Caloric Intake and Output

Your body uses calories by converting them into energy you need to function. Calorie counting actually works in trying to loose or maintain weight. Why? If you burn more calories than you take in by eating and drinking, your body has to find the extra calories somewhere else. The most readily available sources of calories besides the food you eat are fat stores and muscle tissue. That means that if you regularly burn 2000 calories a day and you only eat 1500, your body will pull the other 500 from somewhere in your body. This means that you loose weight. However, most people only burn around 1800 calories a day and eat over 2000, some even ranging as high as eating 3000. When you eat more calories than you are using, the calories are converted to fat stores. The first component to a successful diet for weight loss is eating significantly less calories than you are burning in a day.

Alkaline vs. Acidic and pH Balance

The human body has to maintain a blood pH level of 7.35-7.45 or it will die. Every food that you eat can either help or hinder your pH level and what your body does to maintain a healthy pH will determine how healthy you are. The harder your body has to work to maintain its pH level, the more diseased you will become. The more acidic food you include in your diet, the more you body has to leach calcium from your bones to act as a buffer for your blood (causing osteoporosis), protein from your muscles as a buffer to your organs (causing a wasting of muscle groups), and make your pancreas work overtime producing biocarbonates which are also a buffer for your blood (causing pancreatic failure or pancreatic cancer).A healthy lifestyle and successful diet can be achieved through eating foods that are naturally alkaline, or that have a relatively similar pH level as your blood. The second component to a successful diet is eating food that actually helps to stabilize blood pH rather than cause it to go out of whack.

Controlling Appetite with Nutrient Density

Diets fail when they don't satisfy you. Your body has two mechanisms that need to be satisfied or you'll be hungry. The first is the "I'm full" button, or the mechanism in the stomach that signals the brain that you've eaten enough. This one is easily satisfied. The second mechanism isn't. The second is further along in the digestion process where your "nutrient receptors" are stationed. They let your brain know if you are getting the vitamins, minerals, and other things your body needs to perform every function vital to life. If the meal you ate doesn't contain the necessary nutrients, you'll be hungry again quite quickly whether you ate 100 calories or 1000 in your last meal. The third component of a successful diet is eating nutrient rich foods that will satisfy your nutrient receptors and help you stay feeling full longer. Nutrient rich foods are usually fresh, unprocessed, and a balance between cooked and raw.