What's your calorie in a day?

For an adult women, if you tend to have a sedentary lifestyle, you only need around 1200-1500 Kcal in a day. On the meanwhile, an adult male might need 1600-2000 Kcal in a day for sedentary lifestyle. Sedentary lifestyle means less energy usage daily and not doing exercise at all. However, for those who have a routine active lifestyle, female might need 1800-2000 Kcal in day; male can take up to 2500 Kcal in day. The active lifestyle might relate with type of occupations that require energy or go for more than 1 hour of strenuous exercise everyday. Indeed, over calorie intake (overeat) can lead to overweight or obese problem while too little will lead to underweight problem. Both conditions indirectly relate with health problem. The only way to stay away from disease or avoid both condition is through proper meal and balance diet. So, folks, add up your calories intake daily to know whether you exceed or not !

对于一般的成年女性，如果你的生活方式是一般的，没有运动，你只需要在一天里摄取大约1200至1500卡路里。对于正常成年男性，他们的生活方式一般，在一个只须1600至2000卡路里。一般的生活方式是指在日常生活中很少消耗体力。然而，对于那些有活跃的生活方式，女性可能需要在一天里摄取1800到2000卡路里；男性可以高达2500卡路里。在活跃的生活方式可能受职业类型影响，总是会消耗大量卡路里或有定时做1个多小时的剧烈运动。摄取过多的热量（暴饮暴食）可导致超重或肥胖的问题；而过少会导致体重过轻的问题。这两个条件还涉及健康问题。通过正确的饮食习惯，摄取适量的能量（卡路里）才能远离疾病。

How to calculate calories?

Hi, is time to post something new. There is a phase about "Live to eat or eat to live", so which type are you? For me, I do prefer enjoy eat to live. For sure, food is the only main components that support our life, but do you know how to calculate calories for your food intake? You can read the nutrition information for the food you take but wouldn't it is wiser if you can calculate by yourself? In the following post, I will review a simple way to calculate so that you may know your intake is too little or too much for you weight. 

Actually calorie intake for everyone is very individualizing, the factor to determine your calorie intake is base on your body weight, height, gender, age and daily activities.  Male normally need more energy intake compare to female due to their high metabolism and body size. Teenagers and pregnant women also need extra energy for their current condition; teenagers needs for growth and development while pregnant mother needs extra for their babies. There are a lot to be mention on calories calculation and I will break down post by post for this and next week. Cheers.

我相信有很多人会想要知道自己一天里究竟摄取了多少热量，也就是卡路里。接下来我要教你如何计算它，这样你就能够知道你是否摄取过量或者不够的。其实每个人摄取的热量是非常个别的。每个人的卡路里摄取量受几个因素影响的，这包括你的体重，身高，性别，年龄和日常活动等。男性通常需要更多的能量摄入比较起女性是由于其新陈代谢高和较大的体型。青少年和孕妇也需要额外的能量；青少年成长和发展的需要，而怀孕的母亲为婴儿需要额外营养。

 

Girls prefer fruits to replace main meal during weight control?

Certain weight management protocol may be advising you to take fruits instead of regular foods during lunch or dinner, but you are not aware of the cons too. Fruits can contribute calorie, contain natural fructose, a type of simple sugar. Fructose can change to glucose in our body and if consume excessive amount can lead to become a storage in body. Our body does need a balance among macro-nutrients for vital organs function included carbohydrate, protein as well as fat. A normal distribution for all these macro-nutrients is 55-60% CHO, 15-20% protein and <30% fat. Each macro-nutrients has it own role in our body. In long term, the lack of one of these main macro-nutrients can lead to health problem, such as lack muscle loss (lack of protein), lack of essential fatty acid will indicate the reduce of EPA or DHA essential in disease protection. Thus, fruits are rich in vitamins and minerals, but cannot substitute main energy sources especially weight control is a set of good diet practice, exercise and daily lifestyle.
 

