In thirty years, worldwide obesity rates have doubled. In some countries, as much as thirty percent of the population is obese. Many of these individuals attempt to lose weight; by far the most common method used to do so is a restricted calorie diet.
The fundamental cause of most weight gain is the consistent intake of more calories than are burned through daily activity. The human body burns a certain number of calories per day regardless of the individual’s activity level. This is a person’s basal metabolic rate. The easiest way to determine your BMR is to use an online calculator. Once you have your BMR, you can determine your total daily expenditure of energy (TDEE). Any calorie intake above this number will lead to weight gain. A lower calorie diet that is less than this number will lead to weight loss.
Any diet plan needs to take this basic formula into account. Exercise is a fundamental component of any health and weight loss plan, but even if you are very active, you caloric intake must be lower than your caloric expenditure if you want to lose weight.
How many calories a day should be cut in order to achieve optimal weight loss? Experts generally recommend a 500 calorie diet deficit for moderate, safe weight loss. For healthy weight loss, men should eat at least 1500 calories a day, and women should have a minimum of 1200 calories a day.
It is possible to have a low calorie diet that is much lower than this. There are individuals who attempt to lose weight by eating as few as 700 calories per day. This is not recommended without a physician’s approval and supervision. Cutting your calories to an extreme level can be dangerous, and will slow your metabolism down. The slower your metabolism is, the harder it will be to lose weight.
The common method of losing weight for most people is the low fat diet. In addition to cutting calories, a low fat diet recommends that you get no more than 20 to 35 percent of your daily calories from fat. A common mistake here is to replace the fat with sweets that are high in calories and lacking in proper nutrients.
Regardless of your approach to a reduced calorie diet, you need to exercise. The more fit you are, the more calories you will burn, even while not active. Muscle tissue burns calories at a higher rate than an equal amount of adipose tissue. There are simply too many benefits to staying fit to ignore.
No matter how you decide to lose weight, remember that a sensible low calorie diet will contain adequate levels of protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Do not skip the exercise; it can make all the difference in your weight loss success.