How to Count Calories to Lose Weight?

Did you know that a regular Mountain Dew is better for you to drink that a Diet Mountain Dew when you are trying to lose weight? It is true! When you drink a Diet Dew it actually messes up your body's natural calorie calculator. You get cravings for all kinds of foods, because you body thinks you need more calories and sugar.
Don't believe me? Check out this article:
Diet Sodas make you hungry! Let me tell you what happened to me

Did you know that to lose 1 pound a week you would need to cut or burn 3500 calories a week? Sounds unreal doesn't it? Well it isn't. Let's do some math! We will calculate as if you are eating 2000 calories a day. If you do not exercise you would need to decrease your calorie intake by 500 calories a day to lose 1 pound a week. Now we all know about the dreadful plateau that you soon reach when dieting. One way to stay away from that is by changing it up. For example, to reach a goal to lose 1 pound a week you need to cut back 3500 calories. So, Monday cut back 250 calories, Tuesday cut back 550 calories, Wednesday cut back 600 calories, Thursday cut back 520 calories, Friday cut back 500 calories, Saturday cut back 540 calories, and Sunday cut back 520 calories. You see that every day you are cutting back a different amount of calories. The reason to do this is so that your body doesn't get used to eating the same amount. If you body gets used to it then it will adapt, hence the plateau.

I know that this sounds unbelievably hard, but really it isn't. I guarantee that about 63% of people that are dieting or not dieting most likely do not watch the calories that they eat. Did you know that one slice of American cheese has 60 calories? Now lets calculate how many calories are in one sandwich. Remember these numbers really depend of what brand you get and if you get lite or not.
Cheese (1 slice) 60 calories
Mayo Regular (1 tbls) 100 calories
Turkey (1 slice) 29 calories
Whole Wheat Bread (2 slices) 256 calories
Total for 1 sandwich 445 calories
If you were trying to eat just 1500 calories that day you would only have 1055 calories left that you could have for that day. Everyone knows that most people don't just eat a sandwich. People usually have a soda, tea, or some other beverage other than water and probably some chips. Really if you were to calculate the chips and the beverage it would probably add another 200 calories on to the 445 from the sandwich. You really have to watch what you eat to make any diet plan work. To be perfectly honest with you I did this and failed, because you can watch what you eat all day long and still over eat. I have another example for you. Let's say you stop balancing your checkbook and just start guestimating the balance left in your checking account. How long do you think it would take before you were overdrawn? Probably not long. The same thing goes with eating. If you don't see the number on paper you really won't see it in your head either. Take one day and just count your calories and that is all. I guarantee you, that you will really be picky about what you eat. Please keep in mind that a lot of what I have learned I got from the diet Strip That Fat! I joined it because I couldn't stand to look at myself in the mirror anymore.