The latest word on the street is that now a whopping 92% of people do NOT accomplish the goals (read: resolutions) that they set in Jan. I’ve been quoting 85% (the last touted statistic) for years, but now it’s really time to stand up and take notice. Let me restate that in case there’s any misunderstanding: New Year’s resolutions (and almost any goal set nowadays) are nearly guaranteed to fail! What the?!?
I pray that this upsets you as much as it does me. Especially if you’re one of many that finds yourself setting the same goals – over. and. over.
It’s time to stop believing the myth of just setting intentions out into the atmosphere, and wishing on a star that they’ll come true. We are missing the mark in goal setting. If we ever hope to change that path, we must first shut the door on the lies we tell ourselves about the process of success and achieving. Beware of jumping into goals -especially weight loss – without being mentally prepared.
Taking a moment to mentally make sure that you have what it takes before you start, is critical to when and where you end.
Ready for a reality check?
The lie: Things are going to be different this time.
Reality check: How? Are you putting steps into place to make sure of this?
It’s very easy for us to spout off, in a moment of determination, “This time…is going to be different!” – yet approach it in the exact same way as before. #fail
While the origin of this thought is dead on (we MUST do things differently, in order to achieve a different result), the action required is left hanging in the balance. In order for this time to be different than last, you need an action plan – not just a random diet plan. Brainstorm in advance ideas for how to make this time different (ditching fads, working out consistently, lifting weights, hitting macros, etc). Then break those ideas into baby steps that you can actually do one.at.a.time until they are second nature (daily walk, more protein at breakfast, higher fiber at lunch, etc). This is especially important to understand if you typically dive in headfirst to new changes, but fizzle out quickly.
Have a plan of attack to make this your best year yet, and rock out the results of this change permanently.
The lie: I got this… just gotta stick it out this time.
Reality check: If it requires too much willpower, it won’t work long term.
Thinking that you can just white knuckle your way into change is a recipe for disaster. Willpower is not an unlimited resource that you just have to “try harder” with. You only have ONE willpower reserve, so use it wisely, and have a plan for when it runs out. This means that if you have a fairly stressful life, you should NOT attempt to change your entire diet, quit smoking, start exercising, and organize your life — all at the same time. Something’s gotta give, and trust that it will.
So you may find yourself eating “perfectly” all day/week, then binging on nights/weekends. Willpower will eventually run out, so a diet setup with willpower as the primary success component will fail. Period. Adherence is the number one predictor of success. So an imperfect diet that you can consistently stick to, will always trump the perfect diet that you don’t.
Reality check: Think long term. Don’t change things that you can’t/don’t plan on sticking to for the long haul.
Allow me to state the obvious: If you only plan on applying something short term, then short term results are inevitable. If you’re going into a style of eating, imagining the day that you’ll go back to your old way of eating once it’s “over”…then you’re not making a lifestyle change. If you are dreaming of the day that you can eat donuts/chocolate/chips, etc. again, you’re doing it wrong. Find ways to incorporate those dreams items along the way. (Trust me, it’s possible!). Your way of eating should be set up so that you don’t have brief streaks of perfection, followed by the all-too-predictable nosedive.
If you don’t have enough room in your diet for a planned daily indulgence (or two), then it’s extremely likely that you’re being too strict, or are not eating enough for sustainable fat loss.
In order to finish strong, we must start with the right mindset. In part two of this series, we’ll address the lies that we tell ourselves along the way, and how approach (and survive!) the speed bumps, potholes, and detours of this journey.
No more lies, fam – lets do this!
~Kiki
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There are 3 ways to tell if a diet will work for you. During this time of year we are being bombarded with diet ads, and “New Year, New You” promises blare at us from every angle in the grocery checkout line. As you’re scouring the diet book aisle, or looking to hit “purchase” on that new online program, make sure that you are checking to see if the plan suits your lifestyle, priorities, and sustainability needs. Here’s three ways to tell, right off the bat, if a diet will work for YOU.
Does it Exclude Foods You Adore?
If it doesn’t allow you to eat foods that you love, why waste your time? How could that possibly be sustainable in the long run?
