Unfortunately, in many cases it isn’t and it isn’t long before some of the same people have packed it right back on again.  So what’s the problem?  Maybe it’s the fact that many people rely on exercise alone as a way to lose weight, and that’s a sure path to failure.

You can’t use exercise alone to lose weight.  Period.  Why not?  Well, think about it.  Exercise increases the amount of calories your body burns.  That’s good, right?  Yes but your body then seeks to compensate for that calorie loss by making you hungrier than you would otherwise be.  In other words, exercise increases your appetite making it much more likely that you’ll stop by the fast food drive-through on your way home from the gym.  You tell yourself, “After all, I worked hard, right?  I deserve a “reward” for working out.”

See how it works?  The more you workout, the more your appetite increases to compensate for the calories you burned.  The more your appetite increases, the harder it is to make good food choices and maintain portion control.  Also, the easier it is to feel like you “deserve” some dessert or an extra helping of your favorite food.  And boom, before you know it, you’ve not only erased all the good you did at the gym (from a weight-loss standpoint), but you’ve probably added calories to boot.  This is exactly why many people exercise all day long and don’t lose an ounce – and also why quite a few actually gain weight when they exercise.

So here’s the bottom line:  you don’t exercise to lose weight. You exercise to get fit.  You exercise to tone your muscles.  You exercise to increase stamina, build flexibility, and maintain coordination.  You exercise to maintain muscle strength.  You exercise to keep your heart and lungs healthy.  You exercise to reduce stress.  You exercise for a hundred-and-one really good and valid reasons — but sustainable weight-loss isn’t one of them.

Losing weight is about 2 things and 2 things only:

1. Eat less calories (ie: portion control)
2. Making better food choices.

That’s it.  There is no more.  That’s the whole “secret” to successful and sustained weight-loss.  It really doesn’t matter what diet program you’re on or are thinking of trying out:  Atkins, South Beach, Primitive, etc.  These diet programs provide all sorts of recipes that are designed to help you eat less total calories (number 1 on my list) as well as help you make better food choices (number 2 on my list).  That’s all they do.  And now that you know the “secret,” you can do it too without having to buy all the books and CD’s and whatever.

If you really want to lose weight, eat less – way less. Pay strict attention to portion control.  Don’t use the huge dinner plates that most people (and restaurants) use and start eating your meals on the smaller salad plates.  Get yourself a kitchen scale and find out what a “normal serving” of food looks like.  Hint:  A “normal” serving of meat is about the size of a deck of cards and does NOT spill over the side of the plate like the chicken-fried steak special at the local steak house.

Which brings me to the second point, if you really want to lose weight, make better food choices. That means passing on the chicken-fried steak special covered in cream gravy and going with a grilled salmon instead.  Choose foods that not only contain less calories, but are also better for you.

So what have we learned here?  Well, first, if you’re exercising, don’t stop – just understand that it’s not really going to help you lose much weight.  Second, serious and sustainable weight-loss is all about eating less calories and making better food choices.

Once you start working on the right things, you’ll begin to see real progress!

Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach and
Personal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

P.S. Be sure to get my latest Fitness Blueprint called “Little Things That Improve Your Health.” This ebook is packed with loads of helpful information on how to build a better body and you can get it FREE – for a limited time.  Just click on the title to be taken to the download page.  Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: exercise, weight-loss, diet, nutrition, calories, south beach,  Atkins, dieting, losing weight, fat

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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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