Past Tense

It has been common knowledge for many years that the best way to lose weight is to create a calories loss by eating less calories than your body requires and to burn additional fat through exercise. This is accurate information and the secret to a positive outcome to any weight loss program over the long term.

Adult eaters eat on average something like 2,000 calories in the course of a day and this is what our body needs as energy to carry out our daily activities. We need to create a deficit in the calories equation through a calories loss food plan and allow our body to use the energy stored in the excess fat we carry around. An achievable goal would be the reduction of our calorie intake to 1,500 calories and the use of the equivalent energy found in 500 calories from our fat supply.

That will make you lose weight. There are roughly 3,500 calories in a pound of fat so in order to lose five pounds you will need to burn an additional 17,500 calories. That is why it is impossible for those fad diets and trendy diet pills to work like they say they do and why a gradual calories loss through eating a healthy diet is the only way to go.

Regardless of what some ‘diet pill’ -manufacturers promise, we know that these do not bring about your body’s burning of additional calories. When you reduce your calories intake through a calories loss menu, your body will do the fat burning itself. But as important as calories are in the weight loss process, this should not be your only consideration because to remain healthy, your body needs regular intake of a range of different kinds of foods.

An unbalanced diet consisting of only salad and diet soda will not help you lose weight as this is not enough for your body to operate in a healthy way. Your body needs more than this because it needs to be fuelled by food. A healthy food program should provide this fuel and reward your body for the work it does instead of punishing it.

There is no getting around that fact, so you need to change what you give your body for fuel and that is where the common sense part comes in. It is common sense to know that your body needs whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats. Most of us would agree that some of these foods are OK but how do we include them in our diet on a regular basis instead of those high calorie foods we enjoy the most?

Old eating favourites like deep fried chicken pieces and a soda are not always easy to replace but if you want to reach your weight loss goal you will need to eat grilled chicken breast and an orange juice instead. These are the small but significant modifications that you can make to your normal eating patterns that will make all the difference. They become part of your changing lifestyle and the impact they have on your overall calories loss will bring about your weight loss for good.

Choose to make your health a priority, watching your calorie intake as a guide and instead of punishing your body for being overweight, celebrate your body and feed it so that your body gets strong and healthy. A diet that is rich in whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, hormone free lean meat, and other ingredients combined with regular exercise is the best way, and the only way, to get truly fit and to get your body to the ideal weight.

So, even if your eating and exercise lifestyle changes feel a little strange at first because they are new and different, persevere because in time they will seem NORMAL. The greatest challenge is surviving the time of initial calories loss. By the time this change becomes part of your new pattern of living however, your weight loss will have begun and you will feel confident and wonder how you ever lived any other way.