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  All weight loss plans must take into consideration this relentless fact:  one pound of human fat contains 3500 calories. No diet works, if it is not based on decreased calorie consumption, increased energy expenditure and stable metabolic rate. Quick fix weight loss programs manipulate your physiology in such a way that you lose a lot of water but little fatty tissue. For overweight or obese people losing weight only makes sense, if it means losing fat.

The metabolic rate issue is often overlooked even by professional nutritionists, dieticians and life style specialists. Paradoxically, to lose weight you should eat less but more often. Skipping meals causes your metabolism to slow down and "teaches" your  body to use food more efficiently. Consequently, your diet enters a vicious circle: You eat less and less and lose fat slower and slower.



 EXERCISE CALORIES      

Studies show exercise can promote weight loss no matter how much you weigh. A brisk half-hour walk a day is enough to get the benefits. Combined with a healthy diet, it also helps stave off obesity. How many calories does your exercise burn?

Sitting burns 80 calories per hour; Weight lifting (non-vigorous) burns 230 calories per hour; Volleyball (recreational) burns 240 calories per hour; Golf (played without cart) burns 250 calories per hour; Lawn mowing burns 325 calories per hour; Walking (at 4 mph) burns 325 calories per hour; Dancing (night club) burns 395 calories per hour; Hiking burns 430 calories per hour; Pilates (medium intensive, including Winsor Pilates) burns 450 calories per hour; Aerobics (high impact) burns 505 calories per hour; Racquetball (recreational) burns 505 calories per hour; Tennis (singles) burns 510 calories per hour; In-line skating burns 505 calories per hour; Skiing (cross country) burns 575 calories per hour; Hockey (ice or field) burns 575 calories per hour; Martial arts (Taekwondo or intensive karate) burns 720 calories per hour; Bicycling (at 15 mph) burns 720 calories per hour; Running in place burns 650 calories per hour; Running (a ten-minute-per-mile pace) burns 720 calories per hour; Jumping rope burns 730 calories per hour; Swimming burns 750 calories per hour.

You will probably notice that these numbers vary widely, from source to source, depending on methodology applied or intensity predicted, so use them to get a general idea rather than to precisely calculate your calorie expenditure. The three most miscalculated exercises are: running, swimming and weight lifting. Because running so easily causes perspiration and hyperventilation (breathing faster than is necessary at a given pace), its intensity - in terms of calorie burning - is often overstated. You feel quickly tired, while running, because the same group of large leg muscles cries for more and more oxygen, mobilizing your whole system. Swimming, on the other hand, engages almost all muscles of your body, not just one group. The hyperventilation effect occurs to a much lesser degree and you do not feel perspiration, when your body is wrapped up in water. We strongly believe that swimming is one of the best ways to expend calories for the following reasons: 1) You use your muscles not only to move forward but also to stay on the surface; 2) Any time you slow down, your muscles work harder to keep you afloat; 3) Water more readily absorbs your body heat than air, which means losing a lot of additional calories by just being immersed.

As far as weight lifting is concerned, you should remember this: although a strength training session does not consume a lot of calories by itself, it considerably increases your metabolic rate (much more and for much longer than any other exercise) for many hours to follow; you rest and you continue burning fat as if you were doing chores or walking.

To achieve a good fitness level and successfully lose weight you do not need to engage in the most calorie-burning activities. Our advice: choose several exercise routines and do them in a constantly changing pattern. Nothing thwarts fitness and weight loss efforts more than the boredom of a repetitive physical activity.

CALCULATING YOUR CALORIE REQUIREMENTS

     First of all you should get an idea of, what your resting metabolic rate is. The human body at rest burns between 0.8 and 1.6 calorie per minute. It places the resting energy requirement of most people somewhere between 1150 and 2300 calories per day. A lean small woman would use at rest about 1200 calories, while a big, overweight man would use more than 2000 calories.
    When you know your resting energy expenditure, you can much easier calculate how many more calories you need to fuel your everyday activities, including exercise.
    You can use this popular and relatively reliable formula, based on your body weight: multiply your weight in pounds by 10, if your physical activities are light, by 15 if your activities are moderate and by 20, if your are a very active person. The result will be an approximate daily amount of calories required by your body.
    You can finer tune this calculation by taking into consideration your age. Subtract from the result of the above multiplication 100 calories for age 35 - 44; 200 calories for age 45 - 54; 300 calories for age 55 -64; 400 calories for age 65 and above.
    For example: if you are a 46 year old person, weighing 160 pounds and moderately active the calculation of your daily calorie consumption will be: 160 x 15 - 200 = 2200.
    Be aware that men require a little more energy, even if they weigh the same as women, because they naturally have more muscle and muscles consume more energy than any other human tissue. This distinction diminishes with aging, when men lose more and more of their lean body mass. 

        Healthy Links:

To lose weight you need sufficient amount of healthy sleep. Unfortunately, at least 40 million Americans suffer from sleep disorders. If you are one of them visit: NSF. The National Sleep Foundation is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to improving public health and safety by achieving understanding of sleep and sleep disorders.

