I believe weight loss is about calorie balancing. In order to get serious about your weight, you’ve got to take note of the calories of everything you with commitment. You can lose weight without counting calories but the speed at which you lose weight is nothing compared to you putting in the effort to monitoring your calories.
The idea is simple: consume less calories than you’re working to lose through exercise. Do that consistently for a set period of time and you will see considerable changes in your weight.
Some schools of thought set diets to restrict you from eating certain foods. For example, one magazine I read recently told you to eat a simple banana and milk diet for 2 weeks and was nicknamed “The Skinny Black Dress Diet.” I believe that weight loss should be fun and although you must be committed in counting your calories and making sure you take in less calories than you give off during the day, you won’t need to restrict your eating.
Calorie Counting
I recommend creating a week’s meal plan in advance for as much as possible so that you can balance out your eating and measure your calories to approximation. This will also allow you to use a calorie counter tool to fit up to 2000 calories in your body each day and also working out how many calories you burn every day.
For example, if my Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR, or how many calories I burn daily) is about 1900, I should aim to consume about 500 calories less than that so that I give off 500 calories and work on my weight loss. Then with the calorie counter tool I can plan a weeks eating and add up the calories. Using this example above, losing 500 calories a day should get you to lose 1 pound weight a week!
Choosing Your Foods
Now knowing that you’re going to restrict the amount you eat but not restrict to the type of food, common sense should prevail and guide you to first selecting whole foods, proteins, carbohydrates and lots of water-rich fruits and vegetables. The biggest killer in people focused on weight loss is binging, however you can prevent this by strict motivation to stop eating when you shouldn’t or just eat small amounts in more intervals throughout the day so taking the example above, you would spread about 1500 calories into about 5 times a day for 5 small meals of 300 calories each.
Also, during weeks focused on weight loss, set up some rules.
- No snacking between breakfast and lunch.
- No snacking between lunch and dinner.
- No snacking after dinner.
Snacking (or nibbling) usually starts small but ends up large. Avoid it as much as possible. When you feel hungry, drink a glass of water and as well as getting your energy up, it will help making you feel fuller.
The idea of not restricting some foods I have proposed here is not supported by everyone. But for those on a weight loss plan I think it’s a bit harsh to close out some foods you may like from your life. For that I suggest you take up a 2-bite rule. Any desert you like, any food you like, at only one time in the week, you’re allowed a maximum of two yummy bites. That’s fair, isn’t it?
Exercise
Some say exercise isn’t necessary because your BMR is already going to aid you in giving off calories, however sometimes it’s not the calories you want to give off and ones you should be working to get rid of get stuck in your body. Exercise is extremely important and for at least 30 minutes a day. If you can’t exercise for 30 minutes a day in one go, don’t worry, as Elisa Zied says in her book Feed Your Family Right, you can break it up in 5-10 minute intervals and do it throughout the day at home, at work or during travel. But make sure you do it.
Exercise will help you increase calorie output and thus you may be able to lose weight faster or increase your food consumption a bit more. It’s all about doing your maths right.
Other bits
1. Keep a log. Every day, log down the amount of calories you eat and what you eat. Also log down when you exercise, what exercise you did and for how long for. This will provide useful feedback when you look back on and celebrate your results.
2. Forgive yourself. I don’t think you’ll get it correct right away, so forgive yourself if you do something wrong. Go back, rectify what you’ve done, change course if required and try again. Never say never.
If you’ve done something like this, let me know how it’s working for you.
