Take my word for it, everything will be extremely easy to understand if you go through it in the order it was written.
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This is literally everything you need to know, so you might as well read it the way it was meant to be read. You'll be happy you did. It would only make sense to start this off with the one fact that is the basis for nearly all weight loss related information. All the tips, all the articles, all the methods Here now, is that fact:.
Your body requires a certain number of calories per day in order to maintain your current weight. This is known as your calorie maintenance level.
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It's the number of calories required by your body to do everything it needs to do intense exercise, brushing your teeth, pumping blood, keeping organs functioning properly, etc. Calories are what our bodies use for energy, so in order to do what needs to be done, a certain number of calories are needed. As you already know, we supply our bodies with these calories through eating and drinking. If we end up consuming exactly the same number of calories that our bodies need each day, our weight would remain exactly the same. For example, if your calorie maintenance level was calories, and you consumed calories per day, your weight would not change.
All of the calories you take in would end up getting used or "burned". This is how you maintain your weight , by giving your body only the calories that it needs. No more, no less. However, if you do consume more calories than this maintenance level, your body will store the excess calories as fat. So, for example, if your maintenance level was calories, and you consumed calories per day, you would gain weight.
You are giving your body more calories than it would end up burning. This is what causes weight gain. On the other hand, if you do the opposite and give your body less calories than it needs, your body will convert your stored body fat into energy and use that instead. This is what causes weight loss. Sticking with the same example as before, if your daily maintenance level is calories, and you consume calories per day, you will lose weight.
And last but not least Read that again if you need to. It is the one fact that practically all tips, hacks, methods and diets are based on This "one fact" is, in a nutshell, all there is to weight loss. Knowing and understanding it is the key. From this point on I will refer to it quite simply as the "One Fact.
Just in case any of above was confusing, these articles will most likely clear it all up. Back To Table Of Contents. Now that you understand the One Fact that causes weight loss, it's now time to learn the 3 ways to actually make the One Fact happen. The first and most obvious way to make the One Fact happen is by consuming less total calories. If your body needs calories per day just an example , and you give it calories per day, you are officially in a caloric deficit, meaning you are suppling your body with less calories than it needs to maintain your current weight.
Doing this consistently will cause weight loss. The second way to make the One Fact happen is by burning more calories. As I mentioned before, your daily calorie maintenance level is the number of calories that your body burns per day. So, for example, if your daily maintenance level is calories again, just an example , and you consume calories per day, you will maintain your weight.
Because all calories consumed get burned by your body. There is no surplus and there is no deficit. However, if you make your body burn additional calories each day through some form of exercise, there would then be a caloric deficit. Staying with the same example, if you consume calories per day, and you naturally burn calories per day, you maintain your current weight. If you then burn an additional calories through exercise, a caloric deficit is created.
Just like the deficit created if you consumed less calories, the same deficit is created by burning additional calories. Either way, a caloric deficit then exists In my personal opinion and the opinion of practically every qualified expert , the best way of making the One Fact happen is a combination of both consuming less calories AND burning more calories. Studies have shown that people who utilize both diet and exercise were more often able to maintain their weight loss long term than those who did one or the other. Doing both is also more beneficial from a general health standpoint as well.
If you're the type of person who just wants a clear-cut answer, here it comes At this point you know that weight loss is just a matter of consistently being below your calorie maintenance level. This can be done through diet, exercise, or for best results, both. The next thing you'll need to know is what your daily calorie maintenance level actually is. Ready to make weight loss happen? Good, because that's what we're about to do.
Now that you have a good estimate of your daily calorie maintenance level, it's time for the fun part. To do this, it's going to require a fairly simple 3 step experiment Once you do the above 3 steps, it's just a matter of evaluating your results from the experiment and then adjusting until the One Fact happens. If so, it means you are indeed at your maintenance level. To lose weight, start consuming less calories per day. For example, if your estimated maintenance level was calories, and the experiment showed that you did indeed maintain your weight consuming this amount, you should now start consuming calories per day instead.
