Weight Loss Tips – Plan to Lose a Pound a Week
It’s a never-ending battle for some people to lose weight and then keep it off. Some of us, myself included, have a tendency to gain weight without really trying. My doctor always accuses me of eating the wrong food and eating too much.
Well, my doctor may be partly right in what he says about eating the wrong foods. But the part about overeating is not correct because I had drastically reduced my food intake to try to lose weight. Having little to no success with my weight loss, I did some research and found that if you eat the wrong types of foods at the wrong times, losing weight is next to impossible. For example, if you eat a carbohydrate-rich meal or late-night snack right before bed, the calories will be stored in your body while you sleep. If you have to eat carbs, it’s best to do it in the morning for breakfast so you have all day to burn off the calories.
The best way to lose weight, whether it’s a pound a week or more, will be most successful if you watch what you eat and keep track of your daily intake. You can calculate the exact number of calories you need to maintain your current body weight by finding out what your basal metabolic rate is. Your BMR is your resting metabolism, which is the rate at which your body burns calories just to stay alive.
To calculate your BMR, you’ll need to convert your weight to kilograms by dividing your weight by 2.2. You will also need to convert your height to centimeters by multiplying your height in inches by 2.54. You can then plug those numbers into the Harris-Benedict formula: 66+(13.7xweight in kg) + (5 x height in cm) – (6.8 x age in years) = BMR.
Next, you’ll need to multiply your personal daily energy expenditures by your BMR to determine how many calories you need to consume to gain or lose weight. Activity multipliers vary based on your lifestyle.
Sedentary: BMR x 1.2
Lightly active: BMR x 1,375
Moderately active: BMR x 1.55
Very Active: BMR x 1,725
Extremely active: BMR x 1.9
The total daily energy requirement would then be calculated like this: Activity Multiplier x BMR = Total Daily Energy Requirement.
So, to lose a pound of weight each week, you need to eat twenty percent less than your total daily energy requirement. Or change your activity variable and exercise more to get a higher activity multiplier.
Whichever path you decide to take, it would be wise to check with your doctor before beginning any diet or exercise modifications to make sure your body is up to the task. Then once you start don’t cheat! After just a few weeks, you should be happy with the results.
It took me over six months to start seeing significant results. Over the course of the six months, I modified my diet and exercise routines by increasing my activity level and reducing my food intake. I also started using some nutritional supplements to help maintain my energy level while cutting calories. So it’s a matter of changing more than one behavior to be successful. Simply reducing food intake alone is not enough to lose weight and keep it off.