Adding to Lose

By Team Beachbody

For any diet to work, you must burn more calories than you consume until you hit your desired weight. That's the simple, proven secret. So how do you do that?

Find your calorie "bogey": If you are of average height and activity level, you can calculate the approximate number of calories you burn per day by adding a zero to your weight and then adding the following based on your activity level: 300 calories if you are not very active all day (executive at desk), 500 if you are moderately active (sales clerk), and 1,000 calories if you are very active (construction worker, waiter/waitress, etc.). That number is the approximate number of calories you burn each day. That's your "bogey".

With the abundance of tasty and calorie-rich foods available, it does not take a lot of food to meet your bogey. Remember that any extra calories you do not use or block will be stored as body fat. Every 3,500 calories stored by your body is equal to 1 pound, more or less, on your scale (and on your thighs!) Some foods are very calorie—dense; they include butter, eggs, breads, cookies, crackers, chips and mayonnaise. You have to severely limit how much you eat of these foods, since you can reach your daily calorie limit much faster when you eat them.

Other foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans are low in calories. They have the added benefit of nature's best appetite suppressant—fiber. These foods, in fact, are so low in fat and high in fiber that you will fill up before you eat too much.

The Healthiest Diet

The healthiest diet is a diet that is based on eating lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans. As opposed to a short-term fix, our plan is a lifestyle approach that you can maintain easily for the rest of your life.

You will want to aim for the following targets:

1. Eat lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans.
2. Don't eat too much fat. Try to limit it to 30 to 40 grams each day.Use a fat blocker like Fatban^® if you expect to exceed this amount.
3. Eat 30 grams or more of fiber each day.
4. Limit all foods made from refined flour, as well as all low-fiber foods. This is the biggest pitfall you need to watch out for. If you eat low-fat and do not restrict foods that contain white flour, you will NOT lose weight!
5. Go to bed hungry! Do your best not to eat 3 hours before you go to sleep, and that way you will actually burn off stored fat while you sleep, versus putting on weight from the food you've just eaten.

Take these simple steps, and you will feel a rustling deep inside that will provide the fuel of motivation.

We recommend 2 or 3 servings of seafood per week. Seafood provides protein, vitamins and minerals. It also contains omega-3 fatty acids that help to prevent clotting, the last step in a heart attack. Here is a great recipe that is perfect for summer lunch or dinner. It has lots of healthy ingredients that can help you get Beachbody slim!