Weight Loss Secrets -- REVEALED!

Let me start this post by saying that I am by no means a licensed dietitian or nutritionist. I am not a trainer, a doctor, or a chef. My schooling has come primarily from my mom, who taught me the principles of weight loss and how they applied to my life. From there, it's been trial and error (and a lot of google).

I have struggled with weight for as long as I can remember. In my adult life, I have learned how to lose it, but it always creeps back. I have been dealing with the same 35 - 40 pounds for the past 5 years. I have tried a lot of "diets", but they never work for me. It's the nature of my personality to want what I'm not allowed to have, so restrictive eating plans will not take. For example, I hate olives. But if you tell me I can lose 10 pounds in one week, just by not eating olives, I will want them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I can't live without carbs, sugar, or diet soda. I am incapable of cutting anything out completely.

On my 4th birthday, with my brothers and my 2 true loves -- Care Bears and yellow cake with chocolate frosting.

Since January, I have re-embraced some standards of healthy living. Technically, I am not on a diet. I have, however, dropped 16 pounds, and I am halfway to my goal of 32. People are noticing and asking what I'm doing. They want to know what diet I'm on, what pills I am taking, how many carbs I'm eating, and how often I work out. People will tell you there is no one secret to weight loss. Technically, that's not true. It all boils down to one thing:

Burn more calories than you take in.

You can eat all carbs and lose weight. You can eat no fruits or vegetables and lose weight. you can be a vegetarian and GAIN weight (very easily, actually). Fad diets are just that -- FADS. They don't last, and neither will your weight loss. It all comes down to burning more calories than you consume.

Calorie counting can be a tricky business, so I use fitday.com to keep me on track. I love fitday for a variety of reasons, but mostly because you can create a million custom foods and add them easily to your online food journal each day. It makes it very easy for me to know what I've eaten, and with my BlackBerry, I can access that information at any time to make smart decisions about what to eat. It also keeps me from eating a ton of junk, because sometimes I am so lazy I don't want to go to the trouble of entering nutrition information for a new custom food. Instead, I will choose a snack that I already have the info recorded for. It also has a tri-colored pie chart (I love a good graph) that breaks my daily intake into protein, carbs, and fat. Although I don't get too caught up in those numbers, as my weight goes down, I am paying more attention to having a good balance of those 3 key things (I shoot for 40% protein, 40% carbs - I looove carbs, and 20% fat). Fitday also allows you to enter your activities each day so you can know how many calories you have burned. It automatically customizes it to the most recent weight you have entered for yourself, so there's no math or question marks. I highly recommend using fitday or another calorie-tracking program (Emily loves Calorie King) to keep you on pace to your weight loss goals. If you're not tech-savvy, a good old fashioned notebook will work just as well.

A lot of people also ask me how many calories they should be eating to lose weight. One of the things I learned through a brief stint of Weight Watchers was that you should not lose more than 2 pounds per week. 3500 calories burned equals a pound of fat lost (conversely, if you consume 3500 calories, you will gain a pound). If you want to lose one pound per week, you will need to burn 500 more calories a day than what you take in (1000 calories if you are aiming for 2 pounds per week). Regardless of your current weight or activity level, you should never dip below 1200 calories per day. It sends your body into starvation mode and will ultimately have adverse effects on your weight loss.

There is a fabulously helpful calculator located here. I use it to determine my BMR, or how many calories my body burns just sustaining essential life functions (basically, if I was in bed all day and never moved). You can also select your exercise level and it will tell you your daily caloric goal for maintaining your weight, losing weight, or (my favorite) "Extreme Fat Loss". If you click on "7 Day Calorie Zig Zag", it will give you an idea of how to "cycle" your calories. This is a theory to which I subscribe wholeheartedly. Eating the same number of calories day after day can send your metabolism into a rut. By zig-zagging, or cycling, it keeps your metabolism up and your body burns fat more quickly. This basically means taking your weekly caloric needs and dividing them up into "high days" and "low days". This calculator will do it for you, and trust me, it works. I try to always make my highest day Friday or Saturday, because that's when I tend to eat a lot.

