Amazing Facts about Weight Loss that lead you to success!

Few people actually understand fully the facts behind Weight Loss and what it requires to lose weight and keep it off. The diet industry is partly to blame for this due to the massive amount of differing and often inaccurate information that is available in the field of dieting and weight loss.

One of the biggest issues people have with losing weight is to understand what is necessary both during and after a diet to maintain that lean body you have always wanted. What causes you to gain weight in the first place? Will you be able to lose weight? If you do lose the weight will you regain it after the diet?

With any goal, you need clear information available to you to enable you to create a plan of action. One of the most important pieces of information to have is an approximation of how many calories per day will maintain your current weight. It is important to understand that you require fewer calories to lose weight than you do to maintain it. It is a common concern and myth amongst dieters that it is necessary to stick to a low calorie diet as long as you want to keep the weight off. This is not the case. To lose weight you must be in a calorie deficit. Once you have reached your ideal weight you can return to eating a more comfortable maintenance diet. This can be a relief to many people as by restricting calories you also reduce the amount of food choices you have. Obviously this problem can be solved by getting more creative with food and broadening your horizons, but on a normal (not calorie deficit) diet it stands to reason that you have a wider range of food choices.

A fast and easy method to determine how many calories you need per day to maintain your bodyweight is to consume 15-16 calories per pound of bodyweight. For a weight loss diet, consume 12-13 calories per pound of bodyweight. This is a simplistic formula and caloric needs will vary between individuals, but it is nevertheless a good, quick method to establish a starting point.

Now that you know the amount of calories you need per day you can work out how many calories you will require to lose weight. The reason an individual gains weight in the first place is because they consume more than their maintenance amount of calories. To clarify this point, let us look at the following example. Let us assume that your maintenance level of calories is 2000 per day. If you eat around this amount per day, you will not lose weight, nor will you gain weight. This is of course assuming that you are eating regular meals throughout the day and eating a healthy, balanced, diet. Now let us assume that you eat an extra 500 calories per day for the next seven days. The physical properties of fat state that one pound of fat contains 3500 calories, which is exactly the amount of extra calories you will eat over these seven days (7 days x 500 calories = 3500calories). The mathematics indicate that over these seven days, you would gain approximately a pound of fat. However, this is a simplistic example and it would be naïve to assume that you would gain exactly a pound of fat. There are numerous other factors and variables which affect the final result. One of these for example is the fact that it takes energy to digest food and therefore the amount of calories that will be stored is less than the actual amount you consume. However, for thee purposes of simplicity we will stick with the following example.

Let us assume again, that the above over consumption resulted in a fat gain of one pound. This is energy that has been stored and, if you continue to over consume by 500 calories per day for another week, this would result in a similar gain. So at the end of two weeks you could have gained (approximately) and extra two pounds of fat.

Many people believe that if they go back to eating normally, then they will return to their previous bodyweight. This is not true – to lose this weight you must be in a calorie deficit. This is why weight gain can creep up on you over a number of months or years. By periodically overeating, you gradually gain more and more weight. Remember, the only way to lose weight is to put your body into a calorie deficit.

Now that you know the above fat loss information you will have a better understanding of how diets work and therefore you will stand a better chance of losing weight both quickly and long term!