How to Lose a Pound

Wondering how to lose a pound or two? Here are simple, easy directions you can follow to lose weight and feel great.

A good weight loss goal is to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week.

To lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than you are eating now. In general, women who are trying to lose weight should eat about 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day and men who are trying to lose weight should eat 1,600 to 1,800 calories a day.

Let’s look at it another way...

One pound of body fat equals 3,500 calories. Therefore to lose 1 pound a week, you must consume 3,500 fewer calories a week than you already do. Let’s break that down a little more. 3,500 calories divided by 7 days a week equals 500.

This means you’ll need to eat 500 fewer calories a day to lose one pound a week. That doesn’t sound so bad, does it!

If cutting that many calories doesn’t sound appealing to you, you can incorporate daily fitness walking into your lifestyle and burn anywhere from 200 to 400 calories in one hour.

If you can burn just 200 calories in one hour of fitness walking per day, you’ll only need to reduce your daily caloric intake by 300 calories to still meet the goal of 500 fewer calories per day for 1 pound of weight loss in a week.

The amount of calories burned in an hour of fitness walking depends on your weight and pace. Read this article to find out how many calories are burned by walking with fitness walking.

Please be aware that if you eat even fewer calories than 1,200 to 1,500 for women or 1,600 to 1,800 for men, you will not have much success with weight loss.

Our bodies are designed for survival and if yours doesn’t get enough calories to maintain energy for daily activities, it will act as if it is in starvation mode and cling to every calorie you give it to help you survive.

The good news is that once you’ve reached your goal weight, you can increase your daily caloric intake. The amount of calories you need to maintain a certain weight is based upon your age, gender and level of activity.

To find out how many calories you should consume on a daily basis to maintain your goal weight, please review this chart.

You now have all the information you need on how to lose a pound. When you follow these guidelines for safe, easy weight loss, you'll find that the weight stays off and you're on your way to living a healthier lifestyle.

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