Basics of Weight Balance

Some are looking to lose weight and others are looking to gain weight but maintaining weight is usually not talked about a lot. Staying at your target weight is always the end goal. Whether you're trying to gain weight or lose weight, eventually you'll need to stop.

Keeping your weight stable is a simple equation similar to losing or gaining. To maintain your weight, you need to eat the same amount of calories that you burn each day. If you start exercising more then you have to eat more calories or else you'll start to lose weight. If you decrease your exercise level then you also have to lower the amount of food you eat or the weight will start to come on.

Your first step is to figure out how many calories you burn each day. Use the Daily Calorie Needs Calculator for an estimate. Based on your age, sex, weight, height and activity level, the calculator will give you an approximation of the amount of calories you burn each day.

Next, find out how many calories you are eating everyday. Count your calories for three days and take the average. The three days have to be typical of your regular diet.

You now have the amount of calories you burn and the number you eat each day. The only step left is to match these two numbers. You have three options to make the equalize the numbers. You can change your activity level (increase of decrease), you can change the amount you eat (increase or decrease) or you can do a combination of the two.

Practicing weight balance is about averaging your daily intake and daily expenditure of calories so that they'll match over long periods of time (weeks, months). Don't get caught up in trying to make them equal every single day. Concentrate on doing this over a weekly and monthly basis. One day of over eating won't mess you up but a week or month will.

Guide to Dieting
The Straight Diet - A 9 Week Diet Plan
Straight Health - Exercise, Nutrition and Diets