Tuesday, May 13, 2014

How Many Calories To Burn To Lose Weight And Does Counting Calories To Lose Weight Works?

How many calories do we have to burn to lose weight and does counting calories to lose weight works?

Despite having all the diet plans, weight management is still about calories that you consume versus the ones that you burn off.

Calories are fuel for our body

In our food, calories are the energy. Our body requires energy and utilize the calories from the food we consume to keep functioning. The energy from calories fuels all our actions, from the little one such as fidgeting to the big one such as marathon running.

Calories are derive from carbohydrates, proteins and fats are nutrients and they are the main energy sources of our body. Each of them contain different level of energy. Carbohydrates and proteins contain approximately 4 calories for each gram while fats contain approximately 9 calories for each gram.

It doesn't matter where our calories originated, the calories we eat are either changed to physical energy or they are stored in our body as fat and they will stay that way until we use them. We use them by doing physical activities or we reduce our calorie intake so that our body draws reserved energy from our body.


Cutting our calories

Our weight is simply a balancing act. If we burn less calories than we consume than we will gain weight.

3,500 calories is approximately 0.45 kilogram fat, thus we must burn more than 3,500 calories than we consume to lose 0.45 kilogram. So when we cut 500 calories from our normal diet every day, we will lose approximately 0.45 kilogram a week because 7 days x 500 calories = 3,500 calories. However, it is not this simple, and we normally will lose a combination of water, fat and lean tissue and also because of the changes which occur in our body as a result of the weight loss, we might need to lessen our calorie intake to lose weight.

Cutting our calories is actually not to difficult. As a matter of fact, it is as simple as:

  • Skip high-calorie and low-nutrition foods
  • Swap high-calorie foods with low calorie foods
  • Reduce food portion sizes

Skip high-calorie and low-nutrition foods

For a start, skip a few high-calorie foods like our morning latte, our soda during lunch or a bowl of ice cream after dinner. We should identify the foods which we can cut, or try change it with low-calorie food.

For example :-

  • Change latte (16oz), about 250 calories to black coffee (16oz), 0 calories
  • Change chocolate ice cream (1 cup), about 285 calories to strawberries (1 1/2 cups), about 70 calories
  • Change lemon-lime soda (16oz), about 200 calories to sparkling water (16oz), 0 calories

Swap high-calorie foods with low calorie foods

When it comes to minimizing calories, a simple replacement can make a big difference. For example, we can save about 60 calories a glass just by simply drinking fat-free milk instead of whole milk.

For example :-

  • Change whole milk (8oz), about 150 calories to skimmed milk (8oz), about 85 calories 
  • Change regular-crust pepperoni pizza (1 slice), about 315 calories to grapes (1 2/3 cups), about 100 calories 
  • Change ranch-flavored tortilla chips (3oz), about 425 calories to air-popped popcorn (3 1/2 cups), about 110 calories 

Reduce food portion sizes

How many calories we consume depends on our food portion. 2 slices of pizza means twice the calories. We normally underestimate how much we eat, especially when we dine out. A good way to control our calories is to control our food portions.

For example :-

  • Reduce 8oz of orange juice, about 120 calories to 4oz, about 60 calories 
  • Reduce 6 inch (73 grams) buttermilk pancake, about 175 calories to 4 inch (41 grams), about 85 calories 
  • Reduce 1 1/2 cups of whole grain spaghetti, about 260 calories to 1/2 cups, about 85 calories 

Replacing our high-calorie foods with lower calorie foods as well as reducing our food portion sizes will help to cut our calories and reduce our weight. Add physical activities to our calories counting will help us to lose weight even more.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

3 Tips For Losing Weight Fast

In order for you to lose weight, you must cut your calories. For you to lose your weight even faster, you must cut more of your calories. You can lose 1 pound for every 3,500 calories that you cut. So to lose 1 pound. a week you need to lose 500 calories every day. Try these 3 tips for losing weight fast and losing 500 calories every day:

1. Take Only Half Of Your Carbohydrate Servings

If you normally eat 1 cup of rice, pasta or 2 slices of bread, then you should from now on eat only 1/2 cup of rice, pasta or 1 slice of bread. Exchange the other half with veggies. You can go crazy with veggies as they contain no calories. By skipping one slice of white bread you cut about 84 calories.

2. Add Nonfat Milk To Your Coffee 

When you drink coffee, skip sugar and cream, instead add nonfat milk to you coffee. For a 12oz size cup, you will free approximately 100 calories.

3. Eat Salad For Your Lunch

Let's say you normally have a 500 calories lunch, why not skip it and have salad instead for you lunch and you cut 500 calories. Eat salad (without dressing) with lots of fiber rich veggies with baked chicken or salmon and you can cut about 350 calories. Research recommended that fiber and protein are satisfying.

Friday, May 9, 2014

How To Lose 10 pounds In 2 Weeks

Are you having problems with your body weight? If so and if you need to lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks, then here are 3 methods which you can try.

1. Drink Only Water

From now on, you should stop drinking beer, smoothies, energy drinks and all water which contain sugar. Each serving of these drinks contain about 100 calories. Your body doesn't need these extra calories, so stop giving them to your body.

What you must drink is only water because water has no calories and carbohydrate which makes it the best weight loss drink. By drinking water, it will help to expel excess water weight out of your system and jump starts your metabolism. If you find it tasteless, then add mint leaves or lemon wedges.

2. Stop Eating White Bread As Well As Pasta

All foods made from white grain like white bread,spaghetti, pasta and rice will cause your belly to bloat. These foods contain simple carbohydrates which digest fast and making you hungry even faster and most likely you will overeat later on.

What you need to eat is just vegetables. Try eating only vegetables for 2 weeks and you will surely notice your weight reduction. You can also combine vegetables with white meat like chicken salad and change your potato chips to carrot. Vegetables contain complex carbohydrate and they digest much slower than simple carbohydrate making your stomach full for a longer period. As vegetables are mostly water they will also help to expel your excess water weight.

3. Perform Cardiovascular Activities 30 Minutes Every Day

To burn more calories, you need to do cardiovascular exercise 30 minutes every day. Do a combination of cardiovascular exercise such as jumping rope, running, kickboxing and step aerobic. To make your calories burn even more, alternate your exercise with intense cardiovascular activity and slower activity.