If you want to lose weight you have to cut calories out of your diet and you have to erase calories by exercising. The average person should be cutting their intake by 300-500 calories per day. In fact, if you want to avoid forcing your body into survival mode (which will slow your metabolism) you should not consume less than 1,200- 1,500 calories a day!
Unfortunately, the only way to know if you are cutting these calories or eating enough of them is to count them. It is such a tedious task. Not only does it mean counting, it means measuring your food...For instance, my idea of a serving of cereal is completely different from my husbands idea!
Let's look at shredded wheat: completely healthy, no sugar, lots of fiber. It's a great base to your breakfast. My bowl is a serving size, 1 cup. Jason's bowl is actually about 1 3/4 servings! That means he is eating an extra 127 calories, and that's before adding milk or fruit!If you want to lose weight you have to cut calories. If you want to cut calories you have to measure your food and keep track of your calories. And remember: if you take the time to measure now, it will become a habit and a very natural part of your daily life. So far today my count is up to 430 calories. What's yours?
So far I'm at 0. But I've been up less than an hour, and I don't eat until after I work out. Then it's usually a protein bar (270 calories, 20g of protein).
ReplyDeleteYou don't *have* to work out, but it does make it so you can eat more, or you lose weight faster. And of course there are massive health benefits to exercising. But you can lose weight simply by being strict with calories.
I use sparkpeople to track my calories. Now that I've been doing it a while, it's very easy. My cereal bowl is two cups, and I have that noted in my group, so I just add "cereal" and that puts in the cereal and milk. Then I add a banana if I've eaten a banana with it as well.
(btw, this is Wendy Thomas, neé Tischler)
Great tip Wendy!
ReplyDeleteMy count that day was about 60,000
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