Simple Planning For Losing Weight and Burning Fat
Writing by forestthornbarg on Monday, 13 of July , 2009 at 11:06 am
Doing the math is pretty easy and simple. One pound of fat is the equivalent to 3500 calories. Want to lose a pound a week? Then you need to consume 3500 calories less per week than you use. That is roughly 500 calories a day. You can lose one pound per week if you cut 500 calories from your normal daily diet and keep your activity level the same.
All right – that doesn’t sound like much, especially if you’re more than 25 pounds overweight. Study after study has shown, though, that those people who lose weight gradually – at a rate of 1-2 pounds per week -are far more likely to keep the weight off and maintain a normal weight for a lifetime.
So how much is 500 calories exactly? If you’re going to reduce your daily intake by 500 calories, it helps to know what you need to cut out, right? Here’s how easy it is to lose 500 calories a day:
*You can use milk in your coffee instead of creamer. Savings? 50 calories in each cup.
* Skip the butter on your baked potato. Savings? 100 calories
* Drink fruit-flavored water instead of a 16 ounce soda. Savings? 200 calories
* Have a salad instead of that tempting Big Mac. A Big Mac weighs in at a whopping 460 calories. Have a fresh salad along with a light dressing? Less than 100! Savings? 360 calories
*You can walk right by that bag of potato chips. The average snack bag of chips has over 300 calories. Savings? 300 calories
* Eat your corn on the ear. A 1 cup serving of canned corn has 165 calories. Every ear of corn has 85 calories in them. Savings? 80 calories.
* Switch to low-fat cream cheese on your bagel. Savings? 90 calories per ounce.
*Love french fries and have a hard time giving them up? Swap the skinny fries out for thick steak-cut ones. The thinner frech fries absorb a whole lot more oil than the thicker ones. Savings? 50 calories per 4 ounce serving
You cna also lose one pound a week if you up your activity level by 500 calories, if you want to look at it from a exercise perspective. How easy is that to do? Take a look:
* Take a half-hour walk around the park. Aim for a pace that’s a little faster than a stroll, but not fast enough to be breathless. Burn:160 calories.
*Go for a bicycle ride. Tackle a few moderate hills and aim for about five miles total. Burn: 250 calories
* Go out and dance your heart out. The longer you’re out on the floor instead of at the table drinking up high-calorie drinks, the more you’ll get out of it. Dancing that makes you breathless and warms up your body will net you a nice calorie savings. Burn: 400 calories for one hour
* Swimming is great for you, and a lot of fun, too. The resistance in the water means that you will be bale to burn more calories dancing or walking in it and you will avoid the stress impact on joints from aerobics. A few laps as a slow crawl is wonderufl-if you can get up to an hour you’ll be doing even better! Burn: 510 calories
* Get out into your garden. An hour of working in your garden (i.e. bending over, and stretching) can burn up to as many calories as a brisk walk. Burn: 250 calories.
*Play a game of tennis. If you and a friend meet up once a week for something like a tennis game you will be amazed at the difference. An hour of vigorous tennis is one of the most effective calorie burners that are around. Burn: 800 calories
It’s important to keep in mind that all exercise/calorie numbers are based on a woman weighing 130 pounds. If you weigh more, you’ll burn more fat. Would you like an additional bonus to burning calories through exercise? When you exercise, you build muscle by converting it from fat. Three guesses which kind of body tissue burns more calories – even when you’re not exercising. You got it – your body uses more energy to maintain and feed muscle than it does fat.
For best results, mix and match food savings with exercises that burn calories. Do keep in mind that eating less than 1000 calories a day for more than a few days will convince your body that it’s starving and slow your metabolism. You need to keep your calorie ranges simpmle, and if you seek a more drastic weight loss measure consult your doctor.
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