If your maintenance level was , start eating calories each day. Whatever it was, subtract about and start consistently eating that number of calories per day. Doing so will put you in a caloric deficit you'll be calories below maintenance which means the One Fact is happening. Weight loss will now happen. If so, it either means your estimated calorie maintenance level was too high or you may have just miscalculated how many calories you were consuming and ended up accidentally consuming more than the estimated maintenance level. Weight loss will still happen. What you need to do now is start consuming less calories per day and then repeat The One Fact Experiment with this new number of calories.
Whether the estimated maintenance level was too high or you just miscalculated the number of calories you consumed, it doesn't really matter. Just start consuming less calories per day than you were just consuming, and repeat The One Fact Experiment all over again with this new amount. Then, just come right back here and, depending on what your weight did this time, follow the necessary One Fact Adjustment instructions. If you still gained weight, you'd follow these instructions all over again.
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If you maintained weight, you would follow the above instructions. If you lost weight, you would follow the instructions below. The One Fact is happening, and weight loss is happening at the ideal expert-recommended rate. A pound or two lost per week is perfect. Continue consuming this number of calories every day from this point on. If you ever reach a point where you stop losing weight and start only maintaining weight small chance, but still possible , and you have confirmed for sure that you have had no weight loss at all for at least 3 weeks in a row, come right back here and follow The One Fact Adjustment instructions for what to do when you end up only maintaining your weight.
This is probably going to be pretty rare as long as all of the above information was followed correctly, but if you are losing 3 or more pounds per week for more than a couple of weeks in a row , you may be losing weight too quickly. I say "may be" because these results could be normal for the above-averagely obese person, especially in the beginning. If you fit into that category and are losing weight at this speed, you can probably ignore this. However, to play it safe, you can definitely still follow the instructions below anyway.
If you do NOT fit into the "above-averagely obese" category and were still losing weight at this rate for more than a couple of weeks in a row, chances are the maintenance level estimate was a bit too low or you just miscalculated how many calories you were consuming and ended up accidentally consuming less than you should have been.
There is a simple solution. That solution is to add about calories to your daily calorie intake, and then just repeat The One Fact Experiment again with this new calorie amount. Depending on what your weight does this time, follow the necessary One Fact Adjustment instructions. Now is probably a good time to remind you about the 3 ways to make the One Fact happen. The above method uses just diet to get it done. This is a perfectly fine way to do it.
However, it could get done just the same with exercise albeit, a bit tougher. To do that, you'd just have to burn more calories through exercise when the above instructions call for you to reduce your calorie intake by Of course, the best way to do it would be a combination of both. For example, you could consume less calories AND burn more calories per day. A calorie deficit is still made. Well, I'd recommend following all of the above instructions as is, meaning you'll be making the One Fact happen through diet alone.
This method will cause weight loss at the rate of about 1 pound per week more on that below. Then, I'd recommend adding in a few days of exercise per week on top of that. This will most likely result in close to a second pound lost per week. This means the combination of the two will result in 2 pounds lost per week, which is absolutely perfect from both a weight loss stand point and an overall health stand point.
It is in my opinion and the opinion of most qualified experts the ideal way to lose weight. In the eyes of practically every doctor and nutrition expert, this should be your weight loss goal. You want to lose weight faster than that. We all wish we could drop 20 pounds by next week, but we can't. Not only that, but attempting to lose weight faster than the above recommendation can actually be quite harmful to your health.
The human body was just not designed for "fast weight loss. At this point it will actually start to KEEP body fat as a precaution. All your body really cares about is keeping you alive. If you go on some stupid unsafe starvation diet, your body's only real instinct is survival, and one of the first things your body may do in this situation is keep your body fat and burn muscle for energy instead. As you can imagine, this would not be a good thing. Health risks aside, studies have also shown that people who lose weight too quickly were MUCH more likely to regain it all back.
