February 3, 2010
Recently my friend, an exercise physiologist, and I attended a talk on a weight loss clinical trial at WF given by Dr. Larry Appel, a very prominent physician/researcher from Johns Hopkins. Dr. Appel is best known for established the link between sodium intake and hypertension. I may be* biased, but I consider Hopkins to be one of the premier institutions in public health, and I tend to put a lot of stock in the research that comes from this fine institution.
What most stuck with me from Dr. Appel’s talk was his reply to a question about whether or not physicians should offer their patients a “menu” of options when it comes to weight loss strategies. Many people might have agreed with this, reasoning that tailoring an approach to an individual’s lifestyle, preferences or energy would be a great way to increase the likelihood that they would comply with the prescription. Dr. Appel had a surprising and interesting reply.
He said that as much as he would like that option to be feasible, when you got right down to it, there are many things that people want to do to lose weight that are ineffective, and many things that they don’t want to do that are proven very effective. Specifically, he mentioned calorie counting – an activity that many people really passionately dislike doing but something that is incredibly supported by research as an effective and safe means of weight loss.
Did I mention I consider Hopkins people to be the best?
At this point, I looked over at the investigator of the research grant I work on who was giving me a look as if to say “Soooo, you haven’t been making this stuff up all along?”
***
Leaving the talk, my friend and I discussed the validity of this comment and how important it was to be direct with people about what works, even when they don’t want to hear it. (See: my love for Jillian Michaels and her unwavering ability to do this.) From there, we started talking about the many, many different reasons we’ve heard from people about why they are “unable” to exercise or commit to weight loss behaviors. We were doubled over laughing at some of the gems we’ve heard throughout the years – excuses we wonder if the person delivering them even believed.
About a year ago, my friend and I decided to test run a new exercise program. She designed it, and we used ourselves as guinea pigs for four months. It was the best shape I’ve ever been in in my life. It was so effective, we were able to implement it as a pilot study on a small group of people. Only we used the time we had set aside for our workout as the time we ran our exercise program.
You see where this is going right?
Fast forward to one year later. I’ve added in training a dog with separation anxiety and increasing the hours I’ve spent building my coaching practice, she added in a new boyfriend and getting her house ready to get on the market. Our laughter about our clients’ excuse turned to silence when one of us voiced out loud what we were both concluding:
It’s all too easy to claim you’re too busy to exercise (or eat right, or food log, or grocery shop, or cook…). What’s really going on though, is that you’re simply no longer making it a priority.
This was a sobering thought for us. Both of us identified ourselves as exercisers, we had both done our undergraduate and master’s work in the field of health and wellness, and we both worked DAILY to promote these behaviors. After a decade of consistent, regular exercise, we were both dismayed to admit we’d dropped off to probably half of our normal routine.
The car remained quiet the rest of our ride home.
***
Later that day, I got to thinking about this conversation. I realized how uncomfortable it made me to say, out loud, “exercise has not been my priority.” I had been saying I was too busy, but that wasn’t the real truth. Raising a dog and running a practice were just two puzzle pieces of my life. The truth was I had just chosen to make other things a priority, whether it was an extra hour of working, sleeping, reading a book, or sadly enough, watching TV or browsing Facebook. I had simply ceased to make exercise a priority.
As this truth sunk in, I felt extremely uncomfortable. But I realized this is exactly what my brain needed to hear. Not my priority?? I like exercising. Even more importantly, I love the results – the strength, the energy, the confidence, and hey, the way my jeans fit. I promote exercise to others. Of course, it is my priority. Saying these words out loud was the kick in the pants I needed to take action on it. Exercise is my priority, and reminding myself of that begins to bring my actions in alignment with my values.
Sure, there’s some valid reasons to not exercise (or whatever goal you’re trying to set.) Maybe you just had a newborn and sleep is your priority. Maybe you’ve got a gravely ill family member who needs round the clock attention and care right now. A broken ankle? Sure, make the couch all yours. A flooded house? Take a few weeks off. But when you get right down to it, to the very core of it, there are very few reasons why you can’t exercise. The truth is that it’s just not your priority.
And that might be okay with you! Try saying that out loud. If it doesn’t really bother you to hear that, it’s okay. You don’t have to exercise. (I could list you a bajillion reasons why you might want to… but if you’re willing to accept the consequences of not exercising, then acknowledging that it’s not your priority is okay.)
