A Fat Loss Mistake Many People Make – And How to Avoid It
You may have been going crazy with these and eating what you think is the perfect diet, yet seeing little or no results. Are you missing something? Maybe so, read on.....
One of the most common fat loss mistakes people make is they simply eat too much. Sure, they do everything that they read about here and other places; you know, eat small meals, only eat low glycemic index carbs, no carbs after dinner, plenty of protein and good fats in their diet, the whole gamut. They even exercise regularly.
I’ve known people like that myself. I knew this gal about 15 years ago who worked herself half to death in the gym, and ate a healthy diet, but couldn’t seem to lose that last 20 lbs, no matter what. Does this sound familiar?
Ultimately weight loss comes down to one thing and one thing only. You have to burn more calories in a day than you take in. Sure, it makes sense to increase the number f calories you use in a day, but you have to keep what is coming past your lips below that magic number, or you’ll never lose weight.
Why do some people have such a tough time doing that? It is because they are very poor at guestimating how many calories they’re eating each day. Really, it’s that simple. You have to know exactly how many calories you’re eating each day, and many people just can’t guess well enough to know with any accuracy what the true number is.
If that is you, and it probably is, there is only one option. You have to actually count calories for long enough to know how many calories you’re eating every day. Some people can merely take a stab at it and have an uncanny ability to hit the magic number right on the head. The rest of us, on the other hand, must count, for at least long enough to get a handle on things.
One of the best ways to discover how much your daily calorie intake is is by measuring your food. I’ve posted about this before, but simply eyeballing your portions isn’t accurate enough to let you know with any certainty your true portion size. Without that knowledge, you can not count calories very well.
Get a scale to use for measuring your daily portions. It will seem like a hassle at first, but after a short time, it will just be routine, and it really takes very little extra time; a heck of a lot less time than you’d be wasting working out and going on a diet for zero results.
Read the labels on the foods you eat, and for those foods without labels (the whole foods you should be eating the most of) you can find out how much calories are in a portion size and other nutritional data at http://www.nutritiondata.com.
So, for a few weeks at least, take the time to measure and count calories for your portions. You may surprised at how much you’re actually eating. Keep a diary of your daily meals. That is a very powerful technique that’s been proven to accelerate weight loss. You can get a basic notebook to keep track of what you eat each day. Most restaurants now have calories for each menu item posted right on the menu, or in a nutrition guide. After a short while, you’ll get a pretty good handle at how much you should be eating each day, and the pounds will melt off like magic.
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Comment from MadellinesMadeIt
Time April 15, 2010 at 12:25 am
I agree, and almost fell into this same trap. I thought I was doing everything right and eating just the way I should. I even got to the gym and went running about 3 days a week, but just couldn’t seem to get very good results. I lost weight and firmed up, but overall, my results were disappointing. Then a friend suggested I take a look at how many calories I was really eating each day. I had never really done that. I was shocked to discover that I had been eating about 2,500 calories a day! No wonder I hadn’t been losing any weight. I cut that down to between 1,800 – 2,000 and the results have been spectacular.