Knowing is Half The Battle (Of The Bulge)

Losing weight may not be the easiest thing in the world, but the basic premise isn’t quite rocket science.  It isn’t always all about the exact foods that you consume as much as burning more calories than you are consuming – if you follow that simple formula, you can drop dress or pants sizes.  Too many people fall into the trap of believing that because they are eating “health food” (some of which may not even be all that healthy) that they are setting themselves up for success in their weight loss endeavors – but unfortunately, this isn’t always the case.

Just as an example, if your day includes a reasonable amount of activity throughout, finished up with a wicked workout that has your total calories burned for the day at 3000 but you’ve consumed 4500 calories of boiled chicken, eggs, skim milk, tuna salad and yogurt – you will not lose weight.  Even though you’ve consumed healthy, low fat foods, you haven’t created the caloric deficit necessary to drop the pounds that you want.

Conversely, if you perform the very same amount of activity and consume only 2000 calories of cookies, sugary cereal, whole milk and processed lunch meats you will lose weight.  Of course this example is a bit extreme, in fact it’s downright ridiculous – you couldn’t possibly be healthy consuming only these types of foods and you’d never be able to sustain that level of activity with that variety of diet.  The point is that despite what you are eating, the caloric deficit needs to be there for you to lose weight.  Just knowing that what you are consuming is nutritious isn’t enough; you will still need to limit your intake of even healthy foods in order to create the deficit necessary to lose weight. 

You want to eat a balanced diet of lean proteins, healthy fats, dark leafy greens and other veggies, fresh fruits and whole grains, but if your ultimate goal is dropping pounds you need to eat these healthy foods in moderation.  People normally use the word “moderation” in regards to dieting only to refer to unhealthy foods, but moderation should be exercised in eating in general if your main goal is to lose weight.  Just because a food is good for you, it doesn’t give you the freedom to completely overstuff yourself with it at every meal. 

A plus side that many dieters tend to overlook is that you can allow yourself some room for indulgences and you won’t necessarily be ruining your progress.  Some people are afraid that a single cookie or the smallest sliver of apple pie will ruin everything that they’ve sacrificed for, but in all honesty if your diet is kept clean and healthy an occasional small treat will not do any serious harm to your results.  If you stay in control and monitor the numbers, you have the power to make a little room for the occasional indulgence as a reward – this can help keep you on track and it also helps prevent potential binges caused by consistently denying yourself something that you really enjoy and crave.

Losing weight is well within your reach as long as you pay attention to the total calories you consume and don’t just assume that because you stuff yourself with nutritious foods that the weight will come off regardless of how much you eat.