How Many Calories Must I Burn To Lose One Pound?

You can try all kinds of fad diets in an attempt to lose weight. You can listen to television diet gurus who promise weight loss in eight minutes. You might even take a pill or have a surgery to help you lose weight. The fact of the matter is, losing weight is all about burning more calories than you take in. It's simple math.

Okay, there's nothing about losing weight that's "simple". It requires a little eating discipline and some physical exercise. But if you want to lose weight at a moderate and healthy pace, you really don't have to change your lifestyle all that much.

Calories to Pounds Ratio

It takes about 3,500 calories to make a pound. So you'll need to burn an extra 3,500 pounds per week more than you eat, if you want to lose a pound in that period.

Of course, it stands to reason that taking in 3,500 calories more than you burn off means you are going to gain a pound. Once again, if you eat an extra 500 calories you don't burn off in a week, you're going to gain an extra pound.

How Losing Weight Works

Assume you are holding steady, maintaining your weight. If you cut out a candy bar or a soft drink you normally eat, you are cutting out a couple of hundred calories there. If you jog thirty minutes, you'll be burning three hundred or more calories. That's the five hundred calories per day you need to lose weight.

Many people don't like jogging, especially when the weather gets bad. If you replace this will an easy workout on a workout machine, you might have to go a little longer, but you can get the same results. If you have an hour-long television show you watch every day, just combine this your workout. Soon, it will be part of your routine and you won't think anything about it. You can watch the evening news or the Garden Channel and lose weight doing it.

If you just don't feel up to an exercise regimen, then things get a little dicier. You'll probably have to cut out all soft drinks and maybe even your sweets. But if you drink two soft drinks a day and have several cookies, you can eliminate those 500 calories by making this one change to your eating habits. Sure, you might not get those midday treats you once had, but you'll feel better the rest of the day.

Of course, I always suggest moderate, steady exercise. Once again, it might be a little different at first, but your body really will feel better and you'll have more energy than if you didn't.

The Weigh In

Don't get bent out of shape if your weight fluctuates from one day to the next. If you weigh yourself once a day for motivation, you quickly will notice that your weight may move fluctuate over several pounds in a given week. This might be affected by what time of day you weigh yourself (after you've eaten meals or drank your morning coffee), as well as how much liquid or food you took in before you went to bed. It goes without saying that you should try to abstain from eating directly before you go to bed.

I would suggest weighing yourself the first thing in the morning. This will probably be your lowest weight all day, so it should help encourage you along the path to weight loss. Keeping a positive attitude is a huge thing when trying to burn calories.

Many people weigh themselves on one set day every week to track their weight loss. If you prefer to know daily, then you need to chart the average of the weights you are weighing that week. That's a much better indication than any one day. You might choose one of those days every week which you consider your "official" weigh in. Write down your weight this day and compare it from one week to the next. Try to choose the day after you are normally in the most set eating and drinking pattern.