Calorie Here, Calorie There

More and more restaurants are posting the number of calories contained in their menu items. I like that, although am sometimes amazed at how many calories a specific item contains! I've often said that maintaining one's weight appropriately is less about food and more about mindset. However, calories do play a part. A calorie is just the name for a unit of energy. By definition it’s the amount of energy that’s required to raise the temperature of one gram of water one degree Celsius. Calories provide energy to fuel your body. Your vehicle will not run with fuel. Neither will your brain and body. You need a specific number of calories to maintain life. And how many you need depends partly on your own body composition as well as your level of activity. Too few calories and you do not have the necessary energy to live a fulfilling and productive life. Too many calories and you will eventually gain weight. An excess of about 3500 calories beyond what your brain and body need will add a pound of fat to your weight. The really bad news is that once you've added fat to your weight it can be difficult to send it back. That's one reason prevention is better than cure and also one reason that diets rarely (maybe never) work in the long term. Crash off the pounds, but fail to develop a high-level-healthiness lifestyle, and you'll likely pile the pounds back on; plus a few more, in many cases.