Thursday, February 8, 2007

Weight Loss Plan

Weight loss can seem difficult but there is very simple math that can be used to help you in your weight loss struggles. Every pound of fat is about 3500 to 4000 calories and for every pound you want to lose each week you need to consume 3500 - 4000 less calories than normal.

If you want to lose one pound every week you can average this out and meet the goal by cutting about 500-600 calories daily. If you keep your activity on the same level as normal and cut about 500 calories you should lose about one pound every week.

Although one pound a week does not sound like you are accomplishing much it is actually the healthiest way to lose weight. Usually people who lose weight slowly and average about a pound or two each week tend to keep their weight off for their entire lifetime instead of bouncing up and down on the scales. Take is slow and you can lose your weight for life.

It can sound difficult to cut your calorie intake by 500 calories a day, but really it is quite easy. There are some very easy ways to work at cutting 500 calories a day. You can choose to use milk in your coffee instead of actual creamer and this will save you 50 calories for every cup. You can also choose to eat your baked potato without the butter, which will save you about 100 calories.

Start drinking water instead of sodas and you can save about 200 calories. If you go out to eat and choose a salad over a Big Mac you can save around 360 calories. You can also save about 300 calories by passing on the potato chips. You can save about 50 calories per serving if you eat the thick steak fries instead of the thin fries that tend to soak up a lot of oil.

There is another way to work on losing weight as well instead of limiting your calorie intake. You can also choose to exercise more and increase the amount of calories you burn each day by 500 calories. You can accomplish this fairly easily as well. You can burn about 160 calories strolling around the park for about a half-hour.

If you go biking for five miles you can burn about 250 calories. If you dance for an hour, not slow dancing, but dancing that makes you gasp for breath, you can burn around 400 calories for every hour. Swimming is a great way to burn calories and swimming for an hour can burn about 510 calories. Tennis is a great calorie burner as well and you can burn about 800 calories if you play tennis for an hour.

Remember when you are exercising that if you weight more you will burn more calories than someone who weighs less. Exercise will help you to build muscle in place of the fat and muscle will continue to burn calories even when you are not being active. The best weight loss plan will combine cutting calories with exercise.

If you can cut only 250 calories a day, but exercise to burn 250 calories each day, you have reached your 500 calorie goal for the day. Always be sure that you eat enough so your body does not think it is starving and lower your metabolism. Your weight loss goal is reachable if you have the patience and dedication.



http://www.add-articles.com/Article/Weight-Loss-Plan/77281