Are you aware that 3500 calories is one pound of fat? If you want to lose one pound in a week, you have to cut out 3500 calories, so to lose five pound in a week, you have to cut out 17,500 calories.

We are all aware that an average diet is about 2000 calories per day. That’s only 14 thousand calories per week. That’s average! That’s what keeps you healthy. If you are going to diet off five pounds which is seventeen thousand five hundred calories, you have to burn 3500 more calories than you eat for the entire week, or go totally without food PLUS burn 3500 calories in one week. That just won’t work. You can’t lose five pounds in one week by dieting. You have to have some food to stay alive.

So if you eliminate food, you’re in for a rough ride. Your body has this involuntary reaction which we refer to as hibernation, in bears. As good a name as any in people, but we usually call it metabolism. When the food stops coming in, your metabolism picks up on it and starts burning protein, which is your lean muscle. It’s 75% water, and is your first line of weight loss. You lose your water. You ever see body builders with their protein drinks and protein bars and protein powder? Lots of muscle there, isn’t there? But the next thing that your metabolism does is worse. It starts to burn carbohydrates, which means that your fat increases. You start to put more weight on!

Since you can’t diet off the weight then it stands to reason that you have to work on increasing your burn rate. Normally a diet gets you to take in fewer calories and what you burn slowly reduces your size. Actually, you are just losing water, and because 75% of your lean muscle protein is water, pretty soon you start to gain again. You are in hibernation. Your body has made a choice. Give up the protein, live off the carbs, and store as much fat as possible. Any food you take in is converted immediately to fat to help you through this period of starvation. Remember, a bear can sleep though an entire winter without eating.

One thing is for sure: Body Builders don’t eat a lot of Big Macs and Whoppers. They have a totally different diet, and couple with some simple exercises, they control their metabolisms. If you like that sort of look, they are usually pretty hot, too. They eat like they will never have another meal. For all the food they take in, they should weight 400 pounds, but they don’t. They have learned to speed up their metabolism, so what they eat is going into muscle building, not fat storing.

Fact is, you can’t just diet and make fat go away, so you have to make a complete lifestyle choice. You want to lose weight? Start with a little exercise. Get your metabolism kicked up. Once that starts to take off a little weight, THEN you start your diet, and after that you increase your exercise. When you start AFTER you have increased your metabolism, the work will be more effective. The pounds will come off faster and more easily. The weight loss is a lifestyle change and more likely to stay off.

Understand that you put your weight on because you don’t burn everything that you eat. You store some of it, and over time, that weight builds up. Problem is, storage is driven by what you eat and that consumption is mostly about water. Protein is 75% water. When you go on a diet, after you clear out the water you burn protein from your storehouse.

The real deal is, diet alone won’t make fat go away, so you have to make a complete lifestyle choice. You want to slim down? Start with light exercise. Get your metabolism kicked up. Once that starts to take off a little weight, start your diet. After that, up your exercise. You need to wait to start until you have increased your metabolism, and all your work will be more effective. The pounds will come off faster and more easily. The weight loss is more likely to be a lifestyle loss.

When your diet seems to be taking forever, remember that 3500 calories is one pound of fat. Here’s your chance, visit my website at the link, or see my blog. There’s lots of articles and the blog has some great stuff as well.