But if it does make you uncomfortable, sit with that awhile. Change is hard. But change won’t occur until the place you’re currently hanging out in has become more painful than making that actual change. If you want to make exercise your priority, become uncomfortable with the fact that you aren’t, rather than sweeping it under the rug with “busy.”
And the day came with the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anais Nin
(*May be? I am most definitely biased, as it is my graduate “alma mater.” I promise to try and not that influence me, but I do love them Hopkins folks.)
July 1, 2009
I’m a HUUUGE fan of breakfast. You might have noticed – I talk about it a little bit. A few years back, I started upping my breakfast (sometimes having two a day) and gradually cutting back what I ate as the day goes on. I realized that once I stopped eating my biggest meal at the end of the day, I felt better, had more energy, less stomach pain, slept better, AND it helped with my weight loss.
Our culture has dictated that dinner be our biggest meal. Since we’re working or at school during the day, dinner is usually the hour we convene together. That has been the standard for, well, decades and it’s pretty much how all Americans eat. But think about how you expend your energy: for most people, we start moving as soon as we get up and slowly, slowly wind down towards the end of the day.
We refuel our cars at the start of the journey, not when we come home and park it in the garage. I didn’t come up with that analogy, and I wish I could remember where I heard it to give due credit – but nonetheless, it’s such a powerful image that I feel compelled to share it. So think about that: we need more fuel to go, and less as we slow down. It’s marvelously simple, but it takes a little bit of effort – in fact, it requires going completely against the grain of what we’re used to.
Picture an upside down triangle: spreading your calories out so you have more early on and tapering off towards the end of the day. This is the Upside Down Day. Summer is the perfect time to start practicing the Upside Down Day for many reasons. Typically in the winter months, we tend to crave starchier, heavier “comfort foods.” This isn’t so in summer, and many people find they’re satisfied with lighter meals in summer anyways. Also, with the abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables in the summer, you can make a high VOLUME meal (read: looks really really big on your plate) out of produce with a little bit of protein and it will still be a very light meal, calorically speaking.
Small Plate Dinner
If you’re cooking for or eating with others, it doesn’t mean you have to make everyone else change their way of eating. Just select smaller portion sizes for yourself – if there are leftovers, then you have lunch ready for tomorrow!
If you eat out, choose a salad and something from the appetizer section. You’ll probably find that that is plenty of food!
One very important key to the Upside Down Day is you MUST eat enough throughout the day. This isn’t going to work if you come home at 5 pm ready to eat anything that isn’t nailed down. The greatest sabotage to eating this way is insufficient calories throughout the day.
If you work, pack a bag the night before with breakfast, lunch and ideally 2-3 snacks. 1 mid-morning, a 2nd if you eat a late lunch, and one to eat right as you’re heading home. Ideal snacks are fruit, vegetables, yogurt, ½ oz nuts or 1/2 Cliff or Odwalla bar. If you’re home during the day, aim for structure: rather than mindlessly grazing throughout the day, aim to eat a mini-meal every 3 hours. Have breakfast be the largest meal, and gradually taper off as you go. (See my video on a breakfast idea.)
And here’s one final hint: if you find yourself raiding the cupboards about 3-4 hours after dinner with a growling tummy: drink a glass of skim or 1% milk, or grab a piece of fruit and then…. Ready for this? GO TO BED. Sleep helps with weight loss too, remember?
I’ll see you in the morning for breakfast.
March 2, 2009
Weight loss comes down to simple math: calories consumed must be less than calories expended in order to lose weight. So while in theory that means you can eat your calorie budget’s worth of chocolate chip cookies and still lose weight, there are ways to make your calories work harder for you. Some calories give you more bang for the buck – offering up a whole host of benefits, like prevention of numerous diseases, making you feel full, lifting your mood, helping you sleep better and more.
Once you master the “how much” of calories you can focus on how to make those calories count. For instance, higher consumption of vegetables has been linked to a 28% reduction in type II diabetes. Lowering your risk by almost a third just by changing what you eat? Now that’s pretty darn cool. The study that concluded this found that women who ate an average of 428 grams of vegetables a day had a 28% lower risk of type II diabetes than their study counterparts who averaged a just over a 100 grams a day. To put this in perspective, a cup of broccoli would be 50 grams.
Strive for five? It’s not just for grocery store ads. It’s not fully understood the role that the vegetables played in diabetes prevention, but it’s thought to be the combination of fiber, magnesium and powerful antioxidants that reduced the women’s risk. While this study is too limited to generalize to the entire population, it adds to our growing body of evidence that what we put in our bodies can not only impact our weight, but also our health.
