How to: Get started with Weight Loss

In order to lose weight you need to burn more calories than you take in. Finding out your daily calorie intake will help you with that. My personal favorite one to use is calorie count calculator. (goes by weight, height, age, activity level) I'd suggest going at the lowest setting, that way your exercise calories aren't included. You can put those in yourself. More accurate.

Losing Weight Calories: In your daily calories, they've already programmed in a 500 deficit. So if you decide to exercise, you are going to have to eat back those calories you burned. The 500 deficit turns into 3500 calories per week=1 pound. You need that deficit in order to lose the weight.

NOTE: It's very important to eat back those calories because you don't want your deficit to be too high. 1000 calorie deficit just isn't healthy, I'd stick with the 500 calorie deficit every day, no more.

Maintain Calories: Lets say your losing weight calories is 2000. You would than add the 500 calorie deficit back on, which would make it 2500. 2500= your maintain weight calories. If you eat that many, you shouldn't gain any weight back, just stay the same. Incase you go to a party or some get together, allow yourself those extra 500 calories, so atleast you'd maintain your weight instead of gain.

Write everything down.

Start keeping a food diary. There are SEVERAL sites that give you the nutritional value for what you eat. Track everything you eat..and I mean EVERYTHING. It helps you know exactly what you are putting in your mouth and possibly, what you're doing wrong. It's probably the best you could do for a long term weight loss. Holds you accountable. Keeps you on track.

Also, track your weight loss as well. It's important to keep track so you know exactly where you are. Make goals, write down your daily habits, anything that'll let you see what you may possibly need to change or stick with. Once you develop a habit of tracking, other positive things will start happening.

• Track everything you eat with Daily Plate.
• Track your exercise with Calories Per Hour.

Water.

You want to be drinking lots and lots of water..stay as hydrated as possible. Your body is trying to rid all of the toxins and chemicals..which is very important with weight loss. It'll also help you sleep better, keep your body in good shape. Dehydration is also a dangerous thing, possibly leading to death.

The rule of thumb is half your body weight in ounces. So if you weigh 200 pounds, you should be drinking 100 ounces per day. If you just cannot simply do it, again..take baby steps. Start off with just a few glasses per day. Eight glasses a day is a good start.

Exercise.

Even if you are cleaning, that's exercise. Stay active. Move around. Walk to the grocery store, walk the dog, park farthest away from the mall, etc. Simple steps that really count and burn calories.

What really counts? Anything that's getting your heart rate up. You'll even continue to burn calories after exercise..depending on what you did and for how long. Start out with 3x/week for 20-30 minutes. Then, work your way into 4-6x/week. Even taking brisk walks 3x/week is a great start.

I'd suggest getting a heart-rate monitor Polar F4 Women's Heart Rate Monitor Watch (Blue Ice). Gives you a more accurate reading of how many calories you burned and your target heart rate. There's a hefty selection of different heart rate monitors.