Weight loss is a common theme among many of us when it comes to our fitness and health goals. But there are questions: How much weight should you be losing? How should you go about losing the weight? What is the healthiest way to lose those unwanted pounds? There are simple answers to these questions, but you need some basic knowledge and understanding in order to achieve success.
What Is a Calorie?
A calorie is the amount of heat energy required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water, 1 degree Celsius. In other words, a calorie is energy. When you are in the grocery store and you read the labels of your food items, you'll see right at the top of the list the total number of calories in one serving to show you how much energy you will be eating. The easiest way to remember calories is to think of them as putting "gas in your car." The body needs fuel, just like your car needs gas.
Weight loss
As human beings living in the 21st century, we have adopted weight-loss achievements and struggles as part of life. You may want to lose weight for your physical appearance and self-confidence. Better yet, perhaps you are losing weight for health benefits, with the overall goal of improving your quality of life at the same time as feeling and looking great. To achieve these goals, a combination of healthy eating habits and physical activity is necessary.
Calories in Weight Loss
An energy deficit is necessary during your weight-loss program in order for your body to shed pounds. This doesn't mean you need to starve yourself. It does mean you need to burn more calories daily than you take in through your diet. One pound of fat is equivalent to 3500 calories. Over the course of one week, this deficit needs to be your goal if you want to lose one pound of weight.
Safe Weight loss
Overall health and well-being should always be considered during your weight loss journey. A healthy and realistic weight loss per week would be at a rate of 1 to 2 pounds. Keeping in mind that 3500 calories equals 1 pound, this means you need to burn off 500 calories per day, seven days per week. This can also be achieved by reducing your daily caloric intake by 500 calories from the food you eat. Even a combination of the two is possible, providing you stick within the recommended guidelines to be sure your weight loss will benefit you and your overall health.
Examples of caloric expenditure
This all may seem a bit much, but let's look at a few numbers to help you see that it is pretty straight forward. For a 150-lb. person, 60 minutes of light resistance training will burn around 210 calories. By hiking, this same person can burn 501 calories in an hour; Gardening or general yard work would burn 210 calories per hour.
Simple modifications to your daily activity and eating habits can make a big difference. It may not seem like much for just one day, but when you add up one week's worth of activity in this manner, your weight-loss goal is very achievable.
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