Despite the differences among people trying to lose weight, success usually requires the same traits and basic adjustments. In addition to modifying your behavior with regard to food and exercise, you must also find the strength to survive complications and setbacks, such as feelings of deprivation and periods when your scale refuses to budge. Altering your habits might help you lose weight, but any single change is just one part of the process.
Role of Eating Less
Calories are units of energy contained in food. After you eat, your body uses the energy in the consumed calories to perform numerous functions. Your body stores unused energy in the form of body fat. Eating less can help you to lose weight because your body must burn stored fat for energy when it does not have sufficient calories for energy. Calorie reduction will only lead to weight loss, however, if you normally eat just enough to maintain your current weight. In other words, to lose excess pounds by cutting calories, you must consume fewer calories than required to stay at your present weight.
Calorie Issues
When losing weight, it is important to follow a nutritious eating plan that will help you not only lose fat instead of muscle tissue and water but also learn how to eat properly in order to maintain your lower weight later. Many health care professionals advise cutting about 3,500 calories from your diet each week -- or 500 calories a day -- to lose 1 lb. of fat per week. This moderate reduction is widely considered safe. It is also more likely to produce permanent weight loss because the gradual slimming will give you time to adopt and adapt to better eating and exercise habits.
Foods to Cut
Care is necessary when eliminating or decreasing food in order to lower the total number of calories you consume. If your body does not get enough of certain kinds of food, it will burn muscle tissue for energy instead of fat. Reduced muscle tissue can eventually make it harder for you to continue losing weight because muscle tissue helps your body burn more calories. To increase your chances of burning fat instead of muscle tissue as you cut calories, consume the same amount of protein but less fat and carbohydrates such as grains, starches and sugary foods, explains the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Considerations
Eating less to lose weight is easier for many people when they eat more of some types of food. Vegetables and fruit curb hunger better than many foods with more calories, and they are often healthier, too. Although vegetables and fruit are generally low in calories, they fill you up because both contain large amounts of fiber and water. Vegetables and fruit also provide various nutrients such as vitamins, and they help your body remove waste more efficiently, as well.
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