Chapter 2 - Planning & Tracking Your Progress
The first thing you need to do is to check what your daily caloric deficit should be.
You can go here and check that.
http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm
Being at a daily caloric deficit is the most important factor that determines if you will succeed or fail.
You could eat clean, watch your diet and exercise daily… BUT… if you’re at a caloric surplus, you will never see your weight drop.
This is the reason why so many people struggle to lose weight and never see progress.
So, what is a caloric deficit?
It simply means a shortage in the amount of calories consumed relative to the amount of calories required for maintenance of current body weight.
In other words, you’re consuming fewer calories than your body uses. Now your body has no choice but to tap into its fat stores for fuel.
This is the only way you will deplete your body’s fat stores and lose weight.
Ideally, you should aim for around a 500-calorie deficit daily.
You don’t need to obsess over the numbers and aim for perfection. As long as you’re within the 400 to 600 range, you’ll be just fine and lose weight steadily.
In order to know your calories, you can visit this site.
http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm
All you need to do is fill out the necessary fields and click on the “calculate” button.
You’ll now be shown 3 different numbers.
Maintenance means that if you consume this number of calories, your weight will neither go up nor go down.
Fat loss denotes a caloric deficit. This is the number that you need to aim for in order to lose weight.
Extreme Fat Loss is an indicator that you should not drop your calories below this number.
So, if you wish to lose 20 pounds and you’re losing about 2 pounds a week, you’ll be looking at a time frame of 10 weeks… that is about 2 and a half months.
It seems long, doesn’t it?
Here’s what Earl Nightingale once said – “Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.”
Even if it takes you 10 weeks, go for it.
While this guides states 28 days, these 28 days are for you to see a transformation. To actually see results!
Most women never see any results. This guide gives you results… However, if you need 10 weeks, you’re not going to achieve it in 28 days. If we follow the example mentioned above, you’ll lose 8 pounds in 28 days.
It may not seem like much, but it is definitely going to be a visible difference. Your face will become slimmer. Your belly and thighs may shrink a little. You’ll be amazed.
And that’s the whole point of this book… To show you what’s possible… and from there you keep going. If it takes you ten weeks, you just keep doing what you’ve been doing these 28 days till you reach the ten weeks.
You must stay the course!
Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.
What gets measured gets managed. So, it’s imperative that you measure your progress and keep a close eye on your diet and training.
The first thing you’ll need to do is weigh yourself on a weighing scale. You should do this once a week on the same day and at the same time.
Do not weigh yourself daily because your weight will fluctuate and it can be demoralizing. Once a week will do and it will reflect any weight loss.
Do note that the scale weight only gives you a general idea but it is not indicative of body composition.
For example, if you lost 3 pounds of fat and gained 2 pounds of muscle, the scale will only show a loss of 1 measly pound. This can be very misleading. You’d actually have made good progress and will look different since fat takes up a lot more space than muscle.
That is why you also need to take photos of your body once every 2 weeks. With photos, the difference in your appearance will be more evident and you’ll feel more motivated.
Many people are much more amazed to see before and after photos instead of just a difference in numbers on a scale.
If possible, get your bodyfat percentage measured. You can ask your doctor to do this and he or she will probably use calipers to determine your bodyfat percentage.
This is an accurate measurement to go by and your goal will be to lower your bodyfat percentage to what’s ideal for you.
Using a tape measure to record down the measurements of different parts of your body is helpful too. You can encircle the tape around the middle of your thigh, your arm, hips, chest, etc.
It’s important that you measure the same places in future to keep things accurate. With time, you’ll notice the inches dropping.
Even if the scales show no difference after 2 weeks of exercise, the tape measure will definitely show you if you have become smaller.
Muscle is a lot denser than fat and takes up much less space.
In the first 3 to 4 weeks, it may seem like the results are slow. Losing a few pounds here and there may make it all seem like a total waste of time. You must understand that there are changes happening in you.
The body is adapting. Your metabolic rate is increasing. The body is starting to tap into its fat stores for fuel.
All this is happening on the inside but you do not see obvious results on the outside. This discourages the majority of women who quit on their weight loss program within the first month.
Most give up after 2 weeks!
The take a break and go back to their poor eating habits and sedentary lifestyle. 2 months later they decide to lose weight again. When does it ever end?
This is the biggest mistake. You’ve just turned on the ignition and before the pedal hits the metal, you’ve given up.
Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.
When you embark on a weight loss journey, give yourself an end date 90 days later. Do not stop before you reach that 90 days or you reach your weight loss goal.
There may be occasions where you slip-up on your diet. There may be times when you skip your workouts. There may even be weeks where there is no change in weight. Despite all these, keep going till you reach the 90-day mark.
If you hate starting over, stop giving up. Three months from now, you will thank yourself. Do not give up on yourself and kill off your weight loss dreams before they have time to bloom.
Most visible weight loss can be seen after 90 days. That’s about 3 months. You absolutely must give yourself 3 months.
Track your progress weekly and if things don’t seem to be changing for the better, tweak your workouts and diet.
This is the best way to lose weight without losing your way.