What to Do to Lose Weight

by | Mar 5, 2012 | Health Habits, Nutrition Support, Uncategorized

When a few people look at our belly and comment that we look “prosperous” or “healthy” we know it’s time to lose weight. Subsequently, the big question that pops in our mind is “What to do to lose weight?”

First off – set your mind to it!

Once you do that, you can achieve your hour-glass or v-shape figure quickly enough. At the onset, allow me to emphasize that a healthy diet is not about starving and avoiding foods instead, a healthy diet is about knowing how much to eat and when to eat (notice I’ve omitted the customary “what to eat”).

I maintain that all food even fatty or sweet (unless you are a diabetic), is good for you. The trick is quantity i.e. portion sizes and timing. You read it right – there is a ‘good’ time to eat and a bad time to eat. I’ll explain all this shortly. Now,

Let’s make a plan what to do to lose weight

Just as the amount of gas you will put in your vehicle will depend on the distance to be travelled and the availability of gas along the route, the ideal quantity of food to be eaten should depend on your energy requirement and availability of food during the day or along the way. What I mean is, the answer to “what to do to lose weight” begins with an analysis of your calorie requirement.

Google, “calculate my calorie requirement”

and select some authoritative sites that will help analyze your calorie i.e. energy requirement. Typically, the calculation takes into account your day-to-day activity and analyzes the quantum of energy you will need. To this, it will add some ‘overhead’ i.e. the amount of energy required by our body irrespective of our activity level. For example, just the act of breathing or thinking or moving around the house consumes a small amount of energy. Your calorie requirement is sum total of energy required by way of ‘overheads’ and energy required for your daily activity such as working and exercising.

Now let’s learn how to manage your weight

Weight management is simply eating food that provides energy roughly equal to your daily calorie requirement. It means you would neither add nor lose weight.

To the above, let’s stir in some common sense. To lose weight we would need to do two things; lose weight and maintain the optimal weight.

Using the calorie requirement fundamentals I just explained, to lose weight, we would have to on the one hand, increase our energy requirement and on the other hand, maintain our food consumption at healthy level i.e. no more than 1,500 calories per day. Here’s a sample menu plan of 1400 calories.

You can increase your energy requirement by either working more or exercising more whichever you find suitable. When you increase your energy requirement but do not compensate by increasing food consumption, you create an energy deficit which your body balances by utilizing stored fat and that is how you will lose weight.

So, the answer to your question on what to do to lose weight, is simply, manage your daily calorie requirement.