The effectiveness of whatever weight loss diet lies ultimately on calorie reduction.

Diet plans generally impose rules on what you can eat and what you cannot, thus limiting you to a certain number of calories you can consume per day. So, by following these weight loss diets, you'll naturally eat less than when you normally eat freely.

Sure, there are other nutrients like fat content that you must watch out for when you eat, but that's a topic for discussion another day. For now, suffice to know how many calories you consume on a daily basis and that will give you a good indication if you're overeating or not.

There's really no general guideline about how many calories you should consume due to many factors based your current physical condition, age, sex but from U.S. National Weight Control Registry's findings, individuals who were successful in weight loss consume around 1,700 kcal for men and around 1,300 kcal for women.

Counting calories may seem to be tedious and unnatural but nevertheless helps you to be aware of how much food intake you're actually consuming. Even if you don't count, by knowing the calories of common foods will help you make an informed and better decision for your diet.

Here's an example of a fictitious female who eats an extremely healthy diet for the sake of discussion:

1) Breakfast Croissant (medium) bread and Low-fat milk (1%) - 333 kcal
2) Morning snack Regular ice cream (1/2 cup) - 145 kcal
3) Lunch Fried fish (3 oz) and Regular cheddar cheese (1 oz) - 309 kcal
4) Morning snack Frozen yogurt, low-fat (1/2 cup) - 110 kcal
5) Dinner Ground Beef - Regular (25% fat) - 236 kcal

This works out to a total of 1133 kcal. With a cup of coffee, a fruit helping here and there, this lady's food intake will hover around 1,250 to 1,300 which is pretty ideal.

Note: The above calories are based on US Food & Drug Administration (FDA)'s Consumer Magazine, May - Jun 2005 issue.

You can easily search for listings of all the common foods and their calories but here's my list I compiled for you so you're more conscious of the common foods and calories when you choose your foods:

1) Hamburger 120 g - 300 kcal
2) Fish and chips 250 g - 800 kcal
3) Soft drink (Coke) can (285 ml) - 120 kcal
4) Fries 200 g - 600 kcal
5) Coffee/tea with sugar cup (200 ml) - 40 to 50 kcal
6) Coffee/tea with milk cup (200 ml) - 70 to 120 kcal
7) Beer can (350 ml) - 150 kcal
8) Fried fish 200 g - 450 kcal
9) Broiled fish 200 g - 300 to 400 kcal
10) Steak 200 g - 500 kcal
11) Fried rice 400 g - 500 kcal
12) Noodles, dry or soup 300 to 500 g - 400 to 500 kcal
13) Noodles, fried 300 to 500 g - 500 to 800 kcal
14) Cookies 5 to 10 small pieces - 200 to 300 kcal

The above list is NOT a recommended list of foods to eat. Rather, you now know that eating a packet of fries at a fast food restaurant will give you 600 calories and you can now decide if you want to eat all of that, half of that or don't touch that at all.

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