Counting calories to lose weight without a doubt can be a tedious task, and this process can change your daily routines. Unfortunately, when you are trying to figure out how many calories you want to lose, you need to know how many you calories you are taking in each day.
In order to have a weight loss plan that is effective, you have to watch what you eat and when you eat. The first thing you need to do when you want to start counting calories is to establish you caloric needs. An average size woman will burn around 2000 calories per day. Depending on her current weight, height and level of physical activity, she should consider consuming around 1200 - 1700 calories per day, for a long term healthy weight loss. Even though consuming less than 1000 calories per day might help you lose weight fast and easy, such an extreme weight loss might have repercussions on your health later on.
When should the calorie counting begin? Here are a few suggestions you might want to consider:
Another year begins and again you say to yourself that this is the year you will lose weight and start a weight loss plan. You go through this process every January, and each time you say you will do it this time. Just the idea that you are even considering losing weight and you need to count calories should be an indicator that you need to make some changes in your life. You got more clothes in your closet that you have not been able to get into in five years; well it’s time to start counting calories.
You go to the gym three to four times a week and you workout everyday for 45-60 minutes and still can't get rid of most of the weight, and then probably counting calories for weight-loss can help to solve the mystery!
There are certain foods that show negative calorie effect because the body has to expand more energy to extract calories from these foods. The negative calorie foods need more calories to break down the foods and digest than the calories the foods actually contain.
The extra calories are taken up from the stored fat in the body. Thus the negative calorie foods (may also be called as minus calorie foods or fat burning foods) are ideal for reducing the body fat and for losing weight.
A pound of fat has approximately 3500 calories of stored energy in it. Let’s say your goal is to lose 1 pound of fat per week (and this is a rather lofty goal considering that would be 52 pounds lost by the end of a year!). This would equate to reducing your calories by 500 calories per day. Let’s also assume you eat 3 meals per day (even if it’s one big meal and a couple snacks). This would equate to reducing approximately 166 calories per meal, which isn’t very much. It could be difference of a few more bites of your favorite pasta dish, a couple chicken wings, or the difference between some cheese on a burger or sandwich and a bit of mayonnaise. These changes are almost unnoticeable from meal to meal, but they are the difference in gaining or losing weight over the long haul. Being this specific at each meal is what is required to make calorie counting work.
Counting calories is not easy, but in the long run you will be glad you did it. You need to know how many calories you take in each day in order to figure out how many you need to burn to lose weight. Counting calories to lose weight will help you burn more fat and lose weight fast.