It is for these reasons that pounds lost per week is the ideal weight loss rate. That may not sound like much, but if you really think about it, it is. Do it consistently for a year, and you could lose pounds. Do it for a month and you could lose pounds. It may not be as fast as you wish it could, but long term At some point when you were reading about the One Fact, you may have started to wonder why "" was the magic number of calories I kept using in all of the examples.
What makes being calories below your daily maintenance level so special? Well, now that you understand what the ideal weight loss rate is, this is going to make a ton of sense.
How To Lose Weight
There is approximately calories in 1 pound of fat. What that means is, for every extra calories that you consume that your body doesn't burn, you will GAIN 1 pound of fat. At the same time, it also means that for every extra calories that your body does burn, you will LOSE 1 pound of fat.
Here's what this means to you. And, since there is about calories in 1 pound of fat, doing this will result in 1 pound of fat being lost per week. And, since the ideal weight loss rate is pounds per week, this would put you right within range. Add some exercise in as well, and it will bring you closer to the higher end of that range. Making small, gradual adjustments to your calorie intake is the safest way to do it and the way it should always be done.
This is another reason why the One Fact Adjustments call for calorie changes rather than a much higher number. This is all for one purpose and one purpose only Not too slow, not too fast. Goldie Locks would be proud. Take a breath, stretch your legs, whatever. You just learned everything you need to know about weight loss.
What follows from this point on is information you'll most likely either want to know, or definitely should know. While the combination of understanding the One Fact, doing the One Fact Experiment, and then making the necessary One Fact Adjustment is really all that is needed for weight loss to happen, as you'll soon see there is still a bunch of additional information that will make your quest for weight loss go as perfectly as can be. Let's start with what foods you should and should not be eating Now that you've figured out how many calories you need to consume per day in order to lose weight, the next thing you probably want to know is where you should and should not get those calories from.
This information isn't as much beneficial for weight loss as it is for general health purposes.
See, technically, as long as the One Fact is happening a caloric deficit , most people will lose weight no matter where their calories are coming from. That's just how it works. The only problem with this technicality is that while weight loss might be your main goal, being healthy is definitely of the utmost importance. And, there is a lot more to your health than just your body weight. You can reach your goal weight and still be unhealthy because of the things you are and are not eating. It is for this reason that attention must be paid to the foods and drinks you consume. Let's start off with what you should NOT be eating.
Unless you've been living under a rock, you're really not going to be too surprised by what shows up In addition to the specific items listed above, there are also certain types of foods that should also be avoided completely, greatly limited, or somewhat limited. While you know that too many total calories is the cause of weight gain, the above specific foods and specific types of foods are the most common sources of those excess calories. The thing they all have in common besides tasting yummy is that they are all quick and convenient.
As if being the most common sources of the extra calories people consume wasn't enough reason to avoid them, there is a ton of scientific and medical research clearly showing a variety of health risks associated with diets high in these types of foods. Now, if you're the type of person with the phrase "everything in moderation" ingrained in your head and are wondering if you should be the type of person who avoids these kinds of foods altogether or just has them once in a while, all that can be offered in an opinion.
Avoid it all as completely as possible. I personally never touch this stuff, and it is my opinion that most people would be better off both for health and weight loss purposes if they did the same. I'll explain my reasoning for this and go into a lot more detail a bit later. For now though, just know that this is the stuff NOT to eat.
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If weight loss has been your goal for longer than 5 seconds, chances are you have heard of a variety of different diets that allow or restrict certain types of foods and just entire food groups all together. Low carb, no carb. Low fat, no fat Diets where you can only eat grapefruit or cabbage soup I'm not making this up.
Name a food, a food group or a nutrient, and there is most likely a diet out there that allows a lot of it or none of it at all. You'll also find that in most cases the one similarity these types of diets have is A book is for sale, a membership is offered, products are sold. In some way, money is being made off your use of that diet. On the other hand, doctors and nutrition experts with absolutely nothing to sell all recommend a balanced diet.
