Lookin' good...do you work out?

Did you know there are 3500 calories in a pound of fat? That means that to lose just one pound, you need to burn 3500 calories! (That's some powerful logic there...)

(Pound of fat)

Let's say you need 2000 calories to get through they day.
Case 1: Usually people eat more than what they need. Let's say you consume 2100 calories. That's 700 extra calories a week which results in gaining roughly 10 pounds per year!
Case 2: You realize you've gained 10 pounds and you desperately want to lose that weight, so you only eat 1500 calories per day. This may work for awhile, but your brain is hard to trick. Your hypothalamus realizes your body is not getting enough sustenance and goes into starvation mode, meaning your body takes everything you put into it and stores the fat. Fat takes less energy to burn, so to help preserve your body, your brain tells it to increase its fat reserves. Not the image you had in mind for yourself, right?

So what now? Your body needs 2000 calories to function, so give it those calories. To shed the pounds, exercise! If you burn 300 calories in a single workout session, that's 1700 calories still in your bank. Your body has had enough to run, but you are still able to decrease what you have at the end of the day. Keep this up and you're looking at -1 pound roughly every 2 weeks. This is a healthy rate at which to lose weight.

If you start gaining weight from muscle mass, don't worry. Muscle takes a lot of energy to maintain, so the more muscle you have, the more you burn without trying! It's like an investment.

Eat right and exercise well! Good luck!