Simple Weight Loss:

Weight Loss Accomplished Simply

The math is simple. One pound of fat yields 3500 calories. Want to lose a pound a week? Then you need to consume 3500 calories less per week than your body uses. That is about 500 calories a day. By cutting out 500 calories from your normal daily diet, while keeping your activity level the same, you can lose approximately one pound a week.

All right. That doesn't sound like much, especially if you're more than 25 pounds overweight. Study on top of study has shown, though, that those people who lose weight gradually -- at a rate of 1-2 pounds per week -- are far more likely to keep the weight off and maintain a normal weight for a lifetime.

So how much exactly IS 500 calories? If you're going to reduce your daily intake by 500 calories, it helps to know what you need to cut out. Here's how easy it is to lose 500 calories DAILY:

• If you HAVE to have coffee, use milk instead of cream. Savings? 50 calories per cup.
• Pass on the butter for your baked potato. 100 calories eliminated. Forget about sodas and drink juice or water. Savings? 200 calories.
• Skip the Big Mac and have a salad instead. A Big Mac weighs in at a whopping 460 calories. A fresh salad with a light dressing? Less than 100! So where are you at? 360 calories.
• Skip the bag of potato chips. An average snack-size bag of chips has over 300 calories. Savings? 300 calories.
• Eat your corn on the ear. A 1 cup serving of canned corn has 165 calories. An ear has 85. Savings? 80 calories.
• Switch to low-fat cream cheese on your bagel. Savings? 90 calories per ounce.
• Love those greasy fries and can't give them up? Swap the skinny fries out for thick steak-cut ones, the non fast-food ones. Thin French fries absorb more oil than the thicker, meatier ones. Savings? 50 calories per 4 ounce serving.

If you'd rather look at losing weight from an exercise point of view, you can also lose one pound a week by upping your activity level by 500 calories a day.

Is it easy?

Well, it's not hard! Now take a look:

• Take a half-hour walk around the park or your favorite setting. Aim for a pace that's a little quicker than a stroll, but not fast enough to be breathless. You'll burn 160 calories.
• Ride your bike. Tackle a few moderate hills and aim for about five total miles. Burn 250 calories
• Go dancing -- and really DANCE. The longer you're out on the floor instead of at the table ingesting high-calorie drinks, the more you'll get out of it. Dancing that makes you breathless and warms up your body will yield a nice calorie savings. Burn 400 calories for one hour.
• Swimming is great for you, and a lot of fun too. Water resistance means you burn more calories, and you avoid the stress impact on joints from aerobics, dancing or walking. Do a few laps at a slow crawl -- if you can get up to an hour you'll be doing great. Burn 510 calories.
• Go out into your garden. An hour of gardening tasks that include bending and stretching can burn as many calories as a brisk walk. Burn 250 calories.
• Play a game of tennis. Meet up with a friend for a weekly tennis game and you'll be amazed at the difference. One hour of vigorous tennis is one of the best calorie burners around. Burn 800 calories.

It’s important to keep in mind that all exercise/calorie numbers are based on a female weighing 130 pounds. If you weigh more, you'll burn more. Want to hear an added bonus to burning calories through exercise? When you exercise, you build muscle by converting it from fat. That's right, your body uses more energy to maintain and feed muscle than it does fat.

Editor's Note: Still not willing to go on a healthy and mostly raw food diet? We have a program that really cut the calories away without impacting your lifestyle too much. It's called the Idiot Proof Diet, and it's one of the most popular programs on the Internet.