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One of the most effective ways of losing weight is the method of counting calories.  Why?  It is purely scientific.



Let's start off by defining what a calorie exactly is.  If you look up the definition in any dictionary, you will find that a calorie is a unit of heat equal to the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree at one atmosphere pressure.   In a more simple turn, a calorie is a unit of energy.  Like cars need gasoline as fuel to run, our bodies need food as fuel to run.  



Now, what is a pound?  A pound is 3,500 calories.  Most think if they eat a total of 3,500 in one day they will gain a pound, and if that goes on for a week, they will gain seven pounds.  Not at all.  You would have to eat 3,500 calories more than the calories you need to survive.  



How can I find the calories I need to survive?  To find out you can search online for a maintain weight calculator. However a more simple way is to take your weight and times it by 10.  Say you way 150, then you would need to eat 1,500 calories each day to maintain your weight.  



So how do I lose weight by counting calories?  Consume less calories than you burn.  Yes, it is that simple.  To lose one pound a week, you simply eat 500 calories less than your maintain calories each day.  By the end of the week, those 500 calories less will add up to 3,500 which is a pound.  Say your maintain calories are 2,000- to lose a pound a week, each day you would consume 1500 calories.  However some of you may want to workout too, which is great.  If you workout as part of your plan, you can consume more food, as long as there is a 500 calorie deficit.  Say your maintain weight is still 2,000 calories per day and you burn 500 calories working out, you can then consume 2,000 calories because there will be a 500 calorie deficit.  If you burn 800 calories working out, you can eat 2,300, and so on.



You don't have to starve yourself to lose weight, in fact that does more harm than good.  If you eat too little your body will go into starvation mode, and whenever you do it will store those calories as fat because your body is not sure when it will be fueled again.  So, I would never suggest eating under 1,200 calories.  



I'm going on a diet, so do I have to stop eating big meals?

Not at all, although it is best to eat 5 to 6 smaller meals (or 3 to 4 meals with a few healthy snacks in between), it is alright to have a bigger meal once in a while, perhaps once or twice a week.  In fact doing such is a good thing because it will tell your body that there is an abundance of food around and there is no need to save food in case it does not get its fuel everyday.  



Along with counting calories, an important thing is to log your food and exercise daily.  This is important because if you log it daily you can see the nutrition you are receiving daily, as well as having something visual to keep you on track.  

A good food logging site that I use is calorie-count.  It's derived from www.about.com and is free to use.  It has many different tools which is very benificial for those trying to lose weight. Some of the things it has are:



Food Log- You can either search for the foods you eat at each meal and it will have the calories and all the nutritional facts, or if your food is not on the list and you know the calories you can add it yourself.

Exercise Log- You can search for whichever exercise you do and it will tell you how many calories you burn.  It may not have exactly your workout, but you can find something that comes close.

Weight Log- This is a tool where you can put in your weight whenever you weigh yourself and it will show you your weight loss trend, and show it on a graph.

Burn Meter- A tool where you can see at any given time how many calories you have lost so far in the day.

Calorie Target- Tool to find out how many calories you need daily to lose weight

Diet profile- This will ask you questions to help you find out how long it will take you to get to your goal

Plus way more great tools

If you have any questions, feel free to ask- I'll research and get back to you, or perhaps write a dieting FAQ's article!