The fastest way to lose weight: START COUNTING THE CALORIES
By Gary Grewal
Most people believe that one of the ways to lose weight fast is to be aware of what you eat – and how much calories you eat.
Indeed, one of the biggest and undeniably hottest debates among fitness and health experts is whether or not counting calories is effective in losing weight. While most people believe that the fastest way to lose weight is to gradually lessen the amount of calories one should consume each day, some would rather be spending more time in the gym or walking in the park than to tirelessly and exhaustingly count the number of calories that you have eaten in each meal.
Counting Really Counts in Weight Loss
While most fitness and health experts could not agree more when we talk about the optimized effect of the combined efforts of exercise and diet, still most, if not all, of them believe that counting calories is definitely one of the best ways to lose weight fast.
It may not be one of the best things that we enjoy, especially when we savor that rich and moist chocolate cake, but being mindful of what and how much we had eaten could go a long way in achieving our weight loss goal.
What the Expert Have Said
Let me share you what Tom Venuto had provided in his book In Burn the Fat: The Muscle Feeding Program. What had been revealed in this book is definitely one of the biggest classified information about the power of calorie balance in losing weight and even building muscle.
There’s nothing really complicated about it; in fact, the key in understanding the very effective weight loss formula is to understand the calorie expenditure strategy, that is,
How much calorie you should eat to burn the most number and amount of fats without
*Losing muscle mass
*Getting a really low metabolism rate
But why are these two elements really important when you just want to lose weight. Here’s why,
Muscle Mass Loss Will Interfere With Your Routine
Diet is definitely one of the ways to lose weight fast, no doubt about that. But most people who had lost weight and fat this way had also sacrificed much muscle mass.
Muscle mass are just important to be efficient with our daily and normal activities – and even during exercise. To put it simply, muscle mass are the primary source of energy that you would need to go on with your activities and fitness routines. When you had lost it, your body would just become more ineffective and inefficient in burning calories that you had consumed – even in the smallest amount that your weight loss menu would offer.
You’ll Burn Less Calories
When you are giving your body less amount of solid food and more in terms liquid to complement your weight loss program, your body would think that there is some form of famine going. Our body responds by simply burning lesser calories than it normally would because it believes that it could survive that way. That is why most people who go in a diet are recommended to hit the gym in order to burn calories that our body refused to do.
Hate It or Love It Even More
While counting calories is one of the most effective ways to lose weight, it is definitely not one of the fun ways to do it.
It may be hard getting tabs of what you eat, every single meal, but you need to understand that it is the only way that you could systematically and strategically to lose weight.
The math and all the counting could just make you go berserk but here are the three things that you just need to remember,
Awareness, responsibility, and getting in control of your urges.
Plan How to Lose Weight
Your goal is to gradually reduce the amount of calories that you consume every day. Reducing at least 200 and at most 500 calories a day is proven to be the fastest way to lose weight – safely and effectively.
To make weight loss more permanent, re-learn and constantly remember these three simple techniques,
Be aware of what you eat and how much you eat;
Manage how much and what you eat;
Take responsibility of your appetite and your urges ...
Help, I’m Super Busy, Any Advise to Do This
Most people would be intimidated and daunted by the thought of counting every, single food just to lose weight. But here’s the fact: you have to be patient and truly determined to lose weight.
Here’s how to do it,
Keep a Food Diary
Though it would be really difficult to write every single meal, especially when you have not developed the habit of maintaining a diary, you need to understand that this is necessary and vital for your success.
This is because your diary could tell you,
How much calories you are consuming (and, how much you need to reduce);
If you are overeating;
Your progress ...
Just keep with a small notebook.
Just Have Fun
One of the easiest ways to do this is to simply have fun. Think of this as a ‘memory’ or even a ‘calorie counting’ game.
Simply challenge yourself to remember most of what you have eaten. The key here is to be aware of what you have eaten, the taste, and the flavor. Enjoy the meal – and, I mean really enjoy it.
Savor every flavor, every texture, and the color. In this way, you could make sure that every meal is a memorable one (which makes things so much easier for you to note down).
Just Make a Daily Meal Plan
If you are really busy, planning your daily meal is one of the best ways to lose weight fast.
Here’s a sample a really sumptuous and filling full day meal plan of only 1,200 calories,
Prepare two fruit shakes with a protein formula both for your breakfast and dinner. Each fruit shake is only 250 calories per serving.
A brown rice, a steamed cup of vegetables, and grilled chicken breast for the perfect tasty and filling lunch.
A tuna sandwich and a bowl of your favorite refreshing fruits and would just be the perfect snack
To give you that filling of fullness every time, make sure that you meet your requirement of at least 8 glasses of water every day. Make it more fun by adding a piece of lemon on top.
About the author
Gary Grewal – founder and webmaster of site 101WeightLoss.com has been working as personal fitness trainer for over six years. Visit his site for many more healthy weight loss tips.
