Most of us, including myself, have gone through this same
scenario at least once in their lives: we want to lose fat, so we start
reading about diets trying to find out which one is best. Yet we find so
many conflicting opinions that we are utterly lost. This makes it very
difficult to actually take action and start doing what needs to be done.
I will tell you exactly why all of these conflicting opinions exist.
It's because all diets work, as long as you follow one simple rule. I'll tell you what that rule is in a moment.
There are hundreds of diets currently available online, and the majority of them will try to force you to only eat certain products, while simultaneously telling you to avoid eating this or that. This is an entirely wrong approach, however people will still buy into it because it's very simple and takes all the work out of the process. If this is what you want, then sorry - you're not going to lose weight on a consistent basis. If you're willing to put in just a little bit of work though, then read on.
I said earlier that all diets work, as long as you follow a certain rule. The rule is that you must consume less calories than your body burns. Plain and simple. No way around it. There isn't a single diet on the planet that will make you lose fat if you don't follow this rule.
Let me give you an example of how this applies to every diet you may come across. Say there is a diet that says you should only consume 5 products (I'm making this up right now just for sake of the argument, but bare with me): chicken, cottage cheese, vegetables and eggs. The author of the diet promises that as long as you stick to these 5 products only, you are going to lose fat.
You start checking out testimonials about the diet, and you find a few people who actually managed to lose weight on it. Heck, you might even have a close friend who managed to accomplish just that with this particular diet. After a few extra minutes of research, however, it turns out that there are quite a few people who never managed to lose a single pound, and maybe even gained weight on that diet! How is that possible?
If you recall that one rule I mentioned above, you will immediately understand what's happening here. Simply put, some people were eating more calories than their body burns on that diet, while others were eating less than their body burns. The latter group is the one that loses weight. Unfortunately, because diet authors almost never go into detail about this critical point, it becomes a hit and miss for most people - they simply consume the 5 products in the list on a regular basis and hope that this will allow them to lose fat in and by itself. Some will get lucky and eat less calories than they burn and therefore shed some fat. Others won't be so lucky.
What I'm trying to get through to you here is that in order to make any diet out there work, you must know exactly how many calories you need to consume. The first step would be to find out exactly how many calories your body burns on a daily basis. Once you have that information, you must make sure that you consume less calories than that. So if you burn a total of 2,000 calories a day, the only way for you to lose fat is to eat less than 2,000 calories. Therefore if you were to consume 1500 calories, you are eating at a 500 calorie deficit (500 calories less than what your body burns). But your body needs those 500 extra calories, and it needs to get them from somewhere. And guess where it will get those missing calories from?
Your body fat.
I will tell you exactly why all of these conflicting opinions exist.
It's because all diets work, as long as you follow one simple rule. I'll tell you what that rule is in a moment.
There are hundreds of diets currently available online, and the majority of them will try to force you to only eat certain products, while simultaneously telling you to avoid eating this or that. This is an entirely wrong approach, however people will still buy into it because it's very simple and takes all the work out of the process. If this is what you want, then sorry - you're not going to lose weight on a consistent basis. If you're willing to put in just a little bit of work though, then read on.
I said earlier that all diets work, as long as you follow a certain rule. The rule is that you must consume less calories than your body burns. Plain and simple. No way around it. There isn't a single diet on the planet that will make you lose fat if you don't follow this rule.
Let me give you an example of how this applies to every diet you may come across. Say there is a diet that says you should only consume 5 products (I'm making this up right now just for sake of the argument, but bare with me): chicken, cottage cheese, vegetables and eggs. The author of the diet promises that as long as you stick to these 5 products only, you are going to lose fat.
You start checking out testimonials about the diet, and you find a few people who actually managed to lose weight on it. Heck, you might even have a close friend who managed to accomplish just that with this particular diet. After a few extra minutes of research, however, it turns out that there are quite a few people who never managed to lose a single pound, and maybe even gained weight on that diet! How is that possible?
If you recall that one rule I mentioned above, you will immediately understand what's happening here. Simply put, some people were eating more calories than their body burns on that diet, while others were eating less than their body burns. The latter group is the one that loses weight. Unfortunately, because diet authors almost never go into detail about this critical point, it becomes a hit and miss for most people - they simply consume the 5 products in the list on a regular basis and hope that this will allow them to lose fat in and by itself. Some will get lucky and eat less calories than they burn and therefore shed some fat. Others won't be so lucky.
What I'm trying to get through to you here is that in order to make any diet out there work, you must know exactly how many calories you need to consume. The first step would be to find out exactly how many calories your body burns on a daily basis. Once you have that information, you must make sure that you consume less calories than that. So if you burn a total of 2,000 calories a day, the only way for you to lose fat is to eat less than 2,000 calories. Therefore if you were to consume 1500 calories, you are eating at a 500 calorie deficit (500 calories less than what your body burns). But your body needs those 500 extra calories, and it needs to get them from somewhere. And guess where it will get those missing calories from?
Your body fat.
