Monday, October 27, 2008

How Calories Loss AND Food Fuel Cause Weight Loss

By Rowena French

You have probably heard that if you use a smaller number of calories than your body needs for fuel through a calories loss eating program and if you exercise then you will lose weight. It is true, and this is the only way that you will ever successfully enjoy a healthy weight loss and keep this weight off.

Generally, we consume around 2,000 calories each day and experts suggest that this is what the average person requires. If by following a calories loss eating plan, you reduce your food intake and only eat 1,500 calories daily, your body needs to search for the energy required from the 500 calories you did not eat from another source. This source happens to be the fat your body is storing and that you want to shed!

That will make you lose weight. There are roughly 3,500 calories in a pound of fat so in order to lose five pounds you will need to burn an additional 17,500 calories. That is why it is impossible for those fad diets and trendy diet pills to work like they say they do and why a gradual calories loss through eating a healthy diet is the only way to go.

Regardless of what some 'diet pill' -manufacturers promise, we know that these do not bring about your body's burning of additional calories. When you reduce your calories intake through a calories loss menu, your body will do the fat burning itself. But as important as calories are in the weight loss process, this should not be your only consideration because to remain healthy, your body needs regular intake of a range of different kinds of foods.

If you only eat a salad and drink diet sodas for calories, you still won't lose weight because you are not giving your body what it needs to function. Your diet should not be something that you use to punish yourself or to punish your body. Your body needs food for fuel.

There is no getting around that fact, so you need to change what you give your body for fuel and that is where the common sense part comes in. It is common sense to know that your body needs whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats. Most of us would agree that some of these foods are OK but how do we include them in our diet on a regular basis instead of those high calorie foods we enjoy the most?

It is not always easy to only give your body what it needs when you are craving a juicy, cheesy, greasy burger, but if you want to be healthy, you will choose to skip that burger and replace it with a turkey and salad wholemeal roll. Changes like this are not really about going 'on' a diet in the traditional sense. They are about a lifestyle change and creating a calories loss and this is just a tool to help lose unwanted weight and keep it off.

Choose to make your health a priority, watching your calorie intake as a guide and instead of punishing your body for being overweight, celebrate your body and feed it so that your body gets strong and healthy. A diet that is rich in whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, hormone free lean meat, and other ingredients combined with regular exercise is the best way, and the only way, to get truly fit and to get your body to the ideal weight.

So, even if your eating and exercise lifestyle changes feel a little strange at first because they are new and different, persevere because in time they will seem NORMAL. The greatest challenge is surviving the time of initial calories loss. By the time this change becomes part of your new pattern of living however, your weight loss will have begun and you will feel confident and wonder how you ever lived any other way. - 15683

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