One of the essential issues, when you aim to lose weight, is controlling your calorie intake. It is no rocket science that if you reduce your intake of calories per day than your body will burn more fat.
Calories are basic units used to measure the energy content of foods and beverages you consume every day.
If your calorie intake is high, then no doubt, you will gain excessive weight; thus, to lose weight, you must reduce your calorie intake.
An average female body requires approximately 2,000 calories every day to maintain a healthy weight and 1,500 calories per day to lose about 1 pound per week.
On the other hand, an average male requires approximately 2,500 calories every day to maintain a healthy weight and 2,000 calories per day to lose about 1 pound per week.
You can always use a food calorie calculator to keep track of your calorie intake.
Although, your calorie intake also depends upon several factors such as your age, height, weight, metabolic health, activity levels, and else.
Food Calorie Calculator
Calculating and keeping track of your calories is very helpful, especially when you aim to lose weight.
The food calorie calculator will help you keep track of your calorie intake and even tell you how many calories you should consume per day.
It is smart to use a food calorie calculator as its simple, interesting and beneficial for you. Even if you are not trying to lose weight, it can help you maintain a healthy weight.
Ready to try the food calorie calculator?
You will need to provide some information about your age, gender, height, activity, and your current weight. Afterward, as a result, a food calorie calculator will get you a daily calorie number.
It will be the number of food calories you should consume each day to achieve your ideal weight.
Diet And Lifestyle Changes To Reduce Your Calorie Intake
On the contrary, you will tend to lose weight if your body burns more calories than you are consuming.
Still, reducing your calorie intake without adopting a healthy diet plan is not ideal for losing weight.
Most people get effective weight loss results by reducing their calorie intake. However, some people might tend to get hungrier and eventually gave up on their diet plans.
To prevent it, you should make temporary changes to your diet.
It will allow you to maintain a calorie shortfall in the long run and prevent you from feeling more hungrier or starved.
1. Avoid High Sugar Drinks
An easy, yet quite effective way to reduce your calorie intake is to cut off high sugar drinks such as soda, fruit juice, chocolate milk, sports drink, and iced tea.
Additionally, high sugar drinks can have very harmful side effects on your health beyond weight loss.
It affects your metabolic health and also increases the risk of numerous diseases.
According to NCBI, your brain’s liquid calories are not recorded in the same way as it records solid calories.
Thus, the intake of high sugar-sweetened drinks is linked to rapid weight gain.
An article published by Science Direct suggests that high sugar drinks aids in increasing the risk of obesity.
A recent study confirms the increased risk of various diseases up to 60% in children for each daily serving of high sugar drinks.
However, natural sugars consumed from foods such as fruits are beneficial for health when consumed in small adequate amounts.
Whereas, consuming bulky amounts of high sugar drinks contribute towards excessive weight gain and also harm your overall health.
2. Do Weight Lifting And Exercises
Your body saves energy when you consume less food by burning fewer calories.
It is why long-term calorie shortfall is beneficial for your health as it aids in decreasing your metabolism.
Further, it can contribute to loss of muscle mass. Muscle is metabolically active; therefore, it reduces metabolism even more.
The only effective strategy to prevent muscle mass loss is to exert your muscles by doing heavy weight lifting and exercises.
According to the National Library Of Medicine, studies reveal that weight lifting and resistance exercises prevent muscle mass loss and even stop metabolism from slowing down during calorie shortfall.
It is recommended to lose weight healthily and also take care of your muscle mass by practicing exercise regularly.
If you are unable to do heavy weight lifting or cannot go to the gym, consider doing bodyweight exercises such as push-ups, squats, sit-ups, and other exercises at home.
According to PubMed, studies prove that exercise provides both mental and physical health benefits beyond weight loss, such as the decreased risk of diseases, longevity, more energy throughout the day, and much more.
Moreover, doing aerobic exercises like walking, swimming, jogging is essential and beneficial for your overall health. Still, aerobics is not very effective in terms of weight loss as opposed to anaerobic exercises.
3. Eat Low Carb Foods
What you eat and how much you eat has a huge impact on your overall health and well-being.
Therefore, eating healthy food is necessary for a healthier body. Consuming low carb foods is a very effective way to lose weight.
As, it helps in reducing your appetite, and on the bright side, you automatically consume few calories.
Eating a low carb diet is very beneficial for your overall health, such as it decreases your blood sugar, blood pressure, triglycerides, and increases your HDL cholesterol.
Also, consuming low carb foods is very beneficial for your heart, especially for people with metabolic syndrome or type 2 diabetes.
According to Wiley Online Library, 23 studies prove that consuming low carb foods can make you lose about two times more weight than a calorie-restricted or low-fat diet.
For low carb food to add to your healthy diet plan, you can always opt for eggs, meat, nuts, seeds, dairy, seafood, and veggies.
You do not have to go all low carb instead of trying to eat quality fiber-rich carb foods or single-ingredient foods.
4. Increase Protein Intake
Protein Is an essential nutrient for weight loss as well as an effective way to lose weight and requires a little effort.
Increasing your protein intake can increase your metabolism and reduce your appetite, plus it stimulates several weight-regulating hormones.
You can increase your calorie burn rate and reduce more calories by adding or increasing protein intake in your healthy diet.
Increasing protein intake speeds up your metabolic rate and decreases your appetite.
According to the National Library Of Medicine, a recent study shows that increasing protein intake into your diet speeds up your calorie burn to 80- 100 more calories per day.
Protein also prevents cravings and is one of the most filling nutrients. Furthermore, one study reveals that an average person who consumes 30% of his/her calories from protein consumes 441 fewer calories per day as opposed to others.
If losing weight is your primary concern, then the ideal protein intake is between 0.73 to 1 gram per pound.
Although, if you do heavy weight exercises, then the recommended protein intake for you is between 1 to 1.5 grams per pound.
If you want to lose weight effectively and with less effort, then consider making a permanent change of increasing protein intake in your healthy diet.
As not only will it help you lose weight, but also it will significantly aid in preventing weight gain.
5. Stay Appropriately Hydrated
Water is 100% calorie-free. One of the easiest and yet quite effective weight loss strategies is increasing water intake and staying appropriately hydrated.
As increasing water intake can significantly speed up the number of calories, your body burns up to 90 minutes.
Additionally, drinking eight glasses of water equivalent to 68 ounces a day can burn up to 96 more calories than usual.
Likewise, drinking water before consuming your meal aids in reducing hunger and calorie intake.
According to the National Library of Medicine and National Center Of Biotechnology, one study in middle-aged and older adults shows that by drinking 17 ounces of water an hour before consuming meals, you can effectively lose 44% more weight.
Combing a healthy diet and staying hydrated seems very beneficial for health and well-being, especially when it comes to losing weight.
Though, caffeinated beverages like green tea and coffee are also beneficial as caffeine is known to increase your metabolism for the short-term.
