How to Lose Weight

Losing weight is one of the most popular New Year's resolutions that people make every year, yet it is sometimes quite hard to do on your own. Knowing a variety of ways to lose weight can inspire you to drop the pounds once and for all. Making small changes that are easy to maintain can help you shed extra pounds, as long as you are burning more calories compared to what you eat.
First: Calculate your activity level
Take a few days to really analyze your activity level and figure out how many calories you are burning on a daily basis. You can use several different websites to discover how many calories are burned while you exercise, hang out and run errands. Your BMR, also known as your Basal Metabolic Rate, is the magic number of calories that your body requires to function properly. This number is the bare minimum of calories that you need to ingest each day to live. Your BMR is based on a calculation you can do online that is determined from your height, weight, age and level of fitness. Keep in mind that as you lose weight you need to adjust your BMR calculation to reflect that new number.
Second: Start counting calories
Try to track your calories as you ingest food using an online tool or a calorie counting book. Measure out your food to ensure that you are as accurate as possible in your calculations. You can average out your calories for a week to get a general idea of how many calories you are eating per day. To lose weight the number of calories you ingest has to stay smaller than the number of calories you burn. If you are eating more calories than you are burning, you need to eat less or up your activity to burn off more calories.
