Before you start losing weight it is a good idea to prepare yourself on several fronts. Making sure that the motivation factor is present is one of the first things but most importantly you should learn to use a weight loss calculator to make sure you are burning more calories than you take in each day.

The process is simple. First calculate the amount of calories you need every day. For most people, to lose weight, you should consume 1200 to 1500 calories per day. The calculation is easy. All you do is input your height and weight and level of activity then do the math.

This weight loss calculator will tell you the amount of calories you need to be able to maintain your current weight. Since you do not want to maintain your current weight, you want to shed some of those pounds then you need to take in about 500 calories less than what that calculation gives you.

Next, calculate how many calories are in each serving of food you eat. You may have to practice at measuring out just exactly what a serving size is to get good at it. Make sure you are accurate and aren’t sneaking in just a little more here or there. Those little sneak-ins will add up and all of a sudden you will wonder why you are not losing the weight you want anymore.

Go buy yourself a book that lists calories for servings of food that do not come with labels like fresh fruits and vegetables, or do a search online. You might be able to find a list for free online. Do the same for eating out and when you do eat out make better choices based on what you learn online.

Know how many calories are in each gram of fat, carbohydrates and protein. This will help you when you figure out the percentages of each one that you need each day. So, keep this in mind: Carbohydrates and proteins have an equal amount of calories in each gram at 4 and fats have 9 calories per gram. Fats should make up no more than 30% of your daily calorie count. Carbs and protein should make up 50% and 20% respectively of your daily calorie intake.

Make sure they are good carbs though. The carbs you get from breads and cereals and sugar are overly processed and you should avoid them completely. Basically anything that is made with “white” products. White flour, white sugar, white rice should simply be avoided. These are all considered bad carbs and do nothing for you accept keep you gaining weight and fat around the middle.

The best way to use your weight loss calculator is to do it all yourself. Keep careful records in a small notebook in your purse or in your car so it is handy when you need to write something down. Maybe you could even get an app for that for your phone so you can keep all the information you need right at your fingertips.

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Most of the talk these days is about losing weight but what if you find yourself in the position of needing rapid weight gain? If this is your case, say, needing to gain weight for a sport you play then you need to do the opposite of burning more calories than you take in each day. You need to take in more than you burn.

How do you make this rapid weight gain work and still stay in good shape to continue playing your chosen sport as effectively as you did before? You will need to be very careful while overloading your body with the calories it needs and maintaining the workouts you need to stay in shape so you build lean muscle and not pack on the fat.

Start by creating a plan or two. One for eating the right kinds of foods to help you gain muscle and one for working out. You will need to balance these two plans correctly to get the results you want. If you don’t know where to start then ask for help from your coach or your parents. Maybe even make an appointment with a nutritionist recommended by your doctor.

Start by figuring out the total amount of calories you need in a day. There are formulas for this kind of thing and then add good calories to each meal until you have a meal plan that will work for you.

If you watched the last summer Olympics seven gold medal winner Michael Phelps, at one point they interviewed him and asked him how many calories he needed to maintain his workout schedule. I believe it was in the range of 10,000 calories per day or something like that. An enormous amount, at any rate.

You may not need that many calories to achieve your weight gain but do not be surprised if you are close to that amount. Keep your meals balanced though, with protein and the right kinds of carbs and good fats. Good fats are the mono and polyunsaturated types found in olive oil and fish.

Keep the proteins lean, protein is needed for building muscle mass. Before you prepare them make sure that you cut off all the fat. It is no good for you. If you like fish then that is a great way to get lots of lean protein in your diet. Shrimp is especially good for you as it has the best source of protein packed into those little bite sized morsels.

The carbs you take in should be good ones also, like whole grain. Change up the cereal you eat in the morning to oatmeal or a whole grain cereal. Stay away from the sugary cereals and the flavored oatmeal instant packets. Too many bad carbs. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables, too.

Use these tips and the advice you get from your coach, doctor, or nutritionist to safely get your rapid weight gain so you can start your next season as healthy as you can with the same competitiveness you had the last season.

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You have tried diet after diet, you have endured exercise program after exercise program, and after all of that, you still want to know what to do if you can’t lose weight. If that sounds familiar, then you should know that you are not alone. A lot of people have tried all sorts of things to lose weight, all without any lasting success. Sure, you may lose a few pounds, but then you gain most of it back (or even end up weighing more than when you started).

Even though a lot of people have this problem, there really isn’t a universal solution; that’s because everybody is different. However, there are also some basic principles of weight loss that apply to virtually anybody.

If you are currently on a diet, and aren’t able to take off enough weight, then you have to take a close look at the diet plan to see if it can really work. Pay attention to the total number of calories it recommends per day, and see if it is too heavy or restrictive on certain groups of foods.

Each person needs a different number of calories, depending on various factors. If you take in more calories than you need, then it stands to reason that losing weight isn’t going to happen. But, the real problem can be taking in too few calories. While you may lose some weight, your body will go into starvation mode, and store a much higher percentage of your caloric intake. In other words, it won’t burn off as many calories as it normally would. This also makes it next to impossible to shed extra pounds. Therefore, you need to be on a diet that has the right amount of calories for you personally.

The other thing to watch out for are diets that are unbalanced. Most fad diets get popular because they have a gimmick of some kind. The Grapefruit Diet, Cabbage Diet and Cottage Cheese Diet are a few examples that put an emphasis on eating a particular food. There are also diets which restrict carbohydrates or fat, but if they don’t include a wide range of food choices then the odds of your getting results are low, and the odds of having permanent results are even lower.

Can all of those diets work? Yes! But…there is a catch. As mentioned, they almost always have a gimmick of some kind. It’s this gimmick that makes them popular. They use their little tricks to hide the real “secret” behind losing weight. This is important if you’re still wondering what to do if you can’t lose weight. The real secret is this: The only way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you take in.

That may not sell a lot of fad diets, but that’s what it all comes down to. If you can’t seem to get rid of those extra pounds, then you need to either reduce how many calories you’re taking in, or increase how many calories you’re burning off.

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