How to Count Calories Successfully – Book 1
Here is the biggest “secret” about losing weight.
WE MEASURE THE WRONG METRICS.
If you want to lose five pounds, you take action (more on that later) and you measure your success by the lost weight. If you lose weight, success happens and your behaviors go back to “normal.” When your behaviors snap back, and they usually do, you gain back the lost weight.
Instead of measuring your success by the amount of weight lost, you should measure your success by measuring if you have done specific tasks related to weight loss / counting calories that day. Every day.
In order for your participation to continue in anything, you need to see results. If you don’t see results you don’t see a reason to stay on. If the results you’re looking for are out of your control then you need to measure in a way that gives you results you can measure that ARE in your control. Even if you do the tasks for your “diet” “100% correctly” you may not lose enough weight (because of hormones or water retention) for you to feel like the result is justified for you to keep going.
One other thing I should mention is that you are constantly doing a cost benefit analysis. You look at your activity to get the desired result and then you look at your result. If you do not get a good enough result then you will not continue the program.
With weight loss and calorie counting the progress can be tough to see day to day. That can feel demoralizing. When that’s made worse by being hungry it can be a recipe for giving up.
The Importance of Pursuing the Perfect Day
I do not eat food I don’t like. I also do not like being hungry. A lot of people think that weight loss or calorie counting is a way to blugen you or shame you into eating only salads or only things that fit into an absurdly small calorie ration. This is not the way.Â
You should be EXCITED about the food you’re eating. You should look forward to every meal, not because you’re starving, but because you’re really looking forward to enjoying that particular meal. If you are looking forward to your meals and you understand what number you’re trying to hitÂ
What should I do instead? The Perfect Day!
- Hitting your daily calorie goal
- Weigh yourself once a week and record it
How do I get started?
Eating food is kind of like budgeting money. You only have so much of it. If you spend more than you’ve got, then you go into debt and that’s bad. If you eat more than you should then you get fatter and that’s the problem you’re trying to solve.
- Hitting your daily calorie goal
That’s it. That’s the most important thing you can do.Â
If you can consistently hit your daily calorie goal then you will be well on your way to Successfully losing weight.
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