderate amount of lean protein, and avoid man-made food as much as possible.  Before you put it in your buggy, ask yourself, “Did nature provide this or did man?”  If the answer is “man,” leave it in the store.

Examples of man-made items include:  bread, pastries, canned vegetables, pretzels, potato chips, cakes, pasta, egg noodles, and so on.

Examples of nature-provided items include:  broccoli, green beans, carrots, fruits, lean meats, nuts, and so on.

Along with counting calories, look for God or nature-created foods when choosing how to eat on your calorie reduction diet.

At least 7 scientific studies have provided strong evidence that energy containing beverages (i.e., “liquid calories”) do not properly activate the satiety mechanisms in the body and brain and do not satisfy the appetite as well as food in solid form.

Epidemiological research also supports a positive association between calorie-containing beverage consumption and increased body weight or body mass index. New research now suggests that soda may not be the only culprit…

The primary source of liquid calories in the United States Diet is carbohydrate, namely soda. Now running a close second are specialty and dessert coffees. Did you know that a 16 ounce Frappucino can contain 500 calories or even more! That’s one-third of a typical female’s daily calorie intake while on a fat loss program.

A recent study at Purdue University published in the International Journal of Obesity set out to learn even more about this bodyfat – liquid calories relationship.

Researchers compared solid and beverage forms of foods composed primarily of carbohydrate, fat or protein in order to document the independent effect of food form in foods with different dominant macronutrient sources.

Based on previous research, some experts have recommended targeting specific beverages as being “worse” than others. High fructose corn syrup and soda has been singled out the most and you’ve probably seen that yourself in the news.

There’s no question that soda has been on top of the “hit list” for some time now, by virtue of the amounts and frequency of consumption alone.

However, this recent study says that from a pure energy balance perspective, we should be cautious about ALL liquid calories, not just soda and not just carbohydrates!

Fruit juice for example, appears to be an obvious improvement over soda, so many people have swapped out their soda for fruit juice. However, when fruit juice is compared to an equal amount of calories from whole fruit, the whole fruit satisfies appetite better (largely due to the bulk and fiber content), and so you tend to eat fewer calories for the day.

[On an interesting side note, soup does not seem to apply; soup has higher satiety value than calorie containing beverages, possibly for mere cognitive reasons.]

If you were to meticulously track your calories from beverages and you made sure that your calories remained the same for the day, whether liquid or solid, there would probably be little or no difference in your body composition.

But that’s not what usually happens in free-living humans. Most people do not accurately track or report their caloric intake. Our mistake is that we tend to drink calories IN ADDITION TO our usual food intake, not instead of it.

Men are especially guilty of this when they drink alcohol – Men tend to drink AND eat, while women tend to drink INSTEAD OF eating.

This new research found that with all three macronutrients – protein, carbs or fat – daily calorie intake was significantly greater when the beverage form was consumed as compared to the solid.

Yes, it’s true! Even protein drinks did not satisfy the appetite the way that protein foods did!

While you would think that protein drinks are purely a good thing, because protein foods have been proven to reduce appetite and increase satiety, if you turn a solid protein food into a protein drink, it loses it’s appetite suppressive properties in the same way that happens when you turn fruit into fruit juice.
[NOTE: After weight training workouts, liquid nutrition may have benefits that outweigh any downside, especially on muscle-gaining programs]

Why do liquid calories fail to elicit the same response as whole foods? reasons include:

* high calorie density
* lower satiety value
* more calories ingested in short period of time
* lower demand for oral processing
* shorter gastrointestinal transit times
* energy in beverages has greater bioaccessibility and bioavailability
* mechanisms may include cognitive, orosensory, digestive, metabolic, endocrine and neural influences (human appetite is a complex thing!!!)
* last but not least, nowhere in our history have our ancestors had access to large amounts of liquid calories. Alcohol may have been around as far back as several thousand years BC, but even that is a blip on the evolutionary calendar of humanity.

As a result, our genetic code has never developed the physiological mechanisms to properly register the caloric content in liquids the way it does when you eat, chew and swallow whole foods.

Bottom line: This study suggests that we shouldn’t just target one type of liquid calories such as soda. If you’re trying to beat body fat, it’s wise to limit all types of liquid calories and eat whole foods as much as possible.

Start by ditching the soda. Then ditch the high calorie dessert coffees. Then cut back on the alcohol. From there, be cautious even about milk, juice and protein drinks.

Drink water or tea instead, or limited amounts of black coffee – without all the high calorie extras.

If you do consume any beverages that contain calories, such as protein shakes, be sure to account for those calories meticulously and be sure you don’t drink them in addition to your usual food intake, but in place of an equal amount of food calories.

Remember, those protein shakes you might be drinking are called “meal replacements” not “free calories!”

For many years I have suggested focusing primarily on whole foods rather than liquids, even protein shakes. Unlike so many other fat reduction programs, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle does not require any kind of liquid meal replacement or protein drinks and our company does not exist to sell supplements; we are here to educate you and millions of others about the realities of body fat loss.

We now have even more scientific data that confirms what Burn The Fat has been teaching all along.

I hope you found this helpful. You can learn more about “Burn The Fat” at www.BurnTheFat.com

Train hard and expect success,

Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
Fat Loss Coach
www.BurnTheFat.com

Reference: Effects of food form on appetite and energy intake in lean and obese young adults. International Journal of Obesity. 2007 Nov (11):1688-95. Mourao DM, Bressan J, Campbell WW, Mattes RD. Department of Foods and Nutrition, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2059, USA.

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified personal trainer and freelance fitness writer. Tom is the author of “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com