There is no fixed rule about how much food you personally need or at what stage you become overweight, The thyroid gland, in particular, and all endocrinal! Glands, in general, control the rate at which chemical processes take place in the body.

People with very active thyroid glands can remain enviously slim in spite of consuming large amounts of food. If the gland is less active, people who eat less may still tend to put on weight.

You understand the terms that, if you are overweight, it means that you are consuming more calories than your body can use up. It is die extra calories you take in that are changed into fat and stored in the body.

CALORIES

Calories are simply unit measures of heat. When a calorie of protein or carbohydrate is burnt outside the body, it produces the same amount of heat. However, burnt inside the body, a protein calorie produces five times the heat produced by the burning of a carbohydrate calorie.

Calories are much harder to take off than to put on. To burn up the 150 calories contained in an extra slice of bread and jam, the body needs a work load equivalent to a three-mile jog or half an hour's digging.