If you find the “perfect” weight loss plan, and it removes every food that you’ve ever loved, don’t expect to be able to keep it up for long. This should be your first red flag that the diet is not going to be sustainable. Any eating plan that helps you to lose weight (preferably from fat), needs to be something that you are going to be able to stick to. So make sure that it allows you to eat foods that you love, in moderation. You may be convinced that such a thing is not possible — and that you must be punished for your sins of weight gain — but this is a MUST. If fave foods aren’t included, you will not be able to be consistent. Even if you do lose the weight, the second you begin to eat “normal” again (adding back all the things you cut out during your “diet”), it all piles back on (and then some).
Does it allow you to be flexible?
Let’s say it does cut back on certain types foods, and you don’t mind. Maybe you do truly want to reduce your intake of it, or start eating less of certain things overall, is there still a flexibility aspect to it? Or are the rules very strict? If you go “off track,” will you ruin your diet and feel hopeless?
It shouldn’t be all or nothing. If the diet doesn’t allow you to eat cake at your sons birthday, have the occasional dessert, drink that glass of wine when you’re out with your husband, how will you feel during those moments? Can you decide to eat something (that maybe you’re not eating all of the time) during a special occasion, without feeling like “ugh!…I blew my diet!”?
If that’s the case, then whatever you’re doing is probably not sustainable. One of my favorite quotes from Leslie Schilling, says that “if what you’re doing requires you to cheat…it is not sustainable or healthy.” If you have to have cheat days (including unplanned binges), where you’re allowing yourself to go off-the-rails, eating any and everything…then maybe you need to be rethinking it. If you don’t have flexibility, and permission to eat the foods you love built in to your diet, you’re eventually going off-the-rails anyway. The best example of this is the “I’ll start my diet Monday” mentality.
If Monday through Friday your diet is perfection, but Saturday and Sunday you’re binging so much that it completely outweighs what you did the rest of the week — then it was pointless. You’d have been better off having some type of treat everyday, in small amounts, rather than going crazy on the final day. Often we spend so much time during the week avoiding the craving, only to give in at a later time (aka the weekend). The problem is that we could have simply had a small amount and been fulfilled when the craving was small, rather than “needing” to insanely overeat the same food when we eventually run out of willpower.
Sawanda, a long time Crusher showing that weight loss does not equal fat loss
Dieting plays an enormous role in Binge Eating Disorder (BED). We spend so much of our lives dieting, and trying to claim victory over our willpower, that we don’t realize what’s happening. Restriction is the most common precursor to binging. Refusing to acknowledge this, triggers a nasty cycle: you horrible that you binged, but since you’ve “already ruined it” you keep going, vowing to start your diet Monday (again). Come Monday, you’re super strict (again), yet you can only hold out for so long…then you binge. Rinse. Repeat.
Does it Promise Specific Amounts of Weight Loss?
Weight loss is individual to you. Anything that touts “10 pounds in 10 days” or otherwise promises you’re going to lose a certain amount of weight in a specific amount of time is bull…crap. (yep…I went there :P). Those types of claims are not promoting individual results, meaning: it’s not realistic.
Your mental energy (and precious muscle mass) will likely be wasted, trying to force something (that may be unnatural!) to happen within a certain amount of time. You may see temporary (mostly water) weight loss on the scale, but you will likely land right back at square one (or worse) when it’s all said and done. And for what? A few days of feeling like you’ve accomplished something because a few magical (and fleeting) numbers flashed on a scale?
No one can guarantee you any amount of weight loss in a certain amount of time. So when you come across a new plan, that appears to be making such promises, read the fine print. You’ll typically find that it says “results not typical” or “lose up to X amounts.” Your dieting results must always include your individual spin; in execution AND results. One person may start losing weight right away, (newbie dieters tend to lose all the weight quickly) but another (ie. someone who has dieted over-and-over) may take a much longer time.
The Bottom Line
You have your three red flags (there are more – but let’s roll with these top three), so USE them when you feel motivated to take (diet) action. Set aside all impulsive thoughts, or lures of the before/afters, and get real with yourself. If it’s not allowing you to eat the foods that you love, inflexible (you feel like it has to be all-or-nothing), or it’s guaranteeing you a certain amount of weight loss (there’s no individuality variables)…RUN (don’t walk) away.
The diet that allows you to be consistent is always the diet that wins, period. The perfect diet that you do in spurts, is never going to outweigh the imperfect diet that you do consistently. So find something that you can do consistently, even if it just means that you’re taking baby steps (start with ONE habit, and run that sucker into the ground until it’s second nature).
