How many times have you heard a friend or family member say “I need to go to the gym” or “I could stand to lose a few pounds”? For many people, the thought of losing weight is always in the back of their mind, but never do they fully engage themselves in the idea of eating right and exercising daily. Not knowing where to start in planning a healthier lifestyle that includes diet and exercise, is one of the main factors that contributes to the lack of motivation. Also, so many different types of programs such as Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, etc. can be overwhelming when thinking about which program best suits ones lifestyle and their weight loss objectives. The following step by step guide is one way to set your weight loss goals and to make a plan for reaching them.
Before You Start: Losing weight is a matter of calories consumed vs. calories burned. This means that if you consume more calories than you burn, the results are gaining weight. If you consume an equal amount of calories compared to the amount of calories burned, you will maintain your weight. Lastly, if you burn more calories than the amount of calories you consume, you will lose weight. This is also known as a calorie deficit. The two most important factors that help create a calorie deficit are decreasing calories consumed by reducing the amount of food eaten and simultaneously increasing the amount of calories burned through exercise and other psychical activities.
Before beginning any exercise and diet program, consult your physician to ensure you are healthy enough to do so. Whatever your goals and medical condition may be, always approach any new exercise regimen with caution. Many beginners make the mistake of starting out too aggressively, causing many to give up when they are tired, sore, or injured. When people go about exercising too aggressively early in their program, they tend not to stick with it. What your goal should be is to develop some new habits that you can stick with for a lifetime that fits your goals and lifestyle.
Weight to Height Ratio: The first step to fulfill your weight loss objective is to determine what your weight to height ratio is. This is based on your height, weight, gender, and level of activity. Once you have calculated the average weight for your specific body type, then you can determine what your weight goal is. The next step is to determine how much food you should consume in order to reach your weight loss goal.
Calculate Daily Calorie Intake (DCI): By calculating your daily calorie intake (DCI) is a very important factor when it comes to reaching your weight loss goals. As mentioned before, consuming fewer calories than the amount of calories burned is what causes weight loss. In order to understand how to calculate your daily calorie intake, you need to know the difference between BMR and AMR. BMR stands for basal metabolic rate. This is the rate which the body uses energy while at rest. AMR stands for active metabolic rate- the rate which the body uses energy while exercising. By calculating your BMR and AMR, you can determine your daily calorie intake based on your weight, height and age.
Women:
BMR = 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)
Men:
BMR = 66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)
For both men and women, use your BMR and an estimated current level of activity to calculate your AMR:
- Sedentary (little or no exercise): AMR = BMR x 1.2
- Lightly active (light exercise 1-3 days per week): AMR = BMR x 1.375
- Moderately active (moderate exercise 3-5 days per week): AMR = BMR x 1.55
- Very active (hard exercise 6-7 days a week): AMR = BMR x 1.725
- Extra active (very hard exercise 6-7 days a week): AMR = BMR x 1.9
The calculation for your BMR gives you the total amount of calories that should be consumed in a day without exercise. Depending on how much you exercise (AMR) will vary your daily calorie intake. Take into consideration that your approximate daily calorie intake may be more or less depending on your weight loss goals. Now that you have calculated your DCI, the next step in planning your weight loss goal is to know what you should and should not be eating.
Eliminate Unhealthy Eating Habits: This third step is also very important when planning your weight loss goals. Everyone has at least one food that sends their taste buds soaring and their diets crashing. May it be ice-cream, frosted cupcakes, pizza, or even a six pack of beer; all of these foods are full of calories and unhealthy ingredients that cause weight gain to sky rocket quicker than you think. By getting rid of calorie-packed foods, it will prevent you from eating them period. Also, fast food should never be your “go-to” food. Many fast food restaurants have foods that contain more calories than half of a persons average daily calorie intake. By completely removing any fast food from your diet, you are preventing yourself from eating unnecessary excessive amounts of calories making it easier to shed those extra pounds.
One thing to be cautious about when changing your diet is food withdraws. Once a body has been supplied with certain types of food for a long amount of time (i.e. chips, candy, etc.), it takes a toll when your body is no longer provided with such foods. This will cause immense cravings, high or low blood pressure and possibly tiredness. Although these cravings are tough, they do not last long. Once your body is no longer addicted to certain foods, it will no longer need them in order to function properly.
Another factor you should know when changing your diet is to start slow and make changes to your eating habits one day at a time. By changing everything overnight usually leads to cheating or giving up on your new diet. Take small steps such as eating a salad for lunch instead of a piece of pizza or switching from butter to olive oil when cooking. By gradually changing your diet, cravings for certain foods will decrease as well.
Once you have cut all unnecessary foods out of your diet, you are ready for the next step; creating a healthy diet.
Create a Healthy Diet: The first principle of a healthy diet is simply to eat a wide variety of foods. This is important because different foods make different nutritional contributions. Secondly, fruits, vegetables, grains—foods high in complex carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, and minerals, low in fat and free of cholesterol—should make up the bulk of the calories you consume. The rest should come from low-fat dairy products, lean meat and poultry, and fish.
Try to limit your intake of sugary foods and refined-grains such as white bread and salty-snack foods, i.e. chips. Also, try drinking mostly water through out the day. Water helps the body rehydrate and replenish itself.
By eating a wide variety of food helps ensure that your body is getting all the necessary nutrients in order to function properly and help with weight loss. If you are having trouble maintaining a healthy diet, try viewing it as a way to expand your choices of foods—especially with vegetables, whole grains, or fruits—that you normally don’t eat. A healthy diet does not have to mean eating foods that are tasteless and unappealing. Once you have removed unhealthy eating habits and secured healthy eating habits, creating an exercising routine is the final step towards reaching your weight loss goal.
Create an Exercise Plan: In order to lose weight does not necessarily mean following a strict, time-consuming routine at the gym—although that is certainly beneficial. The truth is you can get rewards from many different types and levels of exercise. Any increment of physical activity is going to be a boost in weight loss. There are many exercising options such as walking, dancing, gardening, biking, even doing house-hold chores. Choosing activities that you enjoy will help increase your chances of making exercising a habit.
Before beginning any fitness routine, it's important to warm up, and then do some light stretching. Save the bulk of stretching for after the workout. Once you're warmed up, experts recommend three different types of exercise for overall physical fitness: cardiovascular activity, strength conditioning, and flexibility training. These don't all have to be done at once, but doing each on a regular basis will result in balanced fitness and weight loss.
To lose 1 pound of fat, you must burn 3,500 calories. Typical weight-loss programs start with 1 to 2 pounds per week because this is safe and effective. It also helps keep the weight off. The larger a person is, the greater the amount of weight they can lose. However, it is not recommended to lose more than 5 pounds per week because there is a high likelihood of the weight coming back. Crash dieting, fasting, exercise binges and other methods of rapid weight loss can be quite dangerous and oftentimes ineffective.
In conclusion, these five steps are a way to plan your weight loss goals and how to reach them. If more people follow steps like these, you’ll be hearing less of “I’m fat” and more of “I feel and look great”.
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