Your Weight Loss Equation

Okay, we get it! To lose weight we need to eat less. But it's not that simple. What is a serving size? How much do we need to eat a day? How much exercise do we need? With eating out and being on the go, it really easy to get sucked in to eating more and exercising less.

Portion Distortion

As a society, we eat out a lot more. Restaurant portions are totally distorted and often restaurant environments are designed to make you want to eat. The low lighting, large plates, extra sides, bread baskets, and hearty ingredients can really add up the calories. Often times when you dine with a large group, you tend to eat more too. Who eats in front of the TV? That leads to mindless munching and overeating.

Also look at the packaging of the foods you are eating. A typical beverage sold in a bottle is 2 to 2.5 servings. A small bag a dried fruit sold at the airport is usually 5 to 6 servings. How easy is it for one person to polish off this bag. Look at the serving size on food items you eat to make sure you are getting the calorie calculations right.

Not sure how many calories is in a specific food item? Calorieking.com is a great resource for searching for foods and their caloric value.

What about the eating tools we use? Studies have shown that eating off of smaller plates and out of smaller bowls helps control caloric intake. Many of us are members of the clean plate club, so why not clean the smaller plate.


Calories In

The next question to ask after you understand portion size is how many calories do I need to consume. There are many online calculators to determine this number. Fitday.com, sparkpeople.com and dietdetective.com are all useful tools in discovering your caloric needs. Some of these also have online food logs for you to calculate your daily intake. A pain to use at first, but once you get started logging your meals can be a quick process. I often recommend that people shoot for about 100 to 150 calories under this number because we tend to underestimate what we eat. It also takes in account the 12 M & M's we grab out of the candy dish and don't log.

Calories Out

Okay, we are in the gym working our butt off and burning lots of calories. But think about it, one AA workout burns between 500 and 600 calories. Well that's awesome. But if you stop in the afternoon and eat 4 hershey kisses (100 calories), you already are negating your caloric deficit. So think about how hard you work in the gym? Is the indulgence really worth it? Also think about moving more in your daily activities. Amp up the movement in your lifestyle to put more calories in the out category.

Weight Loss Success

Once you get the equation right, you'll be on your way to weight loss success. Make substitutions to lower your caloric intake and plan ahead if you are going out to eat. Create that caloric deficit and see the pounds come off.