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I have read about many theories on weight loss, exercise and diet, and understand the theories of the Atkin's Diet, grapefruit diets and calorie controlled diets. I have read about them all. But which of them actually work? That is the 64,000 dollar question with a very simple answer.

All or none! You can eat chocolate cake if you work it off next day! Whatever diet you use, there is one very simple equation that is ruled by science; by the biochemistry of our bodies. If energy in is greater than energy out, you have an excess of energy. If energy in is less than energy out, you have a deficit of energy. In common parlance, you can equate energy in with calories eaten and energy out with calories used up. An excess of energy is stored either as fat or as glycogen in the liver, and a deficit of energy equates with weight loss.

This equation is a law of physics, as Scottie of Star Trek would say, or a law of biochemistry. It cannot be broken, no matter what diet you are on. Some foods can increase the metabolic rate, which is the energy used by the body when at rest, such as for breathing, blood circulation, thinking and the 1001 other things that the body does, even while you are asleep. If you wake up in the night feeling very hot and sweating, that is your body burning excess calories. A high metabolic rate is why some people seem to be able to eat everything without putting on a pound.

Most fat is stored under the skin, and that is the fat is normally lost first when you exercise. However, other fat can be stored round the abdomen and major organs such as the heart and liver. That fat is the most dangerous. It is difficult to shift, and can place great strain on the major organs. That is why abdominal fat is considered to medically undesirable, and is considered to have a greater effect on your health than fat elsewhere in your body.

The only way to lose weight is not to try a fad diet, but to take in fewer calories than you use up. It is simple math. 1000 calories in, 1001 calories used, then you lose weight. Simple. Better to have 1000 calories in and 2000 used, but that is beside the point. The message is that Atkins will not work if you eat more calories than you use. The theory is that a low carbohydrate diet increases your metabolic rate. So equal calories taken by Atkins and a high carb diet, means that Atkins loses more weight due to a higher metabolism. Atkins fails when too much fat is eaten and not enough exercise is taken because the subject relies on the diet and fails to exercise. That is a recipe for disaster with any diet, Atkins or not.

It is unbelievable how many people, some claiming to be expert dieticians, refuse to accept the concept of calories. Calories are fact, not a concept, and are popularly used as a measure of energy intake. It doesn't really matter whether you use calories or any other units, anybody that does not accept their relevance in diet are nuts.

To repeat, and to put it in a nutshell, energy absorbed must be less than energy expended if you are to lose weight. The best way to lose energy is exercise. The more exercise you do, the more weight you lose, as long as you eat less energy that you are using. Where you lose the weight depends on what parts of the body are being exercised. If you have fat thighs, you won't lose thigh fat if you exercise your arms. You will end up with skinny arms and thunder thighs.

If you carry out a structured exercise campaign designed to trim your whole body that is combined with a good diet regime, then weight loss, exercise and diet will work for you as science dictates that it must. Science is fact, not opinion.

Exercise and diet can work together. Learn how to combine them in a productive way and you will lose weight a lot easier than you could have believed. No more diet fads. You can eat anything you want, in any amount you want, as long as you exercise to work off what you eat. A tub of ice cream is fine if you are prepared to do an hour on the treadmill next day. So don't think that losing weight means the end of the chocolate cake * it needn*t. It is all a matter of balance.