Small Changes can make a Big Difference

Trying to get in shape and lose weight can be overwhelming. There's so many "diet" plans, pills, shakes, philosophies, and workout programs available it can be daunting when trying to choose where to even start. If losing weight were easy, then the global market for Weight Loss wouldn't be worth US $586.3 Billion by the year 2014. In the big picture, weight loss is pretty simple.... calories in vs. calories out. It's just learning how to truly apply this equation to your everyday life, and making small, simple changes that will set you up for success.

There's no miracle diet or pill that's gonna help you lose weight permanently. Sure you can take diet pills for a week and lose a few pounds, buy you are screwing up your metabolism, and you'll most likely go right back to where you started, wasting your money and taking the unhealthy approach. Your main reason for losing weight should be for your health, and taking this route isn't going to benefit you. It's making lifestyle changes, that will keep the weight off permanently and improve your overall health.

I wanted to provide some examples of simple ways to make the "calories in vs. calories out" equation work for you. A pound of fat is equivalent to 3,500 calories. A healthy, realistic goal for weight loss is to lose 1-2 pounds a week. So that's creating a weekly 3,500-7,000 calorie deficit until you reach your goal weight.

Let's say you go to Starbucks three times a week and order a 260 calorie Grande mocha with 2% milk and no whip cream. If you substituted a coffee or americano, with one oz of cream (37 calories and and 1 TB of sugar (48 calories), you'd be taking in 525 calories less per week, which totals 2,100 less in the course of a month. There's a half pound right there, from just a small tweak in your diet.

Then let's add a little exercise into the mix. Just adding 30 minutes of exercise 3 days a week can really make a difference. A 140 pound person, will burn roughly 320 calories jogging 30 minutes. That's 960 calories burned in a week, totaling 3,840 calories for the month, which is a little over a pound shed.

My advice is to write down or take a mental note of what you eat, and how much you are exercising for a just a few days. Start by making small changes, like adding 10 minutes more to your workouts, walking to work, substituting healthy food options for indulgent, high calorie meals. If you drink a 6 pack of beer (900 calories) after work, or a bottle of wine (500 calories) with a meal, 3 times a week, that totals 6,000 to 10,800 calories in a month, which amount to 1.5- 2.5 pounds. (Click chart below to enlarge)

A big mistake is to think you earned that pizza or ice cream because you worked out. Don't get into this mentality... you will be basically treading water. It will take you 2.5 hours of walking to burn off just 2 pieces of pizza, which took you about a minute to eat!

So take a deep breath, rise above all the weight loss gimmicks out there and remember:

The photo above was taken before the Warrior Dash I did this weekend... The photo below was the aftermath.