healthy lifestyle Archives - Belle Azul

Calorie Intake: How Many Calories Should You Consume a Day?

Tomer Farkas — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 11:39:36 +0000

In our aspiration of getting those ripped abs, many of us get too obsessed about counting calories!

But, how many calories do you actually need to consume a day?

Are you sure you take into account all the factors that stand behind your daily calorie intake?

How do you know what is best for you?

Well, read further to find out!

What are calories?

From a nutritional point of view, calories are the international unit of food energy. The more energy we take in, the more likely it is to gain weight. This is why, the number of calories consumed is an important factor for people who are looking to lose or gain weight.

However, the body uses energy differently throughout the day. Our energy levels depend on many factors such as age, height, lifestyle, and overall health.It is important that these factors are taken into consideration when constructing a diet plan and calculating your daily calorie intake.

How to calculate daily calorie intake?

Determining how many calories you need to consume on a daily basis comes down to calculating how much energy you use. Here are the basics.

60-75% of your caloric expenditure go to keeping your body functioning properly
10% go to digesting food
25% go to physical activity

A popular tool commonly used by nutritionist to calculate the caloric requirements of people is the Harris-Benedict equation, which takes into account all the above factors we mentioned earlier. Here are the equations for both genders:

Male: 66.5 – 13.8 x (Weight in kg) + 5 x (Height in cm) – 6.8 x age
Female: 655.1 – 9.6 x (Weight in kg) + 1.9 (Height in cm) – 4.7 x age

Multiply the number you get by 1.2 for sedentary lifestyle, 1.3 for moderately active lifestyle and 1.4 for active lifestyle, and you get an estimate of your daily calorie consumption. Yes, that’s right – it is only an estimate. Keep in mind that it may be different depending on other factors such as health conditions.

Good Calories vs Empty Calories

You should know that there are good and empty calories. Sounds crazy, right? Well, let us explain…

The truth is that it is not only about the number of calories you consume, it is also about the nutritional density of those calories. These two go hand in hand.

Empty calories refer to foods rich in calories but have no nutritional value (things like sugar, fats, and alcohol). Think about fizzy drinks – they are packed with sugar and tons of calories but they do nothing but add to poor health and weight gain. Keep in mind that beverages labeled as low-calorie often contain the same amount of sugar!

On the other hand, nuts, for instance, are very rich in fats and contain many calories. However, they do also have a high nutritional value, which is why they are often included as snack options in many diet plans.

Next time you plan your diet,make sure you think twice about the type of foods you’d like to include!

Tips on Consuming Good Calories

Everyone can learn how to lead a healthy lifestyle and choose their foods wisely. Here are a few ways that you can make a difference to your diet.

Keep your portions small. Learn how to manage your portions. Go through the exercise of weighing your food for a week. This will help you get used to eating just the right amount of food you need.
Eat regular meals. Turning your eating habits into a routine can help you burn calories more effectively and prevent unnecessary snacking. Don’t even think about skipping breakfast! Many say that it’s actually the most important meal of the day, which supercharges you for energy and keeps you full for longer.
Choose your food wisely. Food rich in nutrients will fill you up a lot better than a chocolate bar. Always think about nutrition before eating – this will help you evaluate your options better.
Eat slowly. It takes about 20 mins for the brain to realize that you are full. If you rush too much, you are likely to consume way more food than you actually need and end up getting a bloated stomach.
Drink water. Water is always good – it is super beneficial for your health, has no calories and works amazing filling you up! In fact, hunger can often be confused with thirst, so make sure you drink enough water. It will help you digest food as well! If you crave sweet drinks, 100% natural fruit juices can be a great option.
Avoid eating just before bed time. Going to bed with full stomach can affect sleep quality and promote weight gain. Avoid this by giving yourself enough time to digest the food before jumping into bed. Make sure you leave a time frame of at least 2 hours before you doze off to dreamland.

Calculating the calories you consume can be useful in maintaining or adjusting your body weight. There are many food tracking applications that can help you do this. The only thing it takes is motivation and desire to change your lifestyle for the better!

La entrada Calorie Intake: How Many Calories Should You Consume a Day? se publicó primero en Belle Azul.