Diabetes has affected over 24 million Americans and comes with a price tag of $132 billion. Even more shocking, according to the CDC, 57 million Americans are thought to have health markers that indicate that they are at risk for developing type II diabetes.
Much more of our health is in our control than we may realize. Maintaining a healthy weight is the beginning of a healthy lifestyle, but what you choose to fuel your body with each day can be another step in that journey.
A serving of vegetable is one cup of raw leafy greens (salad greens, raw spinach, kale, collards) or a ½ cup of all other vegetables. (One cup is approximately the size of your hand in a fist.) Count up your veggie servings for the next 3 days. If you’re holding up just a peace sign on your fingers (or less!) at the end of the day, think of ways you can increase your veggie intake.
Some of my favorite ways to increase veggie intake:
- Stir Frys for dinner (1-2 cups of veggies)
- V8 juice with breakfast or as a snack
- Using leftover veggies from the night before in an egg-white omelet
- Salsa on top of a baked potato
- Adding veggies to soups or sauces
Chicken Stir-Fry: An Excuse for Lots of Veggies
February 6, 2009
I spoke in a post awhile back about the importance of eating enough for weight loss. Remember when you were a kid and you got to take a break mid-morning during school for snack time? (I was the weirdo eating broccoli and ranch dressing, while my classmates brought in 25 cent bags of fritos…. budding nutritionist at the tender age of 6, you say? Clearly.) Anyways, I digress. The point is: Snack time wasn’t built into the day just to give teachers a minute to sit down and breathe – although I’m sure they need it. Your metabolism is a fire, and just like dousing it with fuel can put out the flame, so can too little kindling. Snack time was built to keep your metabolism cranking at it’s peak.
Much research supports the concept of eating your calories spread out throughout the day, spacing meals and snacks out every three to four hours. If breakfast is at 6:30 and lunch isn’t until 12:30 or 1:00, you’re missing out on a whole bunch of calorie burning time in between. And, by the time you actually get to lunch time, you’re starving. And truth be told, good choices are not on an ravenous stomach made!
Embrace the snack. Spread your calories out in such a way that you can include at least a mid-morning snack, and an afternoon one if you need it too. Yes, staying in budget still applies here, but spreading that budget out keeps the fires burning all day long. And besides, you love to eat, right? C’mon, it’s that how we got into this mess in the first place? Here it is: permission to eat more. More often, that is.
Best picks? Depending on your calorie budget, aim for 100-200 calories per snack. Combine a protein with a carb for the best keep-you-full combo, or have a high-fiber carb. The latter includes all veggies and fruits, of course, as well as high-fiber crackers (Triscuits and Wasa crackers are my faves). If you’ve got the room in your budget, spread a thin layer of Laughing Cow cheese on your Wasa. Also tasty spread on apples and pears. Grab a few unsalted almonds (7 calories a pop) and sprinkle them around your fruit, or pair some 3 almonds (75 cals) with a 1/2 oz slice of cheese (50 cals). Vegetables and hummus or yogurt with some kashi cereal are another mix and match favorite.
A favorite: apples, laughing cows and a few almonds.
December 5, 2008
What if there was one thing you could to do that almost* guaranteed you would lose twice as much weight? What if this one thing was free, had no side effects and was not sold via late night infomercial with annoyingly perky spokeswoman and eager yet questionable physician touting effects? Yes, yes, I’m serious! It exists!! Are you ready for me to tell you what it is?!
It’s….. A FOOD LOG!
Hey, where are you all going?
Seriously, what’s the big DEAL over this little collection of papers? I have never found such an effective, worthwhile tool that has been met with so much freaking resistance.
You think it’s hard? Define hard. If your definition of hard is “twenty minutes to look up calories of foods I ate and write them down in a little notebook”, then I would like your life. I’m willing to bet many of the zillion other things you do in your day are much, much harder than putting pen to paper with a calorie book by your side. (Or fingers to keyboard if you’re e-savvy with your food log.)
*A study came out this year that found people who wrote their food downs and ate healthy (specifically the heart-healthy DASH diet) lost TWICE as much weight as the people who followed the same plan without tracking. This study included nearly 1700 participants, making it one of the largest weight loss studies of its kind. It was published in the August 2008 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and was followed up by USA Today, CBS, Time and Yahoo News. Kind of a big deal, folks.
