Losing weight is pure mathematics and it comes at no extra cost unlike getting rid of other burdens. How many weights does a human being carry? There could be the weight of a debt, a burden of the responsibilities of his family, a business, a small state or even that of a whole nation. Also, there are the burdens of our past karmas and those of newly accumulating karmas daily.For a few, this all was not sufficient and so they carry their own body weight, too! Just go through this list once again and you will realize that getting rid of excess body weight is much easier than getting rid of the rest of those. 


      Our body is like a mobile phone. We charge it and discharge it after use and recharge it. Here the charging is by means of food and if left unused, it gets accumulated. There must be a balance between food consumed and various activities carried out in order to obtain the desired calorie balance. Before downloading a file, we make sure what size it is. On the same ground, we must be aware of the calorie content of the food we eat.

Calorie loss by exercise

    I don’t want to confuse you with a long list of calorie counts and various charts. It is always better to give a range instead of giving specific values. I have tried to simplify it by dividing our day-to-day foods and activities into 8 groups- A to H. You can assess your calorie budget by counting the calories you consume and calories you utilize which is specific for your present body weight. Coming to the practical level of losing weight, the best results could be obtained by selecting your food from higher up in the order and choosing the type of desired activity from lower down the order in the following chart.

   Calorie Requirement for Various Physical Activities:


-Group A  (Formula Range: 0.4 - 0.8 x your weight in kg per 30 minutes) Sitting, talking, reading, tv/computer, writing, standing,
                  Thus if you perform any activity from group A and your weight is 70 kg, your calorie loss in 30 minutes will be between the range: 70 x 0.4 and 70 x 0.8 = between 28 and 56 calories. Same for the other groups.

-Group B  (Range: 0.9 - .32)  sitting occupational work, attending a meeting, driving, cooking, shopping,

-Group C  (Range: 1.35 - 1.75) carrying light things, household chores, car washing, vacuuming, shopping, teaching, theater work, slow dancing, hang gliding, frisbee, golf without cart, welding,

-Group D (Range: 1.75 - 2.6) walking, gymnastics, horse riding, badminton, skating, kayaking, carpentry, yoga

-Group E (Range : 2.7 - 3.50) weight lifting, low impact aerobics, jogging, fast dancing, wrestling, volleyball, heavy gardening work like digging, spading, shoveling, cutting wood ,construction work

-Group F (Range : 3.55 - 4.45) High impact aerobics, bicycling, rowing, football, tennis, basketball, hockey, skating, skiing, beach volleyball, tai chi, hiking, rope jumping, stair climbing, work involving heavy tools,

-Group G (Range : 4.50 - 5.26)All group F activities done vigorously, boxing, martial arts, running, swimming,

-Group H (Range : 5.26 - 7) All group G activities done vigorously

   Calorie Content of Various Types of Food:


Choose Your Food According to Your Activity and Calorie Requirement-

-Cat 1 (15-40cal/100gm): plain salads containing green vegetables or fruit vegetables like tomato or cucumber etc., misto, buttermilk 15, beer 30, lemonade 40, plain soup 35 cal,

 -Cat 2 (40-80 cal/100 gm):crackers 42, orange-pineapple juice 60, milk 50, silken tofu 50, stew 56, coca-cola, Pepsi 50 (soft drinks not good for health), dal-sambar 70-80 cal

-Cat 3 (80-130 cal/100 gm): boiled rice 120, ice-cream 120, cream 130, kabab 134, goulash 120, risotto 129, crab 120, wine 90, coffee 100, milk-shakes 100, puddings 100, sprouts-pulses-beans-legumes 100, fruits 60-100,ketchup 97, pav-bhaji 100, paneer 80, lobster-oyster-shrimp-scallops 80 cal,

-Cat 4 (130-200 cal/100 gm): fish 150, meat 175, egg 160,spaghetti 157, lasagna 163, fajita 150,     macaroni 157 cal,

-Cat 5 (200-300 cal/100 gm): biscuits 280, bread, pizza 299, roti-paratha 250,pancakes 200, French toast, burrito, taco 190, pupusa 182, crepe 200, muffins 245, rolls, tortillas, distilled alcohol e.g. rum, gin , vodka, whisky,

-Cat 6 (300-450 cal/100 gm): cakes 350+, desserts 350, cheese 350, french fries, cookies 440, candies 425, chocolate bars, pastries 403, croissant 406, doughnuts 400, hamburger, sugar 387, mithai 400,syrups 300, honey 304, falafel 300 cal, 

-Cat 7 (450-600 cal/100 gm): margarine 500, cheeseburger 475, dark chocolate 500, potato chips, marzipan 500 cal,

-Cat 8 (600-800 cal/100 gm): vegetable oil ,ghee 800, nuts , seeds, dry fruits 700, butter 700, salad dressings 625, festival fried delicacies( like in Diwali) 600 cal,

    See this detailed food-calorie chart for ready reference

    Thus, if you weigh 80 kg and jog for 30 minutes daily, your daily calorie loss will be : Group E range x 80 i.e. between 216 to 280 calories.


    One of my friends tried to convince me, "In the process of eating, the body utilizes 45 calories in half an hour. That means after 4 hours 180 calories will be burnt!” Please don’t try to do that!! Just to give you a rough idea, if you wish to lose 1kg or 2 lbs in 1 week, you will have to cut down 500 calories from your diet each day and start doing an activity which will utilize your 500 calories every day. This is a rough estimate and people have got even better results than this.

    

   As for the food chart, if you find this also difficult to review just remember that when the food is in its most natural state, it is most nutritious and calorie count is the minimum, when added with sugar or syrup calorie count gets doubled or tripled, when fried or added with butter or margarine it increases by four to five times, and when all of these gather together in a recipe, you imagine the rest! Losing weight is much easier than getting rid of the rest of it.


 ** 28 grams = 1 ounce. 1 cup = 8 ounce. 1 tablespoon full = 15 gm = 15 ml.( for water), 1/2 cup = 100 gms. approx.

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