The Benefits of Calorie Counting for Weight Loss

Counting calories in order to lose weight might sound like a hassle, however it is probably the best way to ensure that you can manage your weight in the long run. You gain weight by consuming more calories than your body burns and to lose weight you have to build up a calorie deficit by taking on board fewer calories than your body uses. Thus, it helps to have some idea of how many calories you need and how many you consume, so that you can take steps to reduce your calorie intake and hopefully lose weight.

By getting into a habit of calorie counting you should be able to find it easier to maintain a healthy weight, since you will know the number of calories in different foodstuffs and what your calorie requirements are. There are government guidelines which indicate the number of calories adult male and females should consume every day, but these are for the general population and do not take into account your age or activity levels. It is currently recommended that women should consume 2,000 calories a day and that men should consume 2,500 calories a day.

If, however, you lead a sedentary lifestyle you may not be able to consume this number of calories, because you simply don't burn them off. If you want to lose weight, you have to aim for about a reduction of 500 calories a day in your diet, because you need to build a deficit of 3,500 calories to lose a pound. This will require you to make some alterations to the types of food you eat and the quantity, whilst you may also want to think about increasing the amount of activity you do, since this is another important piece of the weight-loss puzzle.

Indeed, if you hope to lose weight and keep it off, you have to get used to monitoring your calorie intake and adjusting it to meet your calorie needs. If you take up running and train every day, you will obviously need more calories than if you're injured and unable to exercise. By calorie counting, you can make a few changes to your eating habits to ensure you either lose weight or at least don't gain weight. If you don't know what your calorie requirements are, you could always look online at one of the various calorie calculators which provide you with a rough estimation of the calories you burn each day.

It isn't an exact science, though, and so it may be a case of trial and error, but by getting used to counting calories you should find that you can eat virtually anything and still lose weight. You get to know which foods are lower in calories and which are higher, so that you can fill up on the lower calorie options and treat yourself to a small quantity of higher calorie goodies. Thus, you can still enjoy cakes and sweets without feeling guilty or worrying that your weight loss could slow down, since you will still be keeping track of your calorie intake.

In the long run, then, it is through calorie counting that you will be able to manage your weight, which is clearly preferable to going on a crash diet, since this type of approach will not help you maintain a lower weight. Consequently, it makes sense to get used to calorie counting whilst losing weight, so that once you've reached your goal you will be able to maintain that loss.