If you want to lose weight you have to become aware of what you’re eating. And you might think you’re the Dalai Llama of portion control, but if you’re not logging, you’re at risk for suffering calorie amnesia. Yes, calorie amnesia. It is a rare but treatable symptom experienced most frequently by people who are an environment with plentiful and inexpensive food. In other words: you. You are at risk for forgetting what you ate, how much you ate, where you ate it and why you ate it…. unless you write it down.
When I was introduced to the food log almost seven years ago, I found it to be a gift. Finally, I could see in black and white why the pounds had been creeping on. There was no more mystery. Every day that I write down what I’ve eaten reminds me to eat with intention and purpose. The best part is that eating with intention is actually more enjoyable than eating mindlessly. Everyone tells me they want to ENJOY food while they’re losing weight… here is your chance.
The truth is if you’re resisting writing your food down it’s not because you’re too busy. If a loved one needed 20 minutes of your day for something that would restore their health, I know you would find the time. If you’re not willing to do that for yourself, the real question is how much of a priority are you making your health and yourself.
The resistance to writing it down is also a resistance to accountability. There’s often a part of us that doesn’t want to see in black and white the damage we’re doing to our health. It’s like throwing the unopened credit card bill in the pile – sometimes it’s easier not to know.
A food log provides insight. It provides accountability. It provides understanding. It is the key to unlocking yourself from the vicious cycle of frustrating, overwhelming “why can’t I do something about this” weight gain. Change your thinking about what a food log means to you and you may find that twenty means a day is a small price to pay in return for being in control of your weight and your health.
Food for Thought: We’re all busy people, so I often find that when I’m saying “I’m too busy” to do something what I really mean is “It’s not a priority.” Is your weight loss a priority to you? If it is, and you’ve resisted the idea of keeping a food journal, try redefining your thoughts around journaling. Find what you like about it. Set yourself a goal of a limited time to try it – two or three weeks is ideal as a trial period. When the pounds start coming off, you may not need quite as much persuasion to want to keep going.
December 4, 2008
What if there was one thing you could to do that almost* guaranteed you would lose twice as much weight? What if this one thing was free, had no side effects and was not sold via late night infomercial with annoyingly perky spokeswoman and eager yet questionable physician touting effects? Yes, yes, I’m serious! It exists!! Are you ready for me to tell you what it is?!
It’s….. A FOOD LOG!
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Hey, where are you all going?
Seriously, what’s the big DEAL over this little collection of papers? I have never found such an effective, worthwhile tool that has been met with so much freaking resistance.
You think it’s hard? Define hard. If your definition of hard is “twenty minutes to look up calories of foods I ate and write them down in a little notebook”, then I would like your life. I’m willing to bet many of the zillion other things you do in your day are much, much harder than putting pen to paper with a calorie book by your side. (Or fingers to keyboard if you’re e-savvy with your food log.)
*A study came out this year that found people who wrote their food downs and ate healthy (specifically the heart-healthy DASH diet) lost TWICE as much weight as the people who followed the same plan without tracking. This study included nearly 1700 participants, making it one of the largest weight loss studies of its kind. It was published in the August 2008 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and was followed up by USA Today, CBS, Time and Yahoo News. Kind of a big deal, folks.
If you want to lose weight you have to become aware of what you’re eating. And you might think you’re the Dalai Llama of portion control, but if you’re not logging, you’re at risk for suffering calorie amnesia. Yes, calorie amnesia. It is a rare but treatable symptom experienced most frequently by people who are an environment with plentiful and inexpensive food. In other words: you. You are at risk for forgetting what you ate, how much you ate, where you ate it and why you ate it…. unless you write it down.
When I was introduced to the food log almost seven years ago, I found it to be a gift. Finally, I could see in black and white why the pounds had been creeping on. There was no more mystery. Every day that I write down what I’ve eaten reminds me to eat with intention and purpose. The best part is that eating with intention is actually more enjoyable than eating mindlessly. Everyone tells me they want to ENJOY food while they’re losing weight… here is your chance.
The truth is if you’re resisting writing your food down it’s not because you’re too busy. If a loved one needed 20 minutes of your day for something that would restore their health, I know you would find the time. If you’re not willing to do that for yourself, the real question is how much of a priority are you making your health and yourself.
The resistance to writing it down is also a resistance to accountability. There’s often a part of us that doesn’t want to see in black and white the damage we’re doing to our health. It’s like throwing the unopened credit card bill in the pile – sometimes it’s easier not to know.
