Are you having trouble losing weight?
Here’s a quick story about a personal training client of mine you might be able to relate to (I’ve changed my client’s actual name, but the story is 100% true):
When Molly and I first started training, she was somewhat resistant to my diet advice, but brought the energy to our workouts, gave every one all she had, and followed the workout plan I gave her (for workouts on her own time) to a ‘T’.
Measurement time came after a month of training – and she had only lost two pounds. Although she had lost fat and gained some muscle, she was discouraged. We had set an initial weight goal, and progress wasn’t going quite as fast as she thought it should.
Why?
At the end of the day, it’s your diet that’s responsible for at least 70% of the weight loss equation – if not a lot more.
The good news is, Molly started keeping a food log, we worked together to cut out excess calories and make better food choices, and she lost nine pounds over the next four weeks.
It comes down to eating less and moving more when you’re trying to lose weight – this simple equation must be in place. But, different approaches work differently for different people. And success in the end comes down to picking a diet you can actually stick to – the greatest diet advice in the world is worthless if you can’t follow through.
If you’ve already found a plan that works and you know what to do – good for you!
If not, here are three examples of diet programs that are very different, but probably equally effective for getting you to that fat loss goal – it’s a matter of which one appeals to you the most as to which one will get you to your goal the fastest. I’ve linked to each one if you’d like to find out about the details of any of them:
Did you know that the majority of people (between 75-90%) consistently (and massively) under-report their calories consumed when they are asked to track their calories?
The idea behind this plan is that although counting calories is important, other things – like the fact that people tend to have problems keeping track, controlling appetite is a huge barrier for most folks trying to hit a calorie goal, and the influence hormonal imbalances have on your metabolic rate, fat storage, etc. – have at least as big of an influence on your weight loss efforts.
The plan is based around the idea that if you choose the right foods and understand how these foods react with your body, you can automatically attain the right calorie level without the need to ever count calories again.
Find out more about the Fat Burning Kitchen here:
This is a plan based around the concept of intermittent fasting. It definitely goes against the grain – but a lot of people are having great success with it.
On Eat Stop Eat, you go for 24 hours without food two days per week. Sounds crazy, especially if you’re used to eating five or six meals a day (like me), but as I said, it’s a very popular program and many people are reporting a lot of success with it. If you’d like to learn more, click the link below:
One thing I notice with vegetarians trying to lose fat is that they often have a hard time selecting the right foods and getting a proper balance of protein, carbs and fat. So here’s a program that’s geared towards fat loss for you veggies – and will show you exactly what to do and what to eat along the way. Find out more here:
So, the moral of the story is this: at the end of the day, you gotta burn more calories than you take in to lose weight. But there are a lot of different ways to do it – and different methods will work differently for different people. Whichever route you take, if you’re not getting the results you want, start focusing on your diet today!!
P.S. If you are searching for healthy meals check out these slow carb recipes at http://www.thefitnessmonster.com/2012/01/slow-carb-recipes.html.
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