It Is Only About The Calories

If you want to lose weight, but are unsure how to go about it because there are seemingly endless variations of diet and exercises out there, you are in luck. This article discusses the only real way that causes weight loss: caloric deficit. Your body is a machine, and it really is just a matter of numbers to drop your unwanted pounds. Keep reading into the following paragraphs for more.

Your pounds do not materialize out of thin air, nor do they magically disappear either. You weigh a set number of pounds, and each of these pounds is equal to 3500 calories of food or beverage intake. The only way to lose weight is mathematically, where you burn more calories than you take in. However, while it is simple on paper, it is not in reality.

The calorie portion of this approach is pretty easy to do. You can quickly determine how many calories you burn in a day at many websites online. Look for a basal metabolic calculator. It will ask your height, weight, age and gender, and then compute how much caloric burn your body goes through in a day. This is how much your metabolism is if you just stayed in bed all day. Look a little further for calculators that take your physical activity level into account too.

The next thing you have have to do is to start tracking all of your calories. This should also be pretty simple, given that most any food has its calories listed on the package. Anything else you can look up pretty quickly using calorie charts online. A spreadsheet on your portable electronic device of choice or small notebook can easily serve you here.

Now that you know the calories you burn, and the calories you are taking in, it is time to create the differential that means you are burning more than you are consuming. You can do this obviously by boosting your activity, and by reducing your consumption. It only takes a little of both to get your numbers lined up for weight loss.

Once you are mathematically in position, the tricky part comes into play. You have to keep your body from going into starvation mode, even though you are in fact starving it physically. There are two aspects to doing this.

The first element of avoiding starvation mode is keeping your caloric intake slightly above your basal metabolic rate, but obviously under your total burn. If you dip your calories too far, your body will start shutting down. Also, you have to find a way within your restricted calorie diet to keep your nutrition up to par. You still have to get your allotment of protein, fiber, carbs and all your vitamins and minerals.

Secondly, you have to keep your spirits up. If you mentally feel like you are starving yourself in your head, you can still trip your body into a depressed state that will not let go of the fat calories.

Now that you have read this article, you understand the only true way to lose weight. No pairing of exercise or diet in the whole world is effective unless you burn more calories than you take in all while avoiding starvation mode in the process.