Body Fat Loss: With Perseverance It Can Be Done
Losing weight is not just about calories, food and exercise it's about a way of life. When it comes to diet and exercising having a few math facts can help you understand why it's going to take time to lose the weight you gained. 3500 calories is what's involved with a pound of fat and that means that you need to get rid of those 3500 calories in order to lose 1 pound. This can be done through diet and exercise, and don't let the facts be daunting it can be done easily, but remember, it didn't get put on overnight and it won't come off over night.
Studies have been done that if you slowly but surely lose the weight and set goals of one to 2 pounds per week, the steady loss in change in lifestyle will keep it off for a lifetime. 500 calorie changes in your daily routine will allow you to lose that one to 2 pounds per week.
In order to take out 500 calories per day every day there are a few simple things you can do. Using low-fat milk in your coffee instead of cream saves you 50 calories per cup, multiply that by two to 3 cups a day and there is 150 calories out of the 500 you want to cut out. Butter on a baked potato costs you an approximate 100 calories, and if you cut that out, along with milk in your coffee it now totals 250 calories taken out of your day. You're halfway there!
Some other easy ways of reducing your caloric intake without missing out on your favorite items would choose corn on the cob instead of in a can and save yourself 80 calories, low-fat cream cheese for your morning bagel instead of regular cream cheese will save you 90 calories an ounce, and switched to thick steak fries instead of those greasy thin french fries and save your self 50 calories for every 4 ounce serving.
Exercise of course is the way to not have to change your eating habits and still reduce your weight by one to 2 pounds a week by increasing your caloric output. According to your physical ability at time of starting this program you can take a quick half-hour walk just faster than your leisurely walking pace and burn 160 calories in that half-hour, use your bicycle and do a 5 mile ride with a few moderate hills to burn 250 calories, and an hour in the pool once a week will lose you 510 calories. So if you were to take a walk every day and increase your pace a bit then increase the half hour to an hour, you would just about be to your goal of reducing your caloric intake by 500 calories a day.
If you're a bit more ambitious an hour of tennis will burn 800 calories, and an hour of swimming laps will burn 510 calories, and dancing enough to leave you breathless can burn 400 per hour. Remember, exercising can be something as simple as gardening, walking to the neighbors, or walking your pet and a simple reduction such as low-fat milk instead of cream, adds up quickly.
These numbers and the information on burning calories was based on a 130 pound woman, if you weigh more you'll burn more, if you weigh less you'll burn less. Remember body fat loss is not just about dieting, it's a way of life and you didn't put it on overnight, it's not going to come off overnight. A view simple changes in your lifestyle will bring results, just stick to your plan, and the weight will come off.