United States Department of  HEALTH  AND HUMAN SERVICES will provide you with information concerning healthy diet, exercise and fitness, drugs and dietary supplements, smoking and drinking, and many other aspects of your lifestyle or well-being.

With nearly 70,000 members, THE AMERICAN DIETETIC ASSOCIATION is the nation’s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals. ADA serves the public by promoting optimal nutrition, health and well-being.

Daily Calorie Consumption Predictions for Women

Body Mass Index And Body Weight

    BMI is an over hundred year old body composition measure based on the division of a person's weight (in kilograms) by the person's height (in meters squared). The higher the result, the more overweight you allegedly are. The Body Mass Index is  reliable only as far as a very average citizen is concerned and that's probably why so many government agencies love it. People exceeding a BMI of 25 are considered overweight. Obesity starts at a BMI of 30 and extreme obesity at a BMI of 40.
Before you begin worrying that your BMI is too high please take a look at your physical structure. Do you have thick bones? Do you have a lot of muscle? All advanced bodybuilders would be qualified - according to this ancient system - as overweight if not obese; and so would persons with naturally heavy skeletons.
   The U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published, quite some time ago (1990), a very sensible range of appropriate weights for adults 19 and over.  Many experts still recognize that calculation as one of the best ever. Get your height, weight and body characteristics data and compare them with the table below:

       
 Appropriate Weights for Adults 19 and Older

Height 5'3" 5'4" 5'5" 5'6" 5'7" 5'8" 5'9" 5'10" 5'11" 6'0"

Total Range 107-152 111-157 114-162 118-167 121-172 125-178 129-183 132-188 136-194 140-199

 Proven Results Weight Loss

Burn the Fat: Well balanced, comprehensive. Shows in a very competent and clear way, how you can practically manipulate all functions of your body (food intake, metabolism, physical activity, etc.) to meet your weight loss goals.

Fat Loss for Idiots: An idiotic title and a great book. It provides tons of versatile and scientifically valid information. A lot of it is free. They do not recognize any of the most advertised diets. Instead, they offer a convincing "in between" approach.

Fit over Forty: Personal but honest and knowledgeable. It shows how obesity, lack of confidence and constant struggle can be reversed; provides excellent inspiration for those, who are not so young any longer. Baby-boomers invited.

Shocking Proof: We usually forget that our body is a temporary dump and an enormous ZOO. Disgusting plaque and horrible little “critters” living in our guts are very much capable of creating our overweight problems. This approach is not pretty but very much scientific.

Turbulence Training: Although so called, this fat burning routine will introduce little turbulence into your existence, because it was designed to comply with all kind of lifestyles. Exercise haters may be surprised.

Fit Mummy: Ladies who cannot lose the remaining baby fat and are too busy to effectively control their weight will love this book. Holly Rigsby is a busy mom herself. She is also a friendly and warm professional, well prepared to help you.

Self-hypnosis: This site’s web master used self-hypnosis to successfully quit smoking. Call him prejudiced but he will still believe that hypnotic auto-suggestion can help you to shed all those excessive pounds and keep them away for the rest of your life.

Eat-Stop-Eat: You eat normally then you fast then you eat normally then you fast again… Most diets expect us to fast all the time and that’s why we fail. You endure fasting easily, when you know that normal eating will come back soon. Of course, there’s more to this concept. Read the book!

Combat the fat: Have you seen a fat soldier? May be a fat general… Military ways must be as good as possible; otherwise they would lose wars. The author was a long time soldier and he is a weight control expert as well. Attention!

Speed Fat Loss: We usually reject programs promising a quick weight loss but this one makes sense. At least this is not just a diet; and the author is both sincere and convincing.

Losing by Believing: They say: the key to losing weight is - believing you can and thinking yourself thin. You only must believe frankly and think deeply. Well, there are a lot of famous (and thin) people out there, who attribute their successes to strong beliefs.

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The most simple of all calorie calculations is this: men should aim for about 500 calories at both breakfast and lunch, while women should strive for about 300 at each meal. Both sexes can then shoot for1000 calories at dinner.

Alternative for Food Control Bureaucracy

       Experts consider food diaries and other recordings controlling eating to be effective tools of lifestyle changes. Maybe, but many of dieters simply get sick when confronted with a perspective of writing down every mouthful they consume.
     Those who do not like the diet bureaucracy can use formulas for approximating desired result. The most traditional one  would be 1:2:3 ratio formula. It suggests that our meals - measured in calories - should contain about 1 part of fat, 2 parts of proteins and 3 parts of carbohydrates.
   Of course, if you are a Dr. Atkins' follower , your formula would be 2:3:1 - about 2 parts of fat, 3 parts of proteins, 1 part of carbohydrates. On the other hand, if you are practicing the Zone Diet your formula would be close to 1:1:1, with a slightly larger carbohydrate calories consumption as compared with the two other major diet components.
     In some cases, as in the South Beach Diet, the ratio formula will repeat: 2:3:1 (Atkins) but limitations will be put on certain foods in every category.
     This is not something you need to measure precisely but rather to keep in mind. When you then have a meal -at a party or in a restaurant - try to comply with your chosen formula and you are likely to consume the right proportions of food. It may be an easy, funny and entertaining way of learning successful eating control. 

Food does not harm us.

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