Most people would say that to lose weight you have to eat less food. That is not correct. Actually, you have to eat less calories because when you take in more calories than you need the body stores them as fat. And when you eat less calories than you need, the body breaks down existing fat to get energy to function, causing a weight loss.
Based on this concept it would be a good idea when you are dieting to eat a lot of low calorie food such as greens and grains so you do not feel hungry and leave the high calorie foods such as cake and ice cream alone because they are usually found in such small portions they do not do very much to appease your hunger. If you eat large enough quantities of them to control hunger you will be taking in vast amounts of calories, which will probably get stored as fat.
Now let’s find out how many calories you need to stay exactly as you are and how many calories a day you should eat to lose weight.
Here is the formula the Doctors tell us to use. Take your weight in pounds and multiply it by 10. That is the number of calories the average man needs to eat each day to maintain his same body weight.
example: Man weighs 190 lbs. X 10 = 1900 calories per day
If this 190 lb. wants to go on a diet to lose weight here is how things will work. First he would learn that to lose just one pound it is necessary to be minus 3500 calories. So if he ate 1400 calories a day he would be minus 500 calories each day. 1900 (the amount he needs based on weight) 1900 – 1400 = 500. In seven days or one week he would lose 1 lb. (7 X 500= 3500 or 1 lb.)