The Simple, yet so very Difficult Formula

Yes, you have to do the math. To lose weight, you simply have to burn more calories than you eat. Simple. But, there are so many obstacles in your way: habit, hunger, peer pressure, convenience, emotions, taste, smell, circumstance, and even your body’s own survival mechanisms. It’s so hard to do, and even harder to keep doing. According to Jillian Michaels, the winning trainer from The Biggest Loser, you have to burn 3500 calories to lose one pound.  That sounds like a lot!  But just living everyday burns more calories than you think.  I use FitDay.com to estimate my daily average burn, called resting metabolic rate, by professionals. So, you estimate how much energy in calories you are burning everyday in life, add to that any exercise you do above and beyond.  Subtract the calories of the food you have eaten that day, and if the numbers are high enough, you will lost a pound, or more, or less.

I also use FitDay to track my calories.  I am a very tech-y person who likes to view graphs and charts, so it works out well for me.  There are several other free calorie-tracking sites out there, and I will post links to them in a later post.  There are also devices, like the Body Bugg, FitBit, or heart rate monitors that will more precisely measure your resting metabolism.

The biggest thing for me was learning exactly how many calories I was eating.  I had done the food diary thing over and over but it never really clicked until I could see the actual calories compared to what I was burning.  Cutting back on those calories was a hard habit to break (cue Chicago).  Tomorrow I will go into specifics on my path of breaking bad habits, but know this: You can happily survive on way less calories than you think you can.

Introduction

Hi all.  Have you already broken all of your resolutions?  We’ll don’t worry.  We’ll get back on track together.  As my first blog post, I feel I should let you all know a little about myself, and if you want to know more, just ask!

I recently, over the last year or so, lost about 50 pounds.  It’s not easy, and I’m not done yet.  I’m still working on losing another 40, but I’m on the right track.  I hope I can inspire you, and I hope you can inspire me and keep me on track.

Since this is just an intro, I won’t bug you with a lot of details right now, but if you are just starting off losing weight, here are two easy, cheap, actionable steps you can do right now.

1.  Create a FREE account on fitday.com and start keeping track of what you eat.  Don’t worry about the numbers, just see what your actual input is.

2.  Buy a cheap pedometer and start wearing it all day everyday.  Don’t spend more than $5 or so to start off with.  Just see about how many steps you take each day.  Don’t worry about the mileage, just check out the steps.

That’s it.  You can do this much to start.