Losing weight is a common goal, but navigating the vast amount of information available can be overwhelming. Pigly offers a weight loss calculator, but it's important to understand the broader context of healthy and sustainable weight loss. This article provides a comprehensive overview of weight loss strategies, drawing on various sources of information to help you make informed decisions.
Understanding the Pigly Weight Loss Calculator
Pigly offers a variety of financial tools, including health calculators for weight loss and quitting smoking. This calculator helps people interested in losing weight estimate the calorie reduction needed to reach their goals. By entering your age, height, weight, goal weight, and desired timeframe, the calculator suggests a daily calorie intake to help you achieve your objective. For more accurate results, especially regarding Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE), the calculator allows you to input your body fat percentage if you know it.
The Arithmetic of Weight Loss: Calories In vs. Calories Out
Losing weight boils down to creating a calorie deficit, where you burn more calories than you consume. On average, burning approximately 6,000 calories equates to losing about 2.2 pounds of body fat. Cutting back 500 to 1,000 calories a day is often recommended for a sustainable rate of weight loss.
However, simplifying weight loss to a game of arithmetic is easier said than done, mainly due to how difficult it is to accurately quantify how much energy the body needs. These guidelines are often complicated by your fitness level and lifestyle. For instance, you may need to cut back immensely if you live a largely sedentary lifestyle, whereas eating heartier meals may make sense if you engage in a lot of physically demanding activities.
Setting Realistic Goals and Maintaining Consistency
The goal of weight loss should be a steady and sustainable decline in weight. The healthy rate of weight loss is around 0.5 kg to 1 kg a week, and this modest loss can leave a lasting impact on your health. Even losing 5 percent of your body fat over an extended period can lead to significant improvements in your blood sugar levels, blood, pressure, and blood cholesterol. Don't expect sweeping results immediately from your diet and exercise program, nor should you expect yourself to follow calorie counting with numerical precision.
Read also: Weight Loss Guide Andalusia, AL
A key aspect of healthy weight loss that feels rapid is consistency. By eliminating the source of the plateau, you get to see consistent results every week. The key to doing this is to avoid routine. Some of the ways to eliminate this setback is by reassessing your workout and diet programs and then shaking things up. Alter your workout plan to incorporate a different set of exercises and reconsider key aspects of your diet plan.
The Risks of Rapid Weight Loss
Known as a symptom of many diseases, a very dramatic change of weight over a short period is a cause for concern. Losing weight too fast can cause you to become lethargic. Other health problems that can emerge from rapid weight loss include gallstones, malaise, and malnutrition. Moreover, inducing rapid weight loss is not sustainable or effective in the long run; any weight you lose through unhealthy weight loss can be gained back.
Measuring Healthy Weight: BMI and Beyond
Identifying whether you are at a healthy weight can be challenging, however, as no one measure by themselves can give a complete picture of your weight range. The most common way to measure if your weight is healthy is through the body mass index (BMI), derived from a person's height, age, and gender when determining how much they ought to weigh. Although there is a strong correlation between the two, BMI is not always indicative of a high proportion of body fat. Athletes with a denser musculature, for instance, may be overweight despite being physically fit. For these cases, health professionals rely on other, more specialized weighing methods.
Calorie Counting: A Double-Edged Sword
Calorie counting is a double-edged sword. On one hand, this strategy provides structure to your diet plan by giving you a general idea of the amount of calories there are food you eat. Done correctly, calorie counting can be an effective tool to help you combat overeating and switch to healthier options when snacking. On its own, however, limiting caloric intake based solely on the number of calories is not quite as effective as it seems on paper. You aren't always getting an accurate picture of how many calories you are actually avoiding in the nutrition labels in your food, which are often imprecise figures that are also altered considerably by various factors such as the cooking process. In addition, you may subject yourself to a lot of stress counting the calories in every meal.
Macronutrients: The Building Blocks of Your Diet
Macronutrients-proteins, fats, and carbohydrates-represent the bulk of the nutrition in food. The body processes these differently, and the proportion you should be eating them is dependent on your fitness and health goals. Ideally, you should eat a balanced portion of these macronutrients based on your immediate needs. While proteins are usually broken down to build cells within the body, fats and carbohydrates usually function as a source of energy. Carbohydrates-sugars and starches-and proteins are broken down into glucose through a process called glycogenolysis, whereas fat is broken down into fatty acids and glycerol through lipolysis.
Read also: Beef jerky: A high-protein option for shedding pounds?
