I started my diet today and I decided to cut on my food, while maintaining my jogging exercise (three times per week for 1 hour). But before I start this, I want to make sure I got all the numbers right… So I did a little research on calories different food/drinks contain, and what my daily need is…

My goal is to loose 2 pounds (1 kg) per week, meaning that I have to cut 7000 calories in a week’s time. As you probably know one pound (0,5 kg) of body weight is equivalent to 3500 calories. So in order to reach my goal, I have to create a calorie-deficit of 7000 calories, or I can cut on some calories, and increase the calorie expenditure, by increasing my exercise.

Average male (30 years old, 180 pounds) needs 2300 to 2800 calories per day (depending on activity, or the lack of it). Average female needs 2100 to 2700 calories. And this is just to maintain your current weight.

So If I want to lose two pounds per week, I need to cut my daily calorie intake from 2200 to 1200 calories. Over a week this will add up to goal of 7000 calories. I can do the same by increasing my exercise by 300 calories/day, and only cutting on food calorie intake of 700 calories… Further, a combination of calorie-diet and increase of exercise makes weight loss easier to sustain.

So, for my first day (Saturday, unfortunately) I only ate the following:

• muesli for breakfast with yogurt (150 cal)
• mixed salad with dressing (250 cal)
• black bread (100 cal)
• big popcorn (400 cal – movie night with friends, could not helped myself)

at a total of 900 calories, which looked promising… (you can find calorie count of most any food by looking at the sticker, or by googling it – you can find nice places like this, that have collected all calorie data)

but afterwards i started counting calories from drinks, and I was shocked to learn that alcohol (well, it was Saturday night!) brings in A LOT of calories!!

More on Counting Calories and Losing weight

Trying to eat more healthily can seem frightening. Whether you're looking to lose weight, cut calories, or just eat a healthier diet - by changing just a couple of your eating habits, you can get more of the vital nutrients your body needs. Try with healthy food swaps,  stop taking high calorie unhealthy foods and swap them for healthy, balanced alternatives. This way you can loose weight fast and easy, and make it fun!

1. 1. Start swapping your fatty and sugary snacks for vegetables and fruit.
2. 2. Check your portion sizes - make them smaller
3. 3. Drink plenty of water (two litres a day).

We would like to give you few ideas for reducing your daily calorie intake and eating more healthily. It means stopping your usual snack or meal and replacing it with something just as tasty, but healthier and lower in calories.

At breakfast you need something to fill you with energy.

Instead of croissant with jam and butter, orange juice and a cup of tea with two spoons of sugar,  you could begin the day with a green tea and enjoy some homemade porridge with skimmed milk and a little honey.

On the way to your work if you decide to stop off for a quick coffee, just swap a whole milk latte for a skimmed milk latte and you'll still get your caffeine boost, but with nearly half the calories.

More on Lose Weight with Healthy Food Swaps

One of the first questions asked by most of the people, who are new to exercising is, whether to lose weight or build muscles. The right answer would be to concentrate equally on both. So you need to focus both on aerobics as well as strength-training.

It is recommended to start first with basic aerobic exercises like brisk walk, jogging, swimming and biking, these exercises help you to use energy. Besides burning fat, aerobic exercises helps your heart, reduces risk of diabetes and also boosts bone density. Make sure you get 30-60 minutes of aerobic exercise every day.

While aerobics is important for weight loss, strength training is also equally important. Without strength training, you would lose up to one pound of muscle for every three pound of fat when dieting. Muscles burn calories rather than fat, so by losing muscles, you will lose your body’s ability to burn calories. With the lack of muscles, you will gain more fat, if you stop exercising eventually.

More on Lose Weight and Build muscle? Possible or not?

A nutrition fact label is a label which is required on pre packaged foods. This label contains the details about the level of nutrients in the packaged food. These labels have information regarding the contents and their quantity like vitamins, minerals, fats, proteins and other such nutrients.

There are regional manifestations for the labels which are to be provided on the food packets and containers. These labels help in choosing the right brand and the right food for an individual.

But in many cases this has been noticed that the information in the labels is not correct or inconsistent. Like they may not contain the right quantity of the ingredients or they may lie about some harmful components like trans fats or some other preservative. Also some may lie about the carb and calorie content in the food to make them look for healthy for consumption. Eating food with trans fats is really bad regarding health point of view. FDA has made strict policies regarding mentioning the amount of trans fats in the food. But there are some loopholes in the policy like the companies don’t have to put trans fats on label if the amount of total fat is less than a specific value. Even after this companies are allowed to write that there is 0 gram trans fats in the food when the content of trans fats is less than or equal to 0.49 grams. So even if the label says that there are 0 trans fats, it may contain around 0.49 grams of trans fats. More on Can we trust food's nutrition facts labels?

