Measuring What You Eat...It Can Add Up!

I often talk to clients that state they are not eating a lot of calories, exercising a lot and still have issues losing the weight. I always ask the same questions...are you being honest with your intake of calories? Have you actually measured your food? The answer is usually a mixed response.

It has been my experience that people underestimate the amount of calories and overestimate that amount of energy they are burning. This is often because they are relying on guessing with the portions and allowing the equipment to calculate the amount of calories burned at the gym. If for example, you were to underestimate your calories consumed by as little as 250 a day, this would add up to 1750 calories in one week. This omission is only equal to 1 apple, 1 tablespoon of natural peanut butter, and 1 tablespoon of honey in your afternoon tea. In addition, if you were to rely on the computer at the gym and overestimate your calorie expenditure by 100 calories a workout, this would add up to 700 calories in one week. Remember, the gym machines give an average based on a 150lb person and don't calculate body mass, intensity etc. They can be off by as much as 25-50%. Therefore, over a week, you have now underestimated the amount of work you have done by 2450 calories. If you are trying to lose weight, it takes 3500 calories for a pound. For the week, you have actually only burned 1050 calories towards your 1 pound goal for the week. So, in order to lose a pound next week, you will have to work that much harder.

One solution to this is to accurately measure your food. Eyeballing amounts, guessing the portion size, doing exercises without passion will all push you in the direction you are trying to avoid...not losing the weight.

*Measure your food! Buy a scale, use measuring cups/spoons, read labels etc.
*Journal your food for the day. Be specific and be accurate. www.calorie-count.com is free and you can customize everything.
*Exercise with passion. If you are on the treadmill for 45 minutes, do 45 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise for you. Push yourself beyond your comfort zone. When you are finished with you cardio session, you should feel like you burned a lot of calories!
*Be honest and record the cheat items. You are only punishing yourself by omitting them. Then, look back and see what you gave up to have that item. By saying yes to the chocolate donut, I said no to losing weight. That won't taste so good the next time.
*Measure your success monthly. You should utilize the scale as a guide for your weight loss. Never weigh more than once a month. Also, if you are building muscle, measure your body fat as that is a better guide.
*Don't get discouraged. This is a learning process. If you don't fall down a few times, you will never learn how to pick yourself up.

Measuring what you eat is a great moment of honesty. Try it for one day and see how much you were "not" eating...I bet it is more than you thought!