(BlackDoctor.org) — Weight loss is much simpler than all the diet books and diet pill ads want you to believe. Basically, to lose weight, you have to burn more calories than you eat. If you can fully understand that, then you are on your way to losing weight.

There are 6 simple steps. Here they are:

1. Count how many calories you eat in a normal day. That’s right, wake up and eat like you would normally. Eat and count the calories in everything you eat and everything you drink and keep track of it on a piece of paper or on a computer. You might be thinking to yourself, “yeah right, I’m not going to sit around counting calories all day.” Well, if you’re thinking that, then you’re obviously not dedicated enough to losing weight.

2. At the end of that day, add up the number of calories you ate/drank. Be as exact as possible. Once you add it all up, you now have the total number of calories you consume daily. After you do this, weigh yourself.

3. Starting the day after you counted calories; eat 500 calories less than you normally do. For example, say the day you counted calories you counted 2000. For the rest of the week, you would eat 1500 calories a day. All you have to do is subtract 500 from the total number of calories you consume in a normal day, and eat this new number of calories every day for the next 7 days.

4. Eat more often. You heard right! Instead of eating 3 big meals a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner), or eating all day all the time, spread those calories out over 5 smaller meals. Eat one meal every 2 and a half to 3 hours, doing this will speed up your metabolism.

5. Cardio. Cardio is an important part of weight loss. If you’re serious about losing weight, but don’t want to do the cardio workouts, then you are requiring your diet to do all of the work. Jog, walk, swim, jump rope, ride a bike, take an aerobics class, whatever… cardio + proper diet = better than just doing one of the two. All it takes is 30 minutes a day, 3 – 5 days a week.

6. At the end of that week, weigh yourself. You’ll notice a difference just after one week! Now, of course, don’t expect to see a 20 pound difference. Losing any more than 1 or 2 pounds a week is unhealthy. Look for a 1 to 2 pound weight loss at the end of the week. It may not sound like much, but think about it. You can lose 5-8 pounds a month! That’s around 75lbs a year!

Important weight loss tips for losing weight effectively!

• The bad fat must go! Stay away from “bad” fat! Get rid of all the chips and candy. No more fast food, nothing fried. No more cookies, no more cake, no more of these saturated fats. There is no question about it and there is no way around it, get rid of these types of foods. Don’t get me wrong, you should NOT be eating 0 grams of fat every day, but the only places you should be getting your daily fat intake from are lean meats (not the fried fast food kind), chicken (again, not fried!), etc. as well as the foods that contain the “healthy” types of fat, which can be found in just about every type of fish (tuna fish, salmon, etc.), nuts, olive oil and flaxseed oil.

• Lower the bad carbs! Most people think that it is fat that makes people fat and that just by eating less fat, they are on their way to weight loss! WRONG! Certain carbs can be just as bad as fat when it comes to losing weight. Limit foods high in bad carbs. These carbs will eventually turn into fat. Foods like sugar, white bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, etc. are high in simple (bad) carbs. Sure, your body needs carbs, which is why foods like these are ok to eat, but don’t go overboard. Stick to high protein/good carb/low fat foods like tuna fish (and other seafood), chicken breast, turkey, whole grains, fruits and vegetables etc.

• Water! Drink water! Get rid of the soda and get rid of the sports drinks. Drink around a half gallon of a day, more if you can. Spread it out throughout the day, just like your 5 meals. Yes that’s a lot of water, but it’s that water that will give you energy and speed your weight loss.

• Strength training! YES! Weightlifting isn’t just great for muscles; it’s great for losing weight. Muscles burn calories.

• Weigh yourself at the end of every week. If you ever have more than 2 weeks go by without losing 1 pound, it’s time to change something. Eat 250 less calories than you’ve been eating. And keep everything else the same. Each time you see weight loss stop for more than 2 weeks, decrease calorie intake by 250 until you get down to where you want to be. Remember, NEVER starve yourself!

• Sleep! YES! Sleep! The easiest, yet most over looked step. Get at least 8 hours of sleep a night. Trust me, you’re going to need it!

Now, I never once said this would be easy. If it was easy, you would have done it already. Losing weight isn’t something you can just do “on the side.” You also can NOT lose weight fast. You are going to have to dedicate your mind and body and your time to doing it! So, you now have the information you need, all you have to do now is use it.

 

Join the conversation and share this story