How to Lose Weight
| Why Lose Weight? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reduce your calorie intake or increase your calorie usage by 3,500 Calories for each pound you want to lose.
Imagine having to carry a 10-pound weight wherever you go, all day long. At first, it may be no problem. But in time, those 10 pounds will slow you down. In the same way, excess weight can be hurting your performance. |
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| Are You Overfat? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| There's a difference between being overweight and being over fat. Some people, especially athletes, may weigh
more than height/weight charts recommend. So, technically, they're overweight. But if that additional weight is from muscle, the person is not over fat. So there's no need to lose weight. Some experts recommend 14-17% body fat for men and 21-24% body fat for women. Other experts have recommended that well-conditioned male athletes have 7-8% body fat and female athletes have 17-18% body fat. Actually, the percent of body fat needed for best performance varies with the individual and the sport. |
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| How Can You Lose Fat? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| It's possible to safely lose 1/2-1 pound of body fat a week. If you lose weight any faster than that, you may begin to lose muscle too. For each pound of fat you want to lose, you have to cut 3,500 Calories. You can do this with diet and/or exercise. For an athlete, diet alone is not a good way to take off pounds. Eating less than 2,000 Calories means you won't get the energy you need for training and competition. In short, your performance may suffer. Losing weight through exercise alone involves increasing your activity level above and beyond your normal routine. Athletes who already spend one to two hours a day in training may have a hard time adding much more exercise to their schedule. The fastest (and easiest) way to lose weight is with a combination of diet and exercise. If you eat 250 Calories less and exercise 250 Calories more, you have 500 Calories less each day. At that rate, you could lose one pound in a week. |
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| How Many Calories Do You Need? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Scientists recommend the following caloric intakes for normally active people (light or sedentary work). If you're an athlete in training, you may be able to eat more because you are burning up more energy. ENERGY NEEDS FOR NORMALLY ACTIVE PEOPLE (calories a day) |
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Off season, follow the Basic Diet, which supplies about 1,500 Calories for adults and 1,800 Calories for teens. If you're in training, use the Modified Training Diet which supplies about 2,000 Calories. By limiting yourself to the minimum number of servings and choosing low-calorie foods, you can get all the nutrients you need and still lose weight. |
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| Is There a Fast Way to Lose Weight? |
There are many diets that promise quick weight loss. Usually the pounds lost are from water loss--not fat loss. If you're really interested in losing weight and keeping it off, reduce your caloric intake and/or increase your caloric usage. That way you'll lose weight by losing fat.
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