Calorie Counting Diet: Is it effective for weight loss?

There are so many reasons why we gain weight, becoming overweight or obese. Probably most of us are irritable when someone see us with a greeting of “Oh you gain weight today” or “you look fat today than before”. Of course we all love to lose weight but just like me, you just didn't know where to start and you are also tired of all the promise from miracle drug and those fitness experts that will let you exhaust first before seeing result. It’s like it was easy for them to give an advice but doing it is so freaking hard.

I've been there before I lose a huge amount of weight when me and hubby are preparing to get wed in Catholic Church, the thought of I wanted to be slim on my special day motivated me to lose weight and I did. I try to do it again after years that I put it back in me, but it’s getting harder for me now because I always get tired due to ageing or maybe because I had no reason or motivation to lose weight. But this time I am trying again with calorie counting diet but without starvation plus light workout.

I learned that some successful people in weight loss just eat healthy and count calories that they put in their body. They don’t do vigorous exercises because just like me they feel exhausted after minutes of workout and exercising. In my experience I cannot exceed 20 minutes on elliptical, it gives me so much pain on the lower part of my body and it feels I am going to passed out while exercising (I blame it on ageing lol).

According to Google our body burns 2000 calories everyday doing our usual routine. The problem is we usually put more than 2000 calories a day in our body. And if we reduce the calorie food intake to our body we can also lose weight just by doing nothing. Expert says, if you want to lose 1 pound of fat you need to burn 3500 calories, but this is not for 1 day only, it may take time before you burn those 3500 calories, and the safest is from 2 weeks to 1 month. Same also if you want to gain 1 pound in weight you need to increase more than 2000 calories a day in your diet. The safest calorie intake in losing weight is 1200 to 1700 calories and taking lower than 1200 is putting your body into starvation mode which is not advisable by expert. Although Dr. Willie T. Ong said eating fewer than everyone else is good than overeating.

It’s hard if you just starting this calorie counting diet especially if you are not familiar with the calorie content of the food. But you can always search it on the internet while some food packages already have it on their label. Or download an app that can calculate calories for you, I use myfitnesspal app and has a food diary on it, which is easier to track my calories intake. So far I already lose 4 pounds with moderate workout in 4 weeks of calorie counting, I don’t starve myself because they said my metabolism will be slower than before and will put back the weight I have lost that sometimes has a revenge of doubling its number. My verdict says this calorie counting really works for weight loss because it uses science as the basis of reasoning.

Just a tip: vegetables and fruits have lower calories yet can make you feel full and not hungry for the next 3 hours, based on my experience.

Posted in: fitness, Health, weight loss

Tweet