Any woman who is overweight should take timely action to correct her figure. In the case of the appearance of "extra" kilograms, first of all it is necessary to stop the further growth of adipose tissue. This can be done by reducing the consumption of food products that have high energy potential, i.e. contain a large number of easily digestible carbohydrates and fats. For most people, these measures are already quite enough to get rid of excess adipose tissue over a period of time and regain the former harmony and tightness of the figure. However, often the awareness of the need for correction of their figure comes to the fair sex when the problem of the presence of excess weight grows into a problem of the development of a pathological condition called obesity. In this case, figuratively speaking, a fight with excess body weight goes for every calorie.
So, how can you count the number of calories in the dish you cooked? To do this, you must first of all find out the amount of proteins, fats and carbohydrates contained in every 100 grams of the product. Usually this data is always indicated on the packaging of products.
Then calculate the total number of these food components that went into preparing your dish. For example, you took 200 grams of buckwheat for cooking buckwheat porridge. In every 100 grams of this product contains 12 grams of protein, 3 grams of fat and 68 grams of carbohydrates. Accordingly, 200 grams of buckwheat contains 24 grams of protein, 6 grams of fat and 136 grams of carbohydrates.
Then you should calculate the total calorie content of the prepared dish based on the energy value of each of the listed components, given that one gram of proteins or carbohydrates during cleavage in the body gives approximately the same amount of energy - about 4 kilocalories, and one gram of fat - 9 kilocalories. For our example, the total calorie content of the dish will be as follows: 24 grams of protein × 4 kilocalories + 6 grams of fat × 9 kilocalories + 68 grams of carbohydrates × 4 kilocalories = 422 kilocalories.
As you can see, counting calories in a prepared dish is not at all a difficult task, the solution of which is possible even for elementary school students. However, when calculating the calorie content of dishes, some questions may arise that require clarification. In what exactly are those questions?
Firstly, you can not always find out the detailed information about the contents of all the basic components of nutrition (proteins, fats and carbohydrates) in the purchased products. For example, if you buy a loaf or a loaf of black bread (if they are sold without special packaging), you will not get the information you need about these products, and it will also probably be useless to contact the seller for help. Yes, and call each time in the laboratory of the bakery, with details about the protein or carbohydrate content in the loaf, you probably would not want to ... In that case, use the table of caloric content of foods that are available in many books about healthy and rational nutrition. In this case, you have to take values for the main components of the power, focusing on the tabular data. But do not worry too much about the accuracy of the calculations - although the discrepancies between the true and tabulated nutrient content are inevitable, but still the error here will not be so great as to significantly distort your data on the calorie content of the dish.
Secondly, many are misled by information about the presence of micronutrients and vitamins in food. There is quite a logical question: why do we calculate the calorie content of the dish, considering only the content of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, but do not pay any attention to the content, for example, magnesium, iron or ascorbic acid? The fact is that both microelements and vitamins are used in the body not for splitting to release energy, but for inclusion in more complex molecules (for example, enzymes) and ensuring their biochemical activity, as well as for regulation or active participation in certain processes (including digestive). Therefore, the information on microelements and vitamins indicated on the food packaging is valuable information, indicating the additional benefit of this product, but not related to the process of calculating calories in cooked dishes.
If your home library does not have a book with tables of calorie content, then this is not a cause for frustration. Currently, there are specialized websites on the Internet that offer calories in the dishes you cook on-line.
However, no matter how carefully you try to count the calories in the dishes you cooked, you should remember that knowing the caloric content of food is only a prerequisite for getting rid of excess weight. The main thing that you should do is to use this information competently when planning your diet. After all, by themselves mathematical calculations of the number of calories can not force you to refuse to take a favorite piece of fried chicken or a sweet pie filled with cherry jam for dinner ...