It is simple science. A single pound of fat contains 3500 calories of energy. Therefore, if you are looking to lose a pound of fat per week, you need to ingest 3500 less calories than you burn per week. The key to achieving this goal is by reducing your calorie intake by 500 calories per day. Doing so will allow you to lose around a pound of fat per week.

Sounds reasonable, right? Especially is you are 25 pounds or more overweight. In fact, it has been scientifically proven that people who lose weight at this gradual rate are far more likely to maintain this trimmer weight for good.

Now we know what we have to do, but how do we do it? Below, I have put a list together of some adjustments which you can make to your diet which should be helpful.

1. Putting milk in your coffee in stead of cream saves you 50 calories.

2. Simply leaving the butter off of your baked potato keeps 100 calories out of your body.

3. Get rid of the sugary soda and replace it with clean flavored water. Doing this can cut 200 calories per 16 ounce can.

4. Special sauce on a sesame seed bun? Forget the 460 calorie Big Mac and order a healthy salad. Even if you add light salad dressing to your salad, you are still cutting more than 360 calories.

5. Get rid of the bag of chips and get rid of 300 calories from your diet.

6. Not all corn is equal. Did you know that canned corn has 80 more calories than an ear of corn? Which one will you choose from now on?

7. Regular cream cheese or low-fat cream cheese. What is the difference? About 90 calories, that’s what.

8. While I recommend that you avoid French fries, if you must have them, order the steak-cut fries over the thin fries. The truth is that the thin fries absorb more fat. Making this selection will lower your calorie intake by approximately 50 calories per 4 ounce serving.

While limiting the amount of calories which you take in on a daily basis is one way to lose weight, you can also lose weight by burning more calories. This is done by becoming more physically active. Look at how simple this can be accomplished by directing your attention to the examples below.

1. A great activity to lose weight is simply walking for 30 minutes a little faster than a casual stroll. This will burn 160 calories.

2. Bike riding is fun. Why not ride for 5 miles and burn 250 calories.

3. Dancing for just 1 hour can burn up to 400 calories!

4. Who does not like to swim here? Swimming is a great way to burn calories and avoid impact on your joints. A few slow laps over the period of an hour will burn over 500 calories.

5. Of all things, did you know that gardening can lead to you burning 250 calories?

6. You should take up tennis. Tennis is one of those sports which enables you to burn 800 calories in an hour of fun.

The above calorie burning figures are based upon the activities of a 130 pound woman. Therefore, if you weigh more than 130 pounds, you will burn more calories than what is stated above. This is great new. Also, these activities not only cause your body to burn calories, but also gain muscle. Muscle enables your body to burn more calories in a resting state.

While we can either cut back on the calories which we consume, or engage in more physical activities to lose weight, I suggest a combination of both for optimal results. However, you must make sure to not limit your calorie intake too much. Doing so will cause your metabolism to slow down as a defense mechanism to starvation. Make sure than you always consume in excess of 1000 calories per day to avoid this.

Make sure that you keep your exercise and calorie consumption at a healthy level. Also maintain records of both of these activities to make sure that you remain on track. Before you know it, you will have the body that you were working towards.

Cheryl Carter is an expert in healthy weight loss, and the inventor of the Weight Loss Oracle weight loss software.

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