Our body needs energy to function properly. The source of energy for us is the food we eat. What happens when we consume lot of high energy food and the amount of calorie intake is more than our body can burn, the extra energy is converted to fat and stored in the body for later use. What will happen if we keep consuming more and more calories than our body could burn? They will be stored mostly as fat and our body weight and size will increase over time.

If you consider the opposite of the above, that is when your total energy intake is less than the total amount of energy burned, the body fat is converted to energy in order to fill the gap. As a result, your body fat reduces and you lose in weight and size. It should be now clear to you, how the calories (or energy) in the food we eat can directly effect our body weight.

What is a calorie controlled diet?
It has been discovered that an average healthy male will burn about 2500 calories every day and a female will burn about 2000 calories in conducting normal body functions. This can vary depending on certain factors like age, activity level and body weight.

A more active individual will burn more calories and a less active person will burn less calories. As an example, if you are a person doing sports, you will be burning more calories compared to the average person.

The first step of counting calories is to determine roughly how many calories you burn every day (also referred to as ‘maintenance level’). By estimating the daily calorie requirement and by controlling the amount of calories you gain from you diet, it is possible to either lose or gain body weight. Therefor, a calorie controlled diet can help you lose weight or gain weight naturally without any negative side effects.

Most of the articles published on this website can help you understand this better. Also, we have published a lot of “how many calories in xxx” type posts, and these can help you specially in planing your diet.

Internet is a god place to get your self educated on weight loss related topics. Keep in mind to always consult a qualified individual for professional advice before you try anything any website may suggest, including ours.

Note that in a calorie controlled diet plan, no food item is really ‘prohibited’. You are free to eat almost anything as long as you can ‘balance’ to total amount of calories in your meals.

1. Apricots : One of the lowest calorie fruits with little over 30 calories. Apricots contain ‘beta-cryptoxanthinm’ which can help reduce risk of colon cancer.

2. Cranberries : Contains only 44 calories per cup. Rich in fiber and has low amounts of sugar.

3. Watermelon : 1 cup of watermelon contains about 45 calories. Contains over 90% of water by weight. The edible rinds of watermelon are sometimes used as a vegetable.

4. Strawberries : One cup of this bright red fruit contains little over 50 calories.

5. Apples : “An apple a day, keeps the doctor away”.. 52 calories per cup.

6. Papaya : Same as above. Contains 52 calories. Papaya is a good remedy for digestive problems. Papaya juice can help reduce the risk of certain types of cancer.

7. Blackberries : Contains high amounts of fiber, Vitamins C, K and B. Amount of calories is 60 per cup.

8. Pineapple : Considered as a ‘negative calorie fruit’. Has 75 calories.

9. Grapefruit : One of my favorite fruits. 80 calories.

10. Blueberries : Sold as fresh or processed fruit. Contains ‘anthocyanins’ which can help reduce the risk of certain diseases and cancer. A single cup of this fruit has 84 calories.

Above listed can be considered as some of the lowest calorie fruits available.

Table : Calories in popular fruits

Related Articles,
1. How Many Calories In Fruit
2. Avocado Calories

How many calories should I consume daily?
Two of the main reasons for many people to become overweight are, eating too many calories and lack of daily exercise or activity.

The primary goal of this website is to help you lose weight. Therefor, in this article, we will discuss about ‘how many calories you should consume daily, if you are trying to lose body fat’.

For most of us, modern diet contains lot of fat. Most fast food items contain lot of calories compared to the portion size. An average person should consume about 2200-2500 calories daily, to maintain their present weight. A Big Mac burger contains 540 calories and a portion of large french fries contains over 500 calories. You should be able to realize how bad fast food can be if your primary goal is to lose body weight.

Our bodies need fat. A diet would not be healthy or complete without the proper amount of fat in it as fat is needed in the production of certain hormones, used as a source of energy and facilitates the process of protein synthesis. Therefor, your diet should contain fat but you should be avoiding food items with excess amounts of fat in order to achieve your weight loss goals. An average persons daily fat intake should be, 0.4 grams per every pound of body weight.

Depending your body weight, age, gender and activity level, daily calorie requirements will change from person to person. Under any circumstances, the amount of calories you consume a day should not go below 1200.

To lose a pound of body fat, you should cut down approximately 3500 calories from your diet. This cannot be done in one day. As an example, if your daily calorie requirement is 2500 (as described in above paragraph, this number depends on your weight, height, age, gender and activity level), if you decrease the amount of calories you eat by 500 every day, you will lose one pound of body fat in one week.

