Living a Healthy Lifestyle
Most Americans seek to achieve and maintain a healthy weight and body physiology. Over a third of Americans describe themselves as “overweight,” and a majority of Americans desire to lose weight. However, even though many people are persistent in their efforts to achieve this goal, a great majority have trouble. Understanding the science behind what factors, such as calories and quality of ingredients, influence health and physique is important in making logical decisions in healthy eating as a lifestyle.
When it comes to maintaining a healthy weight, calories are largely a misunderstood topic of focus. A calorie is a measure of how much energy is contained within the chemical bonds of food; when an individual consumes food, they acquire its energy through digestion. This energy can be used up through exercise, digestion, or maintenance of body function. If an individual takes in too much energy compared to how much they burn off, the excess will gradually be stored in cells as fat. The average human burns roughly 2300 calories daily, and to maintain a healthy weight one would need to consume roughly that amount. Depending on factors, such as weight activity level and muscle mass, this caloric threshold may vary significantly: a person who is more muscular and consistently exercises burns off significantly more calories than someone living a sedentary lifestyle.
Beyond the quantity of calories a person consumes, the quality and variety of the food have a significant influence on someone’s health and weight. Just because a person may consume less calories than before does not mean that they have become healthier or that they will even lose weight. What a person eats also matters. To keep itself functioning at an optimal level, the body requires varying amounts of different nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, and minerals. Correspondingly, the food that people consume daily contains varying amounts of some or all of these essential nutrients. For instance, a slice of cake contains varying amounts of carbohydrates, saturated fat, and a few other ingredients that are no doubt essential for human diet. However, cake can generally be labeled as “unhealthy” because the amount of these fat and carbohydrates found in cake is often far greater than what humans actually need to survive. Furthermore, cake doesn’t offer too many essential nutrients.
When it comes to maintaining a healthy weight, calories are largely a misunderstood topic of focus. A calorie is a measure of how much energy is contained within the chemical bonds of food; when an individual consumes food, they acquire its energy through digestion. This energy can be used up through exercise, digestion, or maintenance of body function. If an individual takes in too much energy compared to how much they burn off, the excess will gradually be stored in cells as fat. The average human burns roughly 2300 calories daily, and to maintain a healthy weight one would need to consume roughly that amount. Depending on factors, such as weight activity level and muscle mass, this caloric threshold may vary significantly: a person who is more muscular and consistently exercises burns off significantly more calories than someone living a sedentary lifestyle.
Beyond the quantity of calories a person consumes, the quality and variety of the food have a significant influence on someone’s health and weight. Just because a person may consume less calories than before does not mean that they have become healthier or that they will even lose weight. What a person eats also matters. To keep itself functioning at an optimal level, the body requires varying amounts of different nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, and minerals. Correspondingly, the food that people consume daily contains varying amounts of some or all of these essential nutrients. For instance, a slice of cake contains varying amounts of carbohydrates, saturated fat, and a few other ingredients that are no doubt essential for human diet. However, cake can generally be labeled as “unhealthy” because the amount of these fat and carbohydrates found in cake is often far greater than what humans actually need to survive. Furthermore, cake doesn’t offer too many essential nutrients.
This image of boy watching TV is illustrates an activity which burns very little calories. An individual who keeps this up extensively, living sedentary lifestyle, is unable to burn off very many calories on a daily basis compared so someone living a more active lifestyle.
Image Source: Uboiz
Another factor to consider with food intake is caloric density, which is how many calories are in a food per unit volume; cake, beyond lacking a variety of essential nutrients, is very dense in calories making it easier for someone to eat large amounts. By comparison, broccoli is very low in caloric density, leaving room for a variety of other foods that supplement humans’ remaining nutritional needs. In general, foods that are minimally-processed and offer more nutritional variety, like broccoli, are correlated with low caloric density; it’s harder to overeat healthy foods, making it easy to judge fullness and counting calories becomes unnecessary.
In a meta-analysis of different diets, researchers aimed to figure out which diets work the best for weight loss and maintenance and for overall health. Some studies compared a high-carbohydrate, low-protein and fat diet with a high-fat, low-protein and carbohydrate diet, and any other combination. Further, some even studied to see whether subjects had the ability to maintain their dietary eating habits in the long term, whether they could maintain any weight loss, and if caloric restriction was beneficial. Amongst all of this data, there was not one “ideal” diet found; every person is different, spanning factors such as genetics and activity level; therefore, the precise food choices and amount of calories one should consume varies. What one can do to maximize health through his or her diet is to eat a variety of different foods (covering as many of the different nutritional groups, mentioned earlier, as possible), to hydrate frequently, and to limit consumption of high caloric processed foods.
In a meta-analysis of different diets, researchers aimed to figure out which diets work the best for weight loss and maintenance and for overall health. Some studies compared a high-carbohydrate, low-protein and fat diet with a high-fat, low-protein and carbohydrate diet, and any other combination. Further, some even studied to see whether subjects had the ability to maintain their dietary eating habits in the long term, whether they could maintain any weight loss, and if caloric restriction was beneficial. Amongst all of this data, there was not one “ideal” diet found; every person is different, spanning factors such as genetics and activity level; therefore, the precise food choices and amount of calories one should consume varies. What one can do to maximize health through his or her diet is to eat a variety of different foods (covering as many of the different nutritional groups, mentioned earlier, as possible), to hydrate frequently, and to limit consumption of high caloric processed foods.
Featured Image Source: JerzyGorecki
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