How to Count Calories, Step by Step – An Overview

What This Course is NOT

This course is NOT is a course telling you to go to the gym. This is not a course that promises you a “beach” body. This is not a course that is geared towards people who want to “Get fit.” I will explain how walking daily can improve your ability to maintain your desired weight. I will explain how lifting heavy weights is probably good for you, but neither is necessary for success in this program.

I struggled with simply maintaining my weight when I was heavy. I did not understand how to lose weight and I did not understand how to keep a stable weight. I knew other people who were able to maintain a stable weight, and it seemed they did it with ease! Whereas I would regularly gain 5 – 10 lbs a year. My pants didn’t fit, and I was going to the gym and trying to lose weight. Why?

This course helps you understand how and how you can do it for yourself.

Intro into this course.

What Will You Learn?

1. You will learn what tools to use for successful calorie counting for weight loss or maintenance.
2. You will learn how to figure out how many calories you should be eating
3. You will learn how to choose what specifically to eat.
4. You will learn all the tricks I used and still use to maintain my weight goals
5. You will learn what to do if you feel stuck
6. You will learn how to lose weight. On your terms, eating foods you love.

What Does It Look Like? 30,000 Feet View?

Successful calorie counting is more of a mental game than it is a willpower game or anything else. If you are able to get into the right mindset you will be able to achieve weight loss successfully because the key is consistency.

Week 1
Baseline and downloading tools.
During this week you download tools and get use to entering your calories every day.
During this week you are collecting data. Your daily calorie totals and weekly total are the goal to collect this week. Once you have 7 days of data collected on MyFitnessPal you can move to the second week.

Week 2
Now that you have your baseline and have figured out your daily calorie goal you’re off to the races!
This week is about hitting your daily calorie goal every day and noticing sticking points. If you’re hungry at a specific time then pay attention to that. That does not indicate that you’ve failed or anything like that. It’s an indication that you need to negotiate with yourself or move some things around. Hungry Time Intro will also be touched on.
You should also connect your phone to google fit or some other step counter and connect it to MFP (MyFitnessPal). This will help you be more accurate and you will get calories back at the end of the day when the app syncs. Use/Eat these calories.

Week 3
Hungry Time. You’re losing weight and so it will include some time that you’re going to be a bit hungry. I planned my hungry time for 10am. I have a lot of willpower at 10am, so I’m pretty sure that I’ll be able to do this daily consistently. Do not plan hungry time for bedtime. It will not work. You will ignore your plan.

Week 4
We’re still refining, but should be zeroing in on meals that you like during most meal times through the week. Dinner time can take a bit more time to dial in.

Week 5 and beyond
The goal is to hit your daily calorie goal every day. Changing your diet can feel really overwhelming and it can feel like you’re not doing much.

Holidays
HI love Christmas. But, weight loss on Vacation? Weight loss during Christmas?! Weight loss as a teacher?!?! (I used to work in schools. I know the struggle of the weekly treat table. on THURSDAYS. So you can go out for lunch on Friday’s if it’s not a PD day.)

These are all challenging things and I do a special section just on them.