If you want to lose weight, eat fewer calories than you burn

If you want to lose weight, the easiest and surest way to do it is to reduce your daily calorie intake to less than you burn. It really is that simple.

If you want to gain weight because you’re currently too skinny, do you know what the general advice is?

It’s to eat more calories every day than you burn. Eating more calories is a tried and tested method of gaining weight.

But don’t take my word for it. Let’s take a look at what some respected medical websites have to say on the matter.

Mayo Clinic

In this article, they state…

“You gain weight when you eat more calories than you burn — or burn fewer calories than you eat.”

“… everyone loses weight when they burn up more calories than they eat. To lose weight, you need to create an energy deficit by eating fewer calories or increasing the number of calories you burn through physical activity or both.”

Cleveland Clinic

In this article, they are discussing what to do to gain weight. They state…

“The main concept to gaining weight is that you have to eat more calories than the amount your body burns. Aim to eat 300 to 500 more calories per day if you want to gain weight slowly.”

NHS UK says that “the recommended daily calorie intake is 2,000 calories a day for women and 2,500 for men.”

This Wikipedia article shows that the average daily calorie intake in the United States is 3,800.

Do you see what’s wrong here? Americans consume 3,800 calories per day when the recommended level is 2,000 (women) to 2,500 (men).

We have also seen that consuming more calories than you burn leads to weight gain.

So it seems from these figures that Americans are simply overeating.

I don’t mean to single out Americans here, as people from other countries also overeat. It’s just that Americans were top of the Wikipedia list.

Europeans that take vacations in America are often shocked by the size of the meals that are served in restaurants there. I remember the first time I visited. My lunch was enough for a small family. It was 2–3 times the size of my lunch back home.

If you want to lose weight it might be a good idea to work out how many calories you eat every day. Some people that do this are shocked to find out how much they consume.

Try eating smaller meals and not snacking between meals.

Getting a good night’s sleep and reducing stress can also help. A bad night’s sleep can lead to consuming higher calories during the day. The same is true if you’re stressed.