One reason why you're not losing weight

Have you been trying to lose weight but never seem to be able to reach your target?

Are you exercising regularly (or even too much) and it still won’t budge?

Are you making every effort to eat healthily?

Have you tried everything to your knowledge and now you’re left wondering where to go next?

There may be just one reason that you’re unaware of...

And that’s something called a calorie surplus.

A calorie surplus simply means you’re eating too many calories (per day) for your body to burn, and the excess calories/energy gets stored in your body as fat.

You lose weight from being in something called a calorie deficit - and this is when your body has fewer calories than it requires, resulting in weight loss.

It sounds simple when put like this - but it really is that simple. If you eat more (surplus) food/energy than your body requires then it’ll gain weight. Eat less (deficit) food/energy, and it’ll lose weight.

Now, it does get a little trickier. You can’t just cut your calories down to an unsafe amount and be done with it. I assure you, you’ll run into problems.

How many calories should you eat?

Every single human will require a totally different amount of calories per day. Like our personalities, everybody is unique and individual, therefore everybody requires a totally different amount per day. There is no “one size fits all” or estimates.

The NHS states that men should eat “around 2,500 calories” and women should eat “around 2,000 calories” per day. These guidelines are very vague. For example, if one woman weighs 15 stone and another weighs 8 and they both were to eat 2,000 calories then the outcome would be very different. You can start to see the problem.

How to work out your calorie allowance per day:

Click or copy the link below to calculate your calories:

Note: Start with subtracting 100 calories from the figure you receive at the end of the calculator for a minimum of 1 week. This can then be slowly increased by 100 calories at a time as the weeks go by to find a sustainable deficit amount (maximum calorie deficit is 500). You should aim to lose 1-2lb per week depending on your starting weight.

E.g - Calories on screen: 2200. Week 1 calories: 2100. Week 3 calories: 2000. Week 4: 1950…

Up to a maximum of 500 calories.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zy7j2p3