The one thing I have learned from helping people and being a member of a few weight loss forums is that a lot of people do not know how to figure their calorie intake. Sometimes their caloric intake will be a little too high or too low but I see some cases where the caloric intake is extremely low.

When you reduce your calories at extreme amounts your body will think you are starving it. What usually happens is that you will lose weight at first but eventually your weight loss progress will hit a plateau and stop losing weight. As a result a lot of people will decrease their calories even more which ends up causing their body to burn their muscle for energy while saving the fat.

The most important thing I tell everyone is muscle is so important and you NEVER want to compromise it. The more muscle you have the more fat you will burn. Yes muscle does weigh more than fat, but in the long run if you have a “well built” machine then you don’t have to worry as much all the time about the calorie content in food. For example, have you ever seen a hard core athlete? They can eat things like pizza or ice cream, in moderation, and not worry about it as much as the rest of us because their body burns it up so quickly. Of course they can’t do this all the time or they would eventually have a weight problem. So my advice is don’t shoot in the dark on calories.  I recommend using the instructions below to get an estimate on how many calories you should eat in a day.

The first step is to calculate your BMR which is the number of calories you burn at rest.  Click here to calculate your BMR.  The next step is to multiply your BMR by your activity level.  This is used to calculate how many calories you burn a day (also known as your TDEE - Total Daily Energy Expenditure).

I personally decrease my TDEE by ~500-750 calories per day.

*It takes 3500 calories to burn a pound of fat so you will need to consume fewer calories than your TDEE if you want to lose weight. However, you don’t want to go too low and starve yourself!

Activity Levels 
Sedentary - 1.2 x BMR - television or office work as main activity
Light - 1.375 x BMR - exercise or workout 1-3 days per week
Moderate - 1.55 x BMR - exercise or workout 3-5 days per week
High - 1.725 x BMR - exercise or workout 6-7 days per week
Extreme - 1.9 x BMR- exercise or workout twice per day

I have really only hit the tip of the iceberg on how you can calcualte your calories but it should help you get started thinking that just eating less isn’t the best solution.  I highly recommend you learn more about your TDEE and the book that has really helped me understand a lot if this is Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle.  I have already recommended this book in a few of my previous post and if you are really serious about losing weight the right way then I personally feel it is a must read. Click here for additional details on Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle

Hello everyone,

I am back, not fully recovered, but I am back in the gym 3-4 days a week, well sort of.  Over the holidays things were kind of crazy for me with my knee surgery and both of my children’s birthdays also being in December. There were things that kept coming up and I didn’t always make it to the gym but I did always make it to the physical therapy sessionsJ.

We had a great holiday, a little too great. Since I wasn’t following the diet real well and not being able to work out the way I would like to, I gained 14 POUNDS in about 6 weeks L

I started back at work January 8th and I work 2nd shift in a hospital.  I’m now back into a schedule of not getting as much sleep and I was recently hit with a BAD cold. I was sick for 2 ½ weeks so of course I didn’t follow the diet that well (didn’t eat much) and didn’t workout.

I’m finally over my cold now and this past week was the first week I followed the diet to a T J and worked out 3 times, including PT.  I would have liked to have gone to the gym more this past week but life does happen (Dr.’s appt.’s). However, I lost 4 pounds this week and feel like I’m back on track again.

Lately I have been reading a few health related web forums and it appears that most people are looking for the same thing.  I think that a lot of us are searching for the magic solution to get rid of the fat and permanently become thin. There are so many people, including myself, that have spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars searching for the magic pill.

However, the funny thing is that I have personally seen men and women transform their bodies without a magic pill but through diet and exercise alone.  I have seen examples of both men and women that started at around 20-30% body fat slim down to a low 3-12% body fat in a matter of 12 to 20 weeks. I even witnessed my husband accomplish these types of results when he competed in a bodybuilding contest several years ago. It is amazing the amount of will power it takes to stick with the diet and exercise routine but the results are astonishing.

