Need-to-know Facts About Weight Loss

By Author: Lucy Carter
Total Articles: 100
Comment this article

The main fact to know about weight loss is that you simply need to eat fewer calories (the energy count) than your body burns up. While this sounds obvious, it can be hard to know just how many calories you're consuming in the foods you eat.

There is a wealth of information out there on how to lose weight, as well as innumerable diets and training regimes promising quick weight loss. The trick is to go about it in a balanced way so that your body stays healthy and the weight stays off for good.

The following essential tips will help you do just that.

Moderation in exercise and calorie intake

If you eat more calories than your body uses, the extra energy will be stored as excess body fat. The best way to keep weight off is to eat fewer calories plus be active. For example, if you cut 250 calories from your diet each day along with exercising enough to burn off 250 calories, that adds up to 500 fewer calories in one day. This fairly easy thing to achieve if done for 7 days will see you losing 1 pound of fat a week.

Starving yourself of calories and nutrients is not the way to go - this will only ...
... make you go into a state of ketosis, which means your body switches to starvation and preservation mode. You'll lose your appetite as a result but soon you will get so hungry that you'll want to binge. It also causes your body to store more fats in the anticipation of being deprived of food.

Many experts believe you shouldn't try to lose more than 2 pounds per week. Losing more than 2 pounds in a week usually means that you're losing water weight and lean muscle mass instead of losing excess fat. If you do this, you will have less energy, and you will most likely gain the weight back.

As far as exercise goes, many people believe that not eating before a workout will burn more fat. The reality is that while this will raise your metabolism for a short time, it can also induce ketosis. To burn fat directly, the experts say you should exercising regularly and at low levels of effort for at least 20 minutes. Walking is a good example. As a guide, you should be able to hold a conversation during training. If you're breathing too hard to do this, you're exercising too hard and will not be burning off excess fat for energy.

Regular eating

Because you burn calories while you sleep, eating a good breakfast for an energetic start to the day is definitely not a myth. Experts agree that it is far better for your metabolism to eat regularly than to skip meals and have a big dinner. People vary as to what regular eating means - at least 3 meals a day is good for some, while others feel more comfortable eating 5 small snacks throughout the day. The main thing to remember is that consistency is key, since depriving your body of energy will slow down your metabolism, which in turn slows down your ability to burn fat.

The good and bad of high fat foods

While all foods high in fat are generally high in calories, and thus often a cause of unwanted weight gain, it's important to know that not all fats are to be avoided as some are very beneficial to your health.

Examples of 'bad' fats are saturated or trans fats - not only do they put on weight, they increase your LDL cholesterol level which largely increases your risk of heart disease. The experts generally recommend you eat no more than 20 grams of saturated fat and as little trans fats (0% being ideal) as possible.

Examples of 'good' fats would be polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, found in fish, nuts, and low or non-fat dairy products.

Avoiding empty calories

'Empty calories' are foods that give you energy while having no nutritional value for your body. Examples include sugar-sweetened drinks such as enhanced fruit juice, soft drinks, sports drinks, energy drinks, sweetened milk and sweetened iced tea. It is far better to switch to zero-calorie flavoured water, non-fat or reduced-fat milk, unsweetened tea or diet soda. This simple step can reduce your sugar and calorie intake by a surprising amount.

All in all, regular exercise and sound nutritional eating are the sure way to achieve lasting weight loss. Those programmes that promise an almost instant magic transformation are more than likely not going to give your body the balanced sustenance it needs to be healthy nor keep the weight from creeping back once you stop the extreme regimen. Sensible action is definitely key.
Andrea Aines - dietician and expert in weight loss.