Minimize your CALin
CALin: calorie intake (the calories that you eat every day).
To minimize CALin means to cut down the calories in your food as much as possible while maintaining your nutritional balance.
First of all, what is nutritional balance? Nutritional balance means sufficient nutrients to maintain our normal and healthy life. This balance includes water, minerals, vitamins, dietary fibers, carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Out of all the nutrients listed above, only the last three (carb, fat and protein) contain calories. Our body stores extra fat and carb (mostly in the muscles and the liver in the form of glycogen) which is what we need to get rid of. Our body doesn’t store extra proteins.
So our dietary goals are clear:
- To maintain water, minerals, vitamins and dietary fibers.
- To reduce carb and fat to a minimum (in theory, we don’t need any carb or fat in our diet while trying to lose weight).
- To eat enough protein to prevent muscle weakening or loss. Research suggests 5o gm of protein daily is enough for most of us to maintain this balance.