With the increasing incidence of obesity, people will be greedy enough to lose as much weight as possible. To further their greed, is the offers from fad diets and miracle weight loss pills that promise unbelievable weight loss helping you to get to size zero in a matter of weeks. But t is strongly advised that you do not fall for such gimmicks and set realistic weight loss goals.
When it comes to numbers, you need to burn 3500 calories to lose a pound of weight. To lose weight in a healthy and safe way, losing anything between 1lb and 2lbs per week is considered ideal. So, you can lose about 8lbs in a month without the fear of any side effects or the lost weight rebounding on you. When you set unrealistic goals and manage to reach them through crash dieting, there is every danger of the lost weight to boomerang once you are out of such diets.
To lose 2lbs a week, you need to set the target at losing 1000 calories per day. You can achieve this by following a combination of the right diet and structured exercises
Diet
You need to first calculate the average amount of calories that you consume on a daily basis. To get this figure, you can note in a dairy, what all you eat regularly and equate it to equivalent calories. Adding up the individual calorie equivalents, you can arrive at your daily calorie intake. Since you have to lose 1000 calories on a daily basis, reduce 500 calories straight away from your diet. In fact, cutting down on the unhealthy foods that you consume will take care of this reduction.
A bit of caution while reducing your intake. Ensure that your intake does not fall below 1200 calories (for women) and 1800 calories (for men). If you think you are going below this level, then adjust accordingly. If you go in for drastic cuts, you will be starved of energy and your metabolism will slow down and prevent calorie burning.
To help weight watchers in their weight loss efforts, a number of scientifically proved diet plans have come into existence to help you with calorie controlled eating.
Exercise
You have taken steps to control your calorie intake. But how to get rid of the existing fats in your body that is causing weight gain. You need to convert these store fats into energy and burn them off. For this, you need to be active and indulge in regular exercises. Exercises speed up your metabolism and aid faster calorie burn.
When exercise is combined with the right quantum of calorie intake, all excess calories are burnt off and it is much easier for you to lose weight. While any type of exercises help in losing weight, high intensity exercises like cardio, strength training and resistance training help in achieving greater and more effective calorie burn.
The rate at which a person is able to lose weight is dependent on the interplay of a number of factors. Stay motivated and follow healthy weight loss efforts with dedication. You will surely reap the benefits of your efforts.