It's a simple formula really. Don't make it more confusing than it has to be. The KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). principle applies here:
Albert Einstein said that the fundamental laws of the universe are so simple and beautiful, there must be a creator. Their is a beauty to simplicity.
So as to burn fat you have to burn more calories in 24 hours than what you consume.
Weight Loss Gain = Calories Burned - Calories Consumed
First you have to determine what your Basic Metabolic Rate is (BMR for short). That is the amount of calories your body burns, assuming that you do nothing but normal activity in a 24 hour period.
You can simply do a search for "basic metabolic rate calculator" on a search engine and use a few of the calculators to get an average. They all vary a little. This should get you a close estimate.
Then calculate how many calories you burn in your workout. I like to use the Weather channel's Health & Fitness Calorie Burn calculator. It has alot of different exercise options including walking, running, cycling, aerobics etc.
Add those two figures together and you know that you need to consume less calories in one day in order to lose weight and burn fat. The formula looks like this -
Fat Burned = (BMR + Calories Burned) - Calories Consumed
Obviously, for this to work you've got to know how many calories you are consuming. So how do you know?
"Most people, under estimate how many calories they eat and over estimate how many calories they burn..."
You've got to get realistic estimates here or you will end up being frustrated with slow to no fat loss.
So how do you get realistic food facts? By reading the labels on packaged food, required by the FDA. Start reading the labels when you go grocery shopping and/or look them up online.
I've already shown my sample diet below. It may be boring but it works for me like clockwork. Stick with this diet for a month, 3 months or 6 months and you will see how dramatically it works.
As a matter of fact, start getting ready for people accusing you of being anorexic or bulimic just because you have been so successful at loosing fat.
It happened to me. Many in my family were saying that I must not be eating, that I must be anorexic or bulimic...That's a new one to me...I've never been accused of such things before!
I said "All I'm doing is eating healthy and exercising. What's wrong with that?"