Avoid only the bad stuff, and get plenty of the good stuff. That means your weight loss diet and your overall diet from this point on should consist of significant amounts of the 3 nutrients you'll be getting all of your calories from Despite all of the fads, gimmicks and bad information around, your body actually needs a significant amount of all 3.
For the average healthy adult, the USDA recommends a minimum of 0. To figure this out in pounds, just divide your weight by 2. For example, a lb person would divide by 2. They'd then multiply 91 by 0. So, this example lb person would require a minimum of 73 grams of protein per day. It's also for the "average" adult. If you plan on exercising which you should , you are no longer "average. But again, that's still just a minimum. For most healthy adults who are doing some form of exercise and are looking to improve their body in some way, the typical recommendation for protein intake which I also recommend is between 0.
People who are VERY overweight should use their target body weight rather than their current body weight so a lb person trying to get down to lbs would use as their weight. Everyone else with a more average amount of weight to lose should still use their current weight when calculating protein intake. Just like calories, you can find out how much protein is in your food by either checking the label on the package or looking it up right here on a Calorie Counter. In order to figure this one out, you will first need to know that 1 gram of fat contains 9 calories.
And, since 1 gram of fat contains 9 calories, this works out to be about grams of fat per day for this example person. The next thing you're going to want to hear before putting together the "fat" portion of your weight loss diet is a quick bit of information about 4 different types of fat. As I mentioned in the "what not to eat" section of this guide, trans fat and saturated fat are the types of fat that you want to try to limit somewhat saturated or avoid trans.
While the American Heart Association recommends no more than 2 grams of trans fat per day, I'd personally go a bit further and recommend 0. Some of the foods high in these types of fat include cookies, cakes and other pastries, fast food, chips and other snack foods, and really most of the typical junk food you already know you shouldn't eat. On the other hand, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are the two types that you'll want the majority of your diet's fat intake to come from.
Sources of these healthy fats include:. Just like calories and protein, you can find out how much fat is in your food along with which type of fat by either checking the label on the package or looking it up right here on a Calorie Counter. To figure this out according to this recommendation, you will need to know that 1 gram of carbs contains 4 calories. And, since 1 gram of carbs contains 4 calories, you'd divide by 4 and get grams of carbs per day.
Anywhere in there should be perfect for most people. Another thing you'll want to know about carbs before factoring them into your weight loss diet is that, similar to fat, there are certain types you want to eat, and certain types you want to avoid. The type you want to avoid are known as simple carbs. What makes simple carbs so "bad" is the speed at which they are digested by the body.
These types of carbs are digested quickly, and this leads to a not-so-good effect on our blood insulin levels. With the exception of the meal immediately following an intense workout, there is really no time that is a good time for these foods. While they don't need to be completely eliminated from your diet like trans fat should , they should most definitely be kept to a minimum.
Some examples of simple carbs are soda, candy, white bread, white rice, and really any other sugary or highly processed food. The opposite of these foods are known as complex carbs slower digestion , and they are the type of carb that you want most, if not all of your daily carb intake to come from. Some sources of these carbs are:.
Just like calories, protein and fat, you can find out how many carbs are in your food by either checking the label on the package or looking it up right here on a Calorie Counter. With food out of the way, the next subject you'll want to know about before putting together your weight loss diet is drinks. It is the opinion of many people myself included that calories should not be consumed in liquid form. By that I mean, without question the fastest and easiest way to consume calories is by drinking them. Combine that with the fact that drinks aren't very filling, and you get a recipe for disaster when your goal is weight loss or even just preventing weight gain.
Not to mention, nearly all calorie filled drinks contain these calories due to their high sugar content. Sugar, as previously mentioned, is a simple carb. A simple carb, as previously mention, is the type of carb you DON'T want to consume. So, by avoiding liquid calories, not only would you be eliminating one of the most common weight loss pitfalls not to mention weight gain causes , but you'd also be eliminating one of the most common sources of sugar. Some examples of these types of drinks are:.
