How to Lose Weight Successfully

Lose 10 pounds in a week! We've all seen the ads for the many fad diets out there promising to teach you how to lose weight quickly, the reality is that it is just not possible to lose large amounts of weight quickly. It may be possible to lose 10 pounds in a week but these methods are unsafe and the weight loss is mostly water and muscle, not fat. Successful weight loss should be done slow and steady, no more than 2 pounds a week.

Despite all the diets out there claiming to have the secrets to losing weight there is only one thing that you need to know in order to drop the pounds, the number of calories expended must exceed the number of calories consumed. Therefore the first thing you need to do in order to lose weight is to determine your current calorie consumption. Carry a notebook and write down everything that you eat, every meal, every snack, everything for a few days. Determining how much of something you ate can be difficult, just try your best to estimate serving sizes, you don't have to be completely accurate. Once you have determined how much you eat in a day you need to determine how many calories that translates into. There are plenty of websites that can tell you how many calories are in each food, or you could just read the package. Just remember that calories listed will be for the suggested serving size which is usually smaller than the amount you actually eat, so you will need to adjust for this.

Once you have determined how many calories you eat in a day the next step is to determine how many calories you expend in a day. This can be tricky because everybody's metabolism is different so you will probably have to settle for a rough estimate. There is a theory that you should multiply your body weight by ten to determine how many calories you need for a day, but this system tends to underestimate the number of calories you need. A better option would be to use a calculator on a health website, this will still be a rough estimate but it is probably the best your going to get.

Once you know how many calories you need in a day you will need to reduce your calorie consumption to a level below this. It is actually not that hard to reduce calories in your diet, a surprising number of calories in the average diet come from things like soda, salad dressing, candy, and butter. Using low fat salad dressings and drinking water or diet soda's can result in large reduction in calories. Instead of candy or potato chips try snacking on vegetables. Planning your meals can be a great way to help you reduce calories. Meals should consist mainly of lean meats and vegetables, planning out your meals for the next week and shopping for just the items you need to prepare those meals can make it easier for you to stick to a healthy diet. Do not skip meals, in fact you would be better off eating 5 small meals rather than 3 large meals everyday.

The other way you can lose weight is by increasing the number of calories you burn. Any healthy weight loss strategy should include both, but if you want to lose weight fast, exercise is essential. Aerobics are an important part of any healthy lifestyle, both for losing weight and for maintaining a healthy heart. Aim for 30-40 minutes of jogging, cycling, swimming or any other cardio activity 3-4 times a week. If you really want to lose weight resistance training is essential. Lifting weights not only burns calories it also increases muscle mass. Since muscle burns more calories than fat, any increase in muscle mass will increase your daily calorie expenditure.

There is no secret to losing weight, burning more calories than you consume is the only way it can be done. Remember the goal is to lose fat not weight, losing muscle or water may result in a lower number on the scale, but you won't look any better or be any healthier. Slow and steady is the key if you want to successfully lose the weight.