There is no quick fix to getting rid of your extra flab–but there are changes you can make to get the ball rolling now and start off in the right direction towards making weight loss feel effortless, make yourself feel better and burn some fat and lose some belly fat along the way. Here’s how to do it, without starving yourself.

The Role of Calories

The idea of “calories” is frightening to many people who struggle with their weight, but a lot of that is simply due to a bad reputation. Calories are not culprits, they’re simply a measure of energy and one that we need daily to keep ourselves healthy and functioning. Eating takes in calories and exercising uses them up–most people know that. But truly, getting rid of calories isn’t nearly as difficult as most people think. If you’re an average male, right now while you’re reading this off your computer screen, you’re burning about 80 calories; about 60 if you’re the average female and about -10 per bite if you’re eating something while reading this. Just kidding. Well, sort of. The point is that more strenuous activity just makes the process more efficient, by burning more calories, faster. Eating will always bring in calories. Which is why…

Food Counts Too

The types of food we consume can help or hinder the efficiency with which we can burn excess calories. If you were not blessed with the body of a pixie, chances are good that eating high calorie foods and not using up excess calories at a similar rate will lead to weight gain. This is why diets full of junk food well shoot your weight up high. Low calorie foods are just easier to work off. You don’t need to completely give up your old junk foods, but you should limit them and have them in moderation. Balance is the key.

Exercise Matters Even More

We can see then that burning off calories is important to keep you healthy because it gets rid of any excess energy you might have consumed throughout the day. The best exercise regimen is one that meets your needs, allows you burn a decent number of calories and works with your lifestyle. Not everyone is suited to spend hours at the gym, and the good news is not everyone should. There are a variety of activities that are enjoyable and good for getting your blood pumping. Swimming, belly dancing, cycling, hiking and almost any sport you can think of will do the trick just fine. Choosing something you like is worth more than a gym membership if it is something that you will be motivated to pursue and commit to. Who says exercise has to feel like work?

The number of calories that you burn will accumulate to make a striking difference. Even if you feel like burning only two hundred calories isn’t enough, over the course of a week, you’ll have created a deficit of fourteen hundred calories. If you begin with exercising only three times a week, that’s still a caloric deficit of six hundred calories, the equivalent of about one meal. To lose fat, you must become more active and to lose more fat you must combine your exercise plan with a diet of less calories. It’s the safe and healthy way to shed pounds quickly.

A Note About Dieting

Our culture in particular gives the word “diet” a bad rap. While the connotations can be bothersome, we should remember in our weight loss endeavors that a diet is merely a food plan. Anything can be in a diet. Cheeseburgers can be part of a diet (although a pure cheeseburger diet is not recommended). With that in mind, we can move along to creating a suitable food plan. What will yours include? A good place to start is to figure out your BMI and from there look up how many calories are needed to maintain the weight you’re currently at.From there, you can figure out how much less you need to consume to get to your ideal weight. How many calories are needed to maintain a weight ten pounds lighter than you are now? Twenty pounds lighter?

Losing the Weight

The rest of your game plan can fall into place from calculating your ideal weight’s caloric needs (but please take into consideration your body’s natural structure–we’re not all meant to be a size two!). If need to be eating five hundred calories less a day than you currently do in order to reach that goal you have three options of getting there.

The best compromise is to exercise 250 of it away and cut back 250 worth of food. That’s about one snack. If you follow this everyday, in one week you’ll have saved 3,500 calories–that’s one pound! Losing a pound a week is healthy and manageable for both your body and your psyche. You can of course, cut more or exercise more, but make sure you’re still taking in enough calories to stay healthy. Follow that advice and you’ll have a different body in less than a year! What fad diet can truly promise you results better than that?

Learn the best techniques for fat burning. Learn how to lose belly fat fast and keep it off. Get those secrets online today.