weight loss

How do you lose?

The most effective method for weight loss is to reduce the number of calories you consume while increasing the number of calories you burn through physical activity. Losing 1 pound, you need a cost of approximately 3,500 calories. You can achieve this either by cutting down on your food intake by increasing physical activity, or ideally, by doing both.


For example, if you consume 500 extra calories a day for a week without changing your activity level you will gain 1 pound in weight (seven days multiplied by 500 calories is equivalent to 3,500 calories, or the number of calories results in a 1-pound weight gain .) Likewise, if you eat 500 fewer calories each day for a week or burn 500 calories a day through exercise in a week, you will lose 1 pound.

Examples of the calorie content of some popular foods and beverages include:

      a disc of original-style crust pepperoni pizza - 230 calories


      a glass of dry white wine - 160 calories


      a can of cola - 150 calories


      quarter-pound hamburger with cheese - 500 calories


      one jumbo banana nut muffin - 580 calories

Any activities you do all day is added to your BMR (basal metabolic rate) to determine the total number of calories you burn each day. For example, a 170-pound person, 45 minutes walking briskly burn about 300 calories. Same time spent on housecleaning burns about 200 calories, and mowing the lawn for 45 minutes uses about 275 calories.