Very few people will disagree that Americans are carrying too much weight! You see advertisements for weight loss programs every where! Magic pills, no carb diets, no fat diets and even diets where you only eat food that they send to you in the mail! This extension will examine calorie ingestion and use.

The true secret to a proper weight loss program is to take your time. A person who is willing to take a year or 2 to lose weight, will lose weight and keep it off. If a person were to lose just 1 pound per week, how many pounds would they shed in a year?

Robert (a teen male) was careful to eat 2500 calories per day. He chose 2500 calories because that is the fewest calories that his doctor recommended that he eat.

If Robert enjoys a breakfast of 2 cups of cereal (220 c), a cup of milk on the cereal (121c), a glass of orange juice (132 c), 2 slices of buttered toast (242 c) and a peach (42 c), how many more calories will he be allowed to eat during the day?

Robert's diet is going well! I think we will all agree that breakfast was huge and satisfying. Let's follow him into the lunch room.

Robert's lunch contained 806 calories. He enjoyed a ham and cheese sandwich (304 c), 2 cups of chocolate mild (288 c), a serving of 4 Cheese Doritos (140 c) and an apple. How many calories were in the apple?

So Robert's diet allows 2500 calories and he has already used 757 for breakfast and 806 for lunch. He has eaten well and isn't suffering from dieting hunger pains. But like most teens, he wants to eat a snack when he gets home from school. Since his snack and dinner will finish his daily calorie intake, Robert needs to consider what his mother will be serving for dinner before he uses his calories on a snack. How many calories does Robert have available to split between dinner and the snack?

Robert's mother is fixing barbeque chicken breast, with cheese potatoes and broccoli for dinner. The meal is about 500 calories and he is planning to have milk (121 c). She also has ice cream (170 c) for desert. If he eats dinner with milk and desert, how many calories can he spend on his after-school snack?

Robert wanted to eat a couple of servings of chips (160 c. each) and a glass of Coke (100 c) for his after-school snack, but he also wants to eat the big dinner with desert. When he opens the refrigerator, he notices his mother has bought grapes. Grapes are cool because they are sweet and juicy. He can snack on these. At 58 calories per cup, how many cups of grapes can Robert enjoy without going over the 146 calories he has left?

I hope that this enrichment has helped you to see that with sensible calorie counting, weight loss can be done without hunger or health risks. If you plan ahead and use good math, watching your intake is easy.
Talk to your parents and your doctor about what your proper calorie intake is and study the labels on your food.
Robert's secret to weight loss is to combine fruits with each meal or snack. A handful of chips (80 c) with an apple (70 c) makes a more satisfying snack than 4 handfuls of chips (320 c) and a can of Coke (150 c)