Something tells me I’m onto something good!

Something tells me I’m onto something good!

A friend of mine who is doing very nicely with his weight loss goals shared with me a glistening pearl of insight. He sent me to search the internet for a website that helps calculate the number of calories your body needs per day to maintain your current weight. I found a good one, (freedieting.com for those who are interested) entered in my stats, i.e. height, weight, age, gender, and through the magic of computer science, the program spits out how many calories I must eat to either maintain or lose weight. According to the calculations, a guy my size requires more calories to maintain my current weight than someone smaller. (That’s why you have to enter your own stats.) This is important information because it’s not healthy or even effective to just guess how many calories you need. It turns out that weight loss is more about science and mathematical facts. You learn the number of calories you need to maintain, and for every 3,500 calories you deny your body, your body will burn off one pound.

I mentioned very early on in my quest for a better, healthier life, that I was not going to become “Mr. Jonny Count Your Calories” but I was wrong. You have to count them; you have to know exactly where you’re at every day. My informative friend said that he packs a 3x5 note card in his pocket, writes down everything he eats, searches the web or reads the label to learn how many calories the item has, and then makes sure he ends the day having eaten the perfect number of calories. He is the kind of guy who needs to lose maybe 40 or 50 lbs and he has already lost 20 since the first of the year by following this simple procedure. Though I thought the note card idea was okay, I figured an even better way to keep count. I dug up a pocket sized check ledger to use in keeping track of my calories. Each morning I’ll write down a calorie “deposit” in the ledger and then as I eat, I’ll list the item and then deduct the number calories much like you would after writing a regular check. And POOF! You now have a very convenient, easy to read, running balance for the day, plus it will be an easy way to measure your weight loss performance over time because you’ll have it all written down someplace where you can find it.

Whew! Now that’s what I call a POST! Sorry for being so wordy, but hopefully I’m onto something that will really help me (us) to succeed!