For many people weight loss is the biggest challenge they will face, but what people don't realise is that it does not have to be that hard. Most people know what they have to do to lose weight. Eat less and exercise more. We all know that, but how much do you need to exercise and how much less do you need to eat. Weight loss all comes down to the calorie differential between the calories you eat compared to the calories you burn. When you burn more calories than you eat, you will lose weight. So then next question that needs to be asked is, how many calories does my body burn? Most of you will be pleasantly surprised at how many calories you burn each day for doing nothing. Let say for instance you were a female that weighs around 70kg, you will burn around 1900 calories per day. This is without any exercise! For weight loss, throw in some light exercise and restrict your calorie intake to around 1500 calories per day and you will lose around 0.5kg a week. The biggest key in weight loss then becomes a proper diet. Did you know that there is over 250 calories in a bottle of coke? Or that there is over 300 calories in a slice of chocolate mud cake?
You can certainly keep the foods you love in your diet, however for weight loss, moderation is the key. You need to be clever about food substitutions. Instead of having a slice of cake, have a healthy muffin. Have a can of tuna or some vegetables with dip. You need to come up with between 5 to 10 healthy snacks that you know you like and have the pre-prepared that way when the cravings come on you can go straight for your healthy snacks. It is the binge eating that really hinders weight loss progress so it is important to keep your body fuelled regularly with heavy food so you are not feeling hungry all the time. Make sure you write out your goals. Studies have shown that people that write out their goals are twice as likely to succeed with reaching their weight loss goals. Start off by making them reasonable and something you know you can achieved. Then, when weight loss actually happens, you can reset your goals and make them more challenging. The key for weight loss is keeping your energy balance in check. A great site that does all this for you is Weight Shapes that provides weight loss diet plans for men and women. They have a range of weight loss diets that allow you to keep track of all aspects of your health and fitness, and keep you motivated for sustained weight loss.