Hello Everybody,
The best way to lose weight is through diet and exercise. But what if you cannot exercise? You may have a health problem, hate exercise or just be too old. If you do not like exercise I suggest you do it anyway, but those who find it impossible do have a problem. But do not despair for all is not lost, it is quite possible to lose weight without exercise. It will just be more difficult.
We know that in order to slim you must burn off more calories than you take in each day. So you will need to reduce your calorie intake. The problem is knowing what your calorie intake is. If you are able to exercise you can cut down on carbohydrates, animal fats and sugars and increase your exercise level so that you lose a pound or so a week. Given a reasonably healthy diet you can control weight loss with the amount of exercise you do. No problem.
If you do not exercise you will need to do things more precisely, and that means more information on your calorie intake. This is the tricky part. You must keep records of everything you eat and drink for four days. This is a real pain and it is the point at which people give up. But just keep going.
You will need a calorie chart. These are available on the internet and will tell you the calories in most things you are eating and drinking. Information will also be on the packets, but this seems to be deliberately designed to confuse. Then write down everything you eat and drink - yes everything - with their calories. Add up the calories at the end of each day. Total calories over four days divided by four will give your average calorie intake. You will also have found out what foods are highest in calories and are candidates for cutting out.
Another thing you will need to know is how many calories you must eat to maintain your present weight. A rule of thumb is your weight in pounds times 10 for a woman and times 12 for a man. So if you are a woman weighing 250 pounds you must eat 2500 calories a day to keep as you are.
So these figures show that if you are eating more calories than your weight times 10, or 12, your weight will go up and if you are eating less your weight will go down.
To lose weight eat about 300 calories less than you need to maintain weight every day. When you have reached your ideal weight you can stabilise it by then eating only what you need to maintain that weight.
Of course it is quite possible just to cut out carbohydrates, animal fats and sugars, eat more fresh vegetables and see what happens. If you cannot be bothered to keep records that is the way to go. The result is likely to be that you lose weight, so it is worth trying and certainly saves a lot of effort.
Whichever way you choose you can lose weight without exercise, it may not be as much fun but you can do it. Have a go, the results really are worth the trouble.
See you soon,
Peter Stockwell
6 April 2010
Photo. Nozomiigel (Flickr)
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