Calories to Lose a Pound of Body Fat

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 wish 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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