The 3 Things You Need To Know About Losing Weight
Posted on January 2, 2012 by admin
Happy New Year’s Resolution time!! If you’re like 90% of Americans, your Resolution is to lose weight this year. Let me help you be successful! As the “Makeover Queen” with over 20 years of personal training and experience in the fitness industry, my programs have gotten thousands of people to not only reach their goals, but to keep them within 5 lbs of their goal weight, permanently. Here’s the deal:
1. It’s all about math (mostly). It’s true. When losing weight you must burn more calories than you take in. Once you reach your goal you can reset you daily caloric intake to a higher amount but you have “get a little uncomfortable (with your diet) to get comfortable (with your body).” And honestly, the only thing that has proven to work is calorie counting and measuring your serving size. If you’re like me, you’ll slightly er lie to yourself about how many calories you THINK you ingested or how many calories you THINK you burned on the treadmill (“I ran 3 miles that’s got to be good for 500 calories burned” hehe). The only way to successfully do this is to be accountable or record your daily food intake and exercise. Apps are great for helping you do this and my favorite is www.myfitnesspal.com. You don’t have to have an iPhone or Droid to participate…you can do everything online. Even if you’re not the type of personality who likes to write things down, try it at least for 2 weeks. It’ll give you a feeling for what your eating habits should be to attain your desired weight.
2. The more you move, the more you can eat (and the more you’ll lose-eating more) .I’m not just talking about general exercise but also every day movement. The people who move more not only burn more calories during the movement but also burn more at rest because they have more muscle (muscle burns more calories than fat). The key is to not only move more, but to include traditional strength training in your weekly workout….especially if you’re over the age of 35. A small percentage of muscle mass is lost every year above that…causing our metabolisms or calorie burning mechanisms to slow down.
3. All calories aren’t created equal. So MyFitnessPal says that you can consume 1200 calories and you think “Perfect! I love Scooter Pies so I’ll just eat 1200 calories of them.” Remember what your momma said? “You are what you eat.” Not only will eating a high sugar/high fat diet leave you feeling like crap, nutritionally deficient and at a risk for developing maladies like Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease or worse, it will make you look awful. This is where body fat percentage comes in. You can be 150 pounds and 15% body fat and you can be 150 pounds and 30% body fat. There’s a big difference aesthetically. The key is to eat a balanced diet that includes protein, complex carb and a little fat at every meal (this includes snacks). This will give you a healthy, toned look at your goal weight.
I’ll be back with more blogging on which programs are best for which body type, age and gender. Good luck and happy dieting!!
Xoxo
Larysa
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