Basic slimming advice for weight loss

Losing weight should be a straight forward process of burning more calories than you eat, but often people will struggle for years with their weight without really achieving their ideal target range. Slimming is not a quick fix solution and should be viewed as a long term goal to be obtained through small, yet important changes which help you to lose pounds. Forget about fad diets and unrealistic bootcamp extremes, slimming success can be achieved with a far more sensible approach.

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Xenical

A pound of fat is worth roughly 3500 calories, so to lose this weight over the course of a week you will need to cut 500 calories a day by means of controlled diet or exercise or a combination of the two things. For sustainable slimming it is not recommend that you try to lose more than 1-2lbs per week. The body is very clever and has mechanisms in place to protect itself in extreme circumstances, for example, if you try to cut your daily calorie intake in half, your body will seek to decrease how many calories it burns by lowering metabolism. Whilst in the modern world most of us are unlikely to go without food for more than 6-12 hours, the body does this as an evolutionary means of survival. Drastic measures, therefore, are not the answer.

Take a smart step-by-step approach to slimming:

1. Calculate your basal metabolic rate or BMR

BMR is the minimum amount of energy your body needs to keep your vital organs functioning: your heart, lungs, nervous system, kidneys, liver intestine, muscles and skin. BMR tells you the minimum amount of calories you need to eat everyday, however this only gives an approximate reading and assumes you do no physical activity whatsoever except for breathing.

2. Calculate your level of activity

Work out your calorie expenditure through general movement, and any exercise you do including walking, running, gardening and other activities carried out during the day. Do this over the course of an average week so you can get a good idea of how active you are day-to-day.

3. Keep track of how many calories you eat.

Sites like MyFitnessPal which are available online or as an app to download to your phone, have comprehensive lists of food and supermarket ready meals. They make it easy to record what you eat and get easier to fill as you go along because it remembers your favourite meals. A software database can help you calculate your calorie intake very easily and relatively quickly. Alternatively you can write a food diary and use an online or paper calorie database to help you work out your daily calorie intake. If you eat out a lot counting calories is very difficult as you can never be sure as to what ingredients have been used in the preparation of your meal. Try to eat homemade meals as much as possible always.

4. Work it all out

(BMR + calories burnt during exercise) – (daily calorie intake) = A positive number – means you are on the road to weight gain = A negative number – means you are on the right track to achieving your goal weight.

If you are regularly eating more calories than your body needs to function then you will naturally store this extra energy in your body as fat. In the long run this leads to weight gain and any associated health problems.