The recipe for parting with pounds has been the same since the first Neanderthal noticed he had love handles: You need to eat fewer calories than you burn. You don't need to follow a fad diet; buy special, prepackaged meals; or invest in expensive exercise equipment. You just need to eat less and move more. Period.
Here's another simple fact about successful weight loss: In the end, it's the "tortoise," not the "hare," that wins. In other words, your goal should be to lose weight slowly and steadily--if you want to keep the pounds from coming back. Study after study has shown that the most successful dieters--the ones who reach and then stay at their desired weight year after year--shed their excess pounds gradually, over many months. They also permanently incorporate healthful eating and exercising habits into their daily routine.
Walk, don't run. Unfortunately, most dieters are "hares." Wanting to lose 10 to 15 pounds in a flash, they go on a crash diet, which sends their bodies into starvation mode, a complex biochemical response that results, initially at least, in lost water and muscle--not in lost fat. Worse, the body also down-shifts your metabolism to a lower gear to conserve energy. So as soon as you go back to your old eating habits (and the vast majority of crash dieters do), your body begins to create even more fat than before.
Get a goal
So what's the best approach to losing weight? It begins with setting goals you can actually meet. According to diet experts (the ones not trying to sell you a book, a program, or frozen "diet" meals), your initial goal should be to lose 10 percent of your current body weight. And you should do it slowly, over a period of six months. For example, if you're overweight at 180 pounds (that is, if you have a BMI of 25 or more), you should aim to shed no more than 18 pounds over the next 24 to 26 weeks--very doable for most people.
Do the math. What does that mean in terms of calories? Well, if you have a BMI of 27 to 35, losing 10 percent of your body weight will require taking in 300 to 500 fewer calories per day for a weight loss of about 1/2 to 1 pound per week. If your BMI is greater than 35, you will need to take in 500 to 1,000 fewer calories per day for a weight loss of 1 to 2 pounds per week.
Let's translate those calories into "fast food," a language most of us speak fluently. The typical fast-food hamburger contains about 300 calories; a serving of french fries, almost 400; a milkshake, about 325; a single fried chicken breast, about 275; two slices of cheese pizza, 350 to 500; a bean burrito, about 450; and a 12-ounce container of soda, about 150. Even fast-food salad dressings are loaded with calories--typically around 300 calories in each packet (except for the light Italian dressings, which contain a mere 25 or so calories). So, as you can see, shedding 10 percent of your body weight over six months may require nothing more than giving up part of your fast-food habit!
Calorie calculus. Here is a quick and easy way for you to figure out how many calories you can consume each day and still lose about one pound a week. Multiply your current weight in pounds by 10. As an example: If you weigh 200 pounds, you should consume only 2,000 calories a day in order to lose a pound a week.
The long view
After six months, the rate at which you lose weight will probably slow down. It may even come to a screeching halt--the dreaded dieter's "plateau." Why? Because your body, at its new, reduced weight, expends less energy, which means it doesn't need as many calories. So to continue to lose weight, you need to further reduce the amount of calories you consume. And to keep from gaining back the weight you've already lost, you must be careful not to increase your calories.
If after six months you need to lose more pounds to get your BMI under 25, set a second realistic, long-term goal. Again, make sure it's no more than 10 percent of your body weight, and spread the weight loss over another six months. Remember, slow and sure wins the diet race!
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