Obesity is the number one growing epidemic in the United States.  Fast food restaurants have become a staple in the American diet and unhealthy lifestyles are taking over.  The question that American’s have to ask themselves is: why is this happening?  The answer, to some, is quite obvious, lack of knowledge and lack of understanding nutrition.

Calories are the.  Everything has calories.  There are calories in a banana.  No matter how healthy or unhealthy the food it contains calories.  A calorie is a measure of energy.  The body naturally burns off so many calories a day. That number is determined by a person’s lifestyle.  An active person who exercises every day is going to burn more calories than a person who sits on their couch watching TV every day.

Your lifestyle should tell you how many calories a day you can eat without gaining weight.  A good rule of thumb is to take your weight, multiply it by 10, and that is the number of calories you should be eating to maintain your current weight.  If you weigh 180 pounds, and are looking to lower your weight, you should eat fewer calories than prescribed.  Perhaps start a 1500 calorie diet. If you are the type of person who would rather workout than eat less, or healthier, than you have to create a calorie deficiency in your exercise habits.  So, if you weighed 180 pounds, you can still eat 1800 calories a day, but you should be burning 300 calories a day in exercise to lose weight.