Winning the Weight Loss Game

Lasting, healthy weight loss is really a numbers game. Take in fewer calories and burn more. If you want a better looking, slimmer body shape - toss in some daily exercise!

Losing weight, gaining weight or maintaining your weight depends on the amount of calories you take in and use up during the day, otherwise referred to as energy balance. Learning how to balance energy intake (calories in food) with energy output (calories expended through physical activity) will help you achieve your desired weight.

Although the underlying causes and the treatments of obesity are complex, the concept of energy balance is relatively simple. If you eat more calories than your body needs to perform your day's activities, the extra calories are stored as fat. If you do not take in enough calories to meet your body's energy needs, your body will go to the stored fat to make up the difference. (Exercise helps ensure that stored fat, rather than muscle tissue, is used to meet your energy needs.) If you eat just about the same amount of calories to meet your body's energy needs, your weight will stay the same.

All too often, those of us who want to lose weight concentrate on counting calories. Its too easy to overlook the calories we use up - or burn. Health experts agree - the quickest way to lose weight is the combination of eating healthy and daily exercise. By increasing your daily physical activity and decreasing your caloric input you can lose excess weight in the most efficient and healthy way!

Adding just 15 minutes of moderate exercise, say walking one mile, to your daily routine will burn or use up 100 extra calories per day. (Your body uses up or burns approximately 100 calories of energy to walk one mile, depending on your body weight.) A daily 15 minute walk could result in an extra 700 calories per week used up, or a loss of about 10 pounds in one year, assuming your food intake stays the same.

To look at energy balance another way, just one extra slice of bread or one extra soft drink a day – or any other food that contains approximately 100 calories – can add up to ten extra pounds in a year if the amount of physical activity you do does not increase. If you want better results - start today. Enjoy eating healthy foods, exercise and lose weight fast!