The claim that you can eat all the foods you love and still lose weight is one that is used by most fad diets.  These phrases draw you in with the promise of losing weight without having to give anything up.  There are many hopeful dieters who take these phrases at face value, while others roll their eyes at this because it does not mean you can eat an entire pizza every day and lose weight.

If you approach dieting in the correct way then this phrase can hold true.  It is possible to lose weight while eating the foods you love not all the foods that you want.  The key to succeeding with this is to limit the amount of calories that you ingest and get enough exercise to burn off these calories before they turn into fat.

Portion control is considered the Holy Grail of weight loss because it works.  While this is easy to consider most people find portion control very difficult to execute.  We have teamed up with Eat Clean Direct and thought of a number of ways that you can help control the amount of food that you eat and they include:

• Reading the label on foods to see how much a single portion is.

• Measure your portions until you can tell how much to have.

• Avoid any buffets or all-you-can-eat establishments.

• When buying packaged foods try getting a single serving which is generally around 100 calories per pack.

• Avoid any fast foods and if you can’t avoid ordering large meals or combos even if it turns out cheaper.

• Eat a salad before your meal.

• Store your leftovers in single serving containers.

• Keep yourself from becoming too hungry by having 5 or 6 small meals throughout the say.

• Eat the foods you love, but only in half the portion size you usually would by using a smaller plate.

Your Daily Caloric Intake

In order to lose weight, you should be burning more calories than you take in.  How many calories you eat plays a large role in this.  A rule of thumb to use would be to eat 500 calories less than what you need to retain your current weight.  The calories you need to maintain your weight relate to how many calories you body is likely to burn and by ingesting less than this you ensure you burn more calories than you get.

An example of this would be a 35-year-old woman that is five feet six inches tall and who is moderately active weighing 150 pounds needs to have 2146 calories to maintain their weight.  In order to lose weight, they should take in 1646 calories each day.  There are online calculators that you can use to determine what your caloric intake should be to maintain your weight.  

Keeping Track Of Your Intake

There is no point in knowing how many calories you should be eating if you do not track what you eat.  You can use a notebook to jot down what you eat and use an online caloric calculator to determine how many calories you have eaten.  There are also mobile apps you can use to keep track of this if a notebook does not suit you.  

Online caloric calculators will also help you determine how many calories you burn when you exercise.  You should also include this in your tracking to see how many calories you still need to burn.  The most important aspect of this is to track what you are eating and how much you are eating.

Getting Exercise

Getting regular exercise will help you burn calories faster.  It is recommended that you get at least one half hour of vigorous exercise 3 to 4 times a week.  Getting this exercise is vital if you want to continue eating all of the foods that you love.  

When looking at exercise, you need to find routines that you will stick to.  If you do not like running then there is no point in making this part of your routine as you will try and avoid it as much as possible.

• This is a paid for guest post.