In truth, specific proportions of which macronutrients usually has no impact on whether you gain or lose weight. Eating any quantity of food in excessive amounts can contribute to weight gain through fat storage. Historically prized and despised by popular over the years, fat is an energy dense and sating part of a diet and plays an essential role in absorbing micronutrients. In the past, it was thought that fat alone was the cause of obesity because fat cells absorb existing fatty acids more readily than they convert amino acids and glucose into fatty acids. Of course, an abundance of glucose will likely trigger the fat cells to absorb and process glucose, which is why a diet high in sugar (a simple, easily processed carbohydrate) is criticized today.
Satiety: Feeling Full and Satisfied
Among the biggest challenges faced by calorie counters is the feeling of hunger that comes with dieting. Your body is simply not used to eating less, and you start feeling hungry more often-more so if you happened to be exercising as well. Achieving a feeling of fullness throughout your diet can go a long way in improving your odds of committing a diet plan to habit. Fortunately, the right choice of food can extend your feelings of satiety (fullness) after each meal. The ability of foods to induce fullness is measured in the Satiety Index. Incorporating these foods in your diet can help you with portion control, helping you eat less in each meal without worrying about feeling unexpectedly hungry too soon. Many of the foods that rank high in the Satiety Index are often high in protein or dietary fiber, which come with their own health benefits for weight watchers.
Because satiating foods can help you eat less in every subsequent meal, eating a satiating breakfast at the beginning of each day can help you control the number of calories you consume thereafter. A key component in many satiating foods, dietary fiber also plays a crucial role in achieving the health goals associated with healthy weight management. Fiber not only reduces the amount of food you would eat but also slows down the digestion process. In addition, soluble dietary fibers help slow down the absorption of simple sugars into the bloodstream, which can improve your blood sugar levels in the short and long term. Habitually skipping entire meals daily would lead to persistent low blood sugar levels, which leads to a constant state of irritability, fatigue, and lethargy.
Exercise: Burning Calories and Building Muscle
Exercise is the second part of the weight management equation. Regular exercise not only consumes your excess calories for the day but also helps develop your muscles. Well-developed muscles consume a lot of energy to maintain themselves, thereby helping you consume more calories even at rest. This is part of the reason why a well-planned diet and exercise are almost always done in tandem. Although you cannot simply work off the weight unless your cut back on your caloric intake, the best way to consume your calories is to exercise. Even a little exercise can have a positive effect on your health and wellness, which is good news for fitness newcomers who might be a little wary of the impact cardio exercises may have on their joints. Many of these exercises can be done at home or within your neighborhood and are suited for people both young and old. Of all the exercises available, walking is one of the easiest to get to and among the best to incorporate into your daily routine.
One of the biggest reasons why people don't exercise enough is the lack of time. Fortunately, shorter, high intensity workouts are often just as good as an hour's worth of regular intensity training. Findings show that these shorter workouts-at least three 10-minute sessions every week-helped give participants greater endurance. Many HIIT programs can be done in the comfort of your home. The recurring element in HIIT workouts is that they are quick; when one set ends, another begins. They will leave you tired by the end of it. These workouts also rely on achieving good form quickly, so it is important to master them beforehand. Regardless of what option you choose, it is important that you pay attention to your body and not overexert yourself.
Read also: Inspiring Health Transformation
Financial Health and Weight Loss
Health and finances are closely related because food usually costs money as does cigarettes. Losing weight affects health, which can be costly also if not properly cared for.
Expanding Pigly's Tools: Considering the Broader Picture
I have a few ideas on how they could expand their large variety of interactive tools… seeing as how Children and Pets greatly affect our finances, perhaps a calculator on those costs.
Saving for a Better Future
Saving means planning for a better life. You probably already put aside money to buy concert tickets, running shoes, or a new smartphone. And you make deals with yourself, like making your own coffee at home rather than spending far more at a coffee shop, or taking the train instead of hailing a cab. These choices save money. And saving on a broader scale is essentially the same, with bigger goals. Instead of concert tickets, you could save for a down payment on a house. You could pack your running shoes, after you've saved up for a holiday in an exotic country. You could use your smartphone to download Netflix shows you can watch in retirement.
