Losing weight is a lot more simple than even the simplest plans try to make out – It all boils down to basic physics. The logic that the number of calories entering your body needs to be less than calories put out is something seemingly intuitive, but it is surprisingly often ignored. The problem with most diet plans is they ignore the differences in a person’s metabolism and natural resting rate of calories burned. This is very easy to calculate, and in fact, doesn’t need to be “calculated” at all.

The first thing you need to determine is the average amount of calories you take in per day. Simply take a few days and record on paper the calories you eat. This might seem like a nuisance at first, but once you eventually see results, it becomes second nature. The calories will be available (per serving) on the back of mostly everything you eat or drink.

After you get a few days recorded, find the average calories taken in per day. For our purposes, this is the roughly the amount of calories your body takes in to maintain your current weight. This knowledge is powerful and surprisingly unknown to many trying to lose weight.

Now what? Cut down on calories. Yes, it’s really that simple. You might be thinking “well of course”, however, most people trying to do a method similar to this do it haphazardly and either count incorrectly, or use an arbitrary model of an average person’s daily caloric intake (remember those estimated recommended daily calorie counts on nutrition labels?).

How to go about cutting down on calories is also important. The first thing you need to cut down in your diet is sugar.

Sugar is incredibly fattening. Once in your body, it triggers an insulin response and almost immediately gets stored as fat. Foods that are high in starch and simple carbohydrates, such as potatoes and very processed grains, will have a similar response. Some diets instruct you to eat more whole grains and protein. This is the reason behind it.

For example, if you eat an average of 2900 calories per day and a reduction in sugary and starchy foods (such as soda and sugary juices) cuts your daily calorie count to 2700, you will steadily lose weight.

If a several hundred calorie reduction doesn’t help you lose weight, try a hundred more until you’re happy with the pace you’re going.

In order to cope with the lack of sugars (and fats, which are calorie rich), increase the intake of protein. This will also help you retain muscle mass as you drop pounds.

It’s a good idea to time your meals to ingest carbs and fats early and midday, and protein at night. This will allow your body all day to burn off the carbs and fat, leaving you protein at night to fill you up and preserve muscle while your body burns off some weight.

Diet pills are often advertised as being a sort of miracle cure. Many people try them and stop after a few weeks, not seeing results. The amount most diet pills increase your metabolic rate of burn is insignificant – where they CAN help is to curb your appetite while dieting. A lot of successful dieters I have consulted with supplement their diet with pills to help them during the tough times simply adjusting to eating less.

If you’re planning on trying the above method, picking up a pill regimen can increase your odds of success.

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