Let’s change gears a bit from discussing working out, to talk about
counting calories. This practice has been
around for quite a while now. It became
widely popular with the Weight Watchers program when it was in its early years,
and required tracking the number of calories you took in each day. It’s a good concept and can work well, if you
do it right. The problem? You had to manually track your calories, read
labels, and measure food on a scale. It’s a little simpler now that we have
technology on our side with apps like Lose It, Calorie King, and My Fitness Pal;
in addition to many restaurants providing nutritional information about what is
offered on their menus. These are all
very good resources that can be used to count calories, as well as the amount
of carbs, protein, sodium, and sugars that each meal contains. So how are you doing? Are you able to lose weight and keep it
off? No?
Are you surprised? I’m not.
Part of
my job as a Personal Trainer and Fitness Consultant is to teach you how to eat
for results, instead of just eating for the sake of eating. Calorie
counting is good but can be misleading depending on how you obtain that
information, including secondhand advice from people who have picked up little tidbits
here and there. There is also the matter
of productive caloric intake. Which is better, a grilled chicken sandwich
with “special sauce”, or a burger made plain?
Which will do more to impede you reaching your goal, a 6 pack of chicken
nuggets, or small bowl of chili from the value menu? How long will you continue to try just counting
calories before you get frustrated, bored, or begin to starve because you got
the numbers wrong? Forgot
something! What about exercise? How do you count calories when you exercise? I guarantee it needs to be different than
when not exercising, so it gets a little more complicated. There are good foods and bad foods. Eating less of the bad food simply means you
gain one pound instead of two, and when eating healthy food your body needs
more than just a salad…
Kind of
makes your head spin to consider all the things involved in healthy weight loss.
Trust me, I feel your pain, but there is
hope! Words of advice, before you start
counting calories, know why you’re
counting calories. Is your goal simply
to lose weight, or tone and shape your body?
Never jump into something without know what you want out of it! Failing to plan is planning to fail!
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