Budgeting and Saving Strategies
You should review how you have structured your budget. If you don't have one, and have been living paycheck to paycheck, you should make a budget now. First, make two lists. The first list contains your basic necessities, the fixed expenses you must pay for each month: rent or mortgage, food, car payments or transportation allowance, utilities, and so on. The second list is your discretionary expenses, or your non-essentials. Things that are optional or negotiable. Clothing and apparel, movie dates, sports events tickets, dining out, computer upgrades. For both lists, state how much money you spend on each per month and add them up. The total of the necessities list should make up no more than 50% of your monthly income after taxes. The second list should make up no more than 30%. If there is a discrepancy, especially if you are spending more on the discretionary items than the essentials, you should lower your expenses to meet their assigned percentages. The remaining 20% should go straight to savings. Several finance experts recommend the 50-30-20 rule. If achieving these percentages is difficult, it may take time to get your financial situation in order. You may start by saving 5% or 10% and keep adding to your savings as you get a raise or pay off debt.
To manage your budget well, you should open a separate savings account with a high interest rate. Checking accounts rarely pay interest but offer an unlimited number of withdrawals. Savings account have a federal regulation which caps a maximum of 6 withdrawals a month, but some of these accounts allow you to earn up to 2% APR on your money. Opening both accounts lets you manage your money efficiently, with one account for payments and transactions, and another account for safekeeping. It is quite easy to transfer money from one account to the other, even if they're not from the same bank. Some banks may also waive checking account fees if you maintain a minimum balance across your accounts.
You should build your emergency fund (3-8 months of your current salary) before starting your retirement savings. If you have a short-term savings goal that you wish to achieve on a specific date you can set aside those savings in a certificate of deposit (CD). Unlike liquid savings in an emergency account the money in a CD is inaccessible until it matures.
Establishing a Savings Routine
If you're not in the habit of putting your money away, saving might be difficult in the beginning. Here are some ways to establish a routine that will come naturally. Automatically transfer your money into your savings account. You can automate bank transfers for your 20% to go straight to your savings account. This way, if you didn't see the money in your checking account, then you won't have the desire to use it. End-of-year pay increase - You can transfer raises to your savings account or ask your company to increase your retirement contribution by the percentage of your pay increase. You won't notice any change in your lifestyle by automatically setting the raise aside. Track your spending. When you track your spending you become mindful of whether you need these purchases and services, making it easier to cut expenses from your budget and increase savings. Make savings goals. You may have heard of the savings jars, where you put away spare change for a non-essential nice-to-have expense. Think bigger: allocate your money into savings goals and incorporate these into your monthly budget.
Debt Management
Consumer loans are necessary for boosting economic growth and helping people build lives. But while obtaining loans are a sign of a thriving economy, large outstanding debt exacts risk to consumers. The longer debt goes unpaid, the more costly it gets. It's important to learn how to address them as early as possible.
Types of Consumer Debt
Household debt exceeded the $14 trillion mark in 2019, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. At the forefront of increasing household figures are mortgage debts. Mortgage debt is followed by student debt, auto debt, credit card debt, and other loans. The difference between secured debts and unsecured debts affects what happens to your assets during bankruptcy.
Bankruptcy Options
Filing a bankruptcy discharge is meant to remove personal liability on most types of debt. However, for mortgages, it does not instantly wipe out liens from your home. Chapter 7 bankruptcy, also called liquidation bankruptcy, discharges many types of debt while selling your assets to cover a portion of your loan. Chapter 13 bankruptcy, on the other hand, allows you to reorganize your debts to pay them partially or in full without selling property for the next 3-5 years.
Managing Debt Payments
Organizing debt payments is a highly valuable skill. Unfortunately, many consumers struggle with monthly payments and how to compute their loans. You might take it for granted, but organizing your finances and reviewing basic loan calculations ensures you can pay debts on time.
Creating a Debt Repayment Plan
- Create a debt repayment plan that motivates you to reach your goal. Whether you choose to focus on eliminating high interest debt or small balances first, it's important you feel driven to maintain healthy financial habits. Choose your focus debt. - Prioritize debt according to loan balance, interest rate, or by which lender gives you the most stress. You can try the snowball method which prioritizes small balances first. But the most efficient way to wipe out debt is the avalanche method, which focuses on paying off high-interest loans. You'll also spend less on total interest costs.
- The next step is to set a budget that works for you. Create budget categories so you can track how much you are spending on each group. When you're on a tight budget, you might want to consider foregoing hobby expenses for a while to prioritize loan payments. And if you spend too much money eating at restaurants, make an effort to cook or eat at less costly establishments. To wipe out debt faster, try to make additional payments.
- Once you have your payment plan arranged, make sure to implement it. To make it more convenient, you can automate payments.