Determine your caloric needs and track what you eat. That's basically the key to it! There are also a few other tips I use that might be helpful:

• Fiber is your friend. WW taught me the importance of fiber. It keeps you fuller longer and (ew warning) keeps you regular! The DRA is 25g of fiber a day, and something like 90% of Americans don't get enough. Personally, I start almost every morning with a 1/2 c. serving of Fiber One original cereal and 1/2 c. of 1% milk. 110 calories, 14g of fiber, delicious, filling, and you get some calcium! I also love Fiber One's bars (caramel is my favorite), and have discovered that Target's "Market Pantry" brand is exactly the same, at an affordable $1.75 a box (whenever you choose to buy "generic", make sure you check the nutrition facts against the brand name product. They should match up!) I am always on the lookout for high-fiber snacks!


• Have a "Cheat Day". Or two. I have a cheat day almost every Monday (the morning that I weigh in). Don't go crazy and eat 23,456 calories just because it's your cheat day, but think of it more as a day to indulge in any cravings or temptations you have been feeling. Just like with a job, you need a day off to rest and relax your body into another week of weight loss. If you are able to plan your cheat day on a day where you exercise or have a lot of activity, that's an added bonus.


• Weigh in weekly. You can't know where you're going without knowing where you've been. Choose a time to weigh in once a week and record your progress to your goal (either in your written or online food journal). Try your best to refrain from weighing yourself more than that one time per week -- a million different factors can make your weight fluctuate, and seeing a loss or gain mid-week may not be reflective of what's actually happening. It can subconciously trick you into eating more or less and messing up your entire week. Weigh once, and then stay off that scale (I put mine in the bathroom cabinet -- out of sight, out of mind!).


• Bring your own snacks. Anyone who spends any time at all with me can tell you that I eat all day. It's called "grazing" (yes, like a cow). Having 5-6 "mini-meals" throughout the day keeps your metabolism up. I may have my bowl of F1 at 8:00, but by 10:30 or 11, I'm a little hungry. I usually grab a string cheese and a 90 cal pack of Special K crackers to hold me over until lunch (instead of giving into those yummy looking doughnuts Hungry is trying to tempt me with, shown here in a WW commercial). Listen to your body. Eating 150-300 calories when you're starting to feel slightly hungry is a lot better than downing a zillion calories when you think you're dying of starvation. Keep hunger at bay and you won't overeat. To accomplish this, have snacks handy! I live for the 100 cal pack, but I also package up 1 c. servings of cereal, bags of carrot sticks, sugar free Jello and Jello pudding, and microwave popcorn. I try to keep something sweet and something salty on hand at all times -- you never know when the craving will strike!


• Knowledge is power. Learn as much as you can. There are a million books available with nutrition information for every food imaginable. I eat out allllll the time, so I rely heavily on Dotti's Weight Loss Zone's "Restaurants" Page for a lot of info. Fitday also helps with this. I am also blessed with a mother who seems to know fat and calories for everything, so a simple text message will let me know if I have enough calories left in my day to splurge on a 5 pc. chicken nugget. There's so much to learn about sauces, condiments, and beverages -- a lot of things people never think about. I am by no means an expert, but I am happy to answer any questions (my personal favorites are the, "Am I better off eating this, or that?")


• Just say no! Realistically, it might not be in your lifestyle plan to cut out alcohol completely. As I said, I am NOT about deprivation. But cutting back on the alcs intake can help immensely. Not only is it a waste of empty calories, but it can v. quickly break down your defenses and lead to 2 am TBell binges. It can also put you out of commission the following day and leave you craving greasy, calorie laden foods. If you do go out, keep it moderate -- light beer (or MGD64) or rum and diet. If you know you have a special ocassion coming up (birthday, reunion, seriously fun party) try to eat light throughout the day (but make sure you eat ENOUGH to keep you from getting ill!). Remember, hydration is key to weight loss, and drinking makes you dehydrated, so amp up on the H2O intake on the days surrounding a drinking event.
  
• Be a little active. I am lucky to have a job where I stay on my feet and moving the better part of 8 hours a day. A lot of times, it's enough to make me lack the energy to work out when I get home -- but at least I know I was moving all day. If you're stuck at a desk, find a reason to walk around, or spend your lunch hour walking. Any extra calorie burn equals extra snacks! Set realistic exercise goals for yourself and don't overdo it. It's better to do 30 minutes every day than 3 hours one day a week.

I could go on all day with the things I do to help me lose weight, but this (insanely long) post should answer the majority of the questions I have received. It's all about finding your perfect balance to be happy, healthy, and full of energy. Good luck!