Green tea weight loss has been both lauded as effective, and criticised as being a child of advertising without evidence that it works in weight loss. So what's the truth?

We checked scientific papers database for words matching on "green tea" and "weight" in order to find some studies that would either support or disprove green tea weight loss function.

We found various reports and published papers on subject, mostly dealing with testing on animals. Since, our findings are numerous, and they will probbably not change in near future, we are summing them up in a separated page devoted to green tea as diet.

Animal studies are currently used by mainstream science for leads as to whether something is worth proceeding to human studies on. If you are interested in more facts on green tea and losing weight, please proceede to green tea weight loss method.

Weight Watcher had designed an entire plan to help individuals lose weight. In their plan they have a point system that will tell you how much food you are allowed to eat in one day. You will have to choose foods in the Weight Watcher cookbooks that offer the proper macro points for the day. This means you can choose a variety of options including having dessert as long as you're providing yourself with the allowed points. You do not require to go over the points you're allowed to have, and you also do not require to go under the points. If you do not eat enough you're going to suffer from hunger, which will bring out the exhausted feelings.
When you are considering purchasing a Weight Watcher cookbook to help you lose weight you will find there are several to choose from. You may eventually want to have all of the Weight Watcher cookbooks to help you find more meals a day to have. After a while most of us get fatigued of eating the same recipes or food. There are other ways to gain food that is part of the weight watcher format. In fact there are prepackaged meals using the same recipes as in the cookbooks to help you get the food you need in a day when you're busy. More on Weight Watchers Cookbooks

Aerobics is a great way to not only get the cardiovascular system into shape, but also your entire body. Aerobics works the entire body, this of course helps with the heart and lungs but it also can help you lose weight.

This type of exercise is good for the entire body, but some people are looking for belly aerobics to take care of those love handles and cut down on that apple shape. Belly aerobics can be incorporated into the aerobic routine, and is frequently a by product of the entire work out.

Belly aerobics is part of most routines during any type of aerobic work out. Belly aerobics occurs whenever a person stretches their arms up and then twists the body to reach for the other side. This type of repetitive motion works all of the muscles in the sides of the stomach helping to trim down the waistline.

Most aerobic instructors also work in a floor routine during their classes. This part of the class generally involves many sit-ups which of course is one of the most excellent types of exercise to do in order to trim that tummy up. Sit ups tighten all of the muscles in the stomach and make them work their way back into shape. Sit-ups are generally done at the end of the routine, but the stomach has already had a work out during the aerobic work-out.

Another way to find a good belly aerobic work out is to try some varied classes. One type of aerobic work-out that works those tummy muscles is belly dancing. In order to be able to perform a proper belly dance, a person needs to have good muscles in their tummy.

Belly dancing classes may be a little more of a challenge to find then a regular aerobics class, but there are cd's that can teach this form of aerobic exercise as well as tutorials on line for learning how to belly dance. This type of belly aerobics is a real work-out for the tummy muscles and can definitely get that stomach back into shape.

The holiday season is a special time of year that brings together family and friends for holiday celebrations and lots of wonderful
abundance of food and drinks. All the delicious desserts, cakes, cookies and pies, not to mention all the holiday beverages like hot chocolate, spiced cider, and champagne - of course besides fatty meals of ham and turkey along with all fixings…. With all of these things comes very unwanted weight gain.

  We all know that this happens, but every year we find ourselves having to make that dreaded New Year resolution to eat healthy and go on a diet to shed some of those pounds right on start of new year. But is there a smarter way? Can we still enjoy the holidays, not needing to worry about our appetite several weeks later? It is true - there is no magic pill, but if you follow some bery simple rules, you can prevent unwanted pounds to gain on you during winter and holidays, when we are more passive….

Our recommendation is that even though the food is tasty and you will want to stuff yourself silly at times, try not to eat too much. Know your boundary. Spread out those delicious holiday dishes over time and spread out the pleasure. There is plenty to go around! Enjoy those desserts; just don't eat many of them!

Secondly, drink lots of water. I would suggest drinking 6 - 8 servings of water daily. You may run to the bathroom more often, but you will be less hungry and will not feel the need to eat as often. Besides water will help you with excess waste from some of those holiday feasts causing stomach problems.

Another great idea is to be more active during this typically non-active time of the year. Go for a walk after your meal and you will be shocked how much better you will feel afterwards. If it is freezing, go to an indoor mall and walk around a bit…

Onje of the solutions, which we also warmly recommend is doing a colon-cleansing program in the New Year. This is especially benefitial if you have never done it before. Doing this will help you lose typically on average 8 - 25 pounds of compacted fecal matter. You will feel great afterwards, and your energy will refill to levels you have not felt in years.

Well… If you will fail to slow you down, we will review plenty of hottest dieting and newest weight lost methods available. You are welcome to send us your suggestions or even better - your feedback, from own experience - how, and what works…

Happy Holidays!