How to Lose Weight
There are five keys to losing weight.
- Motivation
- Calorie Goals
- Food
- Exercise
- Positive Thinking
Motivation
Motivation is the first and often hardest step. It doesn’t mean telling yourself “I’m so fat! I’ve got to lose weight!” It means telling yourself “I am seriously going to do this.” It means cultivating a supply of energy you can draw upon when you don’t feel like getting up to work out, or when turning down a piece of cake, or to maintain a positive frame of mind.
Where do you find motivation? It comes from wanting change, but feeds on success. Think of motivation as a plant you tend, helping it grow slowly but surely. Use your desire for change to get started. Make small changes in your behavior. Drink three fewer sodas a day, or take the stairs instead of the elevator. These changes need to be small things you can actually accomplish. Don’t set big goals to start! Know that bigger goals are coming, but for now, you are feeding your tender plant with tiny amounts of food and water, to get it started.
These small changes do actually make a difference. Be watching out for improvement! When you see it, latch onto it and celebrate! You’ve gotten over the biggest hurdle; you’ve discovered that change brings results. You have success, and the small changes didn’t kill you.
Next, set your goals a little higher. It will be a little harder to make these changes, but when you feel you are slipping, remind yourself about your prior successes. These are proof that you can do it. Making lifestyle changes is extremely hard, but you are succeeding, one step at a time! Keep these successes fresh in your mind, because they give you the motivation you need.
Calorie Goals
Now, we get into the mechanics of our bodies. Forget all the fluff you’ve heard on TV; weight control is about Calories In vs. Calories Out. Where those calories come from, be it carbs, protein, fat, or alcohol, or the time of day you eat those calories, doesn’t matter. What matters is the number of calories you eat or drink (“Calories In”) and the number of calories you burn (“Calories Out”).
If you burn more calories than you eat or drink, you will lose weight. Period.
Calories In is very simple. This is simply the number of calories you eat and drink each day, no matter where they come from. There are many ways to look these up. Fitday.com and Calorie-Count.com are two excellent internet resources. You do need to track your Calories In. Fitday.com has tools for this, or you can make an Excel spreadsheet, or write them in a notebook. However you do it, keep track of your Calories In every day. As a side benefit, knowing you will have to write down that piece of cake helps motivate you to not eat it.
Calories Out is harder. There are two ways calories are burned. One is simply by living. As you sleep and breathe, your body uses calories to keep operating. This number of calories burned by living is called your Basal Metabolic Rate, or BMR. For a 200 pound person, this is usually around 1,700 calories a day, but every body is different. You can calculate your BMR on the internet at sites like Internetfitness.com. This will be an estimate, but is a good place to start.
The second way calories are burned is by the exercise you get. This includes every single thing you do each day, from sneezing to walking to the bathroom to using an exercise machine. Since you do so many things each day, let’s split this into two parts.
The first part is the Basic stuff you do. This is everything except the work outs you will add to your daily routine. But you don’t want to count every time you sneeze, even though that does burn calories. If you are basically sedentary during the day, you can multiply your BMR by .2, and that will be a good estimate of your Basic calories. Remember, for this step do not count any extra exercise you are doing in order to lose weight. Count the little basic things you do each day. If you type all day in an office, choose the sedentary level. If you chase small children around the house all day, choose a higher level. Most of us who are trying to lose weight will be starting at the sedentary level.
Your Basic Calories:
If you are sedentary = BMR x .2
If you are lightly active = BMR x .375
If you are moderately active = BMR x .55
If you are very active = BMR x .725
If you are extra active = BMR x .9
The second part is the exercise you add to your life while making these lifestyle changes. The section below will talk more about this, but for now we just need to know that the calories we burn by working out are a part of Calories Out. Web sites like Caloriesperhour.com or Fitday.com can help you determine how many calories these work outs are burning.
Finally, add together your BMR, your Basic calories burned, and your Working Out calories burned. Your numbers may look like this:
BMR = 1,700
Basic = 340
Working Out = 460
Total Calories Out = 2,500
As with your Calories In, track this every day. We’ve split Calories Out into three parts, and the first two only change slowly, so you mostly need to track your Working Out calories, and just add them to your BMR and Basic calories each day.
Setting Your Calorie Goals
Now that you know how many calories you burn each day, you can choose the rate at which you want to lose weight. You need to pick a Calorie Deficit. This is the number of calories you burn but don’t replace with food. If your Calories Out is 2,500 per day, and your Calories In is 1,800, your Calorie Deficit is 700 (2,500 minus 1,800).
One pound of fat is equal to 3,500 calories. Say you want to lose one pound per week. That means you need a Calorie Deficit of 500 every day (3,500 divided by 7 days).