Between your skin and bones, there’s muscle and fat. If you’re over the age of 20 (yes…20!), and have been consistently inactive, your body will naturally gain fat and lose muscle when not on a lifting and/or healthy (higher protein) eating regimen. This happens as a result of being sedentary, and not engaging muscles. Many of us set the same goal year after year to lose weight. But as the years go by, we’re noticing that every time weight loss occurs, the end result is a physique that looks different attempt to attempt. You may even think “I’m looking fatter than I did last time I was this weight.” But why?
(Watch the full replay for answers to this and other questions. Broadcast recap below video…)
WEIGHT Loss Doesn’t Equal FAT Loss
It’s often assumed (*cough* ladies) that there’s no reason to have muscle — if we don’t want to be ripped, or look “manly.” (Really, ladies?…1990 called and wants it theories back). We think that as long as we’re getting smaller, there’s no point in lifting (read: gaining or preserving muscle mass). While we may have been able to fool ourselves into believing this at 22, eventually we’re faced with reality: muscle equals metabolism. Having less of one, means lowering the other. The more times we diet, the more muscle is lost, and fat is gained. If the weight loss stints are really quick, we’ve just increased our odds.
The faster weight comes off, the more likely it is that we’re experiencing muscle loss and not just fat loss. The more yo-yoing our body does, the more weight we gain each time. This means we need to lose more weight each time, with more of the loss likely being from muscle mass. We start to notice that we look softer, and all that cardio we used to do, doesn’t “work” anymore.
Time to face the facts: Quick-fix diets will never “work.” The *temporary* WEIGHT LOSS primes you for FAT GAIN
Gaining fat isn’t a difficult job. Our bodies are good at doing so without us even trying. (I doubt I just blew your mind, there, LOL.) To gain muscle, however, we must put forth a conscious effort. While we may tend to think we have too much fat on our frames, the problem instead may be we just don’t have enough muscle. Having too little muscle is like drilling for water in the desert, it’s gonna take a heck of a lot more effort – which much less rewarding payoff. Without a sufficient amount of muscle, our “weight loss” goals will never be sustainable for long. This means that many of us ladies have to get over the fear of weightlifting, and thoughts about how gaining muscle will make us look like a bodybuilder (myth).
Do It Right, or Do It Over
When it comes to fat loss, programs and approaches that may have worked for you in the beginning aren’t necessarily going to work for you in the long run. This is why it’s so important to remember to start small if you’re just getting into the swing of fat loss, healthy eating and resistance training. There are many levels involved to getting to that peak level. Trying to go straight to the highest level leaves you with little room for plateau adjustments (no trump card to pull!), and typically doesn’t provide enough time to develop habits that stick. So take the time to do it right, instead of constantly doing it over. Always have another trick up your sleeve. Pick one thing and nail it before you move onto something else. For example: incorporate more protein (from 90 grams to 120 grams, then 120 grams to 150 grams, etc) in your diet until you master it.
*Side note: Metabolism resets are key if you’re a yo-yo dieter or have been on a low-calorie diet for an extended period of time. It’s easy to get caught up in the scale weight, but the key is to think about the long term. Too much cardio and too little food will absolutely lead to muscle loss. Real progress takes time and requires a realistic perspective. If you/your clients want to get results, they’ve got to start weight lifting. Being skinny doesn’t equal results. Being strong and healthy does.
Cross section of thigh muscle, notice what happens to muscle/fat ratio over the years? Plan of attack must change with age. Preserving/building muscle is essential.
Arm Yourself for Sustainable Success
Ask somebody what their ideal end goal physique is and you’ll often hear “I just want to be skinny and not look like a bodybuilder.” By arming yourself with the proper information and knowledge, you can create a program that combines strength training and a proper diet (i.e. adequate protein intake). Constantly working on those areas (knowledge, lifting, diet) will change your entire perspective on the body transformation process. Gathering information, like taking your own diet history into consideration, can be a very helpful in discovering if you are actually dealing with a muscle deficit. Using this information, you can learn how to train and eat for muscle. Eating around a maintenance level of calories (also known as TDEE) can often prove to be the best approach.
If weight loss were easy, everybody would be running around looking like fitness models. The reality of it is that there’s a science and method behind the madness. In order to create healthy, sustainable weight loss, you’ve got to target the fat mass and preserve/add to the muscle mass.
