Creating a calorie deficit by eating fewer calories and exercising more is a proven way to lose weight according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Harvard School of Public Health, the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health. While the advice seems easy enough, translating it into a busy life can be complicated. Make changes gradually so they become habitual, and your new healthy weight can last a lifetime.
Step 1
Reduce the number of calories you eat in a day. Do not obsess about the combination of foods you eat or try banning complete food groups. The New England Journal of Medicine published a study on Feb. 26, 2009 showing that regardless of the diet formula people followed---high carb, low fat or high protein---as long as the diet involved reducing calories, meaningful weight loss occurred. Estimate your daily calorie burn on a website such as caloriesperhour.com and then eat 250 to 1,000 calories fewer daily to lose between ½ and 2 lbs. per week.
Step 2
Eat enough calories. Do not restrict yourself to a diet below 1,200 calories as a woman or 1,500 as a man, says Medline Plus, a service of the National Institutes of Health. Going too low leaves you without energy and adequate nutrition. It also is difficult to maintain such a low intake and will likely lead to cheating, binging or complete abandonment of your plan.
Step 3
Choose the right kinds of foods. Minimize your intake of processed foods, fast foods and chain restaurant creations, which all may contain too many calories and saturated fats, trans fats, sodium and sugar. Stick to whole, natural foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables, low-fat dairy, lean proteins and whole grains such as brown rice, oats and whole wheat pasta.
Step 4
Portion out your food. Invest in a small kitchen scale and a set of measuring cups and spoons to make sure you are eating recommended servings of starches and proteins. Depending on your calorie goals, eat about four to six ounces of protein and ½ to 1 cup of starches at most meals.
Step 5
Exercise aerobically most days of the week. Go swimming, biking, walking or jogging for 60 minutes or more, five days per week to induce weight loss according to the American College of Sports Medicine. Choose an exercise mode you like. While an hour of exercise daily sounds daunting, you can break it up into shorter 10- to 40-minutes sessions throughout the day.
Step 6
Stick to steady-state work if you are new to exercise, but after several weeks, add interval training for two or three sessions to burn more overall calories and enhance your results. Alternate bouts of all-out work with bouts of low-intensity work to induce more fat-burning, as shown in a study in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism published in December 2008. Subjects who performed interval training in three hour-long sessions per week for six weeks greatly improved their ability to oxidize fat and carbohydrates.
Step 7
Strength train two times per week, performing just one set of eight to 10 exercises that work all of the major muscle groups. Choose weights or exercises that fatigue you in just eight to 12 repetitions to build strength and maintain lean muscle, recommends the American Council on Exercise. Perform the exercises in a circuit--back-to-back with minimal rest between them--to burn up to 30 percent more calories than a traditional set and rest routine. Add an additional round of the circuit as you become stronger. Change your routine every four to six weeks by re-ordering the exercises or trying new ones to keep your muscles challenged and prevent a plateau.
Step 8
Include one or two rest days in your routine to avoid overtraining. Do not injure yourself by doing too much too soon. Although you are eager to lose weight, going full-force at a frequency that you cannot sustain will only cause frustration in the long-run. Make one rest day a time to try yoga or to be active with a family walk, but not to go all out with exercise.
Tips and Warnings
- Accept that losing weigh takes time. Your efforts will pay off in the long run, over a matter of months--not days.
References
- The New England Journal of Medicine: Comparison of Weight-Loss Diets with Different Compositions of Fat, Protein, and Carbohydrates
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Losing Weight
- Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism: High-Intensity Aerobic Interval Training Increases Fat and Carbohydrate Metabolic Capacities in Human Skeletal Muscle.
- Medline Plus: Tips for Losing Weight
- American College of Sports Medicine: Physical Activity Guidelines
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