How to easily reduce calories and lose weight

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

We know that we need to eat less (and we feel too - extra pounds remind of themselves every day). But to know and to do are different things. There is an easy way to cut back on portions and figure out your ideal diet.

A little about the sad

Losing weight and maintaining optimal weight is almost always an ordeal. Diets, miracle pills, gym passes, a swimming section, sugar-free products and a refrigerator that notifies the whole apartment about an insidious burglar - this is not a complete list of tricks that from time to time go from 60 to 80% of the adult population.

Not everyone comes to success: sometimes there is not enough enthusiasm, sometimes there is not enough time, sometimes there are other obstacles on the way to the dream of becoming a ballerina.

If you take statistics on Americans, you can see that in 2004 they consumed 2,750 kcal daily, which is as much as 500 kcal (imagine, 500!) More than in 1970. In our country, the scale is not the same - fast food has not yet managed to capture everything and everyone, but it is quite comparable.

Not a diet, but a trick

Fact: 97% of people who have ever been on a diet go back to their old way of life. And most of them eat up even more kilograms than they lost during their experiments. There is only one way to solve this problem - to change the diet for life.

To do this, it is enough to add one and only - honest word! - a change that will allow you to come to your ideal weight and keep it forever.

So, all you need is to consume as many calories daily as you would at your optimal weight. Everything.

This is a method that has been proven effective many times. By the way, this plan is also suitable for very thin people who want to gain weight. It doesn't matter how much you weigh now. If you eat as much as you should, you will sooner or later come to your natural, healthy weight.

Determine the optimal calorie intake

How many calories you need depends on several factors: body type, height, and activity level. You can forget the number indicating the number of your extra pounds as a bad dream - it will not be useful to you.

And do not be afraid that you will have to write down what you eat for a while. There are many handy apps for Android and iOS that have calorie rations already crammed into them. Alternatively, you can point the camera at a barcode, and the application reads it, and then automatically downloads the calorie data. You may need an electronic scale first to weigh your portions. But after a month (or even less), you will be able to determine the portion size by eye and know how many calories and which product contains.

1. What is your body type?

Measure the circumference of your wrist (use a tape measure or piece of rope, which can then be easily measured with a ruler).

2. What is your ideal weight?

These data differ between men and women. Find your height and physique in the table: the coveted number stands at the intersection of these columns. This is what you will strive for.

3. How active are you?

One of the most popular classifications today proposes to divide people by activity level into three groups. Choose the one that best describes your daily lifestyle. If you cannot choose one thing and you are very overweight, it is better to stay on the less active option.

• Sedentary lifestyle:lack of regular physical activity, walking from time to time - physical activity, mainly characteristic of everyday life.
• Moderately active lifestyle:a combination of various daily activities (work, rest, etc.) or a regular training program equivalent to walking or running 2.5-5 km daily, combined with physical activity typical of everyday life.
• Very active lifestyle:a combination of various daily activities (work, rest, etc.) or a regular exercise program equivalent to walking or running more than 5 km daily, combined with physical activity typical of daily life.

4. Determine the optimal calorie intake

In the first column of the table, find your ideal weight (what you wrote down in the second paragraph), and then look for the number that corresponds to your level of activity - sedentary, moderately active, very active. Voila! Now you know how many calories you need each day. Do not forget that you cannot cut calories too much: men should consume at least 1200 kcal per day, women - at least 1000 kcal. And these are very low values - do not strive for quick results, so as not to harm your body.

Reducing calories is the key to maintaining optimal weight and maintaining it. Eat healthy and varied. Be healthy!

Based on the book ""