by Answer is Fitness on March 15, 2021
It has happened to plenty of people, maybe even to you. Diet and lose weight, come off the diet, and gain the weight back. But who wants to diet forever? There is a way to lose weight without a special diet plan, books, or medicine.
Do you want to lose 5 lbs, 10 lbs, or 50 lbs? How much weight you lose and how fast you lose it is determined by only one set of principles. We learned that principle when we learned first-grade math. Our body weight is determined by the amount of energy that we take in as food and the amount of energy we expend in our daily activities.
Calories are energy. So if you do not gain weight, it isn’t that you do not or cannot gain weight. Rather, you are probably taking in the same amount of calories that you burn each day. If you're slowly gaining weight over time, most likely your caloric intake is greater than the number of calories you burn throughout the day.
Our intake of calories in any given day is completely within our control through the amount of food we eat. To a large degree, we can control the number of calories we burn each day. The number of calories we burn depends upon the number of calories our body burns just being alive and our physical activity.
Our weight does determine how much energy (or calories) we burn at rest. Keep in mind that muscle mass burns more calories than fat. So while many say cardio, cardio training is the path to weight loss, a strong muscular body burns more calories, so you should have a plan for both cardiovascular exercise and weight-bearing exercises in your fitness program.
Lifestyle and work habits partially determine how many calories we need each day. For people who do not have jobs that require intense physical activity, exercise or increased physical activity can increase the number of calories burned.
An average woman 31-50 years of age who leads a sedentary lifestyle needs about 1,800 calories per day to maintain a normal weight. A man of the same age requires about 2,200 calories. Keep in mind this is a very rough estimate. Participating in a moderate level of physical activity (exercising three to five days per week) requires about 200 additional calories per day.
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