If you are like most women, you probably want to know how to lose calories. Weight, body shape, and how you look is a primary concern for just about everyone, but the pressure for women to look good is more intense.
If you’re concerned about dropping pounds, then you have to create a calorie deficit. That means that you have to burn more calories than you take in. But how do you do that?
There are two ways you can create a calorie deficit: exercise and diet.
How to Lose Calories through Exercise
Many people opt to reduce their daily calories through exercise. The first step is to figure out how many calories you need to eat each day in order to maintain your current weight and how many to drop weight.
There are calorie calculators that will tell you the number of calories you need based upon your height, weight, gender, level of activity. Typically to reduce your weight, you want to drop your calorie intake by 500. But you can also opt to simply keep your intake the same and burn off 500 calories through exercise.
Running, walking, swimming, yoga, or group exercise classes all work well. There’s no magic exercise that will turn the key and make you able to drop weight. The best exercise is the one you will do consistently. So find an activity you enjoy and do it.
Many people find they will stick with exercise when they have a buddy. If you can find someone to do your activity with, you will stick with it. You will feel accountable to the other person and show up even when you don’t want to.
The trick to how to lose calories is often about outsmarting yourself. If you don’t like exercise, you can outsmart yourself by choosing activities that don’t seem quite so much like exercise and choose to do it with someone who makes it feel less like exercise.
The caveat to this method is that many people find themselves ravenous when they exercise heavily. You have to resist the urge to eat more than you should. If you take in more calories than you burned, you not only aren’t losing weight, you could be putting weight on. If you do need to eat after exercise, make sure to snack healthy.
How to Lose Calories through Diet
You can also opt to reduce your caloric intake to create the calorie deficit. This doesn’t have to be painful. You can make replacements and substitutions in your diet. If you read labels carefully you may often find that simple shifts can shave off calories without compromising taste.
However, do not fall into the “fat-free” trap. Many people think if they replace things with the “fat-free” version of something they are doing themselves a favor. But that’s not the case. You’d do better with the full flavor version in a smaller serving. The fat in food signals your appetite and creates satiety. And often “fat-free” versions are not less in calories.
But you can eat smaller servings. Make dietary choices that aren’t from a bag or a box. First, foods from these containers are likely not healthy. Secondly, you can’t judge how much you’ve eaten. Take the food out and put it on a plate. Eat foods full in fiber, which will stave off hunger.
How to Lose Calories through Both Exercise and Diet
Many people opt to combine reducing calories and exercise to create their deficit. This way you can cut out 250 calories from your diet and burn off 250 calories.
Build in extra movement wherever possible. Take the stairs. Park further away. But don’t include these activities in your calorie count. Just let that be extra activity. Every little bit helps.
You can create a calorie deficit and stick with it. If you stay consistent, then you will drop weight.