You Can Lose a Pound a Week

Most health professionals recommend slow weight loss as the safest and most effective approach. A sensible weight-loss program allows you to lose weight gradually -- about one-half to one pound per week. Gradual weight loss promotes long-term loss of body fat, not just water weight that can be quickly regained.


Most people leading moderately active lives need about 15 calories per pound to maintain their weight. For example, a 150-pound person would have to eat foods containing no more than 2,250 calories each day to maintain his or her weight.

To lose one pound, a person must burn 3,500 calories more than are consumed. For example, reducing calories by 300 per day and increasing daily activity to burn off an additional 200 calories should result in a weight loss of one pound per week.

A Perfect Balance

When limiting calories, you still need to satisfy basic nutritional needs. If you restrict your eating, your fat cells will remain in their fat protecting mode, and your muscles will be forced to supply the energy for your exercise. Consequently you’ll diminish the very muscle you are trying to build.

You should also evaluate your eating patterns. Resist over eating. This may sound obvious, but it’s not. We eat to the point of feeling full rather than feeling satisfied. And we eat when we are not really hungry, or we starve and then stuff ourselves. Fat cells are quick to capitalize on these habits and they respond by storing fat like crazy.

Sometimes six small meals a day can help you control your hunger. Weight loss involves nonlinear thinking. Here’s why: One meal of 2,000 calories is more fattening than two meals of 1,000, and two meals of 1,000 is more fattening than four meals of 500. Think about it, if you eat more calories than your body can burn in a few hours, the rest will be stored as fat. This is why people who do most of their eating in two meals a day make a costly mistake. They think they are cutting calories, but proportionately, more of the calories they are eating are stored as fat.

Most successful weight-loss plans call for a reduction in both calories and the amount of fat eaten. The fat in your diet should be limited to 30 percent or less of total calories each day. And calories still count!

Getting Physical

Determine what type of physical activity best suits your lifestyle. You should work your way up to regular aerobic exercise, such as brisk walking, jogging or swimming, since it is a key factor in achieving permanent weight loss and improving health. Aerobic exercise works the body's large muscles, such as the heart, and should be moderately vigorous to be most effective. For maximum benefits, it is recommended to exercise 30 minutes or more on most days of the week.

Try to incorporate some simple calorie-burners into your everyday routine. Even the most basic activities (such as taking an after-dinner walk, using the stairs at the mall instead of taking an escalator, or parking farther away so you have a longer walk) can get you prepared for more aerobic activities.

Exercise not only burns calories, it may increase the body's metabolic rate and actually decreases appetite for some people. Exercise also has psychological benefits. It improves your sense of well-being and decreases stress. Now, it’s time for you to find your balance and feel better.

Losing just 10 %...huh?

Studies show that losing even just 10 percent of your weight (which for many people is as little as 15 to 20 pounds) offers enormous health benefits, such as improved blood sugar regulation, lower blood pressure and better blood cholesterol levels. This is not to say that losing just 10 percent is easy! The only way to lose weight and keep it off is to change your lifestyle and changing habits can be hard work.