Lets face the music here. Losing weight is not easy. To shed weight you have to really dedicate yourself. It's not something that can just be turned on and then it stays on with little to no maintenance. What I'm focusing on in this post is the diet aspect of weight loss. I've heard from many people and I've read online that to lose weight it is 80% diet and 20% exercise. I've tried to find a reliable source to back this up but I have yet to find one. Nonetheless I agree. I've learned that you could work out for three hours a day everyday and still manage to gain weight in the form of fat. What I've been doing is making sure that I finish the day with a calorie deficit. In other words, I make sure that the calories I take in are fewer than the calories that I expel during the day. Even if I stopped exercising completely I would still lose weight- just not at the same pace that I am now. I was suggested to check out this app that really changed my whole approach to losing weight. It's called My Fitness Pal. If you're looking to lose anything from 5-200 pounds then this is a great way to start.
The My Fitness Pal app is available on iPods/pads/phones as well as most smartphones on the market. Even if you don't have one, then you can still log your information on their website and keep up that way. To set up your account you enter your weight, height, how often you plan to work out each week, your activity level, and how much you want to lose per week. Once you set that up then the site/app will calculate your BMR (Basil Metabolic Rate- how many calories you burn on a daily basis just from bodily functions and minimal movements). Depending on your goals it will calculate how many calories you'd need to take in on a daily basis in order to hit that goal of pounds per week. When you lose ten pounds it will recalculate your BMR and you adjust from there. My current BMR is about 3240 calories burned per day. My goal is to lose 2 pounds a week. Since a pound of fat is 3,500 calories, I need a deficit of 1,000 calories per day to hit that goal.
The purpose of this app is to monitor your intake as well as your output of calories. Whenever I eat something I enter it onto the app and it will break it down to show me the makeup of the food. Protein, carbs, fats, sodium, vitamins, etc. It breaks down how much you need of those things per day. When you exercise you enter that as well and it gives you an estimate for the amount of calories you burn doing that activity. This is anything from walking, hiking, playing basketball, dancing, and so much more.
The app is great because it helped me get on track with my eating habits. I'll admit that for the past two weeks I haven't used it but it's because I have gotten to the point that I can eye gauge the amount of calories in the foods I eat. I'll still reference it on new foods to figure out how much I can have. I'm about to jump back in full time again so that I can speed up the weight loss process and get much more consistent results. So hopefully you'll check out the website for yourself if you're in a rut and trying to shed some weight! On an unrelated note, it's Wednesday which means that I'll be updating the weight portion on the site as well as all of my measurements! So check back later for that! (I weighed myself and I'll say that the results were AWESOME!) Until the next episode!