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With all the talk about dieting, few of us actually understand what that means, and how our bodies work. A calorie is not your energy. It is simply a unit of energy. Food contains energy that can be burned or stored, and this energy is measured in calories. If there are no calories in something we eat, it can never give us energy. We also burn energy just by being alive, whether sleeping or exercising, and this energy too can be measured in calories. The amount of energy we store depends on how much we take in and how much we burn. If we take in more energy than we burn, we gain weight. If we burn more energy than we take in, we lose weight. Since there are 3500 calories in one pound of fat, you need a deficit of 3500 calories to burn off one pound.
That sounds like a lot of calories. The average person burns between 1500 to 2000 calories each day, depending on how active she is. If we cut our food intake to less than 1200 calories, we'll burn up muscle along with fat, and that is the last thing we want. We can increase our exercise calories, too, but even vigorous workout will burn only 500 calories in an hour.
The best strategy is to do a little of both: Cut down on your food calories and increase your exercise calories. If all you do is cut back 250 food calories and add 250 fat-burning calories of exercise you'll lose a pound a week.
If you lose two pounds each week, at the end of a month you'll have lost eight pounds. And then 48 pounds in six months…96 pounds in a year. How much fat do you really need to lose?
Think of losing weight as something to be done in Triple slow Motion. We always think we want everything done right this very minute. But when it comes to losing fat, fast is no better. In fact, it's not even possible. It takes time for fat cells to learn how to release fat, and then it takes time to burn fat off. The same principle applies to weigh loss management. Slow and steady always wins the race.