My Formula for Weight loss

Fad diets are all the rage but here is the basic truth: A lot of them are dangerous and ineffective.
Even if they do shed a few pounds the chances are that you will gain it right back. I'll make a more detailed post about fad diets later and their various effects but for now let me just tell you: The most effective, longest lasting, and in my opinion, the healthiest method of weight loss is the age old formula- Move More, Eat Less.

Weight loss really just comes down to basic math. To shed pounds you need to cut back your calories and create something known as a 'calorie deficit'. A calorie deficit means that you are burning more than you are taking in. To burn one pound of fat, you must burn approximately 3,500 calories. For example, if you are looking to lose 10 pounds to get to your goal weight, you would need to burn 35,000 calories over the course of a few months.


Months?! I say months because if you are at a healthy weight and are looking to lose a few excess pounds  (5-20 lbs) to look a bit slimmer or drop a size in clothing you should not have a calories deficit of more that 900 calories per day. This is because anything more than about 900 calories will slow down your body and put you into a lower metabolic rate. For who want to lose even less than 5 lbs, the deficit should be right around 500 calories. If you are more than 25 lbs overweight you can allow for a larger calorie deficit because your body will be willing to get rid of it.

So calorie deficits are the way to lose but where exercise comes into play is- exercise allows you to create larger calorie deficits. For example in the image below, the girl ran for 45 minutes at a speed which burned 500 calories for the workout. If she consumed 2,000 calories that day and normally burns 2,000 calories as her metabolic rate there will be a deficit of 500 calories to go towards weight loss.

Now you know the basics. To be successful you have to monitor calories you eat and calories you're burning. If you do not count calories, there is a huge chance that you'll be eating more than you think you are and will have a very slow, and very disappointing weight loss experience.  

Health Tip: Use Livestrong.com to track your calories. Using the program MyPlate makes it easy to set your calorie goal and track the foods you have eaten as well as your workout calories burned. There are tons of fitness articles and nutrition tips on there as well. It's free!!- no excuses, use it.