You have probably added a lot of extra annoying pounds to your body through unhealthy eating habits and now you want to get rid of those pounds as quickly as possible. There are several ways to achieve this goal. Most people tend to get attracted to ‘shortcuts’ such as fad diets which promise them quick weight loss. These fad diets literally make you starve with their abnormal food restrictions. While this may help you lose a few pounds of (which again is water and NOT fat that you need to lose), they could make your body weak and unhealthy.
People generally believe that the fewer calories they consume, the faster they would be able to lose weight. When these fad diets restrict their food intake to an abysmally low level, to the point of making them starve, they are not surprised because they believe this is the only surefire way to lose fast.
Now there is a BIG difference between food reduction and calorie intake reduction. It is true that in order to lose weight, you should control your calorie intake, but that doesn’t mean you should eat less than normal.
If you want to lose healthily, here are four steps you need to follow:
1. Calculate your ideal body : Your ideal body would be the of a normal, healthy adult of your age. Once you know about your ideal body , subtract it from your current body and you would know how much you need to lose to reach the ideal level. This can be easily done with the help of a tool called BMI (Body Mass Index) Calculator.
2. Calculate your minimum calorie requirement: It is not as hard as you think. There are a lot of calorie calculators available for free online. You simply need to download one of them and calculate your minimum daily calorie intake requirements. This should be same as the calorie requirements of a normal adult of your age.
Now realistically you must not try to reduce your daily calorie intake to this level right at start as it is simple not possible, more so if you are either over or obese (that is, if your body is 200% or more than the ideal body ). However this should give you an idea of the daily calorie intake level you should strive for.
3. Know the bad and good foods: The third step is to know about the calorie contents of the foods you eat. Such information is usually available for free online. You might be surprised to realize that you eat a lot of high-calorie foods and only a few low-calorie foods. It is time to set the balance right.
4. Cut down on your daily junk food intake: The last step is to set a daily goal of cutting down on your junk food intake by taking away one food at a time from your daily diet and replacing it with a healthier alternative.
Eventually you would be eating only healthy and organic foods and forget about junk foods. When that happens, your calorie intake would reduce automatically and you would lose fast.
Notice that not for one instant did I advise you to reduce your food intake; rather I recommended that you replace calorie-rich foods with their low-calorie alternatives. This is the right way to reduce your daily calorie intake WITHOUT starving.
