Understanding Weight Loss

Our bodies are very sophisticated and temperamental. They have to be fed the right types of food to run properly. You overfill them and they will run sluggish. You don't supply them with enough of something and they will run sluggish. You need to constantly supply your body with just the right food and drink to have it perform perfectly.

To state something obvious, if you consume 2500 calories in a day, and your body burns 2500 calories that day, you will remain the same weight. If you body only burns 2000 of those calories then you will gain weight. If you do that all week long, you will gain a pound. So of coarse all you need to do to lose weight is to burn more calories than you consume. It's that simple, or is it?

How that all works is your bodies metabolism burns the calories. There are many things that control your body's metabolism though, and we all have our own unique metabolism. Also not all calories are created equal, so some calories stick around for a long time, and others burn off very quickly. So the ideal situation if you are trying to lose weight would be to get your metabolism to function at a high level and consume calories that burn off quickly. Again, it is not that simple, sorry.

There have been numerous studies that show that our bodies all need certain things to function properly, stay healthy, and lower our risk for certain diseases. The findings from some of those numerous studies have been kindly put on our labels of the products we buy at the grocery store. All of those scientific studies were NOT done by a bunch of idiots I believe. There are some people though that think they are idiots and choose to ignore those studies and make up their own daily requirements of calories, fats, cholesterol, sodium, potassium, carbohydrates, fiber, sugars, proteins, vitamins, calcium, iron, and folic acids. I actually believe that those scientists from many different countries and universities knew what they were doing and know a thing or two. They are not just guessing or playing games with us.

We need to consume as close to possible those daily requirements for our metabolism to perform properly and to stay healthy. Some of those requirements are calories that do not burn off quickly, but do provide an important function. Fat, for instance. There are four different kinds of fat. Two of them are much needed fats, Polyunsaturated Fats, and Monounsaturated Fats, which helps reduce our cholesterol, helps lower blood pressure, control inflammation, and protects against irregular heartbeats. The saturated fats and Trans fats are the ones to avoid because they raise our cholesterol, and damage our blood vessels so they could become built up with plaque.

My conclusion to lose weight and still keep your body healthy and in perfect running order is to lower your calorie intake by just a bit. I believe 500 calories a day is about right. You will need to check your calorie body needs. In the calorie intake needs calculator put your age, height, sex, weight, and how active you are, 5 choices for that. That will give you a good idea of how many calories you need to consume. It will also give you how many grams of fat, protein and carbohydrates you need. If it says that you need 2500, reduce your intake down to 2000 calories a day. Eat foods that will give you your supply of proteins, fats, carbohydrates and take a good multivitamin.

Then speed up your metabolism so it burns calories faster. To do this I have a few tips.

- Move. The more you move the faster you burn calories. Walk, stand and pace when you are talking on the phone, wiggle, stretch, tap you're your feet, twiddle your thumbs, anything, just keep moving.

- Do some resistance training or strength training. For every pound of muscle you put on your body burns an extra 50 calories a day, even why you are doing nothing, sleeping. Your body's muscles degrade as you get older, so keep them toned, you will feel better and look better plus burn more calories.

- Exercise. There are so many ways you can get exercise. Think of which one you would enjoy doing and start off slow and build ease into some sort of routine. In the morning would be best to get your blood flowing and body working, but anytime will do, just try to find something you enjoy, like swimming, walking, yoga, etc.

- Eat many meals, and eat them slow. Yes, after a huge meal you feel sluggish for a reason. You need to eat many smaller meals to keep your metabolism working at the right speed, and help your body out by eating them slow and fully chewing your food. Eat a breakfast, lunch and dinner, but also snack between those meals and after dinner. You can eat all day and still easily stay under your daily calorie intake if you eat the right foods.

If you do this you will not only lose weight the right way, keep your body healthy, lower your risk for many diseases, but you will feel so much better and be full of energy.