Welcome to the wonderful world of weight loss. We are about to share with you the four essential steps you should be aware of if you want to lose fat and reduce your weight.

This article discusses the first step. You'll find links to other pages which continue the story, at the end of this article.

STEP ONE - Understand How Weight Loss Occurs

If you're an overweight young adult, you probably eat more than you need. Your body requires a certain number of calories to sustain itself, and if you consume more than that number, you will put on weight. If you eat less calories than you expend, you will lose weight - it's really that simple. Don't let anyone persuade you differently. Unless you have some kind of illness, this technique will work for you. So take on board what you're about to read, talk about it with your physician, and adopt it if he or she approves.

The equation identified above is complicated by the reality that your body doesn't want you to consume less than it needs - it will think you're starving. If you go on a severely restricted diet, your body will do a number of annoying things, such as giving you hunger pangs, causing you to feel wearied and sluggish, finding the energy it needs from your muscle tissue in addition to your fat deposits, etc. Consequently, you shouldn't attempt to lose weight by dieting alone.

It is essential that you exercise as well as eating less. When you exercise, your body receives the message that you are still going well and so will be triggered to maintain your lean body mass and live off your fat. If you consume less calories than your body requires, but don't go below your requirements very much, and get adequate exercise so that your body continues and burns even more fat to do so, then you will slim down nicely.

A pound of fat represents about 3500 calories of stored energy. In order to lose a pound of fat, you must use 3500 more calories than you take in. It's better not to do this over the period of just one day or you'd probably harm yourself, and your body would in all likelihood have some extreme response which would not include you losing any real weight. It's more beneficial to spread this out over a week, so that you aspire to exceed your caloric requirements by 3500 to 7000 calories per week. This will result in weight loss of one to two pounds per week. It isn't healthy to attempt to lose more than two pounds in a week. If you do try to do so you're unlikely to be successful.

Let's suppose you would like to lose two pounds per week. To do so, you need to work out how many calories a person of your age, sex, and weight usually requires in a day, subtract 500 from that amount, and follow a diet that provides you with that many calories. For example, if you would normally need 3000 calories in a day, you would stick to a 2500 calorie per day diet. Then you work out how much exercise an individual of your weight would need to do to burn 500 calories per day, and you get off your butt and do it. The result is simple. 500 fewer calories consumed plus 500 more calories used equals a 1000 calorie per day shortfall, which, over the course of a week adds up to 7000 calories, or two pounds. Your mileage may vary, but there's no avoiding it. If your body is consuming fewer calories than it's using, something's got to go.

That's how it goes. So now you just have to learn how to eat less and exercise and you will definitely lose some weight. Then you want to know how to keep it off.