Counting Calories To Lose Weight Really Works

We can all agree that losing excess weight is good for us... though we often disagree over which diet plan is the right one, the best way to drop those unwanted pounds. It seems that counting calories to lose weight is the best way.

Lots of times people take drastic measures to get results when all you really need to do is make small, lasting changes to what you eat and how active you are. According to some intriguing new research on weight loss, the diet plan may not matter at all... being able to stick with whatever one you choose is the key to losing weight.

A new study finds that where your calories come does not seem to matter in the same way as just cutting back the number you take in each day does.

Researchers are convinced that any plan that does this will bring results... in the end, it really comes down to less calories being taken in more than anything else.

The best way to lose weight is sticking to the plan... those subjects who followed the diet most closely lost more weight compared to those who didn't. The research team randomly assigned a few hundred people who were either overweight or obese one of four different diets, each cutting 750 calories per day from their daily intake.

The plans used were:

1) average protein, low in fat and higher in carbs
2) high protein, low in fat and higher in carbs
3) average protein, high in fat and low carbs
4) high protein, high in fat and low carbs.

At the six-month and two year point, the research team checked the subjects weight, fat and lean mass. After 6 months, subjects had dropped over 4.1 kg of fat and almost 2.3 kg of lean muscle mass, but they had gained some of this back by the 2-year mark.

Subjects were able to keep over 3.6 kg off after two years, and coming along with this was a 1.4 kg loss of belly fat, which amounted to a drop of over 7% from where they started.

Trouble was, many of the subjects who started the study didn't finish, and the diet plans of those who finished the research weren't exactly what they had been assigned. All the groups ended up with around 20% of their calorie intake coming from protein, despite researcher plans to the contrary. This showed the team that whether you like to lose using a low fat or a low carb plan, it didn't really matter.

The difficulty subjects had in sticking with the study is certainly a problem, and highlights how truly tough it is to make the changes you need to lose weight. It's not an easy thing to do... it takes determination and a good measure of willpower, but it can be done if you focus on taking in fewer calories than your body uses each day.

Remember, a pound of fat is almost 3,500 calories. To lose this in a week's time, you have to eat 500 fewer calories over the next seven days, or you need to burn that same number of calories with exercise. You might decide to cut your calorie intake by 250 and up the activity level to get the other 250 - any combination is fine. Most weight loss experts will suggest losing just about 2 pounds a week whether by counting calories to lose weight or another method, as more than this is an indication that you're losing water weight and lean muscle mass instead of fat.

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