Calorie Basics: The Key to Weight Loss

It doesn’t matter what the latest celebrity weight loss gurus say, the science behind losing weight is making sure calorie intake is less than calorie output. Consuming nutrients provides the body with energy for the metabolic process, which is measured in calories. Fats supply nine calories per gram, while proteins and carbohydrates contain a little less than half of that. While some diets stress proteins and fats and others recommend lots of carbs, dieting relies on making wise reductions in the total number of calories you eat.

Once the body’s energy requirements are met any excess calories are stored as fat. This is why paying attention to calorie intake and expenditure is important. To lose weight by burning the calories stored in fat, either calories eaten have to be reduced or calories spent in physical motion have to be increased. Most dieters use a combined strategy of eating less and exercising more.

We’ve all been on diets.  Most of us have even lost weight on diets and some of us have lost a lot of weight. But as time goes by the results of our diets usually reverses itself.  The fat returns and often it brings friends. Our diet has ended up leaving us heavier than we were before.  What went wrong?

The simple answer is we went on a diet and forgot about our health and lifestyle.  Strange as it may seem, weight loss is actually the easy part of weight control.  The hard part is keeping it off and there is only one way to do this.  Change your lifestyle.

Weight returns because after a diet we return to old habits.  We can eat the fries now because we are 25 pounds.  An extra piece of pie? Sure – after all we are looking better than we have in years.  Within days we are starting to gain a pound back here and there.  No problem we think, but soon it is a problem and one that leaves us disappointed and a little depressed.

Weight loss is as much a mental exercise as it is a physical one.  Forget about dieting and think about changing eating habits and your relationship with food.  Think about creating fulfillment in activities that don’t include eating. Think about allowing yourself to have the health and lifestyle that you deserve.

Exercising your body is a simple skill and can be learned quickly. Exercising your mind and making changes in thoughts and behaviors is far more difficult.  But not impossible. All it takes is a little help from someone who knows what they are talking about.  Celebrity diet gurus rarely do.  If you want to lose weight and become an effective weight manager for the rest of your life, seek out programs that will teach you life skills and make you accountable for your success and slips.

If you are looking for the key to weight loss success, stop dieting and start changing in ways that will make weight gain a problem of the past.