Most of us are blown away when we learn the shocking truth that cardio is not the be-all-end-all of fat loss. It can take some time to fully wrap our heads around the concept (especially if you’re the type who actually ENJOYS it and can’t imagine life without it). Not surprisingly, one of the questions we receive most often in the early stages of discovering EM2WL is: “OK. So, where exactly does cardio fit? How much cardio can/should I do?
“The hierarchy of fat loss.”
The Hierarchy of Fat Loss (a concept coined by Alwyn Cosgrove several years ago) is simple way to self-regulate and decide for yourself if/when its time to add cardio into your fat loss protocol. It will also help those that can’t imagine a cardio-less existence to work in their love of endurance in a way that does not contradict their physique goals.
The hierarchy outlines the top five factors you must nail down in order to achieve fat loss. The five levels are listed in order of importance, as is the nature of any hierarchy. This means that if you’re looking to do/add/focus on items that are NOT listed here, they are being given far too much importance in your journey. Let’s take a look at each of the five and why they’re so important in the fat loss equation.
The perfect lifting and cardio routine mean nothing without proper eats. So check them TWICE before assuming any workout “is not working” for you. ;)
Level 1- Nutrition: Here’s the reality. No matter how hard you work out, run or lift, you can’t out work a bad diet. Period. If your nutrition is not on point, yet everything else is, you will not optimally achieve results or reach your fat loss goals. Main changes to make in your diet are to eat more protein, more fiber, and more food. Oftentimes, people aren’t eating enough food for fat loss- less isn’t always better. If you’ve spend periods of time eating low calorie diets (1200-1500 calories), then you may want to consider a metabolism reset. Before you can expect to lose weight, you must fix your metabolism so it is in proper working order.
Level 2- Nutrition: Nope, that’s not a typo. Level 2 is the same as level 1- nutrition! Why? It’s that important! If you have time for one thing and one thing only with regard to fat loss, nail your nutrition. Make sure you’re hitting your fiber, protein and calorie goals, and that you’re eating enough to sustain the type of workouts you’ll be doing.
Level 3- Activities that Burn Calories, Promote/Maintain Muscle Mass and Elevate Metabolism: This means lift! Lifting promotes muscle mass growth. The more muscle mass you have, the more calories you’ll burn at rest due to an increased metabolic rate. Not only is muscle good for boosting your metabolism, but it has great cosmetic benefits as well- it looks good! If you’re not comfortable with lifting on your own, consider seeking out guidance from a personal trainer.
A snippet from Martha Stewart’s book on “Living the Good Long Life” – at 74 years young, she KNOWS that lifting is the key!! What are YOU waiting for?
Level 4- Activities that Burn Calories and Elevate Metabolism with EPOC (after burn effect): If you find yourself having an extra day to workout or time leftover at the end of your lift, add in HIIT/Tabata/Interval/Metabolic Resistance style training. If you are short on time but still wanting to burn fat, these types of workouts are crucial for you. While this type of exercise may not promote muscle mass growth, it certainly can help maintain the muscle mass you already have.
Level 5- Activities that Burn Calories but Don’t Necessarily Maintain Muscle or Elevate Metabolism: Cardio is considered the icing on the cake, and in the puzzle of fat loss, is considered the least effective. This lines up with what we here at EM2WL always preach- cardio for fun, weight to transform.” Cardio works best when it’s not done frequently, because it shocks the body. If you do cardio all the time, your body adapts. If you continue to do the same amount of cardio and burn less calories, or don’t see an elevation in heart rate, that may be a good sign you’re doing too much, too often.
Putting it all together: What the hierarchy means to you
If you’re short on time (let’s face it, who isn’t!?) and can’t get to the gym, focus on your nutrition. When you do find yourself having some time, get a lift in. If you can commit to 1-2 days of exercise a week, lift weights those days. If you have 3-4 days, lift and do some HIIT (Level 4) training. If you have more than 4 days a week, then have the icing on the cake and do some cardio and fun aerobic activities you enjoy- Zumba, Body Pump, etc.
Remembering the motto “cardio for fun, weights to transform” will help you to fit in the activities you LOVE without having to use them as punishment.
