Calorie Consumption to Lose Weight by Will Praht
Eating properly and in the right manner to maintain and or lose weight is often a tricky proposition for many people. How can you figure out a scenario to eat healthily and not gain weight while staying healthy.
This can be achieved by watching your calorie consumption (CC) balanced against your caloric output (CO). In order to accomplish your goal of weight loss you will be required to basically create a caloric deficit. To further understand this principal we must understand that each pound of fat has a caloric value (CV) of 3,500 calories. With this information we can now complete our formula where for every pound of fat we wish to lose we must create a deficit of 3,500 calories, (CC) – (CO) = -3,500 (CV).
Easily put on paper, but how does this relate to actual weight loss. How do we create these caloric deficits. There are three basic ways to achieve your goal.
They are:
The nutritional modification plan.
Simply put you must bring in to your system fewer calories each day than you burn. Yes this what most people refer to as a diet, however I prefer nutritional modification because this should not be a plan that you can not continue for maintenance purposes. Rather this is a plan with beneficial results year round based on sensible choices and temporarily modified for weight loss consumption. If you go on a starving program to lose weight you will be doomed to repeat this process throughout your life because every time you come off your deprivation diet your body will try to make up for the starvation cycle you put it in and eventually you will have gained all your weight back, and usually more.
Your body burns calories all day long, no matter what you do your body has a metabolic rate of consumption of calories (BMR – basal metabolic rate) it has to use for you to exist. This is accountable to all of the basic functions of life such as breathing, heart pumping and blood circulation, your digestive system, cognitive thinking, and even sleep are all basic functions. We all do much more every day than the basic functions for life, we walk, drive, perform our daily chores and business operations and other social activities. All of these can be stacked on top to get our (BMR),.Most BMR rates can be estimated through age, gender and weight calculations and can be found online at such sites as http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/.
Simply put if you take in 500 fewer calories per day than your BMR , over a weeks time you will have lost a pound of fat. (CC -500)- (CO) = (-500 CV) multiplied by 7 days in a week you now have a CV OF -3500 which is the magic number to lose 1 pound.
The Energy modification plan
If you are presently not overeating and are bringing in the same amount of calories per day to support our body functions we are in a state of maintenance. A balancing act of input and output which creates a level and even weight, we don’t gain or lose we simply maintain. (CC) – (CO) = 0.
In this equation we can lose weight simply by increasing the amount of activity requirements (or energy output) of the body to create the deficit desired .
Simply put, by creating more energy demands you burn more calories once again creating a caloric deficit. If you burn 500 more calories per day than you take in, over a weeks time you will have lost a pound of fat. (CC)- (CO-500) = (-500 CV) multiplied by 7 days in a week you now have a CV OF -3500 which is the magic number to lose 1 pound. Remember this is only effective if you are presently not overeating to start with and you have a balanced input to output ratio.
The Nutritional and Energy Modification Plan
Easily the most effective and efficient way of trying to lose weight and in the long run, keep it off. If you want to create a substantial caloric deficit, the combination of the two above systems into one doubles the effectiveness of either by itself The added benefit is you can achieve the same amount of fat loss with less food and exercise modification, while achieving the same results. This makes it much easier to maintain because of the decreased demand in any one particular phase.
Now if you have a caloric intake 250 calories less than the normal plus an increase of 250 calories expended you once again have your caloric deficit of -500CV.
If you burn 250 more calories per day and expend 250 more calories than require for your BMR, over a weeks time you will have lost a pound of fat. (CC-250)- (CO-250) = (-500 CV) multiplied by 7 days in a week you now have a CV OF -3500 which is the magic number to lose 1 pound.
The key to any plan is consistency. Whichever way you go make a commitment and stick with it. If you hate to exercise follow the Nutritional plan, if you don’t want to give up some of your meal, try the energy plan. Or take the easiest and most efficient way and choose the combined plan. The options are yours, the success will follow if you are true.
Its easy on paper but remember we are human and many factors add into our efficiency, whether we calculate correctly, count everything we eat, even the conditions we work in, such as sweat loss on a hot day, may impact our results. Remember the long range goal and be smart about your choices and you will benefit today and every day in your future.
