Do you know how to read the food labels? It its illegal to sell prepackaged food without a food label, but if you don’t know how to read it properly, it is of very little use to you. However, learning how to read a food label can dramatically increase your chances of achieving your health goals.
This is particularly important if you want to keep your weight in check. Developing the ability to read a food label is the key to your weight loss journey.
Food labels are mandatory for a reason
We all know that some foods are better for us than others. But not all of us know how to distinguish between the two. Do you know why that is? There’s two things – not being able to read food labels, and being updated with the scientific evidence.
Now I got to admit… reading nutrition and health studies isn’t the sexiest thing you could be doing with your time. It takes time, and not everyone can interpret a study properly.
However, what we can all do is learning how to read a food label. If you are able to read a food label, you are able to pick the healthiest of two similarly looking foods! For example, imagine you are in your lunch break at work and you head to the nearest shop to buy a sandwich for lunch. You have loads of sandwiches to choose from, but how do know which one will help you achieve your weight loss goal and which one will compromise it?
calories first
It comes down to the food label.
Amongst other things, a food label will have information regarding the following:
Calories, fat, saturated fat, carbohydrates, sugar, protein, salt.
The first thing we need to tackle is the CALORIES. Do you know why? Because whether you gain or lose weight is determined by the number of calories you eat. We all have a MAGIC NUMBER. Going significantly OVER that magic number will make you GAIN weight. On the other hand, staying considerably UNDER that magic number means you will LOSE weight. If you want to maintain your weight, you simply aim at that number.
what is your basic metabolic rate (BMR)?
Let’s say that your number is 2000kcals. If you CONSISTENTLY eat 2400kcals per day, for a whole week, at the end of the week you will have gained weight. There’s no way around it.
Similarly, if you consistently eat 1700kcals, you will end the week weighing less than you did at the start of the week.
This number is the sum of your BMR and your physical activity (PA). Your BMR (basic metabolic rate) is the number of calories your body needs to function properly – to maintain basic metabolic functions. Hence the name basic METABOLIC rate. This number varies with age, sex, height, and weight. So, for the purpose of illustration, let’s say your BMR is 1600kcals.
The next step is to add physical activity. Why? Well, you need energy for MORE than just maintaining your metabolism going. You need energy to walk, to run, to lift things, to think, to type on your keyboard, to talk to a friend, all of this burns calories. If you need 500kcals to meet your physical activity needs, you need to ADD 500kcals to your BMR number. Hence, since your magic number is BMR + PA, it means your magic number is 1600 + 500 = 2100kcals.
know your magic number!
What does this mean? This means that if you want to maintain your weight, you need to be eating 2100kcals per day.
If you want to LOSE weight, all you need to do is to eat 200/300 calories BELOW that. So if you started eating 1500kcals per day, for 7 days, you will definitely lose weight after at the end of the week.
Knowing your magic number is the FIRST STEP in your weight loss journey. You can find out your magic number simply by using an online calculator, it’s that simple! Just type “BMR calculator” on google search and fill in your details and boom, there you have it.
Knowing this number will help you SELECT the foods you eat… If your weight loss number is 1600kcals and you eat a sandwich that has 700kcals, that means you only have 900kcals left to consume until… you go to bed at night. If you go OVER that number, you can forget your weight loss. And… if you go too OVER that number, you must DEFINITELY expect… weight gain.
become aware, pay attention!
You know… It’s becoming popular that RESTAURANTS include the number of calories on the menu, so you can train your eye to spot that number. If your magic number is 1500kcals and choose the dish with 700kcals, followed by a 300kcal dessert, you are making it very HARD for YOU to lose weight.
If you’ve just eaten 1000 out of your allowed 1500kcals you only have 500kcals to play with. That’s not to hard to MESS UP. A slice of bread has about 200kcals, make it two and add some butter with it and you’re over your magic number. What does that mean? Weight gain!
So my advice is: find out your magic number. For that you need to know your BMR and your physical activity level. Once you have that number in front of you… stick to it.
Start reading the food labels of the foods you have in your house and WRITE IT DOWN on a piece of paper. For example, did you just eat 2 slices of bread with a bit of butter? Look at both food labels and write down how many calories they have. Do the same for ALL the foods you eat during the day.
For the foods that have no food labels – i.e. loose fruit – just do a quick Google search. The internet is right there, always ready to help you. If you just ate a banana, google “how many calories are in a banana?” and… write it down.
WRAP UP + A LITTLE PUSH
You don’t need to do this every day for the rest of your life. If you do this for the next couple WEEKS you will see that your ability to calculate calories and stay within your required number of calories for the day IMPROVES.
Start TODAY. Make today the FIRST DAY where you start working on your awareness of the calorie content of the foods you eat. You’d be surprised how eye-opening it is.
Why is this good? Because you can’t lose weight if your calorie intake is all over the place. You will realize that you’ve been eating over your magic number for too long and you will start to make changes!
It’s time to change and get BETTER! Adopt this new habit and you will get results, I guarantee you! The ability to read food labels is going to pay off quicker than you think. It’s only a matter of time before you start losing weight. One thing is for sure, you will NEVER have control over your weight if you don’t know what you are putting in your mouth.
Hope you found this useful! Now go to your cupboard or fridge and get your eyes on some food labels 😉
