Everyone knows how to lower their weight — everyone. Yes, ALL adults know (albeit many are in denial) that their undesirable or oversized fat stores are a result of eating and drinking more than they need. Therefore, everyone knows the answer is to eat less, move more, or a combination of the two!
I have yet to meet an adult who truly doesn’t know they’re overweight because they eat or drink too much. Nor have I met a person who wants to become overweight.
So why is the majority of the adult population overweight?
I’ll give you two reasons:
— People can’t see or feel daily weight changes. The average adult gains 1-3 pounds per year. This means that he consumes an average of 10-30 calories per day more than he burns. This leads to the second reason:
— Body fat creeps up so slowly that it’s easy to ignore until you’re forced to put energy and effort into losing weight.
So if I know what to do, why CAN’T I control my weight?
The simple answer to the question is motivation.
Motivation to change your lifestyle means you must be motivated to change your behavior, and changing your behavior requires lots of thinking, planning, action, and sometimes even counseling. Often, the method a person chooses may not fit her lifestyle, which means she ultimately gains the weight back … and then some.
So how do we reduce the need for motivation?
Let’s go back to where we started. As I previously mentioned, you know why you’re overweight. You’re overweight because you ate more than you moved, meaning you ate more than necessary. You also know that you need to eat less and/or move more to fix it.
So what’s the simple answer to reversing the problem without extreme life-altering or threatening motivation?
Nowhere in this conversation did anyone tell you what to eat or how to move, right?
Good news! You can eat anything you want. You probably just can’t eat everything you want. This means you can do what you do, but maybe just eat a little less and/or move a little more. Reverse the behaviors that got you here. That’s right, no major lifestyle change is required … just a minor adjustment. The rest will take care of itself. As soon as you make a big deal out of losing weight, you take your first step toward failure.
Now, listen up … the next part is important!
To succeed at losing weight, you have to pay attention to a few numbers. This might seem daunting, but you need to know what these numbers are. You won’t manage what you can’t see, and you can’t manage what you don’t know.
First, you have to step on a scale. Most people are intimidated by the thought of it, but you have to know where you’re starting if you want to measure progress.
To achieve your goal weight your way, you also need to know how many calories you take in every day and how many calories you use every day. If you know those numbers, you know how many calories you can eat to lose weight or not gain fat.
But how do you find these numbers?
More good news! There are all kinds of websites and apps that make this information readily available MyFitnessPal is one such site/app that makes keeping an eye on the numbers easy by enabling you to accomplish all of the following on your computer, your mobile phone, or your tablet*:
- Food Logging – Easy-to-use tools make food tracking quick and simple.
- Track Activity – Add workouts and steps with the fitness tracker.
- Customize Your Goals – Weight loss, weight gain, weight maintenance, nutrition, and fitness
- See Your Progress – Track at a glance, or analyze nutrition and calories in detail
(* descriptions from the MyFitnessPal app in the Apple AppStore)
Now you have something to manage that’s controllable daily: simple numbers. And remember, numbers don’t lie.
Motivation will come from seeing body fat coming or going in real-time at any time — hourly, daily, weekly, etc. When you can see your daily body fat gains and losses, it’s simple to manage them because it doesn’t take much effort to eat one less bite or take 10 extra steps to stay on track. The “icing on the cake” is that you will actually be motivated by seeing real numbers change.
We’ll talk more about this … a lot!
I’m excited to be a nutritionist, and I’ve already helped a lot of people reach their goals.
Will you be next?