How to Lose Weight Without a Fad Diet

Losing weight is never easy, but there is on irrefutable rule…energy in vs. energy out. Counting your calories is one way to monitor how much energy you put in your body (i.e., calories). This will help you figure out how much exercise you need, how to plan your meals, and how to get the best bang for your buck when eating.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Small notebook and pencil (to fit in a backpack or purse).
• Food scale
• Measuring spoons and cups
• Calculator
• Database of calories in food (online or a book format)
• Calorie counting software (optional)

1. For one week, write down the estimated quantity and description of food you eat. Make sure to measure and weigh your food so you get a glimpse of what a cup of popcorn or 6 ounces of meat looks like. Do not look up the calories as you go! You want to see an unbiased assessment of your diet.

2. Sit down with your notebook at the end of the 7 days, and add up the calories. This is your usual caloric intake. You can also add up the 7 days and get an average, to see where you usually fall.

3. Look up your ideal weight, and find out how many calories that takes to maintain.

4. Gradually start cutting back your calories until you are consistently eating as many calories as the weight you want.

5. Adding exercise means you can eat more. If you aim to cut out 500 calories a day, exercise for 200 calories of it, and then you only need to cut out 300 calories.

6. Online calorie counting programs are very useful. There are many free ones that do a fabulous job. It takes only a few minutes at the end of the day to enter the food from your notebook, and you can look things up very easily. Many also offer a weight tracker and other useful features.

Tips & Warnings

• Start out with small goals. A 40 pound goal may seem to daunting, discouraging you before you even start. 5 pounds is a moderate goal, and is more easily attainable in a shorter period of time.
• Give yourself small, non food rewards when you reach your short term goals, such as a pedicure, a new movie, a new book, or some other small thing you would like.
• If you feel like you are hungry all the time, try to pick foods that have a lower calorie count for the volume. Strawberries are a good example, you can eat a cup of them for 46 calories, verses a cup of ice cream is about 500 calories. There are calorie dense foods that don’t really fill you up. Find those ones in your diet, and slowly weed them out.
• Check with your physician before starting a new diet or weight loss program.
• Never go below 1200 calories. It is very unhealthy.

Resources

• Free Online Diet Journal
• Calorie Counter Database (Free)
• Free Calorie Counter
• Diet Power - your personal weight loss and nutrition coach