Counting Calories is Essential For Weight Loss

You might be saying that you don't know how many calories you eat. If this is true, then you are not aware of what you eat and you're not watching your weight.

According to Bonnie Pfiester, personal/fitness trainer and owner of Longevity Fitness health club, the only way for you to know exactly the food that you're eating is to make a journal of it. This means writing down everything you eat and then documenting the calorie number of each item.

Calories for You

Every person's caloric allowance varies. Your daily calorie needs would depend on your metabolism, weight, and daily activity.

In order to lose weight, you should consume fewer calories than what your body can burn. The greater deficit between your caloric intake and calorie-burning ability, the greater will be your weight loss.

It would take a deficit of 3,500 calories in a week to lose 1 pound. This means that if you have a reduction of 500 calories per day, you can lose a pound per week. Or if you want to lose 2 pounds in a week, you have to reduce 1,000 calories per day.

Checking Calorie Labels

The average American actually eats around 3,790 calories a day. This doesn't really happen on a daily basis. For example, a typical person would eat 2,000 calories on weekdays but consume huge restaurant meals on weekends. Therefore, it increases their daily overall average.

That's why it is important to check the label of everything you buy in the grocery store and know how many calories you are about to put in your mouth. If you don't, you will be on a never-ending diet.

In the same manner, fast-food restaurants should also post calorie information in their menu. This way, the people will know what they're getting. This is according to Mark Peterson, the mayor of Concord.

He is aware that restaurants post these statistics in their websites or keep it behind their counters, but he says that's not enough. Since he is known for pushing fitness programs and healthy living, he proposed a new city mandate stating that nutrition information should be right in front of the customer as they order. This will make it hard to ignore.

Low-Calorie Diet

If you want a low-calorie diet, you can try the Cabbage Soup Diet plan. This diet is used in fast weight loss because it is low in calories. It's like a modified fast.

Basically, this diet will require you a set of foods to eat per day. When you're still hungry, you can eat all the cabbage soup that you like.

The Cabbage Soup Diet is considered to be a miracle diet because it will allow you to lose around 10-15 pounds in only 7 days. When you follow it, you will consume only about 800-1,000 calories in a day. However, you need to terminate it after the 7th day because it is not made for long-term use.

When you go back to your regular eating habits, you can eat everything in moderation yet still lose weight. To achieve this, you have to be diligent in keeping records of your calorie consumption.