Losing Weight Without Crazy Diets: Reducing Your Daily Caloric Intake
The Healthy Alternative
The healthiest way to lose weight is neither crash diets or rapid bursts of exercise. The body responds best to slow changes in terms of food and exercise.
For example, someone who has an inactive lifestyle should not jump straight into a series of intense exercising because this is not giving the body enough time to adapt.
On the other hand the rule is similar for people who may take part in intense diets. This is a problem — the majority of all intense diets will leave your body deficient. Perhaps in vitamins, protein intake, or hydration levels, there is a huge nutritional profile at risk. The sudden changes to the body is stressing it several times more than other healthier methods.
Energy Demands and Weight Loss
Your body uses food for energy, and the amount of energy consumed is measured in calories — any spare calories are stored as fat.
Your body has a specific calorie requirement, and this depends totally on your bodily maintenance and your daily activities, regardless though, if you consume more calories than you need for that day, you will inevitably gain weight.
To lose this extra weight you must get your body to use up the excess calories which the body has stored as fat.
What is the healthiest way to get rid of these spare undesirable calories?
- By slowly reducing your calorie intake.
- By slowly increasing activity levels.
Increasing those activity levels
By burning off those excess calories we can start shifting what's not desirable.
Do you need to be hitting the gym everyday to achieve this though? Of course not! By simply doing light activities everyday can increase our calories burned — walking instead of driving is simple exercise which can over time have significant changes, another example is doing some press-ups or getting up and dancing during TV advertisements! (every little helps)! The rule here is every time you do some form of exercise whilst not exceeding your energy limits will mean you are slowly losing weight the healthy way.
But how can I find out my daily calorie intake?
Calculate Your Daily Calorie Intake
- Calories Intake Calculator
Use this Daily Calorie Intake Calculator to calculate exactly how many calories you should consume each day to either maintain weight, gain or lose weight.
Daily Calorie Intake: Diet & Nutrition
If you're overweight you should not continue with your current eating habits if you really want to lose weight with the healthiest method. It's just not possible to continue to consume food which has more calories than your Daily Calorie Intake.
Cut out foods creepnig over your daily caloric intake slowly, you can still eat treats within a balanced diet but eat it in moderation and think about slowly eating fewer foods which you would might consider 'junk' food or 'empty calories'. This approach will give your body time to adapt.
One of the best habits you can develop is to record your daily caloric intake and make sure you do not exceed it whilst consistently participating in exercises suited to your level of fitness. This may shed only a few hundred calories in a week. But the slow change is not radical or dangerous. It is the start of a healthy weight loss lifestyle but as you get use to moderating your caloric intake and making healthier diet choices you should notice a consistent improvement in your health.
A Brief Summation
- Do not exceed your daily caloric intake
- Consuming fewer calories to reduce your daily caloric intake is the goal. This approach will definitely make you lose weight.
- Change your diet slowly but stay consistent with the new changes.
- Start exercising at an intensity and frequency you are comfortable with and as advised by a health care professional. Build intensity as you lose weight and improve your fitness.
- Avoid junk food for healthier choices such as vegetables, herbs, spices and fruits.
Motivation For Exercise
Usually the hardest part of doing some form of exercise is getting those trainers on and getting out the door. The attitude we need to lose weight the healthy way requires great self-control and discipline - everyday you train is an achievement itself. Give yourself credit each time you come a step closer to your goals. Enjoy your mini-victories on a day to day basis.
Shortcuts & Goals
Remember there are no shortcuts around quickly losing weight with a healthy approach, it takes a long time to put on so expect it to equally take a long time to take off but don't let that worry you now, start planning your goals.
Whatever your goal is make sure it is a realistic one, its better to keep consistent attainable goals so you can constantly reassess how well you're doing and reflect on the achievements you've already accomplished.
