Basics of Weight Loss

To lose weight you need to burn more calories than you take in. It's as simple as that. It takes a deficit of 3,500 calories to lose 1 pound. There are all kinds of diets out there (low fat, low carb, etc...), but it really just comes down to what works for you that you can stick with.

How to know how much to eat to lose weight?
1. Determine the current amount of calories your body burns.

2. How much weight do you want to lose per week? Calculate: (# pounds to lose per week X 3,500)/7 = number of calories to cut per week.

3. Subtract these two numbers and that is what you should eat per day.

For example, let's say my body burns 1,700 calories per day. If I want to lose 1 pound per week, I need to cut 500 calories per day. That leaves me with 1,200 per day to eat.

Here is an online calculator.

Once you know how much you need to eat per day, you need to track this is some way. Whether you are tracking WW point or calories or something else...you need to track it! There are also many online tools out there to find out the calories of food items and many restaurants have calories listed on their web sites.

Here are some ideas for journaling tools.

1. Lose It is a free app for the iPhone/iTouch. This tool also calculates your daily target calories based on your goal and is very easy to use.

2. Free web sites such as FitDay

3. Excel either by building your own spreadsheet or using a free template found online

4. Pen and paper

What tools have you either used in the past or currently?