The A-B-C’s of Weight Loss

Still struggling to lose weight?  Have you tried one diet after another with little or no results?  Or worse, have you gained back more that what you lost on your last diet?  Losing weight shouldn’t be this hard!

Well, in truth, it’s not.  Losing weight is pretty simple.  Here’s what I recently learned becoming certified as a Fitness Nutrition Coach.

I recently completed the material for the NESTA Fitness Nutrition Coach certification.  They did a really good job of explaining how the body uses various nutrients.  Here’s some of what I learned about losing weight.

First, your current weight is an indication of your body’s energy balance.  If you burn off (energy going out) the same number of calories that you consume via eating (energy coming in), then your weight won’t change because the number of calories going out is exactly the same as the number of calories coming in.

However, if you eat more calories than you burn off (energy coming in > energy going out), then you’ll gain weight because you’re putting more calories into your body than the body can use.  It will simply store the extra calories as fat.

Conversely, if you burn more calories than you consume (energy coming < energy going out), then you’ll lose weight.  In this case, the body needs more calories than you’re giving it through eating so it uses some of the calories stored in fat to make up the difference.

Pretty straightforward, I know.  But how exactly do you apply this in a way that you can stick with on a day-to-day basis?  How do you put that into easy-to-follow steps?  Here’s where I figured out what the A-B-C’s of weight loss actually were.

A – Reduce Your Total Calories

OK, you should have seen that one coming.  But the first question I had was, “What exactly does that mean in terms of my daily eating habits?”  Are we just talking about dieting?

Well, yes and no.  Dieting is part of the answer, but not all of it.  Here’s why dieting alone usually doesn’t work.  Most experts agree that for permanent weight loss, your goal should be to lose 1-2 pounds per week.  If you’re losing any more than that, it’s probably water weight, not fat loss – which means it will eventually come back.

So let’s do a little math and see exactly how many calories 1-2 pounds translates into.  One pound equals approximately 3500 calories.  Therefore, if you want to lose 2 pounds in a week, you would have to reduce your total caloric intake for the week by 7000 calories (2 lbs x 3500 cal/lb = 7000 cal).

So what’s that on a daily basis?  Well, we need a reduction of 7000 calories per week and there’s 7 days in a week so dividing one by the other gives 1000 calories per day.  You would have to eat 1000 fewer calories each and every day.

Holy Smokes!  One Thousand Less Calories!  That’s huge!  If you’re eating around 2000 calories per day, then eating 1000 fewer calories means cutting your meals in half! Could you do that?  I know I can’t – at least not for more than a day or two.  This is exactly why most people who try to lose weight by dieting alone rarely find success. It’s just too high a hurdle to clear each and every day.

So what’s a more balanced approach?  One approach that will increase your chances of success is to combine dieting (reducing the total number of calories you consume) with some type of exercise (increase the total number of calories you burn off).  That’s the next step.

B – Increase Your Activity Level

Instead of trying to reduce your daily calorie intake by 1000 calories through dieting alone, it makes much more sense to combine dieting with exercise.  Here’s how it would work.

Remember our energy balance equation?  Energy coming in (via food) must be less than energy going out (through activity level) in order for us to lose weight.  There are 3 ways to accomplish this:

1. Through Dieting Alone. In other words, reduce the amount of food coming in and keep your activity level the same.  However, we’ve already discussed how difficult this is to maintain over the long term so this is not really a good option.
2. Through Exercise Alone. You can keep the amount of food constant and increase your activity level.  But you still  have to create a deficit of 1000 calories per day and if you’re not going to do it through dieting, that means you’ll have to burn it off.  There’s just one problem.  Do you realize how much exercise you have to do in order to burn off 1000 calories?  That’s about a 90 minute, non-stop cardio session.  And remember, you have do this each and every day.  Again, not something most people can stick with on a daily basis.
3. Using Both Dieting and Exercise. This is the balanced choice.  Instead of trying to loose (or burn) 1000 calories using one method alone, try losing half that amount (500 calories) with each method.  Seek to reduce your caloric intake by 500 calories – that’s about a 20-25% reduction in meal size.  I can probably do that just by cutting out snacks and soft drinks.  Second, seek to burn off an additional 500 calories by increasing your activity level through exercise.  I can probably burn off 500 calories in a 30-45 min cardio class with no problem.  Now you’ve got a weight reduction plan that’s doable, and one you can stick to.

C – Make better food choices

The last step is to make better food choices on the calories you do consume.  Choose foods that are nutrient rich, instead of energy rich.  For example, a Twinkie® and a large apple both have approximately the same number of calories (about 120).  Although the Twinkie provides a short-term “energy-rush,” the apple provides a number of nutrients (like fiber) that are missing from the Twinkie.  So make sure that the calories you do consume are from whole foods instead of processed ones.

So that’s the “secret” to weight loss:  reduce your total calories, increase your activity level, and make better food choices.  What turned on the lights for me was realizing that if you utilize all three steps in your weight loss plan, your chances of success go way up!

Give it shot.  I think you’ll not only find this kind of weight loss program easier to stick with, but you’ll also begin to get the permanent results you’re looking for.

Hiram
The Balanced Health Guy

Technorati Tags: Body Balance, calories, diet, Dieting, Eating Habits, Energy Balance, Fitness Nutrition, Gain Weight, Lose Weight, Losing Weight, Nutrients, Nutrition Coach, weight loss

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