Calories in a Slice of Bacon

• 1 slice of raw bacon has about 135-140 calories
• A slice of cured and pan-fried bacon contains 42 calories
• A slice of baked bacon contains 44 calories

As you can notice bacon is not very high in calories. About 60%-70% calories in bacon comes from the fat. Only a small amount of calories come form carbohydrates and a smaller amount from protein in bacon. For people suffering from cholesterol problems, it’s better not to have bacon as a part of their diet.

A recent discovery reveals increased risk of pancreatic cancer for people who eat lot of bacon, which is a bad news. This is due to the addition of a chemical colorant, sodium nitrite in the process of making bacon.

How many calories in a cup of tea?
This is a tricky question to answer. I had to ask several people I know and read some online documents to verify certain facts. Final answer is below.

If you consider only tea, that is without sugar or milk, a cup of tea will have will have zero (0) calories. Adding milk, sugar, cream or any other sweetener will add calories to your cup of tea. The amount of calories added will depend on the type of milk/sugar added and the quantity.

Example : Granulated white sugar will add slightly more calories compared to adding same amount brown sugar (Read about: Calories in sugar).

Take following facts into consideration..

• One teaspoon of sugar contains about 18 calories
• A single cup of skim milk contains about 10 calories.

Now do the math,
If you use 2 x teaspoons of sugar and 1 cup of skim milk, your cup of tea will contain 28 calories.

Iced tea made with tea bags, ice cubes and water, does not contain any calories. But the commercially mixed ones you buy may have calories due to added sweeteners.

For people who want to fight obesity and moderate the intake of sugar, green tea would be the ideal drink. Green tea has many other health benefits as well. ( Read about : Benefits of green tea)

One of the most common methods used in cooking salmon steak is described below, and 100g of steak prepared this way will have about 200 calories in it.

Method used :
Leave the salmon on a medium-hot grill with the skin on, cover and cook for about 5 minutes. You could use some olive oil to brush the skin-side of the salmon before you place them on the grill. Open the cover and if you see any of the pieces are getting grilled faster than others, slowly move them to a cooler part of the grill. Continue cooking for 6-7 more minutes.

You can add a little bit of butter on top, and use a sauce you prefer. But keep in mind, with every bit of added butter and sauce, you will be adding extra calories to your salmon steak.

Answer : Between 255 and 260 calories are present in an average size (hand-sized) Bagel With Cream Cheese.

More Information on Bagels
As we all know a bagel is a ring-shaped bread product. The Russian version of the bagel is called ‘bubliks’ and it is much larger in size compared to what we get in USA and Europe. The name ‘bagel’ has originated from the word “beugal” which means bow or bale. Bagels were introduced to the United States by immigrant Jews according to Wikipedia.

Olives are known as a rich source of monounsaturated fat. In addition, olives contain dietary fiber, iron and Vitamin E.

How Many Calories In Olives
Every 100g of olives contain 115 calories.

We will be publishing an article on ‘Calories and health benefits of olive oil‘ with our next website update.

The table below will give you data on calories in vodka. When mixed with orange juice, coke or any other drink, these values will change.

Calories in Vodka

In a single jigger (about 1.5 fluid oz.)

• 100 proof – 124
• 94 proof – 116
• 90 proof – 110
• 86 proof – 105
• 80 proof – 97

Vodka and health
Consumption in excess can cause respiratory failure and can be lethal. In addition, like any other type of alcohol, when under the influence can cause traumatic injuries such as accidents and falls. Can cause dehydration of the body and digestive irritations as well.

We advice you to stay away from cheap black-market varieties you might be able to buy in certain countries. There are no guarantees what goes into these black-market type vodka in the production processes and there is a possibility of added ethanol substitutes which are dangerous and can be lethal upon consumption.

Related Content
Calories in Vodka. Let’s Count The Calories!

Related Posts
Low Calorie Alcoholic Drinks
Calories in Beer

Calories In Popcorn
100 g of air-popped popcorn with no additives contains about 380 Calories. In addition, contains 75g of Carbohydrates, 15g of Dietary fiber. 4g of Fat and 12g of Protein. Popcorn also contains Iron, Vitamins B1 and B2.

You may think, 380 calories is a lot. It is indeed a high value, but when you consider the weight and the quantity of popcorn you consume, your calorie intake is only about 1/10th of that value. A cup full of popcorn is only 8-10g in weight and the amount of calories you intake from a cup of popcorn is around 35-38 which is a very low amount.

Note : You should be careful when you are serving popcorn to children under the age of four due to the ‘risk of choking’, unless its “hulless” popcorn which are specially prepared for children to eliminate the said risk.