Weight Loss Guru


How Dieting Works

     Have you ever wondered what mechanisms are involved in diets? What is it about following a diet that actually makes you loose weight? The following examines some of the factors that are involved in dieting.

Your Body's Efficiency
     For most adults especially those over the age of 30, weight gain seems to be a fact of life. This happens because the human body is very efficient. It just does not take that much energy to maintain the human body at rest; and when exercising, the human body is amazingly stingy when it comes to turning food into energy.

     At rest (for example, while sitting and watching television), the human body burns only about 12 calories per pound of body weight per day (26 calories per kilogram). That means that if you weigh 150 pounds (68 kg), your body uses only about:
150 X 12 = 1,800 calories per day

Twelve calories per pound per day is a rough estimate.

Those 1,800 calories are used to do everything you need to stay alive:
* They keep your heart beating and lungs breathing.
* They keep your internal organs operating properly.
* They keep your brain running.
* They keep your body warm.

     In motion, the human body also uses energy very efficiently. For example, a person running a marathon (26 miles or 42 km) burns only about 2,600 calories. In other words, you burn only about 100 calories per mile (about 62 calories per km) when you are running.

Taking Calories In
     The 1,800 calories that a typical person at rest needs per day is just not that many. For example, if you go to your neighborhood fast food restaurant and order a meal deal you will get a burger, a large french fries and a large soft drink. This meal contains:
* 700 calories in the sandwich
* 500 calories in the french fries
* 300 calories in the drink

     Therefore, a meal can add up to a whole days worth of the calories you will use. In America and most other developed countries, it is incredibly easy to find and consume calories. The problem is that we are consuming way more calories than we burn off in any given day.

     Your body is extremely efficient at capturing and storing excess calories. Whenever your body finds that it has excess calories on hand, it converts them to fat and saves them for resources that you may need at a later date. It only takes 3,500 excess calories to create 1 pound of new fat on your body. If you are taking in just 500 extra calories per day, then you are gaining a pound of fat per week.

The Idea Behind Dieting
     Following the above reasoning, to lose 1 pound of fat, you would have to burn off 3,500 calories. That is, over a period of time, you have to consume 3,500 calories less than your body needs. There are several ways you can create that deficit. Dieting is one way. Here are some other examples:

* You could consume fewer calories than your body needs. For example, you might choose to consume 1,500 calories per day rather than the required 1,800 by controlling what you eat.
* You could consume 1,800 calories per day and then choose to jog 2 miles (3.2 km) every day. The jogging would burn about 200 calories per day.

     Therefore, the only way to lose fat is to consume fewer calories per day than your body needs. You can create the deficit either by monitoring and restricting your intake of calories, or by exercising, or both.

     The idea behind most diets is simply to help you somehow lower the number of calories that you consume each day. It's as easy as that.

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