Weight Loss Is In The Calories, Part 1

Calories have alot to do with weight loss. In fact, for you to lose weight, you must cut back on your calorie intake. Whether you are planning to loose weight through portion control or by replacing the unhealthy foods with healthy alternatives, to diet to your desired weight and size. First, you need to understand exactly what a calorie is. A calorie is a unit of energy. Mostly used for food, it is an expression of how much energy is derived from the food.

Every food and drink we consume contains calories. This is of course with the exception of water, which contains zero calories. In most cases, you can find the number of calories contained in some foods from the nutrition labels. You can also find out how many calories a food has from the internet. Everything you eat contains calories, but over and above that, everything you do also burns calories. On its own functioning, the body burns calories everyday. You burn calories just sitting and watching television. You will be surprised that even when reading this article, you are burning calories.

To know how to lose weight, then you must know about calories and the calorie maintenance level. Everybody has this maintenance level. You may be asking yourself if you everything you eat has calories and everything you do burns calories, then why don’t they cancel out. Well this is where the CML comes in. This is the number of calories you need to eat per day to maintain your weight. This is relatively easy to calculate, just Google for a CML calculator and calculate your level. In this case,you will need to know your weight and height for starters. Some calculators will require other variables such as age, sex an the like.

So, lets say you have calculated and found that your CML is 2,500. This means, you have to eat 2,500 calories for your body to maintain its weight. So if you happen to eat 2,500 calories today, your body will not change its weight. But lets say you eat less than your CML, what will happen? Say you consume 2,300 calories. You will have eaten 200 calories less than what your body needs to maintain its weight. And what is your goal, to lose weight. Consumption of less number of calories than your daily calorie maintenance level is guaranteed to help you lose weight in both the long run and the short run. It doesn't matter if you want to loose alot or a little weight, the calorie maintenance level is the most important aspect to keep an eye on when you want to succeed in weight loss.