It is a given that 3500 calories equals one pound of fat. That being said, in order to take off 5 pounds in one week you need to drop 17,500 calories in that week.

We are all aware that an average diet is about 2000 calories per day. That’s only 14 thousand calories per week. That’s average! That’s what keeps you healthy. If you are going to diet off five pounds which is seventeen thousand five hundred calories, you have to burn 3500 more calories than you eat for the entire week, or go totally without food PLUS burn 3500 calories in one week. That just won’t work. You can’t lose five pounds in one week by dieting. You have to have some food to stay alive.

So if you eliminate food, you’re in for a rough ride. Your body has this involuntary reaction which we refer to as hibernation, in bears. As good a name as any in people, but we usually call it metabolism. When the food stops coming in, your metabolism picks up on it and starts burning protein, which is your lean muscle. It’s 75% water, and is your first line of weight loss. You lose your water. You ever see body builders with their protein drinks and protein bars and protein powder? Lots of muscle there, isn’t there? But the next thing that your metabolism does is worse. It starts to burn carbohydrates, which means that your fat increases. You start to put more weight on!

If you can’t diet off the weight then it stands to reason that you have to work on increasing your metabolism. Normally a diet gets you to take in fewer calories and what you burn slowly reduces your size. Actually, you are just losing water. As your metabolism adjusts, you stop losing and pretty soon you start to gain again. You are in hibernation. Any food you take in is converted immediately to fat to help you through this period of starvation. Store fat and slow down. A bear can sleep though an entire winter without eating.

When you cut out food, your body will throw all of it’s protein under the bus trying to protect itself. Without food, your body makes a bunch of decisions. (This is your body, not you. It’s a physiology thing.) After it takes all of the protein out of your muscle, (I’ll come back to body builders in a minute) your body will start to live on carbohydrates and when that happens you will gain weight! Your body will go into hibernation mode. You have to change the way your body works to make fat go away. It’s called METABOLISM. Your metabolism slows down and you won’t lose any weight, you’ll gain more.

By now you must understand that you can’t just diet and make fat go away, so you have to make a choice, a complete lifestyle choice. You want to lose weight? Start with a little exercise to get your metabolism kicked up. THEN start your diet. After that you increase your exercise. By starting after you have increased your metabolism, the whole thing will be more effective, and the pounds will come off faster and more easily. The lifestyle change is more likely to be permanent.

See, I’m not here trying to sell you a product. I want to talk about what will be good for you. You need to wrap your head around the fact that you put your weight on because you don’t burn everything that you eat. You store some of it, and over time, that weight becomes your weight. Problem is, storage is driven by consumption, and consumption is mostly about water. Protein is 75% water, and body builders have protein drinks, bars, and so on. When you go on a diet, after you clear out the water you burn protein from your storehouse.

The real deal is, diet alone won’t make fat go away, so you have to make a complete lifestyle choice. You want to slim down? Start with light exercise. Get your metabolism kicked up. Once that starts to take off a little weight, start your diet. After that, up your exercise. You need to wait to start until you have increased your metabolism, and all your work will be more effective. The pounds will come off faster and more easily. The weight loss is more likely to be a lifestyle loss.

Ifyour diet seems to be taking forever, consider that 3500 calories is one pound of fat. Here’s your chance, visit my website at the link, or see my blog. There’s lots of articles and the blog has some great stuff as well.