A food log provides insight. It provides accountability. It provides understanding. It is the key to unlocking yourself from the vicious cycle of frustrating, overwhelming “why can’t I do something about this” weight gain. Change your thinking about what a food log means to you and you may find that twenty means a day is a small price to pay in return for being in control of your weight and your health.
Food for Thought: We’re all busy people, so I often find that when I’m saying “I’m too busy” to do something what I really mean is “It’s not a priority.” Is your weight loss a priority to you? If it is, and you’ve resisted the idea of keeping a food journal, try redefining your thoughts around journaling. Find what you like about it. Set yourself a goal of a limited time to try it – two or three weeks is ideal as a trial period. When the pounds start coming off, you may not need quite as much persuasion to want to keep going.
October 31, 2008
Dear Readers,
I lied to you in my last blog post and I’m sorry.
Well not really sorry. I lied to you on purpose to see if any of you would raise up in arms. You didn’t, which either means there’s less of you than I think or my lie was just subtle enough to slip by. What did I lie about?
The ease of calorie reduction. I said something along the lines of reducing calories through what you eat is easier than reducing calories through exercise. Now has anyone actually tried reducing the amount of calories that you eat every day? Was it easy?
(I’ve got about 3 clients out there scratching there head going “umm yeah… it was….”) For the rest of us real lifers, reducing your caloric intake by 500 may sound easier than jogging an hour every day but we all know in real life, change is rarely so easy.
Our decision to put xyz food in our mouth is a complex one. It’s driven by hunger, it’s driven by emotions, by sights, by cues of our friends, family, colleagues and random strangers on public transportation, by traditions, by values, by hormonal changes, by whims, by coercion… you name it. This is why I firmly believe in the power of coaching. (And not just by me, but I am pretty good.) A coach can be anyone – your best pal Shelia, your Uncle Leo, your doting wife… or it can be a professional someone – a personal trainer, a nutritionist, a coach, a therapist, a physican.
The truth is is that untangling the complex web of eating decisions is a journey. You’ll make one enlightened step forward and tumble two confusing “why did I do that” steps backward. It will at times be exciting as you discover your own sense of understanding and confidence, but it will also be fraught with frustration and disappointment. Having someone or a team of someones to hold your hand is not just a nice idea, it’s a neccesity.
Food For Thought: If you were going to run a marathon, would you sign up for the one that boasts spectators and bands playing at every mile or the one that promises crickets chirping and silent, barren landscape? Too much time in your head on a long journey is not good for anyone. Are you ready to tackle your weight loss marathon? Round up your spectators, let them know where you need them to stand and make sure when you hear them cheering loud and clear you give them a big ol thanks so they’ll keep on cheering.
Let me say this one more time: You. Need. Support.
Stay tuned for more on untangling that messy web of eating cues I just introduced. That’s where we’re going next. (Get your spectators ready if you think you want to dig in to your own cues!)
October 25, 2008
Can you lose weight with a broken foot?
Sure, it’s a ridiculous question but the truth is many people think that if they’re not losing weight, it’s because they’re not exercising enough. Toss in an injury that limits exercise or a lifestyle that makes a gym visit prohibitive and we’ve concocted a perfectly reasonable explanation for why weight loss has slowed or halted. I hear it all the time.
Truth is, it’s actually easier to reduce caloric intake through changing your habits than exercising. (I said easier people, not better… I’m a firm believer in the magic bullet of exercise.) Most research supports creating a 500 calorie a day deficit to lose one pound a week. For me, it would take about an hour of jogging to burn 500 calories. How quickly can I eat an extra 500 calories? Oh, you just watch me… a handful of candy corn there (140), a fourth of a basket of chips at El Dorado’s (210), the free sugar cookie at the grocery store (60), and the oh what the heck 2nd glass of wine at dinner (100) and I’m there. And then some. Calories are a sneaky thing. It’s easy to tack on an extra 500 cals through food and it takes a heckuva lot of time and sweat to burn off those 500 calories at the gym.
Should you exercise? You betcha. It’s going to expedite your weight loss, preserve your lean muscle tissue and do all sorts of amazing and wonderful things to your cellular insides. But if you can’t (or really reaaaaalllly don’t wanna), there’s no reason to think you don’t have an equal opportunity to shed pounds.
