Lose Weight By Counting Calories? Louis Jeffries
Do You Count Calories?
Many people count calories to lose weight. To lose weight you must burn more calories than you consume. This means you either eat less, burn more calories or a combination of the two. One problem with restricting your calories too much is it will slow down your metabolism. When you slow down your metabolism it makes it all the more difficult to sustain weight loss. As you dramatically cut your calories your body ceases to expend energy and begins to store fat. As your body goes into starvation mode your energy levels go way down to conserve the little fat you are feeding your body. Hence you become lethargic and lose your will to do things. Conversely when you have excess calories above the energy needs of your body then these calories will be stored as fat. This happens because if we do not burn the fat the body stores the fat. This is how you gain weight.
Another Reason to Not Count Calories
Another reason to not rely on counting calories to lose weight is that all calories are not created equal. 200 calories in a can of soda is quite different from 200 calories in a salad. More important than the number of calories we consume is the nutritional content or lack thereof of the food we eat.
Nevertheless we all need to consume a minimum number of calories everyday to maintain our bodies. Your daily calorie requirement depends on a number of different factors including your weight, your age, gender and your lifestyle. A more active person will need more calories due to the fact that they will be burning more in the course of the day. Some people have high metabolisms and they must eat more because of it. Many athletes and people who exercise regularly need more food because they burn it more. Muscle burns fat.
On average every pound of your body weight represents approximately 3500 calories. Based on this average, to lose 1 pound you will need to reduce your calorie intake by 3500 calories. The average person consumes between 1500 and 2500 pounds a day. So even if you did not eat anything for an entire day you would not lose a pound.
Therefore on diet alone, you can see how it won’t be possible to lose a pound a day. Counting calories without burning calories will not help us to lose much weight. If you reduce your calories by 115 calories per day over the course of a month you would lose about 1 pound. It is safe to reduce your calories by approximately 10% daily without changing your metabolism. This may represent 2 pounds per month. But to truly lose weight and keep it off we must employ a comprehensive weight loss program that includes a healthy diet, regular physical exercise and maybe nutritional supplements to jump start the weight loss process.
With all of this in mind we should focus not on counting calories but on a healthy lifestyle.
Eat a Healthy Diet.
Regular Physical Exercise.
Nutritional Supplements only to jump start your weight loss.
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