Dieting by calories

There are almost as many diet plans as there are stars in the sky. Some people watch their weight by embarking on single-food diet plans, such as the grapefruit diet or the cabbage soup diet. Others choose a diet plan that eliminates foods, such as carbohydrates or fats. One of the most common and effective diet plans is to diet by counting calories. This method is employed by many successful weight loss programs, including Weight Watchers.

What is in a Calorie?

A calorie is a measurement of energy. We burn calories every day, with every activity that we do – even sleeping! We take in calories through food, and these calories provide the power that drives our bodies. To maintain a constant weight, a person needs to take in as many calories as they burn. To gain weight, one must take in more calories than they expend. Of course, to lose weight, one must use more calories than they take in.

How Many Calories Is That?

A pound of fat is made up of approximately 3,500 calories. The average person needs a diet plan consisting of about 1500-2000 calories a day to maintain a healthy weight. Let’s look at burning calories: Walking 30 minutes on a treadmill might burn about 100 calories. Swimming laps in a pool for 30 minutes burns about 200 calories. Now, think about taking in calories: A slice of bread is about 70 calories and a small fast food French fry is about 220 calories. For those looking to burn calories, exercise is like paying off a debt – you work out a certain amount of time to pay off the food you consumed.

The Simple Truth of Any Diet Plan

People often make excuses for weight problems, citing thyroid or hormone issues, genetics and metabolism, or lifestyle and willpower. These issues may be valid, but the short of it is that if you have a weight problem then you are simply not taking in the right amount of calories to maintain a healthy weight in your body. For most people, that weight problem means being overweight, and it is necessary to alter their diet plant to either burn more calories through exercise or consume fewer calories in food. In short, for these people a calorie counting diet plan is needed to maintain healthy weight.

How Do You Count Calories?

A calorie counting diet plan is actually relatively easy in today’s world – at least procedurally (no one can help with willpower!). First, one must know the target caloric intake for their weight – there are numerous free online calculators that can help you determine this number. To lose weight, one should take this number and reduce it by about 500 calories a day. That reduction will result in approximately a 1.5 pound loss in weight per week, which most nutritionists believe is a good goal for effective long term weight loss.

Staying within that caloric goal may be difficult from a self-discipline perspective, but the implementation is easy in that calorie counts are printed on almost all canned, frozen and prepackaged foods, as well as fast food restaurants packaging. Many full service restaurants list calorie counts on their website and hundreds of free calorie guides fill the Internet. Stick to a diet plan where you count those calories, keep your intake at 500 calories below your maintenance requirement, and in a year you will have lost 20 pounds!