7 Beauty Secrets That Every Girl Should Know

Tomer Farkas — Tue, 08 May 2018 11:21:58 +0000

Have you ever wondered how Hollywood stars always look so flawless in spite of age and other factors? At Belle Azul, we are dedicated to making every girl feel like they have just stepped off the red carpet!

Our beauty experts have come together to reveal their top 7 beauty secrets to help you achieve that marvelous celebrity look!

1. Skin Care is More Important Than Makeup

This one is a bit obvious, isn’t it? Focusing on your skin care in your daily routine, you can not only reduce the amount of makeup you need, but also make it look better on your skin! Skin care products often contain essential active ingredients that nourish your skin and make it look healthier and more radiant.

Caring for your skin enables you to prevent problems before they appear. You wouldn’t have to use tons of makeup to hide your acne. Rather, you would be able to enjoy perfectly clear skin with a slight, gentle touch of makeup to highlight your unique characteristics. The best thing is that if you don’t know how to apply makeup, you can always go fully natural!

2. The Goal of Makeup is to Highlight, Not to Hide

While makeup is often used to cover imperfections that we might be ashamed of, its true objective is to highlight certain features that make us proud. Makeup should be worn with confidence, while proving to the world that you are still comfortable in your own skin.

There is no need to hide behind tons of layers of makeup (foundation, concealer, highlighter, eyeshadows, eyeliner, eyebrow pencil etc.) to feel beautiful. The key to natural beauty is… to just keep it simple: with a bit of mascara and a nice lipstick on, you might as well impress everyone!

3. Beauty Products Should Be Stored Correctly

We all know that having our beauty items all stored together in the bathroom can be very pleasant on the eyes. At least, that’s how they always keep their products in the movies and it always looks very neat and tidy, doesn’t? Unfortunately, this shouldn’t be the case in real life.

Storing skincare and makeup products in the bathroom is not always a good idea, as the warm and humid atmosphere often makes them expire more quickly. In fact, some items need to be kept in the fridge, as per instructions. Don’t waste your beauty products just because they look nice together!

4. Showering with Hot Water is Bad for Your Skin

Taking a long hot shower before jumping into bed can be very relaxing and rewarding. It works amazing to relieve stress and soothe muscle stiffness. Unfortunately though for all hot showers lovers, hot water is not so beneficial for your skin…

Hot showers and baths can often dry out the skin, causing redness, itching and even peeling. They dehydrate your body and steal away essential nutrients that keep your skin healthy and glowing. Next time you shower, turn down the water temperature!

5. Applying Multiple Masks at Once Can Bring You Multiple Benefits

Facial masks are a great addition to our beauty routine, allowing us to optimise our results. You can find tons of masks with different goals: detoxifying, repairing, nourishing, illuminating, etc. What if we told you that you can combine a few of them at the same time to achieve optimal results?

Applying multiple masks at once allows you to target different areas of your face, thus creating a custom mask to meet the needs of each facial area. With this in mind, at Belle Azul we have designed the 360 Mask Collection, a flexible kit containing 3 different types of masks to deeply hydrate and detoxify your skin while preserving its youth.

6. You Are Not Too Young for Anti-Ageing Products

Talking about youth, being in your twenties, you are probably sceptical about using anti-ageing products. Why would you if you don’t have any wrinkles or lines yet? Anti-ageing products are for mature women, who suffer from signs of ageing, right?

Well, not exactly. While anti-ageing products are most often than not used by women over 40, they can also be very beneficial for the younger ones. Starting to use such beauty products in your twenties can help you effectively prevent early signs of ageing while retaining the young beautiful look of your skin for longer.

7. Your Hair Needs More Care Than You Think

Having thick and shiny hair like the beautiful models that you often see on the TV adverts requires some effort. Your hair tends to be very sensitive when it’s wet, so you should treat it with extra care. Drying it with a towel or blow-drying when the hair is too wet can cause breakage and frizz. Same goes for brushing – better use your fingers to detangle it when it’s wet!

Using a heat protectant when you expose your hair to heat is a must. You can check out our Moroccan Hair Serum, which has been developed specifically to protect from heat damage and control frizz. To nourish and strengthen your hair in depth, it is also recommended that you do deep conditioning treatments at least once a week, using a leave-in mask. Treat your hair the way it deserves to be treated and we promise it will be worth it!

La entrada 7 Beauty Secrets That Every Girl Should Know se publicó primero en Belle Azul.