Some guidelines: most people should not try to lose more than two pounds per week, and no one should eat fewer than 1,200 calories per day. These are healthy limits for almost everyone. Keep them in mind when you choose your daily Calorie Deficit goal.
An Example:
A woman with a BMR of 1,700, a Basic calorie burn rate of 340, and who exercises off 460 calories a day has a Calories Out number of 2,500. She wants to lose two pounds per week, so her Calorie Deficit should be 1,000 calories per day (two pounds = 7,000 calories, and 7,000 divided by 7 days is 1,000). Her Calories In number should therefore be 1,500 (2,500 minus 1,000). She should eat 1,500 calories per day.
The better you are at tracking your calories, the more precise you can make your numbers. Bodies are different, and if you’re expecting to lose two pounds a week but are only losing one, then you might adjust the numbers as necessary by recognizing that your BMR or Basic calories number is a bit high. It’s not a precise science, but is definitely close enough to make a difference in your life.
Don’t Starve!
There is one trick I’ve learned about setting calorie goals which may help you as well. I call it the “booming economy” theory. You can set a Calories In goal of 1,200, but actually, if you eat more your body will burn more. We’ve all heard about Famine Syndrome, or whatever other name you’ve heard it called: you starve your body of calories, and it starts hoarding them and using them more efficiently. Your body is deliberately not burning calories because it is reacting to a perceived lack of them. The answer? Eat a lot, and burn a lot! That’s why it’s called the “booming economy” theory. In an economy, you can have everyone employed and everyone spending their money, which is a heathy, or booming, economy. Or, you can have high unemployment, and people not spending their money. This is a recession. We want a big booming use of calories by our bodies! Eat a lot, and burn a lot! Most people I know (including myself) get the best results with a Calories In goal of at least 1,400 per day, and even up to 2,000! Don’t starve… eat lots of healthy food, and exercise it off! It turns your body into a calorie-burning machine.
Food
The beauty of setting calorie goals is that you are now free to make food choices you can live with. You know you can eat 1,500 calories per day, and that means calories from any food. You don’t have to avoid carbs or fat or any particular food. I like to say that you can lose weight by eating chocolate frosting and potato chips, as long as you don’t eat more than 1,500 calories of those foods each day. It’s true!
Of course, you would not be eating much actual food if you ate high calorie foods like those, and would often feel hungry. You want to feel full and satisfied. Choose foods that have lots of fiber, like fruits and whole grain breads, because fiber makes you feel full. If you love pasta, try eating it with a light pesto instead of cream sauce. If the foods you eat are lower in calories, you can eat more of them.
The trick is to eat foods you like and which make you feel satisfied, without going over your Calories In goal.
It is extremely important that you enjoy what you are eating and do not feel deprived! If you feel deprived, you run the risk of “cheating” by eating over your goal. We are trying to make changes that will last a lifetime, and if we don’t like our new life, we’re not going to keep doing it. Make changes you can actually enjoy. It is certainly possible!
You also want to make sure you’re getting all the right nutrients. Most doctors recommend a one-a-day multi-vitamin as an easier nutrient “fix” than trying to eat an exact number of dark leafy greens, whole fiber, and so on per day. You don’t have to eat the perfect nutritionally balanced diet. It’s good if you can, but hey, none of us are perfect. Taking a multi-vitamin helps you eat what you like, instead of what you are supposed to eat, in a perfect world. Getting the right nutrients can stop cravings (like a person who doesn’t get enough calcium craving ice cream or cheese) and also helps our bodies process the foods we eat more efficiently. Some cases of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) are due, in part, to a Vitamin B-Complex deficiency, especially B-1, B-2, and B-3. Hypoglycemia can make you crave sugar. Getting your B vitamins in a pill is a low-cal way to stop those cravings in a healthy way!
Exercise
You could, in theory, lose weight just by meeting your calorie goals. However, adding exercise to your life makes it so much easier that I feel it is critical.
Exercise is proven to reduce your level of anxiety, help you manage stress more effectively, improve your positive self-esteem and confidence, help alleviate depression, help you relax, help you sleep more restfully, and it definitely helps you lose weight. Exercise even controls your appetite by releasing chemicals into the blood that shut off hunger signals! There are two types of exercise that we will talk about here.
Cardiovascular (or Aerobic) exercise includes activites like walking, running, swimming, and using machines like stair-steppers and elliptical machines. When you do cardio, you are doing low-impact activities (which do not stress your joints too much) which make your heart beat faster. Cardio makes your body use fuel to operate, which means it is burning calories. Cardio burns fat.