女孩可能更喜欢把苹果或水果代替正餐。其实水果也是含有热量的。水果中含有天然果糖，一个简单的糖类型。果糖可以在我们的身体里转换成葡萄糖，如果进食过量可以导致被储存在体内。我们的身体确实需要平衡的营养素以维持重要器官功能，这包括碳水化合物，脂肪和蛋白质。这些营养素正态分布的为55-60％碳水化合物，15-20％的蛋白质和 <30％的脂肪。每个营养素有它自己的角色。长期来看，缺乏其中一个主要营养素都能导致健康问题，如缺乏蛋白质造成肌肉损失，缺乏必需脂肪酸会引起疾病产生。因此，水果确实含维生素和矿物质，但不能替补主要能源的食物来源。

Starchy carbohydrate and simple sugars

Starchy Carbohydrate

Simple Sugars

Further to last topic, we should choose carbohydrate foods wisely according to our need during weight control. Carbohydrate sources can be differentiate into starchy type and simple sugars. Starchy carbohydrate included rice, mee, bread, oats, biscuits and tubers vegetables (potatoes, corn, carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkins). As long as we are able to control the portion size of starchy food for each meal then avoid incident of excess intake. For example, female can have a breakfast of 2 to 3 pieces of bread/ 1 chinese bowl of rice or 6 pieces of plain biscuit. For male, a breakfast can be maximum 4 pieces bread, 2 cup rice or 9 pieces of plain biscuit. However, when we look on simple sugars such as candy, sugar added in coffee, malted drinks, canned drink, ice-cream, chocolate, creamy biscuit, pastry and also cake, we ought to control those high sugars food intake. Even a small amount like 1 canned drink per day can lead to the risk of weight problem and others chronic disease. Thus, try to reduce the frequency for those food consumption and limit to once in two weeks or even avoid it.

减肥期间，我们应控制碳水化合物的吸取。碳水化合物的食物来源，可以分化为淀粉类和简糖。淀粉包括饭，面，米粉，河粉，面包，燕麦，饼干和块茎蔬菜（马铃薯，玉米，胡萝卜，红薯，南瓜）。只要我们能够每餐控制淀粉类食物，则可以避免摄入过多。例如，对于女性，早餐可以饮食2至3片面包/ 1碗饭/米粉/ 河粉或6块普通饼干。而对于男性，可以采取最多4块面包，2杯米/米粉或9块普通饼干。然而，简糖的食物如糖果，加糖咖啡/麦芽饮料，罐装饮料，冰淇淋，巧克力，饼干或糕点，奶油蛋糕等，我们真的需要控制这些高糖食物的摄入量。即使像一罐装饮料每天饮用也可导致体重问题的风险和其他慢性疾病。因此，尽量减少这些食物摄取和限制在两个星期一次或避免。

Avoid Carbohydrate food during weight control?

Carbohydrate foods

Another habit we usually have during period of weight control is to avoid carbohydrate foods such as rice, mee, bread, biscuits, potatoes and corn. However we should not totally avoid it from our daily meal, carbohydrate is actually the first energy sources compare to protein and fat. Most of the time, our body will use burn calories from glucose source. Thus, carbohydrate is the primarily energy sources in daily life to support normal body function especially brain function. If we can control appropriate amount and chose suitable carbohydrate food sources, then it can an add on for your weight control as well as a healthy body functions. How much is the portion of carbohydrate source we should consume? I will explain in the next post.


有些人可能会认为，避免碳水化合物的食物可以帮助控制体重。碳水化合物（如饭，面，米粉，河粉，面包，燕麦，饼干和块茎蔬菜）控制体重确实发挥重要作用，但是，我们不应该完全避免它。碳水化合物实际上是第一个被消化成为能源，若和蛋白质和脂肪比较。大多数时候，我们的身体会从葡萄糖的来源使用燃烧卡路里。因此，碳水化合物是日常生活中的主要能量来源，以支持正常的身体功能尤其是大脑功能。如果我们可以控制和选择合适和适量的碳水化合物的食物来源，那么可以更有效地控制体重。

Food habits during weight control

The new topic I would like to introduce is related to weight control. What bad habits you shouldn't practice during your weight management period? The first bad habit is Skipping Meal.

A lot of people think that skipping meal is a good way to control calorie intake (include some of my patients). This is absolutely a wrong concept. When a person tends to skip meal, it may lead to excess amount of food intake duirng next meal or snacking habit. Here is what you should know, our body metabolism have a routine metablic rate and it secrete appropraite amount of hormone and enzymes which are helpful in daily life. For example, when we tend to have an irregular meal time, it will cause abnormal hormones and enzymens function that indirectly affect our normal body function. A lot of problems occur after that include imbalance hormone especially for girls, loss of appetite, inadequate macronutrients and micronutrients, slow metabolism, swelling problem, weight static and others illness. The worst case can lead to chronic disease such as gastritis, ulceration (excess stomach acid secretion) and heart problem. Our body need foods, if we are able to practice a regular meal time and appropriate food choice with healthy exercise, you can reach an effectiveness in weight control.

