How to Lose a Pound a Week

Learn how to safely, effectively, and permanently lose weight.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Pen
• Paper
• Calculator
• Exercise Equipment
• Calendar

1. 
   Your body needs exercise

   Figure out how many calories your body burns every day. There are 2 main sources of "negative calories" (energy that your body uses):
   
   1) Calculate Your Basal Metabolic Rate =
   Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 X wt in kg) + (5 X ht in cm) - (6.8 X age in years)
   Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 X wt in kg) + (1.8 X ht in cm) - (4.7 X age in years)
   
   2) Calculate the energy your body uses during your daily activities:
   
   Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)
   Lightly active = BMR X 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
   Mod. active = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
   Very active = BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)
   Extr. active = BMR X 1.9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.)
   
   Add up the numbers from #1 and #2 above to get the number of calories your body uses on a daily basis.

2. 
   Check out the calories

   Figure out what is your normal daily caloric intake. This can be done by writing down the number of calories of each food item you eat during the day. Make sure to take notice of which types of foods contribute more or fewer calories. Try to avoid high calorie / high fat foods.
   
   The food you eat every day is your source of "positive calories."

3. 
   Calculator for hard math

   Subtract your negative calories (step 1) from your positive calories (step 2). If the resulting number is positive, then you are gaining weight. If the number is negative, then you are losing weight.
   
   The trick to lose a pound a week is to make sure that you use 3500 more calories a week than you take into your body. That equals 500 calories a day.

4. 
   Set goals

   Keep track of the number of calories you are using and taking in each day and adjust your diet and/or exercise level in order to take in 500 fewer calories per day than you burn.
   
   Use your calendar to set a goal. If you want to lose 10 pounds, make a goal that is two and a half months (10 weeks) from now and then stick to your plan. As long as you follow these simple guidelines, the weight will never come back.

Tips & Warnings

• Never give up! Losing wait can be frustrating but can be made easier with patience and perseverance.
• Having a weight-loss buddy can help you keep a steady schedule and also have fun while you are losing weight.
• You should never start an exercise program without first consulting with your family doctor.

Resources

• Shapefit.com

[Tsunami]

on 11/1/2008 Nice Article
Thank You,

TSUNAMI
http://www.ehow.com/members/Tsunami-articles.html

[Bryan2449]

on 10/27/2008 Thanks for reading - I've always thought that weight loss is simply doing the math.