One of the best ways to lose 1 lb. in one week, reports the American Cancer Society (ACS), is by eating 500 fewer calories each day. To drop another pound in one week, burn 500 calories daily. Keep this up for four weeks, and you can realistically drop 8 lb.
Count Calories
The ACS has a calorie counter that will calculate the number of calories you should eat every day. Keep track of your calories in a food journal. Using the USDA Nutrient Database, you can get calorie information for thousands of different fresh and prepared foods. Be sure to count the milk you put in your coffee, those bottles of caffeinated sports drinks that get you through the day and the pat of butter on your morning oatmeal or waffle. A can of regular cola can have 136 calories. If you forget to add this to your food journal, and you drink three cans a day, you’re easily miscounting by more than 400 calories (or nearly 1 lb. in one week).
Burn Calories
By burning 3,500 calories a week, which breaks down to 500 calories a day, you can burn another pound. Begin by counting the number of calories you already burn using the Activity Calculator at CaloriesPerHour.com. By taking your dog for a moderate, 30-minute walk, you’re already burning 76 calories. You also burn about 54 calories by making a few beds in the morning. After adding up all of your daily activities, you’ll likely only need to do an hour of moderate exercise just to hit your goal of burning 500 calories for the day.
Quit the Colas
You already know that a can of cola has about 136 calories. By switching to diet soda, you can potentially eliminate 408 calories. However, by chucking cola altogether, even diet varieties, you’ll increase your chances of dropping pounds even more. The Framington Heart Study revealed in 2007 a link between soda consumption and weight gain. The study looked at 9,000 middle-aged folks who drank soda, and found that they were 48 percent more likely to develop metabolic syndrome, a condition that can cause excessive weight gain. The results were the same for people who drank regular soda versus those who drank diet cola.
Stand
Just spending more time standing up can slash a few pounds. A 2005 study in the journal “Science” reported that in an experiment, obese individuals were seated and sedentary, on average, two hours longer than lean people. The researchers theorized that if the obese individuals engaged in more non-exercise activity, they could expend an additional 350 calories each day.
About this Author
Riki Markowitz has spent most of her career working as a research chief at various magazines, including “Redbook,” “Family Circle,” “Stuff” and “Latina.” Her work has also appeared in “Maxim,” “Woman’s Day,” “Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel,” “Lucky” and “The Knot.” Markowitz holds a Bachelor of Arts in literature from Temple University.