很多人可能会认为，少吃一餐是一个很好的方法来控制卡路里的摄取量。这是绝对错误的观念。当一个人少吃其中一餐时，它可以导致我们在下一餐摄取过量或养成吃零食的习惯。我们的身体新陈代谢有正常的新陈代谢率，它能够分泌的激素和酶量帮助在日常生活中。例如，当我们往往有一个不规律的吃饭时间，会造成激素和酶量功能异常，间接无法控制人体正常功能。这会出现很多问题，包括激素失衡（尤其是女孩），食欲不振，营养素不足，新陈代谢缓慢，膨胀的问题，重量静态和其他疾病。导致最严重的问题，如胃炎，溃疡（胃酸分泌过多）和心脏问题慢性疾病。我们的身体确实需要食物为生存，如果我们能够保持规律的吃饭时间和选择合适的食物，再加上健康的运动，可以更有效地控制体重。

Plain meal vs Colorful meal

A simple conclusion on few previous posts due to request from my readers. In short, a colorful meal isn't mean will lead to a healthier diet, but is to plan a colorful meal according to those foods with natural Phytochemicals which I suggested. For example, fruit juice with fruit-flavored or soda drinks are colorful too but fresh fruit juice only manage to provide the nutrient which your body needs. Below is 3 diagrams which I attached in my research and I am happy to share with you all.

Super foods are food which rich in natural phytochemicals.

颜色丰富的餐不一定是一个更健康的饮食，而是根据天然植物化学物质来计划的餐，如我之前所建议的食物。例如，水果味的果汁或汽水饮料，也是颜色丰富但只有新鲜果汁才提供营养和你的身体所需要。

Green color of foods

Finally, this is the last post of my sharing of recent research on the the title "What Color Is Your Diet?". I kept the green color till the end because it is the most common color in our foods. People always relate green color to vegetables and beans, but lets take a few minutes to understand why green is such an important color in our dietary concept.

Green color contains natural plant pigments which are lutein, indoles and isothiocyanates. Lutein is mostly found in foods such as spinach, green peppers, peas, cucumber and celery. It works with another chemical, zeaxanthin (carotenoid) to help keep EYES healthy. Indoles which is found in foods such as broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower may help to reduce risk in cancer. On the meanwhile, isothiocyanates induce enzymes in the liver that assist the body in removing potentially carcinogenic compounds. In short, we can conclude that green color in foods does contain a higher degree of natural phytochemicals than other color. That is why salad is preferable a good choice of food with a variety of leafy green.

绿色含有各种天然植物色素如叶黄素，吲哚和异硫氰酸酯。叶黄素多存在食物如菠菜，青椒，豌豆，黄瓜和芹菜食品。它可以联合玉米黄质（胡萝卜素），以帮助保持眼睛健康。吲哚这天然植物色素，如花椰菜，甘蓝和花椰菜的食物可能有助于降低患癌症的风险。除此，异硫氰酸酯诱发肝酶帮助消除体内潜在的致癌物质。我们可以结论：在食品中，绿色的食物，植物化学物质比其他颜色的较高。这就是为什么用各种绿叶菜的沙拉是很好的食物选择。

Purple/Blue color of foods

Hi, do you adapt to my concept of food colors? Blue/purple is a common color for us but more to fruits. The natural plant pigment found is named "anthocyanidins". It is not only act as powerful antioxidant, but also anti-inflammatory and antimutagenic effects that protect cells from damage. The main benefits are anthocyanidins reduces the risk of stroke and heart disease. Foods that relate are blueberries, grapes, raisins, plums, eggplant and prunes. An additional information, Cranberries contain proanthocyanadins, which prevents bacteria like E-coli from sticking to the walls of the urinary tract. You should mark as your favorite fruit but too bad it is only available in northern countries. 

Cranberries

蓝/紫色多数是水果的颜色。这类水果的天然植物色素，被称为“花青素”。它不仅是作为强大的抗氧化剂，也有抗炎作用，保护细胞免受损害。花青素的主要好处是减少中风和心脏病的风险。食物如蓝莓，葡萄，葡萄干，李子，茄子。另外，小红莓含有原花青素，防止影响尿道的细菌。