For my cardio loving followers reading this, don’t freak out. Oftentimes people connect a regular cardio routine to results. If you go from doing nothing to doing just cardio, of course you’re going to see results. But once those results stop, the enjoyment of your workout(s) may stop also. When your cardio workout comes to an end, so does the calorie burn. On the other hand, with lifting, you may not burn as many calories initially during your workout but you’ll continue to burn calories up to 36 hours after your workout is over (called the after burn/EPOC). This is more beneficial for you compared to just burning calories while you’re on a piece of cardio equipment and not a minute more thereafter. If you’re looking to elevate your metabolism, then going for that after burn is what you want and need.
Especially if you’re a newbie to the world of proper nutrition, it’s important to take baby steps into your new healthy eating journey. Adequate consumption of protein, fiber and water are key. Focus on adding in or improving upon each (of the three listed above) into your daily intake until you nail it. For example, if you’re currently not drinking enough water, make it a goal to drink at least a gallon a day. Once you can consistently do so for several weeks/at least a month, next tackle eating more protein. Continue this process until you’ve aced all facets of a proper nutrition plan. In order to ensure adherence, eat the types of foods you enjoy while hitting your macronutrient totals. Keep in mind that the foods you consume have to work for your lifestyle and fit your taste preferences in order to be most successful and stay on track.
Not sure where to start? The Beginner Strength Training Manual answers all your lifting Q&A and comes with a full 12-week periodized workout plan with video demonstrations.
If you don’t have much time to lift, that’s okay. Do more compound movements and work multiple muscle groups (not isolated movements like bicep curls). Make sure you’re regularly alternating rest periods, sets, and rep ranges. This is important because if you don’t change these variables, your body will adapt and not respond as desired. Rest periods are especially important because they are needed in order for the body replenish its energy stores. Over a period of time, rotate through the following rep/set/rest schemes (also known as periodization). A sample 12-week rotation could be:
4 weeks: 60+ seconds rest, low (5-8) reps, heavy weight
The problem with fat loss is most people approach the process in the opposite order, doing cardio first, then HIIT, then deciding to lift, and then tackling nutrition – no wonder the process can be so frustrating. When you turn the hierarchy on its head, you’re not going to see the results that you want. If you follow the fat loss hierarchy in order, you’ll see better and faster results. Work smart, not hard, and you’ll be more than impressed with the results awaiting you.
Go kill it this week, Fam!
~Kiki :)
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Burn fat and build muscle with this new ___________!!!
It’s the promise we’ve been hearing for years (decades?) yet many of us are still (unsuccessfully!) chasing these elusive results we hear promoted in every magazine, website, and TV/Radio station known to man. The advertising hype has us all wishing, hoping and searching high and low for this holy grail of diet and exercise where we accomplish two results in one fell swoop.
So…why isn’t it happening for many of us?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THinQuExnxQ
Topics discussed in the video:
*What we already know about multitasking – it doesn’t work. Multi-tasking typically equates to doing more than one thing, inefficiently at best.
*Our metabolism is not built to (or efficient at) burning fat and building muscle at the same time. They require two completely different metabolic actions, and hormonal signals.
*Muscle building requires significant levels of insulin (a building hormone).
*Fat loss requires lowered insulin levels.
*When you strive to do both (while actually hoping for/focusing on weight loss), you end up burning through muscle stores rather than building them. This leads to the “skinny-fat” look. On the flip side, hoping/focusing solely on muscle gain can lead to feeling “fat” or puffy. The key lies in finding balance between the two.
*Understand that you need muscle in order to have the toned, tight look — and you need to reduce fat in order to see the muscle. Ultimately the look that most are striving for requires individualized focus on accomplishing both.
Solution Options:
1) Cycle phases dedicated to each: Increasing cals (above TDEE) for muscle building phases, and lowering cals (below TDEE) for fat loss phases. This means that you do NOT look to see fat gains during your muscle phases, or muscle growth during fat loss phases. The results within each phase are fastest with this option, but you may experience mental/physical turmoil of “feeling fat” during muscle gain phases, or missing your muscle gains as you cut fat (many people underestimate how much muscle they have under their fat layers). The best way that I’ve found to do this is to work with your natural times of month/year that you tend to eat this way (most people naturally eat in a cyclic manner without realizing it).
Body recomp can often feel like nothing is happening, because the changes are extremely slow and subtle. But if you put in the work, stay consistent, and take frequent pics, you will notice (like Melanie did!) how the changes compound ;)
2) Body recomp(osition): Eat at maintenance, utilizing a periodized workout plan, nailing your basic macronutrient goals. This is the the only safe way to multitask, and as stated before it’s means that you are not looking for drastic changes in one way or the other. This is a much slower process because you will essentially not see huge jumps in muscle gain OR fat loss at any one time. This can be a pro/con depending on your mentality and thought process. If you are happy seemingly at a standstill for a few years — knowing mentally that you ARE making changes — then this is the best route for you.
