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What Is Water Weight?


Going on a weight loss journey can seem overwhelming for the total beginner, with the amount of usually foreign jargon suddenly having to become an important part of life. One of the most used terms with regards to weight loss is probably water weight. But really, what is this water weight everybody keeps talking about? Well, you’re about to find out.

You probably already know this, but our body is made up of mostly water. All our bodily cells contain stored water, which helps keep things moving smoothly. However, when we take in too much of certain substances such as salt, or if we are dehydrated, our body retains even more water, and the weight of this extra water is called water weight.

Water Weight and Weight Loss

Often when people talk about weight loss, they think it’s naturally fat loss. But actually, weight loss is very subjective. When you see the scales moving backward, it could be fat, muscle or water that you are losing.

Most of the time, the first couple of pounds that you lose is usually water weight. This is why in the first week you often lose a large amount of weight compared to the following weeks. When the water is gone, that’s usually when the body chooses between muscle and fat to burn, depending on how many calories you take in. If you take in too few calories, your body will burn muscle instead of fat since muscle provides more calories than fat.

That’s not to say that you will certainly lose water weight at first; if your diet is still high in sodium and alcohol and if you don’t replenish your body with water adequately, then your body will still cling on to your water weight.

How to Lose Water Weight

There are several things you can do if you want to lose that excess water weight. First of all, be sure to drink enough water – that is, more than eight glasses a day if you can manage it. Also, restrict the amount of salt, sugar, and alcohol that you take in on a daily basis. Do note that if you are a woman, it is possible that your body will hold on to up to five pounds of water weight when you are having your menses. So during this period, don’t stress out if you suddenly put on a lot of weight; just keep to your healthy diet, and when your menses are over the weight will slip off again.

Understanding what water weight is can hopefully keep you motivated if you find that your weight is fluctuating in between weighing sessions.


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Top 4 Smartphone Apps for Tracking Calories and Exercise


It’s a pretty well-known fact by now that counting calories is probably the most systematic and effective way for most people to lose weight. However, for those who are constantly busy and on-the-go, using a computer to track calories online or writing down what they have eaten in a book and manually calculating calories may not be possible.

No worries though; you have the option of downloading useful apps to help you track your calories using your smartphone. Finding something that you’ll be able to update easily at any time increases the chances that you’ll actually use it.

Here are some of the apps you can try looking for.

1) Lose It!

This app doesn’t just let you key in what you’ve eaten so you know how many calories you’ve eaten, it also lets you track your exercise as well. You can also scan the barcodes of most foods to instantly pull information regarding that food item from a massive online database, helping to save you time. This app is available for the iPhone and Android.

2) My Fitness Pal


This nutrition and fitness app will help you set a proper weight loss goal, and then let you track the calories you eat so that you will not overeat. You can also track your exercise using this app. There’s an online version of My Fitness Pal available too, so you can also opt to key in your calories there if you want to. A great tool to have when on a diet, and it is available for Apple and Android.

3) Calorie Tracker by Livestrong

The Livestrong brand is one of the top names in weight loss, fitness, and nutrition, so it’s not a surprise that they have an app to complement their online calorie tracker. However, the app itself is not free, costing $2.99 to purchase. Nevertheless, if you love all things Livestrong, then it is certainly worth it to purchase this calorie-tracking app, which is available for Apple, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile.

4) CountEat. Calories

This app costs 99 cents and is slightly different than the other three apps above in that it allows you to estimate the calorie count of your entire meal, rather than count exactly the number of calories for each item you’ve eaten. This can save you some time, especially if you are busy. However, this app does not help you track exercise.

There are other apps as well that can help you in your weight loss journey, either by helping you track your calories or improve your knowledge of nutrition and fitness. Just browse around and see which ones suit your needs the best.


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How To Figure Out How Many Calories You Burn Each Day


Although there are a few reasons we become overweight, the simplest explanation is that we consume more calories than we burn off. Do this for long enough and youâ??ll pile on the pounds, unless youâ??re lucky enough to be one of those people with a super-fast metabolism!

If you want to lose weight, then you should definitely know how many calories your body burns on a daily basis. The idea behind dieting and exercise is to create enough of a caloric deficit so that your body starts burning off fat, and knowing how much your body needs to start with is an important step to figuring out how you are going to create a caloric deficit.

What Does Your Body Spend Energy On?

First of all, you should know what exactly your body spends energy on. For one thing, your body uses energy on metabolic processes, in other words, the most basic bodily functions that keep you alive such as breathing, blood circulation, excretion, and so on.

Besides that, your body additionally expends energy on simple things you do throughout the day, such as brushing your teeth, bathing, cooking, and so on.


If you are on your feet a lot and exercise frequently, then your body burns even more calories. Also, if you have a high amount of muscle mass, your body burns more calories for metabolism than it does if you have the same amount of fat.

How to Calculate the Number of Calories You Burn

To calculate how many calories you burn each day is difficult to do manually, so the best way to go about doing this is by using an online calorie needs calculator. Just fill in the short form in the calculator, and click calculate. You will then get an estimate of how many calories you should consume on a daily basis.

Alternatively, you can join a calorie-tracking site that calculates how many calories you can eat every day, select your activity level as sedentary, and then manually track in any extra exercise you do throughout the day. This way you will get a better idea of your caloric burn each day.

There are even gadgets you can wear all day to get an estimate of how many calories you burn. These can cost a fair bit but make a very worthwhile investment for anyone whoâ??s really serious about losing weight.

And thatâ??s all there is to finding out how much you burn every day. Itâ??s wonderful that you are committed to ensuring your body is in good health by keeping your weight under check. Good luck!