It’s never that easy to lose weight especially without arming yourself with powerful and strategic approaches. An individual who will engage in weight loss should be very wary of the fact that in order to yield better and long-lasting results, it is important to hurdle various stages. Each stage should be completely satisfied before plunging in another higher stage.
There are definitely no shortcuts here, what is crucial is to be able to meet the requirements set by each stage before trying for another. Just like an effective diet plan, skipping and other forms of virtual cheating will not be tolerated. These said, it would now be easier to say goodbye to flabbiness, obesity, plumpness or whatever term you prefer.
Understanding Calories
Every individual has a different take on what calorie is all about. For a nutritionist, that would mean the amount of energy derived from food. For someone mathematically inclined, calorie would mean 4.18400 joules. For others, calorie simply pertains to units of heat.
Regardless of how a person perceives calories; calories, when it comes to people wanting to lose weight basically means the ones which are counted and which are contained in the foods we ingest and the beverages we drink. Moreover, calories also refer to the ones burned during instances like exercise or even the simple act of moving around. Truth be told, almost everyone is familiar with how calories are introduced in the body and how the same are also burned within the body. Almost everybody is also aware that the more foods are taken in, the higher the amount of calories that will accumulate. This accumulation will then add up to the current weight. Yet, the same calories may also be burned to compensate for the foods eaten and to therefore prevent weight gain.
What are we insinuating? It should be reiterated that calories need not be a scary and abhorred term especially for those people engaged in weight loss. The fact is that with informed decisions we do and make whether it has something to do with our diet plan, our exercise regimen or even the supplements we take, it is extremely important to recognize the role of calories. Case in point is what is called calorie maintenance level. This is the number of calories that is required and needed by our body in order to help facilitate maintenance of present weight. Therefore, you can actually eat all you want and maintain your present weight as long as your body burns the same amount calories taken.
In losing weight, women can grab as high as 2400 calories in a day while men can have as much as 3500 calories in a day without even gaining weight if and only if the same levels are also burned by the body.
Needless to say, the calorie maintenance level sustained by a person will help propel one into achieving the most ideal body weight using the healthiest approaches to lose weight. Thus, every individual should know his or her maintenance level. If you stick to the same number of calories in your diet plan with your maintenance level, you’ll have a steady weight. Conversely, if your diet has higher calories than your maintenance level, then, it is not impossible to put on some weight. And, finally, the greatest advantage of it all is the fact that with fewer calories versus the calorie maintenance level, the ultimate weight loss is very much possible and is definitely a reality that you can enjoy.
Calorie Deficit
Less is actually experiencing weight loss while more means several pounds more to your weight. Therefore, if one is really bent on becoming healthier, take the calorie maintenance level as a cue. Your body should be able to burn more calories than the ones consumed. For instance, if you know that your level is pegged at 3000 calories, then, it is likely that you will lose weight if you simply slashed around 500 calories per day versus adding 500 more at 3500 calories where will surely gain weight.
The ultimate secret is about calorie deficit where you employ simple measures of math and common sense. Scrutinizing closely, one will note that exactly 500 calories was introduced as the example for slashing off unwanted weight. This is because there is a total of 3500 calories in one pound of fat. Calculating, we arrive at losing one pound in one week. (500 calories x 7 days = 3500 calories or 1 pound of fat) As it is, one to two pounds of weight loss is recognized by health experts as a healthy and ideal way of losing excess pounds.
For those who got into thinking that if the analog is correct, why not settle for losing more than two pounds in a week and therefore, reduce calorie intake, not by 500 calories but by say, 1000 calories. If you are one of those planning to do so, you are dead wrong. You won’t want to take that risk of potentially killing yourself. Here is a sensible reason.
When you lose weight speedily, you end up not losing just the fats in your body but you also lose the muscle. As a result, you suffer from a host of medical complications that could be prevented by the ideal pace of losing weight. More than that, you will actually end up fatter and heavier than your previous status. Your body’s primal instinct when calorie deficit goes to the extreme is to conserve more fats and energy. Who wants to end up like that? No one.
Burn Baby Burn: What about Exercising and Working Out?
Being attentive to the number of calories needed to lose weight does not just stop there. When it comes to weight loss, it is also important to note that you can engage in working out. This means that instead of consuming calories that should be below your calorie maintenance level, you can opt to work out or exercise and therefore burn calories to help facilitate an absolutely trimmer and shapelier body.
If you choose to complete 3000 calories in a single day both as your maintenance level and your diet plan, you can still lose excess pounds by burning the 500 calories through a set of exercises you have to do everyday. The calorie deficit is still achieved but in a more vigorous and probably, more tiring manner.
In the end, for a person to really lose weight, it is best to choose both options. Weight loss can be optimally achieved when a combination of diet and workout is made.
Now, you might be wondering about the other vital elements present in the food we eat such as protein, carbohydrates and fats? Here we go.
Proteins, Carbohydrates and Fats
One’s total caloric intake is the most reliable and significant aspect of losing weight. With the right amount of calories taken in every day, you’ll surely see and feel that you are indeed achieving something. This is regardless of where the calories come from. Nonetheless, the nutrients that give the needed calories are still as important and these calorie suppliers from proteins to carbohydrates and fats should also be taken into consideration.
In spite of false advertisements introduced by several posers of commercial diet plan and fad diets, you need all three elements to ensure that you don’t compromise anything especially your health. Everything should be well balanced.
Stage One Wrap-up
That would be it for Stage One; herein, the simplicity of it all and of weight loss is already in plain view. To lose weight, you have to stick to a weight loss diet plan in order to be able to adhere to your calorie maintenance level. You can choose to diet or to work out but doing both will be better.
Finally, calories also mean that you have to strike a balance amongst three important nutrients: proteins, carbs and fats.
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