Summary
Non-stop dieting for a “look” should NEVER be an option, as it will never achieve the results that you want long term. Whether you choose to dive headfirst into fitness cycles, or take the slow and steady route – understand what your end goal is and accept that a lifestyle of perpetual dieting just won’t get you there, no matter how amazing the results look at first. With exception to newbie gains (which ultimately come to an end), metabolic multitasking is often severely over-touted and misunderstood. Instead of spinning your wheels, eating and exercising in a way that will do neither process efficiently, take the time to understand how to match your eating and exercising to your workouts and take charge of your journey again.
When did you first learn that you needed to eat more to reach your goals? What was your original response?
After hitting my weight loss goal with Weight Watchers in 2012, I was working out on average an hour per day, almost every single day, and feeling extremely hungry all the time. I felt like I was having to white-knuckle my eating in accordance with my exercise.
I couldn’t figure out why it was such a struggle to maintain my body weight. I started doing some research and found that, on average, I was eating around 1900 calories a day, maybe 2000 when you averaged it out over the week. I stumbled across “Eat More to Weigh Less” and some other blogspromoting the idea of eating according to your TDEE and activity level and I felt like a light bulb had gone off. I had been far under-eating for my activity level. I purchased a Body Media Band at the time and was astonished to realize that on certain days I was burning 2,600 to 2,700 calories a day, because of all my activities. I realized at that point that I was just not well-informed on how much calories my body required in order to maintain my weight. My dietary habits were based on a point system that wasn’t working for me anymore. Of course, my next response after this realization was thinking, “Yay! I get to eat more food.”
How did your body and scale in clothes, etc, react to the initial increase in calories?
I felt a little bit bloated around my midsection, and I did see an initial creep up in weight on the scale. I was maintaining my weight between 150 and 152 pounds. I noticed my weight would hit, at most, 158 pounds, but ultimately I just felt a bit more puffy from all the extra food I was eating.
Has your calorie intake changed over the past two years, and if so, how?
My calories really haven’t changed much. I’ve been tracking them as of late because I’m currently cutting again. What I have noticed is that they typically fall between 2,300 and 2,600 per day, depending on my activity level. In the last two years, for the most part, I’ve kind of stayed within the same activity range and thus the same calorie range. I would say that, over all, I think most people (especially fairly active people) are probably unaware of how much they are burning in a day.I know I was really shocked when I learned about my own caloric levels.
Have your fitness and health goals changed? For example, do you still monitor aim or maintain scale weight, or has your focus shifted more to performance or other goals?
I actually do both. I am working on gaining strength. I’ve increased my squats, dead-lifts, bench presses. I’ve been focusing on all that, but I also keep an eye on the scale for myself. Having battled my weight my entire life, I’m not completely comfortable not checking on it. I created what I felt was a realistic weight range for me, 150 – 160 pounds. However, I’m more focused on gaining strength and building muscle and less on just losing weight. As long as I honor my commitment to myself by not gaining back the weight I lost initially, I’m fine.
What has been the biggest revelation you’ve had since increasing your calories and lifting heavy weights?
That it all balances out. Your weight training really impacts your metabolism. I never understoodthis. It shocks me how much I can eat and still be able to maintain my scale weight, and it’s because I lift weights. I feel completely different on the days I lift versus the days I don’t. My hunger levels are different. The foods I can eat are different. I’ve learned I can eat a heck of a lot more and still lose weight. That’s because I have a healthy metabolism now. And I attribute this change to taking the time to learn how to better feed my body in relation to my activity level from wonderful sites like Eat More to Weigh Less and others.
What method device do you use to determine your caloric intake? If you do use a Body Media or Fitbit, do you find it to be fairly accurate in terms of how much you are able to eat?
Yes, I use a Fitbit right now; although, I’ve used a Body Media Band in the past. Both devices typically show my caloric intake around the same place, which is anywhere from 2,200 calories all the way up to 2,700 calories per day. Most of these devices do not take into consideration things like weight training. However, they do capture my overall activity level and I have found them to be fairly accurate. If I were to take a cut in my calories using my FitBit as a guide, I’d find I don’t have to go to an extremely low calorie range to start losing weight.
