How Many Calories Per Day to Lose Weight?

Image : http://www.flickr.com

The confusion sown through the many contradictory claims made by some of the weight loss products advertised in the media these days is causing more and more dieters to take the approach of monitoring and controlling their calories per day to lose weight.

The human body gains weight as a direct result of the balance between calorie intake and calories burnt in the body being distorted and the focus when selecting a weight loss program should always be on correcting this anomaly. To this end, the approach of counting and controlling calories per day to lose weight is considered to be a healthy and sound one.

It is disappointing that so many people are only motivated by the weight they can lose by following a particular diet. Whilst it may be very important for some dieters to lose weight, greater consideration should always be given to what a diet does for your overall health. It is not a smart idea to compromise your health for the sake of losing weight.

Instead of focusing on the amount of weight lost, the focus is rather to be on how much energy is gained, how you feel and whether your diet appears to be healthy and balanced. Being overweight and following a diet meeting these criteria will certainly result in healthy weight loss.

Losing weight this way may not be as fast as you want, but it is certainly the right way and you will gain the full health benefit from every pound lost. Counting and controlling your calories per day to lose weight, i.e. calories in (through diet) as well as calories out (through exercise), offers a balanced system from which anyone will benefit.

The amount of calories to be taken per day to maintain a healthy lifestyle is influenced by a number of factors such as gender, weight, height, level of activity etc. and is not a number that can be pulled out of thin air. Considering these factors, it needs to be carefully calculated for every person individually.