Dear Mr. Self Development,

I’m having trouble losing weight, I’ve been exercising, but it doesn’t seem to help much, any advice?

Chris

Exercising alone will only take you so far. Most people must also monitor their caloric intake in order to lose weight. 

Here’s the big misunderstanding: People overestimate how many calories they are burning when they exercise, and underestimate how many calories they are eating everyday.  This results in weight gain instead of weight loss. 

Let’s say you workout for an hour, you may burn 300 calories or so, but if you go and drink two sodas, at 150 calories a piece, you will have wiped out the calories you burned during your workout.  You would have been better served to just drink water and not workout at all; at least you would have saved an hour of your time. 

I’m not saying this “Counting Calories” article is applicable to everyone, but if you are having trouble losing weight, you may want to keep reading.

I see it all the time.  People go to the gym and workout for an hour, maybe two, and then go home and eat anything.

Your body will only burn off so many calories a day, although exercising increases that number; it only increases it by a relatively small percentage.

Working out without counting calories is like getting a part-time job to make ends meet, and then blowing the money by not having a budget, or by not monitoring your expenses.  It makes no sense. 

If you’re going to spend an hour in the gym, you’ve just earned approximately 300-500 calories burned.  Even if you don’t change your diet, you will lose one pound every 7-12 days (because 1 pound equals 3500 calories).  However, if you don’t monitor your calories, you can end up taking in more calories than you burned that day; making your workout in vain.

Calorie counting is like tracking your monthly expenses; absolutely necessary if you have a limited income, and you do have a limited number of calories you can take in. 

Know Your Resting Metabolic Rate

Your resting metabolic rate is the calorie allowance your body gives you for food everyday.  You can increase your allowance by exercising. 

Let’s say your resting metabolic rate is 2000.  This essentially means your body will burn 2000 calories a day (without you working out).

[Click here to estimate your resting metabolic rate; it's typically 10 calories for every pound of body weight, so if you're 120lbs, your you can probably take in 1200 calories a day before you will gain any weight (not including the additional calories you burned during your workout)]. 

Add your resting metabolic rate, to the calories you burn working out, and that will tell you how many calories you can eat without gaining weight. 

An Example

Resting Metabolic Rate (1200) + Running on Treadmill for 1 hour (500) = Calories I can eat and maintain my weight  (1700)

If you want to lose a pound a week, you should lower you calorie intake by 500 calories (1200), or workout on the treadmill for an additional hour.  If you want to lose 2 pounds a week, then you should do both.

A Benefit of Working Out

One of the benefits of working out is becoming more “calorie conscious.”  You should always be thinking, “I just burned 300 calories during my workout.  Do I want to drink this cup of soda worth 200 calories?  That’s most of my workout down the drain.  It may be better to just drink water.”

Some people will workout and then think they can eat whatever they want.  Not realizing that it takes very little food to match the calories they have burned during their workout. 

You walk a very fine line when you are losing weight, and you can’t afford not to know the math behind the success.  From my experience, counting calories seemed boring at first, but once I got started it was fun to see how I could lose fat by using simple math. 

Remember: Working out will only attribute to about 30 percent of your weight loss (this is an estimate).  The point is, a majority of your weight loss will come from eating the correct food portions, and the best way to monitor your food portions is by counting calories. 

I know many people cringe when they hear the words “counting calories,” but it’s really not that bad.  When you lose weight this way, you can mathematically track your progress. 

You Don’t Have to Count Calories Forever

You don’t have to count calories forever, but you should begin to monitor the calories you take in until you are comfortable with the caloric requirements for weight loss and weight maintenance.  Also see the related articles below, which offer additional insight into weight loss.

Thank you for reading mrselfdevelopment.com where every article expands your mind, increases your faith, and changes your life.

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