If I gain enough weight to put me out of my personal weight range and I need to cut back, I typically focus on removing 500 calories from my daily intake. If I find that my average calorie burn is 2,400 during an average 7-day cycle, I know that if I eat around 1,900 calories, I will be able to lose weight. When I do this I’ll typically lose about a pound per week. However, many people think 1,900 calories is what they need to maintain their weight. Understanding what I actually need to maintain my weight versus lose weight was extremely eye-opening for me.
Now that you’re in maintenance, how do you stay motivated each and every day?
I stay motivated because I typically share a lot of what I learn with other people. I’m here to help inspire, motivate women to not only lose this weight, but to find a way that they can keep it off forever. I also find that it’s really not as difficult as I thought it was. When I was white-knuckling it at the beginning, it was extremely difficult because I was hungry all the time. Now that I know how much I can eat and I found an activity I really enjoy, it’s really not as painful as I once thought it would have been. Overall, I guess I have found something that I can do for the rest of my life. I found that I can eat this way for the rest of my life, enough it makes maintenance really not as difficult as I once thought it would be.
Any parting words of encouragement for those who are new to eating more, struggling with the decisions to fuel properly?
If you’re maintaining your weight on a very low amount of calories, I highly recommend you take the gamble and do a reverse diet or metabolism reset. I always ask myself the question, “Can you continue to do what you’re doing for the rest of your life?” If I had to eat at 1,900 calories for the rest of my life, always feeling hungry, I don’t think I would have been able to maintain my weight loss.
So, if you were dieting down and eating 1,500 calories a day, and now you have to eat that amount of calories just to maintain your weight because your body has gotten used to it, I ask you, what other choice do you have? Well, you have two choices, actually. One, live with eating 1,500 calories for the rest of your life and be perpetually hungry. Or do a slow metabolism reset, where you increase your calories over time, and begin to let your metabolism repair itself from all the prolonged dieting you’ve done. Yes, you may gain a few pounds. My weight went up about 8 pounds total. However, I can honestly say it’s the best 8 pounds I’ve ever gained! It was a great experiment for me to learn what my body needed and how I could feed it more fuel so I could enjoy my life more. There’s no point in dieting down just to be miserable for the rest of your life.Find a way that you can eat and move that you love and that is sustainable for you for the rest of your life.
You can find out more about me and all the different things I have going on at HalfSizeMe.com. And be sure to check out my podcast, The Half Size Me Show, which is available in iTunes and Stitcher radio. I also have a Facebook page where I post videos and other content to help people. I’d love to connect with you on any social media platform.
After spending most of her life since childhood overweight or morbidly obese, Heather Robertson finally resolved to lose the weight. It took five years, during which time she had three c-section pregnancies and a double-hernia operation, but she managed to lose 170 pounds. Over the past three years since reaching her goal weight, she’s learned the importance of developing a maintenance mindset.
She founded the Half Size Me Community with her husband, who also produces her popular podcast, The Half Size Me Show, which was recently listed on The Huffington Post as being one of the 19 Best Health/Fitness Podcasts.
Heather’s driven to teach others how to live healthier, happier lives. She does this by hosting her podcast, working with the Half Size Me Community, and as a Life Coach who specializes in weight loss, habit change, and self-acceptance.
The lie: Things are going to be different this time.
The lie: I’ll just try it for a while.
There are 3 ways to tell if a diet will work for you. During this time of year we are being bombarded with diet ads, and “New Year, New You” promises blare at us from every angle in the grocery checkout line. As you’re scouring the diet book aisle, or looking to hit “purchase” on that new online program, make sure that you are checking to see if the plan suits your lifestyle, priorities, and sustainability needs. Here’s three ways to tell, right off the bat, if a diet will work for YOU.
Let’s say it does cut back on certain types foods, and you don’t mind. Maybe you do truly want to reduce your intake of it, or start eating less of certain things overall, is there still a flexibility aspect to it? Or are the rules very strict? If you go “off track,” will you ruin your diet and feel hopeless?
The Bottom Line
Between your skin and bones, there’s muscle and fat. If you’re over the age of 20 (yes…20!), and have been consistently inactive, your body will naturally gain fat and lose muscle when not on a lifting and/or healthy (
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