Few experts dispute that the way to lose weight is by creating a calorie deficit. There are three safe ways to accomplish the feat. 1: Eat less calories than the amount your body burns everyday, 2: burn enough calories during exercise to offset the amount of calories you consume and, 3: do a bit of both consuming fewer calories while exercising to burn additional calories.

Calories are a measure of energy and each of us burns an amount of energy daily based on our food intake and activity level. Each of us has a “magic number” and that magic number doesn’t stay the same. Visit a website like www.fitness pal.com and answer a few questions about your age, lifestyle, activity level and present weight and the calculator will compute the number of calories necessary to maintain your weight and the number of calories to lose weight each week. Typically the maximum safe loss is considered two pounds per week. That magic number changes based on your weight today, activity level and age etc. And, as you lose weight, the number goes down making it just a little tougher to lose additional weight!

After learning the “magic number” for you, you will lose weight based on the deficit you create by either eating less and/or by exercising more. You won’t lose the weight necessarily on a straight-line basis. There will be ups and downs as factors like fluid retention, sleep and stress can affect the weekly results. But, if you stick to the plan, you will lose the pounds. It’s simply a matter of math- your math.