The Official Newsletter of Bodyfatguide.com
March 7, 2006
Write Down Your Calories!
by Ron Brown, author of The Body Fat Guide
Write Down Your Calories!
by Ron Brown, author of The Body Fat Guide
"Ron Brown is a certified fitness trainer who doesn't have an inch of flab on his body. He'll tell you what you can do to become fit and trim too."
TALK TO AMERICA, Washington DC
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"IF I DON'T
see results after a week of starving myself," said the young woman to me,
"I'm just going to give up and become as fat as I like for the rest of my
life!"
This woman told me how she would often start off the week on a very strict calorie-reduced diet, but she would be distracted by goodies along the way, so by the end of week she usually saw no change in her weight and waist size. This is her example of "starving" herself. Obviously, if one is actually starving, a weekly change in weight and waist size is expected. It is safe to say that this woman is hardly starving. However, if she were to actually starve herself by dint of force, her loss of lean body mass would negatively affect her results and could lead to an eating disorder like anorexia. Either way, she is not managing her weight very effectively. Although she is very much aware of the amount of calories she plans to eat, she ignores the amount of calories she actually eats. Researchers call this type of dieter a "calorie blunter." Blunters avoid recording an excessive amount of ingested calories if it jeopardizes their weight-loss goals. See: Science Backs Calorie Counting. Unfortunately, without seeing exactly where her calorie intake is getting out of control, this woman has little ability to adjust her calorie intake properly to achieve the results she desires. Recording her calorie intake will allow her to see if her goals are realistic. She may be attempting to lose weight too quickly for her to manage. And if she eats excessive amounts, she has no way to rescue her diet and immediately get back on track. See: How to Rescue a Blown Diet. |
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In addition to recording one's calorie intake, recording one's
calorie expenditures are just as important. After all, it is the balance between
one's calorie intake and calorie expenditures that results in weight loss. This
is known as your energy balance. Controlling your energy balance guarantees you
will achieve your weight-loss goals right on schedule.
Self-monitoring your energy balance should also extend to monitoring changes in your body composition, not just your bodyweight. Losing excessive amounts of muscle while dieting is strongly associated with anorexia, see: Never Thin Enough, as well as with what dieter's call "loose skin," see The Myth of Loose Skin. Finally, by offering her quick-fix diets that have a high rate of failure, the quick-fix diet industry is more than happy to discourage this woman from measuring and monitoring the calories and body composition changes that are part of a legitimate weight management program. I provided the woman with my book that contains all the information she needs to monitor and adjust her energy balance and improve her body composition. Once she employs these techniques, she will have little excuse to complain about her lack of progress. If she continues to have problems I can begin to help her by first asking her to, "Show me your numbers!" You can't manage what you don't measure...and write down! |
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