I always tried to lose weight via a random diet and/or exercise program but failed to no avail. It wasn’t until I became sick and tired of being fat and feeling unhealthy that I decided to change me life (the weight loss contest was a big motivator too). I never thought I would be able to stick with a diet routing but then again I never thought I would achieve the results I have accomplished so far. I can truly say that the only solution to lose weight is getting the RIGHT information and putting it into practice.

If you are just starting out on a diet program then I highly recommend reading Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle.  I have learned a lot about what to eat and when to eat from this ebook.  However dieting alone, as Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle will tell you is only half the equation.  You still need to exercise and for that I recommend joining your local gym or fitness center.  It’s not the easiest journey but if done right it is the one that produces the best results.

I wish everyone the best of luck on their journey

It is pretty common knowledge that you are suppose to drink 8 to 10 glasses (size 8 oz) of water a day but if you are working out hard each day your body will require more. I personally drink 1 1/2 gallons of water a day but I do have a very active workout routine.  I workout in the mornings and probably drink around 1/2 a gallon when I am at the gym (between my cardio and weight training).

Benefits of drinking water

• Helps remove toxins and waste from the body
• Helps metabolize body fat
• Helps pass nutrients into the muscles

A few of the negative effects of not drinking enough water are:

• Headaches
• Fatigue
• Muscle weakness
• Dizziness
• Excessive thirst

A few tricks when drinking water.

• Drink it cold (uses a few more calories to warm up the water, plus warm water does not settle well with my stomach)
• If you are having a hard time drinking a gallon a day then take an old one gallon milk carton and fill it up with water.  Make sure you take your gallon of water with you wherever you go and don’t go to bed until you finished the entire jug.

Keep in mind that drinking lots of water is not a weight loss gimmick but one of many tools to help you achieve a healthy and leaner body.  You still have to exercise and eat right if you want to achieve great results.

 

I had my weigh-in last Saturday and so far I have lost 60 pounds since I started the diet.  My husband and I started our diet the week of Thanksgiving last year so I thought it was only appropriate to post this years results right before the Thanksgiving holidays.  I still have 15 to 20 pounds to go to reach my goal but I’m happy with the progress I have made so far. 

The funny thing about exercising and eating healthy is that the longer you do it the easier it gets.  The key is that you just have to start to make a difference in your life.  My diet and exercise program has changed my life and I promise that if you can commit to one it will change your life too.

If you don’t know where to begin on your diet and exercise program then I recommend picking up a copy of the ebook Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle.  My latest diet changes are customized from the information that I learned from this book so I highly recommend you give it a read.

Click here for additional details on Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle

These pictures were taken a couple of months ago but they give you an idea of the amount of weight loss I have made from my 2005 to 2006 birthday.  The 2005 picture was a few months before I started my diet so I probably weighed around 45 to 50 pounds less in the September 2006 picture.  In case you are wondering the guys in the picture are my brothers ;-).

So how long does it take to lose 50 pounds?

So how long does it take someone to lose 20, 40 or 50 pounds?  It really just comes down to how hard you are willing to work at it.  At first when you change your diet you are going to lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time.  The initial 10 to 20 pounds of weight loss can be misleading and in reality is probably a lot of water weight.  The goal is to lose one to two pounds of fat a week so a healthy 50 pound weight loss should take you around six to twelve months. 

The pictures to the right are for a total weight loss of 55 pounds to date.  Before I changed my diet the pants in the picture were starting to get tight around my waist.  I was about to have to move up to the next pant size and now I can almost fit two of me in them.

The magic ingredient to successfully losing weight is persistence.  You have to stick with your diet and workout program if you want to see continued progress.  To give an example, I pretty much maintained my weight during the summer since I opted to spend more times with my kids and less time in the gym.  Although I did stick with my diet, I chose to go to the gym only about three days a week during the summer months. 

I was only able to maintain my bodyweight, instead of losing additional weight, because I cut back so much on my cardio and workout program (which was a plus because in the past I would have regained bodyweight).  Once the kids went back to school I was able to get back on schedule and start losing weight again. 

I have learned a lot since the summer and feel that I could have made some adjustment that would have helped me still lose some weight.  However sticking with your program really is the key to consistent weight loss.