And contrary to many people’s beliefs (or maybe just what we’d like to believe), the reverse just ain’t true. If you’re sweating it out at the gym and telling yourself “I earned this” as you bite into that McGriddle, chances are you aren’t going to see the results you want. Unless you like seeing that same digital blue number week after week after week…..
Food For Thought: Check out the calories in a few of your favorite indulgences here. Then pop over to this calculator and see how long it would take you to burn that off through exercise. My personal fave? An hour of ironing earns me a on the rocks margarita. Toss me those wrinkly shirts, hubby!
October 23, 2008
Santa, can you hear me? I know it’s a little early to be making wish lists, but I am doing backflips over the impending release of this little gadget due out in late Dec/early Jan. I am so excited to try it out. It’s called Fitbit and it’s a tiny, wearable device that tracks your activities all day long (including your sleep!) and then wirelessly uploads the information to a website where you can log in and see how many calories you’re burning. From what I can tell, the website also lets you log health goals and nutrition information.
Calories in versus calories out? No more guessing. I’m putting my order in… so expect a review in January!
September 5, 2008
I have a confession to make. I am obsessed with a number. But you may be surprised to know that it is not the number that stares up at me in digital blue font each morning. No, despite that number being a part of my daily routine, that is not THE number. The number I am obsessed with is a calorie budget. And not just my calorie budget – in fact, my own calorie budget interests me the least. Maybe it’s because I’ve become so acquainted with it over the last 6 years it’s as familiar to me as my ATM pin. Other people’s calorie budgets I dare admit, excite me. I love calculating someone’s daily caloric needs and I handing over the four digit number with as much glee and reverence as if I am handing over the code to the holy grail. Surprisingly enough, the response is generally somewhat lackluster.
At first.
Because, whether or not they chose to humor me or they are just hopeful and willing to try anything, most people give it a try. Why not? They’ve tried eating burgers wrapped in “lettuce buns.” They’ve tried yellow cellophane wrapped bars that offer a delightfully balanced ratio of nutrients. They’ve plugged their nose and gulped down apple cider. They’ve tried all these and more, so why not see what a harmless little number has in store for them? The excitement on their face when using a calorie budget turns out to be not only effective, but not even that hard…. there’s no better reward for this girl. Another fan joins the Calorie Counting Club.
I truly believe that choosing what to eat each day without knowing your daily caloric needs is like taking out a mortgage without knowing your monthly salary. Sure, people do it. But it’s stupid. Can we all agree on that? Each of our bodies is hard-wired to need a certain amount of energy to go about our daily functions. Take it more than those energy needs and your jeans start feeling aweebitsnug *gasp*. Take in less and … voila! It’s not rocket science, but it is basic science. Calories in versus calories out is the foundation of weight management. We can talk another day about where those calories come from as far as you feeling your best (oh, you bet I can talk about that), but for today, let’s suffice it to say that simply knowing what you need is as important to the management of your weight as…. well, as nothing else. It is THE single most important factor. It’s the starting point.
And here’s the beauty of it all. It ain’t that hard to figure out. In fact, you can google your heart out and find plenty of calculators that will even do the math for you. I have now passed out 163 calculators teaching people how to calculate their caloric needs…. while I am not sure everyone gets as excited as their dear, sweet, overzealous coach (c’est moi), I daresay the successful ones are the ones who use it.
One man summed it nicely to me a few months ago. He said “Knowing this calculation is like knowing what goes on under the hood of your car. It’s not information you’re going to use everyday, but it can sure save you a headache when things start breaking down.” And just to toot his horn, he’s holding tight to a 41 pound weight loss.
I teach my clients to calculate budgets so they’re self-sustainable beyond their work with me. Let’s say a few years pass, life gets in the way, and oops, you hit the Rocky Road. (Literally and gastronomically.) Your weight has crept back up and you’re at a loss. You know what to do… eat less than what your body needs. So, do you have to call me up to find out what your body needs?
Nah. You know how. Just call me up to tell me you’re back on track. You’ve got my number, and now you’ve got yours.
Food For Thought: Get to it! Find out what your number is. This is a great calculator here and has a nice little blurb about how to use a calorie budget. But you can find any by googling “daily caloric needs.” Find one that takes into account your age, height, weight and gender. It will give your daily needs and remember, to lose weight you need to eat less than that. (Ideal is to subtract 250-500 calories from your maintenance budget to lose 1 lb-0.5 lb a week. Men will usually be in the 1600-1800 calories for weight loss, women in the 1200-1400 calories. It is recommended that no one consume less than 1100 calories per day.)
