It's All in the Numbers

and in the weight training - remember today is workout day!

When you buy food these days, it's perhaps a habit to look at the label and see how many calories it has. (And, for cerain people, how many carbs, for others, how much sodium)

Lots of people like to know precisely where they're at at all times - they count calories all day, all week, all year. And that's fine if you have that kind of mindset and it doesn't feel like a burden. (As you know, my own philosophy is don't count calories. Start at a baseline where you know you eat too much - a logical conclusion since you're overweight, eh? and start cutting down portions gradually, painlessly.

But knowing the numbers can be helpful.

Let's say you're on a 2,500 calorie a day diet. And let's say that at 10 pm, you've only consumed 2,000 calories. And let's say you typically stay up til midnight, and always get the munchies around 11.

Well...since you've still got 500 carolries to spare, you can eat some kind of food...as long as it has only 500 calories. Heck, that's a bowl of icecream! (But only ice cream - remember if you add hot fudge, or fruit and nuts, or jelly as the British apparently do, that adds to the calorie intake.)

Yet I advise you not to eat after 7 pm, or if you do eat, stifle the cravings with carrots rather than ice cream. Why?

Well, because when you're trying to lose weight, it's better to leave off those extra 500 calories entirely if you possibly can. And although ice cream tastes great, it has a tendency to wake you up, when you want to be able to go to sleep.

And food breaks down differently in your body based on your activity level. That's why, for example, sumo wresters from Japan eat a huge lunch-time meal - then go take a two hour nap.

Of course you're not in that league, and a small bowl of ice cream is not going to transform over night into 5 pounds of fat...butstill, it's something to consider.

While your goal is to lose weight - no sugary snacks after 7 pm. Once you've reached the maintenance level, nothing wrong with a small bowl...