Two other drinks that need to be mentioned are milk and alcohol. Alcohol of course is just useless liquid calories. It's what your body needs, it's practically free, and it contains 0 calories. What more can look for from both a weight loss and an overall health perspective? As for how much water you should drink per day, there really is no widely agreed upon amount. We've all heard the 8 glasses a day guideline, but there is a bunch of research around showing that this is just a silly number pulled out of nowhere. If anything, 8 glasses should be the bare minimum for most adults.
How much you sweat also plays a role in how much water you should drink. If you live somewhere hot, you will probably sweat more than someone who lives somewhere cold. To lose weight, eat more nutritionally dense foods Best suited for: This healthy eating plan was originally designed to help lower blood pressure, but followers found it significantly contributed to weight loss as well. There are no wild restrictions here—just a call for more fruits and veggies, lean meats, mostly whole grains, and heart-healthy fats.
Buy It Now 6. The Lose Your Belly Diet: The key to weight loss is having a healthy gut Best suited for: Travis Stork dives deep into the science that explains why a microbiome-friendly diet can help you lose weight, stop bloating , regulate your digestion, and feel more energetic. Join Now Log In. If you enjoy fattier foods then your diet should account for that.
Do you enjoy cheat meals or higher calorie days? Or maybe having fasting days? Then your diet should account for this. The biggest psychological factor here is how restrictive your diet is. But, this should only be for a short period of time and not how you should be eating all the time. Simply put, your personal idiosyncrasies play an important role in how you set up your diet. Moderators are people who can moderate food intake. These are the people who can have a few bites and stop. These types of dieters do well with a much less rigid and more flexible approach. They need a lot more structure and rules and certain restrictions.
These are the people who do well with removing certain foods if they cause bingeing or overeating. Must haves will also include your work and life circumstances — do you travel? Does your job have odd work hours, like working night shifts? Simply, your body fat levels will dictate what sort of macro composition you should be using. But this holds true for most. Their energy levels tend to stabilise, they feel less lethargic, cravings subside, and due to the water loss from going low carb, it acts as a motivator as they see results from the get go.
Pretty straightforward — any injury or medical history that may affect your training and diet should be factored in. And, on that note…. Take your bodyweight in pounds and multiply it by 7 credit to Lyle McDonald who I learned this from. Now, we need to set your macros. Macronutrients make up the components of food and are: If you want to find out more about alcohol: Macronutrients contain calories and each macronutrient contains a certain number of calories per gram.
As you can see, fat contains more calories per gram than protein and carbohydrates, and while I could explain why by talking about carbon atoms and oxidation and a host of other nutrition nerdery — who really gives a fuck? Strength training provides the stimulus and, in conjunction with eating sufficient protein, stops the body from burning muscle. Protein is more satiating than either fats or carbohydrates.
So, when calories are low and hunger is inevitably high, protein will help keep you full. But the problem is, figuring this out can be both time-consuming and troublesome, not forgetting hardly accurate. Using per pound of bodyweight is easier and tends to work pretty well for leaner folk.
In this population, going with 0. For example, if someone is lbs, using per pound of body weight would mean g of protein. This amount is unnecessary. Once calorie and protein intakes are set, the number of carbs or fats you consume is totally up to you. If you prefer a higher carb diet, then eat a higher carb diet; if you prefer a higher fat diet, then eat a higher fat diet. Carb-based foods contain important vitamins, minerals, and fibre that lend themselves to a healthy body and life.
Eric Helms summed this up brilliantly:. If you prefer a higher fat diet, go with the higher end 0. Or, of course, if you prefer a moderate split of the two, then go somewhere in the middle 0. Determined not to die and finally see his abs, our cuddly hero decides to sort his shit out. All we need to work out now is his carb intake. To do this, multiply his protein intake by 4 because there are 4 calories in a gram of protein and multiply his fat intake by 9 because there are 9 calories in a gram of fat.
So, we now know that Tim is getting calories from protein, and calories from fat. We now need to add the two totals — protein and fat — together.