A natural weight loss healthy diet program

How many calories does it take to burn 1 pound of fat?

One pound of fat is equal to 453.6 grams. One gram of fat contains 9 calories. Hence, 1 lb of fat contains 4082 calories. This follows from the calculation: 9 x 453.6 = 4,082.4 . That is the number of calories that you gain (roughly) when you consume a pound of fat. When you are talking about losing one pound of body fat, you must burn about 3500 calories. But 3500 calories is certainly not the same as 4082 calories! Why is there a difference? The reason is that the fat cells in our body contain other materials, such as protein and water, so they are not pure fat, as is the fat we consume. So when we lose a pound of body fat, we really burn about 3500 calories, not 4082calories.

As you can imagine, it would take an awful lot of exercise to burn off 1 lb of body fat, even at 3500 calories per pound of body fat. That's why it's better to reduce the intake, because increasing the output to such a level would be extremely difficult for most of us.

You may obtain a free report on any one (just one, please) of the following topics:

1. All about Fat

2. High Fructose Corn Syrup

3. Discussion of Trans Fats

4. Omega-3 and Omega-6 Acids

5. Hormones and Excess Weight

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However, let's make it clear that this is not a low-fat program! Fats are very important to our health, so we don't believe in low-fat approaches.

The World Health Organization recommends a limit of 30%. Some estimates of the current fat content for the average American diet are set at 37%. Dr. Dean Ornish, the noted cardiologist, recommends a 10% limit, which we find quite difficult to achieve. We have chosen 25% as our limit for fat calories. The reason for this choice is that it is well below the national average, which we all know is too high, and it is far above the Dr. Ornish's difficult target. Moreover, this seems to be a level that is realistically attainable, and one that works.

Now a word about Dr. Atkins' high fat diet. Although it can lead to weight loss, I've always regarded it as very extreme, dangerous and completely unnecessary. Consider the following biochemical facts:

Any excess calories that we take in can, in principle, be converted to fat. There are enzymes in the body that can disassemble glucose (the main metabolite from carbohydrates) in a lengthy process, and other enzymes that can reassemble those components into fats for storage.
Likewise, there are enzymes that can convert proteins into fats for storage. All of the above processes require a fair amount of energy to complete, and in the case of protein, it may consume up to about 30 % of the energy content for all the elements of the thermic effect, plus the conversion costs in energy.
In contrast to these possibilities, the conversion of fat intake to stored body fat, is a very efficient one, requiring very little energy. In addition, the thermic effect for fat is only about 2 to 3 %.

By the way, the term thermic effect simply reflects the fact that all the eating and digestive processes require energy also, so our net gain from eating food is slighty less than its caloric content.

Throwing your body into a state of ketosis (as in Dr. Atkins' approach) to lose weight works; so does starvation. Both are very unhealthy in my opinion.

Hence, the limit of 25% fat seems to be a good one.

Now, having said how important fats are to our health, we would like to remind you that not all fats are equal. There are two main types of fats in food.

Saturated fats: these include the fats found in meat products, palm oil, coconut oil, cottonseed oil and dairy products, among others. These are not good fats, but are not easily avoided completely. We should limit our intake of saturated fats to less than 10% of our total caloric intake.

Unsaturated fats: Unsaturated fats have two possible molecular geometries, or shapes. The first is natural and by far is the most common; it is called cis, and this is the good one, that is beneficial to the body. The second is overwhelmingly man-made and is called trans, and this is the bad one, which is harmful to the body. We should work hard to avoid trans fats!

Aside from the shapes, there are of two broad categories of unsaturated fats - monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. At one time, we were told that polyunsaturated fats were good for us. Now, the experts aren't so sure. We all do know, however, that monounsaturated fats, such those based on oleic acid, which is found in abundance in olive oil, are good fats.

Clearly, we should try to ensure that most of the fats in our diet are of the good fats type.

We do not gain weight if we do not take in more calories than we burn. In view of the fact that each gram of fat contains more than twice as many calories (9 cal/gram) as a gram of carbohydrate or a gram of protein (they each contain 4 calories per gram), it would seem preferable to maintain a reasonably moderate level of fat content. We have found that 25 % works well.

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