Weight Loss. It amazes me how much money is spent, how many articles are written, how much misery is inflicted by weight loss. I am not a dietician or personal trainer but I am really good at math. If you want to lose weight it’s a very simple equation: calories-in minus calories-out equals weight loss (or gain). There are a number of ways to go about losing weight, and there are many great products and services to help you accomplish this, but the fact remains that all you need to do is decrease the calories going in and maintain or increase the calories going out.

And before we continue, let’s dispel a popular myth. Sure, metabolism plays a part in weight loss. If you eat more meals per day of less food per meal you can fool your body and burn a bit more. However, this is a non-factor for all intents and purposes. I hear people say that if you reduce your food intake too much or don’t eat enough times per day then your body will go into hibernation mode where your metabolism will slow to a crawl and you will not lose weight. Well how do they think starving people get skinny? Eating too often? If you reduce food intake you lose weight, period. Sure, you might plateau from time to time, but just keep up the pace and it will come off.

1. Find out how many calories you need to maintain your current weight based on your height, age, sex, and current activity level. Once you have that number, reduce your calorie intake by 200 – 300 calories per day and the weight will melt off at 5 – 10 lbs. per month. The calorie counter I use is http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm.
2. Change what you eat. Reduce your carbs and fats and increase your vegetables. This will allow you to eat similar quantities of food but ingest fewer calories. You will need to track the number of calories in everything you eat so use a site like http://caloriecount.about.com/ which has just about anything you could ingest. I use a spreadsheet to track my calories.
3. Increase activity (although it is not mandatory in order to lose weight). If you keep your activity level the same and just reduce calories you will lose weight. However, in the long run it is better to add muscle because just having more muscle burns more calories – even while you are sleeping.
4. Remember that after you lose some weight you need to go back to the calorie calculator because the less you weigh the fewer calories you need to maintain that weight.

If you feel you need some help with reducing calories-in, take a look at Weight Watchers which currently has a 30% off your first month of Monthly Pass coupon. Good luck!

{ 0 comments }