 Want to lose weight? You should count calories
"No matter what I do, I just can't seem to lose weight."
When folks tell me this, my response is to list the weight-loss basics: cutting calories, exercise, journaling, etc. I rarely make it to the end of the list before I find the hitch.
We tend to focus on what we DO rather than what we DON'T. It just may be a DON'T that is keeping your scale from moving.
Let's start with journaling. Eating is a necessity of life, not far down the list from breathing. We breathe without thinking about it and we often eat without thinking about it too. If you are not logging your food intake, it is unlikely that you have an accurate idea of how many calories you are taking in each day. Recent studies have shown that no matter what type of food plan someone follows, whether they are counting fats, carbohydrates or something else, it all comes down to fewer calories taken in than burned each day.
Try tracking your food for just a couple of weeks. This will allow you to see your patterns and to get a good feel for a typical day's worth of caloric intake. The American Dietetic Association recommends 1800-2000 calories per day for weight maintenance and 1200-1500 calories per day for weight loss. Are you in those ranges? If you are not, it's time to consider cutting some calories from your day. Weight loss math is very consistent: 3,500 calories equals one pound. If you cut 250-500 calories from your day, you will add one half to one pound of weight loss per week to your progress. Is there a food you are stubbornly hanging on to? Perhaps your weakness is a creamy coffee drink or having snacks in the evening when you aren't really hungry? Try eliminating it for just one month and see what happens.
The next item on the list is activity level. Boosting activity works the other side of the weight-loss equation by increasing calories burned. And although you will burn calories when you do the actual exercise, an even greater benefit is the extra energy you get in your day. When you exercise regularly, you will find yourself moving more in a typical day. This can easily add up to that extra 250-500 calories per day that you need to get the pounds off.
So, the next time you are lamenting about how hard you are working with no success, consider adding a new piece to the puzzle and you just may get a nicer picture.
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