How to Lose Weight ? Do this First

Whatever undertaking it may be, it is important to set our goals, whether in business or in our work or studies. So the same applies to your journey to lose weight.

Only when you have set your goals, will you be able to set up milestones along the way and measure yourself whether you have hit or missed your milestones and whether you need to step up to make up for missed targets.

Setting goals gives you direction and purpose and is a powerful driver to push you to do the tasks that needed doing and moving you forward in your quest.

If you don't set a target to burn how many lbs of fat by what time frame, your mind would not be able to act on it and motivates you to take the actions needed to accomplish it.

In order to lose weight and achieve the well-toned athletic body that you want, you will need to set your goal and a list of milestones that looks something like the following:-

Goal: To Lose 48 lbs in 6 months time

Initial Weight : 180 lbs Target weight at end of 6 months : 132 lbs

Milestones 1 : 1st month - lose 8 lbs to 172 lbs

Milestone 2 : 2nd month - lose 16 lbs to 164 lbs

Milestone 3 : 3rd month - lose 24 lbs to 156 lbs

Milestone 4 : 4th month - lose 32 lbs to 148 lbs

Milestone 5 : 5th month - lose 40 lbs to 140 lbs

Milestone 6 : 6th month - lose 48 lbs to 132 lbs

Now that you have broken down the grand goal into more manageable bite-sized milestones, you can plan what action steps you need to take to reach each milestone.

First some facts:

1. The average daily calorie burn for women leading a sedentary lifestyle is about 2000 calories.
2. It takes a calorie burn of 3500 calories to burn 1 lb of fat.

Therefore, if you plan to burn 8 lbs in 30 days would mean burning 0.27 lb per day which translate to 933 calories.

If your current intake is 2200 calories, you have an excess of 200 calories over what your present lifestyle is burning.

Therefore, to burn that 0.27 lb of fat would require you to get rid of 1133 (200+933) calories through dieting and workouts.

This is achievable through cutting your calorie intake by 30%, mainly in carbohydrates. This will mean a 660 calorie reduction in what is consumed, leaving another 473 calories to be burned through cardio workouts. An hour or so routine on the threadmill easily burns 300-600 calories. (The actual amount depends on the pace that was set. I would suggest you start off slow initially if you are new to such workouts and increase it slowly as you get used to it)

This is also the reason why you should focus on reducing carbohydrates from your diet rather than protein because you would need this for toning your body through your exercise regime. This also help your body burn more fat rather than muscle tissue which would lower your metabolism as you lose muscle tissue.

Finally, you can eat more food or fruits which boost metabolism to lose another 100 odd categories.

From here, you can monitor your progress on a fortnightly basis and adjust your diet and workout routine accordingly.

As a final note of caution, if you have any existing medical condition, it is best to check with your medical practitioner on the suitability of your diet and workout routine.