HOW MANY CALORIES DO I NEED?

If you haven’t seen the challenge, check it out here: If You Bite It, Write It!

Join in, it starts today! This is an opportunity to find out the truth about how many calories you eat each day and the nutritional content of that food.

I am using LoseIt.com, but you can use any website, any phone app, or pen and paper. You can search online for the calorie count of any food or purchase a paperback book at the bookstore that lists thousands of foods including restaurants.

It takes about 15 calories per pound to maintain your weight. So if you weigh 200 lbs and eat 3000 calories a day you will do a great job of maintaining your weight, but you won’t lose weight.

If your goal is to lose weight, cut your caloric intake to between 7-10 calories per lb. So if you weigh 200 lbs, eat between 1400-2000 calories per day. Obviously, if you eat 1400-1500 calories per day you will lose weight much faster than if you eat 2000 calories per day.

Keep in mind that you need to recalculate your caloric intake as you lose weight. I recommend recalculating every 10 lbs. So when you hit 190 lbs you would need to eat 2850 calories (15 per lb) to maintain, and 1330 – 1900 (7-10 per lb) to lose. It is not wise to ever go below 1200 calories per day. As you get closer to your weight goal you may notice that the weight comes off slower because you don’t have the large caloric deficit that you had when you were heavier.

Are you joining the challenge? What mode of tracking are you going to use? Is your goal to learn how much and what you are eating or is it to lose weight?

IF YOU BITE IT, WRITE IT!

Is one of your goals this year in any way related to your health…lose weight, eat less, eat more fruits and veggies, exercise more?

Do you not have a clue how many calories you eat each day and you’d like to know?

If so, join me in this seven day challenge: IF YOU BITE IT, WRITE IT!

For seven days write down everything, yes every single thing, that you put in your mouth. Every almond, every cracker, every M&M, every grape, every taste of food as you are cooking…EVERYTHING!!

It’s been proven that most of us consume more calories than we think we do. If you have no idea how many calories you eat each day, this is a great way to find out. Don’t change your eating habits, just write down everything you eat. If you do it in an online program it will figure the calories for you.

If you do have an idea of how many calories you consume and want to cut it back or change the ratio of protein or fruits and veggies in your diet logging your intake is an excellent way to do that. Most of us underestimate how much we eat. Tracking it in written form shows the cold hard truth.

Losing weight is a simple formula of calories in, calories out. You must expend (calories out) more calories than you take in, creating a deficit and forcing your body to burn stored fat for energy. The more fat used, the more weight you lose!

Many studies have proven that those who record everything they eat lose more weight. My own experience is that recording every single bite I eat sometimes prevents me from eating something because I don’t want to look it up and write it down, or I don’t want to see it on my daily log. If I also have a predetermined number of calories allotted for the day it helps me make better food choices. Better choices means I get to eat more food while consuming less calories.

So here’s the challenge…if you eat it, write it down. Simple as that. Can you do it for seven days?

You can use pencil and paper or one of many websites available or an app for your phone.

I will use www.LoseIt.com which allows me to make my entries from either my computer or my phone. If you choose this site as well, we can connect. You can find me on www.LoseIt.com by my email, mhobbs2001@gmail.com. This site also allows you to record any form of exercise.

Other good websites and apps include Fitday.com. Livestrong.com, CalorieCounter.com. It doesn’t matter which one you choose, just that you do choose one!

Today choose your method of recording. Tomorrow, Jan 9^th, 2012, we start tracking. I will post my progress and experience and look forward to hearing your comments and experience as well.

If You Bite It, You Write It!

Who's up for a challenge? Only 7 days!
What's the worst that could happen? Nothing changes.
What's the best that could happen? You lose a couple pounds.

There is a debate about whether most people actually realize how many calories we eat or if we seriously underestimate how much we eat each day. The only way to prove one side or the other true is to write down every bite we put in our mouth and the calories in that food.

The side that says we eat more than we think, says that we tend to think that if we only consumed a small amount of food we must have only taken in a small amount of calories. If we use our finger to scrape the leftover cake batter from the bowl, or taste test three times to check the seasonings while cooking dinner, somehow those calories don't really count.

The truth is that every single thing we put in our mouths affects our weight, whether it's a 7 calorie strawberry or 120 calories of leftover cookie dough; well, it wasn't enough to make one more cookie but you can't throw away cookie dough!

So here's the challenge. For the next seven days, write down EVERY SINGLE ITEM of food you put into your mouth. Every bite, lick or drink. You might have a calorie book at home or you can get the calorie count online. There are sites such as sparkpeople.com, fitday.com, mytrainerbob.com. In fact if you go to google.com you can type in "How many calories in ____ (absolutely any food)" and get the calorie count immediately. If you have a smart phone there is a calorie counting app that you can install and carry it with you and track it on your phone. You can't say you forgot to write something down because you didn't have your paper or computer with you. For most people this is a real eye opening experience and can tell you exactly what you can do to start losing weight immediately.

I am looking for your feedback on how this experiment did or did not affect your thoughts, actions and eating habits.
Did you surprise yourself with how many calories you take in that you didn't realize?
Did you find yourself choosing not to eat something because you didn't want to write it down?
Did you eat more? or Did you eat less? Why?

I am starting this 7-day experiment today with you. I will commit to tracking every calorie I consume! Come back during the week and share your thoughts and impressions. Come back when it is done and let me know how the week affected you. Did you change your eating habits? Did you discover that you have great eating habits? Did you lose weight? Are you going to continue tracking your food? Did it make you more accountable? No affect whatsoever?

Leave your comments and insights, (more than once during the week if you'd like-we can learn from your insights), and check back to see what others have to say!

Happy Eating!! (I hope I'm happy when this is done!)