Net cals

What are Net cals? Well, net cals are the amount of calories your body burns with and without you doing any workout per day. There is a slightly complicated way to calculate it. You can find the link here, for those of you interested. Now this site can calculate it for you, but it's rather nice trying to do it yourself  Besides, this site can also show you how much you need to eat to gain weight, if you have weight issues on the other side of the scale.

Back to net cals. This is something I didn't think about at all before because I had no idea how it all worked. Perhaps your body burn 1700 calories a day without you doing more than cook, do the dishes and get the mail. If you want to lose 1 lbs a week you need to burn 3500 calories, which will be 500 calories a day.

You now have 3 choies. 

1) Eat 500 less calories without work out (this is a tough one and you shouldn't eat below 1200)

2) Eat normally but burn 500 calories a day by doing cardio, weight lifting or anything else that can get your pulse to work harder. This is a tough one, but it's really good.

3) Eat less calories and work out every day. This for me is the ideal one. You don't have to starve yourself and you don't have to work out an hour or two every day at the gym.

Weight loss is, apart from a great commitment, simple mathematics. Of course nothing is black or white because you can't just eat 1500 calories of whatever. Your body need essential and vital nutrition to function and a lot of water.

If you choose to take down your calories to 1500 then you have 200 calories "left" which turns into net cals. If you want to have a deficit of 500 every day you need to find an activity which will burn 300 calories. Perhaps 40 minutes of Aerobics or a long walk. It's not harder than that. Obviously you can't do Aerobics every day. Walking is an excellent way of losing weight. It's not too tough but you can set the level of difficulty yourself. It burns a lot of calories and doesn't take any skills to do it. Most of us know how to (and are able to) walk. Walk at least 40-50 minutes a day. If it's too tough just split it in 2. 20-25 minutes in the morning and then 20-25 minutes in the afternoon. Anyone can do this, no matter what your excuses might be.

The main point is to realise when it's enough. It's gone too far and I'm not going to abuse my body any more. Because once you start losing weight you will realise the benefits and you will feel great! One of the most difficult things is the start, it's even harder to continue doing it but it's the absolute hardest part to keep the weight down once you've lost it all. But it's worth it.

A little help on the way. Take before and after picture. There is nothing as motivating as a before picture when you feel like nothing works. Because you will hit a plateau sooner or later.

To sum it all up. Net cals are the calories your body burns in a day with or without your effort. And if you eat the net cals will shrink, but if you work out you will get more net cals. You don't have to burn 1000 calories a day to lose weight as long as you choose to eat right, eat smart and exercise.

Best of luck!