Calorie Counting is a diet plan that has been around for a long time and has been used by many dieters. The concept is easy, consume fewer calories than your body uses and you will lose weight. Although in practice you need some self discipline and determination to make the right food choices to help you succeed.
To lose a pound you must create a shortage of 3,500 calories for your calorie needs. You can do this through exercise, a reduced calorie diet or a combination of both. If you reduce your daily calorie consumption by 500 calories or exercise to burn off 500 calories a day you should lose 1 lb. a week. You can also reduce calorie consumption by 250 and exercise to burn another 250 to achieve the same results.
First thing you need to determine is per your weight, height, age and sex how many calories your body needs a day to function. This is your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). You can find a number of BMR calculators online by doing a simple Google search. Use a few of the calculators to help you determine your BMR calorie range as results vary from one BMR calculator to another.
BMR calculator links
www.caloriesperhour.com
www.fitwatch.com
www.bmi-calculator.net
www.health.discovery.com
www.internetfitness.com
Once you have determined how many calories you want to consume daily you need to track what you are actually eating. Many people will keep a calorie counting journal to write down everything they eat and the calories for each item or meal. To do this read the packages of the food you are eating and focus on the portions associated with the calories listed per serving. Another tool is searching online for the calories in foods. There are a number of calorie counting websites, however just typing “how many calories in ___________” into Google’s search engine will bring up a number of results.
Calorie Counting Websites
www.calorieking.com
www.caloriecount.about.com
www.nutritiondata.com
www.fitday.com
www.thecaloriecounter.com
The Best Diets That Work Overview
Low cost – you can do this diet for free, possible cost is investing in cookbooks with low calorie recipes.
Medium time – Your investment is in research regarding the calories your body needs, calories in the food you are eating as well as journaling everything you eat during the day.
Self discipline – You will need to keep track of the calories you are consuming daily and focus on staying within the calorie range needed for your body without formal accountability.
Weight loss – This diet is suitable to lose a few to a lot of pounds over a period of time. Also, this diet plan will aid in maintaining weight lost.
Long term – Once you are familiar and develop eating habits for the calories you actually need this is an easy diet that works.
Other – You have the flexibility to eat whatever you want whenever you want. However, you must stay in your calorie range to ensure weight loss. Doing a combination of a calorie reducing diet and regular exercise is the best way for a health diet plan.