Health and Fitness

Health and Fitness - Weught Loss - Focus on the caloric deficit:

One thing that virtually the entire scientific community agrees on is that the law of energy balance is always with us. In order to burn body fat, you must expend more calories than you consume.

This is known as having a "caloric deficit."

There is a huge difference between saying"you don't have to count calories" and "calories don't count."

Some diet programs are "ad libitum" in nature. This means they do not advise calorie counting; they simply tell you what to eatand what not to eat. You eat as you please, as long as you follow the food restrictions provided.

Programs that tend to make you "automatically" eat less without counting anything are not a bad thing at all , as the spontaneous reduction in caloric intake often occurs due to an appetite-suppressive effect of certain diets, and or due to the selection of low calorie-density foods which are highly satiating.

That said, no combination of foods, elimination of foods, or arrangement of macronutrients will override the law of calorie balance.

To lose fat, you have to eat less than you burn, period.

Furthermore, you must be diligent about maintaining your deficit, because:

(1) Energy balance is dynamic, and what is a deficit for you today, may no longer be a significant deficit six months from now

(2) If your maintenance calories are 2000, and your intake is 1500 one day (a deficit) and 2500 the next (a surplus), you have NOT achieved a caloric defict over the two day period - you are inenergy balance.

Conveniently, most people seem to have some kindof "selective amnesia" and they only remember the days they were in a deficit.

A consistent deficit over time is the key!The sooner you drill this truth into your head and accept that the cornerstone of fat loss is a caloric deficit, the sooner you'll be able to think clearly about your nutritional choices and the better you'll be able to judge everything you ever read, see and hear about nutrition, for the rest of your life.

More at: http://www.fitnessattitudes.com/ (Check out the Calorie Count ebook at the bottom of the web page)