Loosing weight is really just a numbers game. Loosing weight is simply about burning more calories than you consume. Let's say that you consumed 2000 calories today and you burned 3500. This means you lost weight. How much weight? Well, 3500 calories is equal to one pound. So if you consumed 2000 calories but burned 3500 (2000-3500 = -1500). You lost 1/2 a pound. It really is that simple. There are of course other variables such has water weight, metabolism, and muscle gain/muscle loss but those are not things to worry too much about for now.
If you want to loose weight consistently and can have the discipline to track your calories and properly estimate the amount of calories you burn each day then you will have no problems meeting your goals. Using this approach you could even loose weight without working out or by eating only junk food. Of course I don't recommend either of these because it makes the process harder and it isn't healthy.
The sensible approach here is to make tracking calorie intake the priority along with eating primarily healthy foods and exercising at least 3 times per week. This will not only allow you loose weight easier but also cause you to get healthier than you are now.
Ok, so how do you track calories? You start by reading labels. You must correctly read the calories from labels on the food that you eat. Start a daily log of what you eat and how many calories you consume. Food that does not have a label can be estimated by using a calorie counter.
How do you know how many calories you burn each day? First I suggest you use a BMR calculator. This will calculate the number of calories you would burn if you stayed in bed all day. You can then either add your daily activities with a calorie burner calculator or apply the Harris Benedict Equation. Either method will give you a fairly accurate measure of the total calories you burn. Once you know this number you can make sure you don't consume more than that number. If you do you will gain weight. If you always make sure you're below that number you will loose weight. A good goal would be to have a calorie deficit of 500 calories/day. This would add up to 3500 calories in a week which is 1 pound. Keep in mind you can eat more if you burn more calories or you can speed up the weight loss by creating a larger deficit in calories burned versus calories consumed.
A few recommendations to follow when using this method:
Always consume at least 1300 calories per day. Anything less can deplete energy and overall health. It will also cause your body to try to store fat because it goes into "famine" mode. If you want to loose weight faster increase your activity level.
Eat 5-6 small meals each day. This keeps your digestion going all day long and keeps a consistent flow of nutrients to your muscles and body.
Stop eating 2 hours prior to bed. You don't want to go to bed with a stomach full of food since you don't burn a lot of calories at night.
Add weight lifting to your activity list. The more muscle your body has the more calories you will burn throughout the day. Thus creating an even bigger calorie deficit.
Drink plenty of water. Water is important to the digestive process. Don't worry about water weight. It's important to be well hydrated especially when you increase your activity level.
Don't cheat. By this I mean don't allow yourself to consume more calories than you burn on any day. If you want to have a piece of pie go ahead just don't let it put you over the amount of calories you burn. If it's going to then you need to figure out a way to burn more calories for that day.
Eat more protein and less carbs. Your muscles need protein to grow as mentioned above muscle is our friend in weight loss. Simple carbs cause insulin spikes which do not promote weight loss.
Get some fat in your diet. Eliminating fat completely from your diet will hurt your fat loss. Fat is a vital part of our bodies and depriving the body will cause it to store what it has.
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