Pills formulated to help you lose weight, whether available with a prescription by your doctor or over the counter, are similar to amphetamines. Dr. Wayne Andersen, author of "Habits of Health," says "the side effects of current diet drugs range from bothersome to actually quite dangerous." Further, even new diet pills are just combinations of older drugs, and those that are most effective at curbing appetite actually have the highest negative side effects. To lose weight quickly, reduce your calorie intake by about 500 and exercise daily.
Step 1
Calculate the number of calories you need to consume each day just to maintain your current weight. Go to an online calorie calculator. Choose your gender, height and activity level; fill in your weight and age. To establish your weight-loss goal, subtract 500 to 1,000 from your daily calorie intake.
Step 2
Eat between 250 and 500 fewer calories every day. The National Institutes of Health explains that 1 lb. of fat contains about 3,500 calories. So to lose 1 lb. a week, along with burning calories from exercise, reduce your intake by 250 to 500 calories. Calculate the calories in the foods you eat by going to the USDA's National Nutrient Database. You will find nutrition information, including the number of calories in thousands of foods, fruits, vegetables and beverages.
Step 3
Write down everything you eat and drink in a food journal along with its calorie content. Calculate your calorie intake as the day goes on rather than at night. If you wait until the end of the day to count your calories, you may exceed your daily goal.
Step 4
Burn between 250 and 500 calories every day. Go to CalorieLab's Calories Burned by Exercise tool to find out how long it takes to burn 250 to 500 calories. Select the exercise you want to do. The tool will tell you how long it will take to to burn a certain number of calories.
Step 5
Eliminate high-calorie foods from your diet. One slice from a 14-inch Domino's pizza is about 272 calories. Eliminating two slices of pizza each week will slash nearly 500 calories from your diet. At 100 calories per can, eliminating two cans of cola from your daily diet will slash about 1,400 calories.
Tips and Warnings
- You can lose 2 lbs. a week by creating a calorie deficit of 1,000 calories. Your calorie deficit can come from a combination of diet and increasing physical activity on a daily basis.
- The least amount of calories a female should consume daily is 1,200; the least amount of calories for a male is 1,500. Only people on a medically supervised regimen should try to decrease their daily calorie intake by fewer than 1,200 to 1,500 calories.
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