Nov 6, 2010 Kathleen Armentano
Weigh yourself to measure weight loss results - Photo by Kathleen Armentano
Weight loss companies advertise their programs to be the best and only one for quick weight loss. Their claims try to motivate people who want to lose weight to buy their food, book, supplements, or whatever it is they are selling. Which one is best? Actually they are all similar. Every diet plan on the market (low fat, low carb, South Beach, Weight Watchers, or Atkins) works off the same premise: making the dieter eat fewer calories through different ratios of protein, carbohydrates and fats. Why? Because they know it has been scientifically proven that the only way to lose weight is to eat fewer calories than the body needs to function.
How Calories Turn Into Fat
The human body is a machine that requires energy (calories) from the fuel (food) provided so that it can function: think, eat, sleep, talk, walk, and move. When the body gets more fuel than it needs, it stores the extra energy it does not need as fat.
A good analogy is buying gasoline for your car. If you fill up the tank and have a few gallons left over, you will store the extra gas, planning to use it when the tank gets low. However, if your gas tank gets filled up each day and some gallons are bought but not used, pretty soon the garage will be overflowing with extra gallons of gas. Your surplus of calories, however, are stored as fat that will eventually change your body shape.
How to Gain and Lose Weight
If your body needs 2500 calories a day to function, but you fuel it with 3000 calories, you will have a surplus of 500 calories a day. Eat 500 extra calories each day for 7 days and your body will store those unneeded 3500 calories as fat, and you will have gained one pound. To lose that one pound, you must now consume 500 calories less each day. This means eating only 2000 calories daily and letting your body draw on its storehouse of fat to use that extra pound you just gained as energy. This is not theory; it is the law of physics.
Determining Caloric Intake to Lose Weight
How many calories you are consuming daily? That is the first question to be asking yourself. Find the answer at a calorie count calculator. Just key in your height, current weight, activity level, age and how much you want to weigh and get the caloric total you should be eating each day and when you can expect to reach your goal. Once you have that information, use the tool at the a Calorie Counter. It is a calorie counter that searches the USDA food nutrition database, to find out the calories for any food you eat or drink. You can then tailor your eating habits to achieve your goal weight by understanding what you are consuming and how it affects your caloric intake.
The Ideal Weight Loss Rate
If you are serious about losing weight and keeping it off, be patient. A big, quick weight loss means a calorie-restrictive diet which cannot be sustained for any given length of time. The body will react negatively to a fast weight loss, as it senses it is in danger of survival, by holding onto body fat and burning muscle for energy instead. If it took you a week to gain a pound, it should take you one week to lose it. Consuming 500 fewer calories a day lets you eat less well without depriving your body of the nutritional food it needs to function. Everyone wants to lose ten pounds in a week; however, the ideal weight loss rate is one to two pounds each week. While it sounds like a small weight loss, losing two pounds a week can add up to over 100 pounds a year.
Understanding how the body loses weight, the important role calories play and losing the pounds in a slow and steady way are all the elements you need for successful weight control management.
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