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Calories to Lose a Pound of Body Fat
By WLR Dietitian
Here comes the slimming science bit…
To shift 1lb of body fat, you need to ‘lose’ 3,500
calories. That might sound a lot, but over a week, it amounts
to just 500 calories a day – and that can easily be done by
making a few little changes to your diet, being a bit more
active, or best of all, doing both. For example, cutting 500
calories in a day is as simple as swapping a bowl of creamy
chicken soup for vegetable soup, topping your jacket potato
with cottage cheese rather than Cheddar cheese, switching a
can of cola for the diet version and doing 50 minutes of
housework! Make little changes like this every day and in a
week you’ll lose 1lb – without having to starve yourself or fill
up on an unpleasant milkshake in place of a meal or banning
all your favourite foods! And if you want to lose 2lb a week,
you simply need to double your calorie saving and ‘lose’ 7,000
calories in a week or 1,000 calories a day!
Understanding the ‘maths’ is crucial to slimming but
it’s also essential to set realistic goals, both in terms of
the total amount of weight you want to lose – and how long it
will take you. So if your list of resolutions includes aims
such as losing a stone in a couple of weeks or wearing a
size-8 dress in the spring when you have 6 stone to shift,
it’s time to cross them out and get real!
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