According to the National Institutes of Health, to lose 1 lb. a week, it requires consuming 3,500 fewer calories a week. Additionally, burning off 3,500 calories a week will cut another 1 lb. If you can eat 500 fewer calories a day and burn 500 calories more with exercise each day, you could lose 8 lbs. within a month.
Keep an Exercise Journal
Calculate the number of calories burned throughout the day with the goal of hitting 500. Using the exercise calculator at the Calorie Lab website, count the number of calories burned by mopping the floor, walking around the mall for 15 minutes and all your other typical activities. Keeping track of all the calories burned throughout one day will help achieve the 500-calorie-a-day goal.
Wear a Pedometer
In 2007, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine found that test subjects who wore a pedometer significantly increased their physical activity. The study's authors reviewed 26 studies with more than 2,700 participants. The findings, published in the "Journal of the American Medical Association," showed that people who wore a pedometer walked 2,491 more steps each day compared to the group that did not wear a pedometer. Additionally, the pedometer users increased their physical activity by more than 25 percent and saw a decrease in body mass index (BMI) by 0.38.
Eat Fewer Calories
Try to consume 500 fewer calories a day by counting calories. Packaged foods have nutrition labels on the back of the packaging. Note that some foods may contain multiple servings. One popular instant noodle meal, for instance, has 190 calories. However, there are two servings in each package. So eating the entire package actually amounts to consuming nearly 400 calories. Calories in fresh foods can be found at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Nutrient Database.
Eat Breakfast
According to the Mayo Clinic, eating breakfast can help you drop pounds. Eating breakfast gives a person more energy and those with more energy move around more, which burns calories. Eating breakfast also curtails snacking and gorging on larger meals later in the day.
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