Between 60 percent and 70 percent of U.S. adults are overweight or obese.

1. Understanding how many calories we need based on our activity level helps us identify changes we may need to make in those areas. To lose weight, we need to burn more calories than we eat.
   
   
   • Reduce Calories In: Keeping a food diary improves awareness of what and how much we are eating and whether we're eating out of habit instead of real hunger. Once we know what we are eating, we may be able to reduce the amount without having to count every calorie. heart.org/trackwhatyoueat
      
   • Increase Calories Out: Keeping an activity diary helps us learn how much physical activity we currently get daily. Heart360.org can help track our activity and other health information. heart.org/activitytracker, or heart360.org
     
     
2. Calculating our BMI helps to identify how much weight we may need to lose to reduce our risk of heart disease and stroke and live a heart-healthy life.
    
   
   • Learn Your Body Mass Index (BMI): This is a numerical value of weight in relation to height. BMIs are good indicators of healthy or unhealthy weights for adult men and women, regardless of body frame size. heart.org/BMI
     
     
3. Setting realistic goals and making slow changes over time are the best ways to set ourselves up for success, feel our best and live a healthy life.
    
   
   • Tips For Success:
     • Learn about portion sizes and how much you might really be eating. heart.org/portiondistortion
     • Try these top 10 tips to get more physical activity without taking more of your time. heart.org/Take10
     • Learn healthier ways to prepare food at home and how to dine out smart. heart.org/healthycooking, and heart.org/diningout
     • Make smart substitutions when cooking and snacking. heart.org/substitutions and heart.org/healthysnacking
     • Learn to love exercise ... or at least not hate it by finding activity that you enjoy. heart.org/lovingactivity