Calculate your target heart rate to learn about goals to set while doing cardio. A good basic guideline is to do cardio for a minimum of 20 minutes on at least three days each week. More is better, though you also want to avoid injuries from exercising too much. Find the balance that works for you, but do not skip your work outs! Remember, if you work out more, your Calories In goal will go up, and you can actually eat more while still losing the same amount of weight, plus you are getting all the benefits of more exercise!
Weight Training, such as doing bicep curls with weights, leg lifts with ankle weights, or using weight machines at the gym is also important. A thin body will look better if it has muscles under the skin to add definition and tone. And, your body needs more calories to operate muscles than to keep fat. Having more muscles means your BMR will go up, which again lets you eat more while still losing weight. A good minimum is to do weight training three times a week, working on different muscle groups each time. Stumptuous.com has a lot of good information on weight training.
Don’t worry about putting on too much muscle, either. It is extremely hard to “bulk up” with muscles. In fact, “bulking up” happens when you have a calorie surplus which is turned into muscle with a ton of weight training. We’ve all seen the powders in the health stores which promise muscle gain, right? They are very high calorie, for body builders who can’t eat enough food each day to continue building muscle. Female body builders, in particular, are forced to rely on steroids to get those huge muscles. Regular people are not going to be “bulking up” like this unless they practically kill themselves trying. So don’t worry! There is very little risk of you building huge muscles with even daily weight training. The muscles you do build will tend to be lean, since you don’t have a calorie surplus, and lean muscles look good.
Keep in mind: cardio burns fat, and weight training builds muscle. Both help you lose weight, as well as giving you tons of other healthy benefits. You need to do both to get the body you probably want. Weight training alone can give you great muscles, but if they’re covered by fat, you can’t see them. Cardio will burn the fat, but if you have no muscles underneath, your body will still be flabby, even though it’s thinner. Also, the cardio you do applies to your whole body. You can’t lose weight just from your belly or hips. You lose it from everywhere. You can, though, spot train for your belly by doing ab crunches, which will help your stomach be more flat and toned.
Positive Thinking
I feel that keeping a positive outlook is the number one thing you can do to help yourself lose weight. That’s why I’ve left it till the end; I want to you remember this if nothing else.
Sure, you can pump yourself up with past successes, eat exactly right, and work out like a demon. However, you are unlikely to keep it up if you are thinking “this is taking forever” or “I’ll never make it anyway.” It took you a long time to gain weight, and it takes a long time to lose it. It’s hard to have patience. This is a good thing, however. If you lose 10 pounds in a month, and then go crazy and eat a whole chocolate cake, you won’t instantly gain back all 10 pounds. You may gain one or two, but you don’t have to start completely over. It takes time to gain or lose weight, but we can use that fact to treat ourselves from time to time, which is good for us.
So, where do you find patience? You find it in positive thinking. You’ve probably heard about people who stand in front of the mirror and say aloud “I can do it!” It sounds silly, yes? But it works. If you focus your energy on having positive thoughts, you will feel good about yourself. You will feel capable. You will feel determined to keep doing well. You will be able to take joy in successes, and not drown in setbacks. This feeling is what gets you on that treadmill, and what makes you feel good about eating half a slice of cake instead of a whole one.
It takes energy to feel bad. Feeling like a worthless fat person often makes us feel tired and drained, right? That’s because it’s using our energy. Instead, use that energy to tell yourself positive things. Be aware of what your inner voice is saying. It may be saying “why bother? I can’t do it” or it may say “I am succeeding today.” It will try to say both of these at different times. Sometimes you feel up, sometimes you feel down. Be aware of your feelings. Counter bad thoughts with a list of your successes. Encourage good thoughts with pride in what you’ve done so far.
Losing weight isn’t just about shedding pounds to look good. It’s about feeling good about ourselves. We all know people who are not classically beautiful, yet who have a confident, happy glow which makes them attractive. They feel good about themselves, and that is attractive. They feel happy, and they look happy. Being happy with yourself gives you the energy and incentive to keep changing your life, even when it’s hard to do.
Since we all have bad times, try to find a support group to help you during those. There are often local groups who meet, or you can find many online groups. You may want to go to friends and family for support, which works for some of us, but not all. Supportive people can help you avoid negative thoughts about yourself by pointing out when you’re falling prey to them. They can also give excellent tips and tricks about food and exercise, as well as make you feel like you’re not alone in this quest. When you are feeling good, you can help encourage others, which makes you feel even better.
I hope this article helps demystify the process of successful weight loss. It sometimes seems that there’s so much to learn that it’s just too hard to get started. These basics work for me, and they can work for anyone else. None of this is pseudo-science or hearsay, either… it has all been learned via trial and error by myself and many others. Good luck to you! It can be done.
