Losing Weight with Weight Loss Tools

Losing weight can be challenging if you don’t have the right weight loss tools to help you along your journey. We use tools everyday to accomplish simple tasks like fixing a loose handle, preparing foods quickly and sending emails. Tools like screw drivers, microwaves and even computers are used by millions of people everyday to help speed up certain activities.

When it comes to weight loss however, people often don’t seek out the tools that are readily available to help them accomplish their goals. Often people only think in terms of eating right, exercising more and changing current habits. Although these are the main components to successfully lose weight, having weight loss tools to help track progress, calculate calories and jot down thoughts and activities can be the difference between success and failure.

What are Weight Loss Tools?

Many people simply do not use the free tools available to them because they are not sure how to use them or what they even are. Tools, in the simplest term, are a device or piece of equipment that provides an advantage in completing a task. This means that a weight loss tool could be a document, calculator or software that can help you track, record, calculate information you need to lose weight.

To expand this even further you could even consider simple tips, diet programs or even healthy foods as a tool to help you lose weight. However, for the purpose of this article let’s just focus on the more mechanical types of tools.

Finding the Right Weight Loss Tools

Finding weight loss tools online is easy as there are hundreds of websites that offer these calculators and tools for free. However, determining which ones are right for you will take some evaluation on your part. In order to evaluate what you need you will need to understand what each tool offers. So how do you know which ones you should look for and which ones you need? Although weight loss can be difficult, the formula for weight loss is actually quite simple; consume fewer calories than you burn. In other words, you need to create a calorie deficit. With this said, some of the tools you want to consider have to do with determining the right amount of calories.

BMR Calculator / Weight Loss Calculator

The first step in creating a calorie deficit for weight loss is to calculate how many calories you burn in a day without adding exercise. This is known as your basal metabolic rate or the rate you burn calories while at rest. These calories account for about 60% to 70% of the total calories you will burn in a day.

Using a BMR calculator will give you an approximation of the amount of calories you burn by doing everyday activities. There are several variables that are used in these calculators to determine the calories burned. The variables include age, weight, height and gender. In addition, many of the BMR calculators allow for a selection of activity level such as sedentary, lightly active, and moderate to extremely active.

Calorie Intake Calculator / Exercise Calculator

After calculating your BMR calories you can start creating a calorie deficit. To do this, people generally reduce the amount of calories they consume. In addition, adding exercise also contributes to the calorie deficit for weight loss.

In order to help you create your calorie deficit there are two weight loss tools you may need. The first, a calorie intake calculator, will help you calculate the number of calories in the foods you eat. With these calculators you can search for food items and select serving size to present you with the total calories. Many of these calculators also have common restaurant foods so you can keep to your diet even while eating out.

The next weight loss tool to look for is an exercise calculator. With these online calculators you will choose from a variety of exercises, the intensity level and the duration of your exercise routine. Based on this information the calculator will return the results of the approximated calories you burned for your exercise workout.

So you can see that it is easy to create your calorie deficit once you have all the tools to give you the right calorie information. However, unless you want to track this in your head daily, there is one more weight loss tool that I would recommend.

Calorie Intake Chart

A calorie intake chart can be a simple tool or more extravagant. You can simply write down all the calories consumed, BMR calories burned and your exercise calories in order to calculate your calorie deficit. However, to simplify this process you can create a document, like a spreadsheet, or look for one online to download to your computer.

Many websites offer free downloads of charts and files to record your calories and track your weight loss. These tools offered as a free download are generally a PDF format or a spreadsheet using Excel or other software. The file should include the ability to write down the foods you eat and their calorie content, the exercises you did and how many calories you burned and of course factoring in your basal metabolic rate. This is all the information you need to quickly and easily calculate your calorie deficit. If you really want to get fancy, add daily, weekly and even monthly charts that track your weight, inches lost, etc.

Now that you know the right tools for weight loss, you are well on your way to success.

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