So, you've started moving, but your diet is for crap; McDonald's, Taco Bell, or Burger King ring any bells? If this describes you and your life, let me make some observations for you.
First off, the "secret" recipe for weight loss is a decrease in calories with an increase in calories burned becomes weight loss. We decrease our caloric intake by restricting our bodies total daily calories eaten through portion control and stopping when calories are achieved. We achieve an increase in calories burned through cardio and weight training, each which burn loads of calories and work with the body to burn fat.
Now, if you have no idea how many calories you should be taking in, go to http://www.nutritiondata.com/tools/calories-burned and input your data for an assessment of what your body burns each day at your current weight and activity level. Now, this is the total your body currently uses, but if you want to lose weight, you need to reduce the calories put into your body. One pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories, so if you wanted to lose 1 lb per week, you would need to reduce your total caloric intake by 500 calories per day. If you wanted to lose 2 lbs per week, 1000 calories per day. Understand? In addition to this, you can add your daily workouts to boost your calorie burn, meaning that if you reduce your daily intake by 1000 calories, and burn an additional 500 calories each day, you have now bumped your weekly weight loss to 3 lbs per week. Make sense?
The type of calories you consume are just as important as the amount of calories, especially for satiety purposes. Think volume! If a Big Mac has 540 Calories and 29 g Fat, you have just eaten a good portion of your daily amount of food, and you will be hungry again in short duration. This is not in addition to the likely fries and Coke that accompany the meal. But, if you exchanged the Big Mac meal with a Subway 6-inch Oven Roasted Chicken Breast with loaded veggies, which has only 310 calories and 5 g fat, you will have added an amount of calories that your body can effectively handle without adding to your waist line, not eaten so much of your daily amount of food that you will be starving later, AND seriously eliminated the grease, oil, and fried gunk that comes with the McD's option. For the person on the go, Subway is a GREAT option!
The goal is to expand your calories throughout the day instead of blowing through them in one sitting. You will get hungry again later, and it is important for your metabolism to be fed every 2-3 hrs for maximum efficiency! If you eat a high calorie meal every 2-3 hours, your calories will be through the roof! Or, if you get so full with these high calorie meals that you only eat once or twice a day, your metabolism will be horrible and your body will not know what to do with the excess calories...so they turn to fat! Our body can only process so much at any given time, so it is wise to have meals within a 300-500 calories range, depending on your calorie intake, so that the body can effectively process the meal without it turning to fat.
Move more and eat less is a great method to lose weight, but it is always great to do it with a friend or a team of friends. I highly recommend joining with some other people who are like-minded in their goals so you can motivate one another through the difficult times and temptations of life! No matter what, making good choices one day at a time will have awesome benefits in the long-term! I wish you the best on your weight loss journey!
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