Most diets advise to cut down on the amount of calories and fats consumed in order to lose weight. Would a person still lose weight if he/she only cutt down on one of these? (same amount of fat, less calories or vice versa)
Weight loss is simply a matter of calories in balanced against calories out. If you consume less calories than you burn your body starts using stored fat for fuel.
Limiting fat intake works because fat has more calories per gram (I think it’s 9 calories/gram of fat) than carbs (4 calories/gram) and protien (can’t remember protein ratio) Limiting fat is just a way to limit calories, IMO.
1 lb of fat = 3500 calories. If you cut 500 calories /day from your diet theoretically you’ll lose 1 lb/week. You can also just burn more calories by exercising.
The diet that is most effective in weight loss is the low or no carb diet. It also trains the dieter to learn about why they have developed a weight problem. I started dieting about 25 years ago when I found that one of my daughters were putting on excessive weight. We took the summer before she left for college and I bought the Atkins book and we did it. We both slimmed down with little effort. But it involves no alcohol, caffeine, bread or pasta. We could not have done it without first reading Dr. Atkins book as it helped us make choices when were eating out.
Now every health food store carries the Atkins products such as delicious soups and even low carb milk. I still use it when my weight starts to grow. The protein shake is delicious!
I went through two knee replacements due to an earlier car accident and the weight gain was terrible for nearly a year after each replacement because I could no longer do my aerobic exercises. So back to Atkins and my weight is dropping.
Don’t try the diet without reading about it first or you will never recognize carbs until you do.
What velvetjones said.
Losing weight isn’t a matter of cutting both calories and fat. The reality is if you cut either one, your caloric intake is going down.
In easy to follow steps.
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find out how many calories your body needs just to be a lazy vegetable all day.
That’s easy multiply your weight in pounds by 12 if you’re a man, or 11 if you’re a woman.
ex. a 200 lb man needs 12*200 or 2400 calories to maintain your current weight. -
There are two ways to build a calorie deficit. Reduce calories in, and burn calories through exercise.
Some pretty good websites:
To get an idea of how many calories you burn based on your weight and the activity:
http://www.efit.com/calculators/calorie.jsp
The simple 1,2,3’s of weight loss…
http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/loseweight/loseweight.html
In the long run, low carb and low fat are about the same.