Are you looking for the secret to losing weight?
The fact of the matter is there is no secret. No special food you should or should not eat. No special pill you should or should not take. But there is some math.
Those of you who are like me and like math, you'll love this. Those of you who hate math... bare with me, it's not too bad.
First, here are some helpful facts:
~A pound of fat is 3500 calories.
~Depending on your activity level and weight (which we'll call X (told you this was math class)) you burn an anywhere from 1400 (being sick in bed) to (15*X).
~If the scales are going up, you are consuming more calories than you are burning.
~If the scales are going down, you are burning more calories than you are consuming.
~If the scales are staying the same, you are consuming the same amount of calories as you are burning.
~Working off weight takes time, not the "lose 30 lbs in 10 days" advertisement we see in the check-out line.
~If you want to work off weight you will either need to not eat as many calories as you normally do or increase your activity level (or both).
~It really doesn't matter what you eat. You can lose weight eating chocolate and nothing but chocolate as long as you eat less calories than you burn, although I will add that you will feel like crap.
So putting that into an example:
If you want to work off 5 lbs, you will need to eliminate (whether through not eating or burning off) 17,500 calories (5*3500). That may sound like a lot, but you don't do it all at once. Let's say you normally consume 2200 calories a day and burn 2000 (hence the 5 lbs that you need to get rid of). You can go the "fast and hard" route and eliminate 500 calories a day. Those 500 calories a day, for seven days will translate into working off 1 lb. (500*7=3500... also known as a pound of fat). Continue this and you will reach your goal in 5 weeks. You could also choose the "slow and steady" route and eliminate 250 calories a day which will then take 2 weeks to work off 1 lb and 10 weeks to work off 5 lbs. Generally speaking, working off weight slow and steady is better as you have a better chance of keeping it off and the number one reason for that is after those 5 lbs are gone you cannot go back to what you use to do or else those 5 lbs will just come right back on. Once you have worked off the weight you need, you can probably increase your calorie intake or decrease your activity slightly to balance and bring in harmony your calorie consumption and burning.
A great website that will help you track what you burn, consume and the amount of time it will take you to reach your goals can be found here.
