There is a natural way to lose weight and it is a combination of diet and exercise. Losing weight is as simple as elementary math: calories you consume minus calories you burn. If the difference is negative, you will lose weight. If the difference is positive, you will gain weight. The more you exercise, the more calories you will burn. In fact, if you can control the number of calories you consume, you can still lose weight even without exercising. Let's take a few examples:
Example 1:
I consume 2000 calories a day.
I lose 1800 calories while doing my day-to-day tasks (working, walking, thinking -- yes, your brain burns calories as well).
I lose another 300 calories at the gym every day.
The end result is 2000 - (1800 + 300) = -100 calories. This means I will lose 100 calories a day. If I keep this up for 35 days, I will lose one pound. Why 35? Because one pound of weight is equal to 3500 calories.
Example 2:
Again, I consume a diet of 2000 calories and I lose 1800 calories on my daily routine but I don't exercise at all. My daily calorie difference is 2000 - 1800 = 200. This means that at the end of the day, I will have 200 extra calories on me. If I keep this up for 17 days, I will have accumulated 17 x 200 = 3400 calories, which is almost one pound of weight.
Example 3:
I consume a diet of 1500 calories and I lose 1500 calories on my daily routine. My daily calorie difference is 1500 - 1500 = 0. This means that at the end of the day, I will be the same weight as I was in the morning. If I keep this up, my weight will stay constant.
As you can see from the examples above, controlling your weight is as simple as reducing the calories you consume, increasing the calories you burn, or a combination of both. You can control both of those factors and it is just a matter of committing to a plan. Unlike the examples above, you don't necessarily have to follow the same routine every day. It is OK to have days when you have a surplus of calories as long as you burn them off in other days. Create a fitness plan, and follow it as much as you can until you reach your normal weight.
To help you with your fitness plan, we have created BodyEngine, a free app that will take care of the math and will show you how many calories you need to consume to reach your normal weight. Head on over to BodyEngine to get started.
Here are some screenshots from the App:
