Food Consumption - FAQ

How many calories should I eat every day in order to lose weight fast?

This is the most frequently asked weight loss question ever and the truth is that total calories consumed each day is NOT the the most important factor but rather the amount of food eaten at any one sitting is what determines whether you will gain weight or lose weight.

Indeed, too much emphasis has been placed on "calories per day" according to a person's height and weight and this is now known to be false because it is "calories per meal" that determines whether your body will burn those calories or store them as fat tissue.

For example, you could eat 2,500 calories spread out evenly all day and lose more weight than if you starved yourself all day and then ate a 2,000 calorie dinner, it's not about "calories per day" but instead begin focusing on what you eat at each individual sitting.

Isn't starving myself the fastest way to lose weight?

Many people do believe that since overeating is responsible for weight gain then "starving" must be the quickest way to lose weight. Sounds logical at first, after all, since 3,500 calories equals one pound the quickest way to get rid of 3,500 calories is to starve... Right? Actually, that is wrong.

This is wrong because the more you starve yourself the fewer calories your body begins burning each day, so if your body was formerly burning 3,000 calories per day and you begin starving yourself then your body will soon begin burning only 2.000 calories per day, then perhaps 1,500 calories per day, and if you starve yourself enough it will burn even less calories than that until you will be starving yourself and burning very little calories.

How much water should I drink each day in order to lose weight?

This question is a popular and misunderstood question about weight loss. So many people have been told to drink as much water as they can stand each day and that somehow this will magically speed up the weight loss process.

The truth is that it is important to drink water each day as water helps your body in many ways, but you will not gain some magical advantage to losing weight by drinking 12 or 15 glasses of water per day, it just won't happen.

Water is important in any diet but if you are drinking so much water that the thought of another glass makes you feel "sick" then you have already consumed enough and you won't be getting any advantage by forcing another glass of water on yourself.

If I eat all "low fat" and "fat free" foods will I lose weight for sure?

In short, no. It is now a widely known fact that the consumption of excess carbohydrates is one of the quickest ways to gain weight and the atkins diet (and zone diet) are proof of that fact. In fact, many low fat and fat free foods have so many excess carbohydrates (to replace the missing fat) that they can make you gain extraordinary amounts of weight by eating them too often or in too great of a quantity.

Eating low fat is always a good idea compared to stuffing yourself with high fatty foods, but relying on nothing but low fat foods will not solve your problems to weight loss because it takes a careful balance between fat and carbohydrates (and exercise) to begin losing weight at the fastest rate.