Healthy Fat Loss – Week 7

I lost an additional 5 pounds this week bringing my total fat loss to 20 pounds. 3 weeks ago I went to get some new jeans at old navy. I was 36 inch waist before and needed a 34 inch waist pair this time. Just 3 weeks later I’m finding that the 34′s are fitting loosely. Hopefully after I wash them they’ll be good, but I won’t cry if I have to get some 32′s! What have I been doing to accomplish my goals?

Counting Calories

Setting a Daily Calorie Goal

Hitting the Calorie Goal by Eating Better

Exercising

Losing Fat

It’s really not complicated. It all started with counting my calories. Understanding what is going into your body is step 1. After this, you’ll naturally become more careful about the foods you eat. I’m actually eating more often and a greater quantity of food, it’s just better stuff. I’m not hungry and have tons of energy.

Helping You Help Others,

Jeremy

I just completed my 6th week of healthy fat loss.  I lost an additional pound of fat this week to bring my total fat loss to 15 pounds.  My current goal is to lose 25 pounds of fat.  I have 10 more pounds to go!

I’ve read that the last 10 pounds is a fight for many.  I’ll continue to practice healthy eating habits, creating a caloric deficit and regular exercise.  If I can lose 1 pound of fat a week until I reach my goal I’ll be ecstatic.  I would like to comment on what I believe is a key in my success thus far.  Is it the only thing, no, but it has a lot to do with success in general.

ONE GOOD DISCIPLINE LEADS TO ANOTHER

This is absolutely true from my experience.  With regards to losing fat, I began by counting calories with a free online tool.  This gave me an idea of what kind of caloric intake I had on a regular basis.  This was an easy 5-7 minute discipline each day that led me to begin practicing healthier eating.  I discovered what was a healthy calorie goal for healthy fat loss and beging to eat accordingly.  Once I started eating correctly, I naturally wanted to increase my chances for success by adding exercise to the mix.  I’m not kidding, it was not a challenge or burden after I began eating better.  This is what I mean when I say that one discipline leads to another.  Here’s what has happened so far:

Counting Calories –>  Setting a Daily Calorie Goal –> Eating Healthier –> Exercising  =  Healthy Fat Loss.

It really was that simple.  This all began with the simple discipline of counting calories.  Not only does one discipline lead to another within the same area, but it also leads to other areas as well.  For example, since feeling better and having more energy, I more motivated to acheive in other areas of life.  I have been more committed to growing in my relationship with God over the past 6 weeks.  I recognized that I also need to exercise and take care of my spiritual muscles along with my physical body.  This has led to a richer prayer life, deeper Bible study and more challenging relationships with other believers.  I give all of the glory to God for leading me in this direction.  So what we have here is:

Taking Care of My Body –>  Taking Care of My Relationship With God –> Richer Prayer Life –> Deeper Bible Study –> Richer Relationships with Others

One good discipline leads to another.  Give it a try.  Start small and choose something easy to start with.  Watch how that small thing will begin to snowball in to other things.

Have an awesome week,

Jeremy

I just finished week 5 of my journey for healthy fat loss.  I lost an additional 3 pounds this week.  I’m actually quite suprised with the results so far.  My goal is to lose 1-1.5 pounds of fat each week, but I’ve been averaging close to 3 each week.  I’m not complaining, really.

So, what has made the biggest difference?  Creating a calorie deficit has been the key.  I went online and googled calorie deficit calculator.  From this I discovered what I needed to be shooting for in order to create a 20-30% deficit each day with regards to my calorie intake.  I was honestly shocked at how many calories I’m allowed each day.  For me, I can eat in the neighborhood of 2000-2300 calories each day and still create a significant deficit in my calories.  With this deficit I have been losing an average of 3 pounds a week!

In addition to counting my calories with the free tool at my-calorie-counter, I’ve also been exercising 2-3 times a week at the local gym.  This has been helpful for creating an even greater caloric deficit as well as giving me an overall good feeling about staying in shape.  I know you’ve heard it over and over again about releasing endorphins, but regular exercise really accomplishes that goal.  I honestly have more energy during the week and feel better about my life in general.

Just wanted to give a quick update on my week 5 results.  I hope you have a great week and stay tuned for more posts in the near future.

Jeremy

Healthy Fat Loss

Healthy fat loss should be the topic of discussion for many people today.  Unfortunately the topic of weight loss or dieting takes its place in many cases.  What’s the difference you may ask?

When we are talking about the topic of just losing weight, we are measuring only by what a scale may show us.  For example, I can teach you how to instantly lose 3-5 pounds in just a few minutes.

Step 1 – find a very sharp saw or power saw.

Step 2 – cut off your right or left leg (both if you’d like to lose more weight).

Step 3 – have someone rush you to an emergency room to stop the bleeding.

Congratulations, you just lost 3-5 pounds in just a few minutes.

Ha, ha right?  Obviously that’s not a good idea for weight loss and it also demonstrates that the conversation needs to be moved from weight loss to healthy fat loss.  Let’s break that down.

healthy – If you want long term results with fat loss, you must do it in a healthy way.  Most experts agree that if you want to trim down, then the best and longest lasting way is to lose 1-3 pounds per week.  When you begin to lose more than that, especially for several weeks in a row, you cause more damage than good, and you will most likely end up gaining the weight back.

fat loss – The goal is to lose the fat storage on your body.  You shouldn’t make your goal to lose all your fat storage, but a good majority.  Many experts suggest a healthy body fat percentage between 21-33% for females and 8-19% for males.  These numbers will increase slighty as you get older, but hopefully that gives you an idea of a healthy range.

So, if you make your goal healthy fat loss, then you will work to get your body fat percentage into a healthy range.  Losing body fat percentage will result in a leaner body and overall improved health.

The next question you should ask is, “How do I acheive healthy fat loss?”  Listed below are two common ways that you can acheive your goals.  You can do one or the other or a combination.

1. Count your calories – OH NO, NOT CALORIE COUNTING!  Oh yes, it works.  I have personally been tracking all of my calories over the last 35 days.  I’ll admit, it was like learning a new discipline the first week, but it got much easier after that.  Not only that, but there are online tools that make the process much easier now.  I have personally been using this one:  http://www.my-calorie-counter.com It’s completely free and has an awesome data base of existing foods so you don’t have to do a lot of manual work.  It also will allow you to easily enter your own custom entries and it keeps them in the database for future use.

2.  Exercise – Walking, running, cycling, eliptical cycle, weight lifting, etc…  Exercise is an effective way for healthy weight loss because it helps with the idea of calorie deficit.  The human body needs so many calories a day to operate.  Most people consume way more than their caloric need.  This causes fat to store on their bodies.  Whenever you take your current need of daily calories (dependant on your weight, age and level of activity) and creat a percentage of deficit, you can lose weight.  It takes 3500 calories to equal a pound, so you can shoot for a 500 calorie deficit each day to lose 1 pound a week of fat.  For me, my daily caloric need is between 2500-3000 calories.  I shoot to eat around 2000 each day and then exercise to create an even greater deficit.

So that’s it for this post.  More helpful hints and posts coming soon.  If you need a little extra help with the things listed above, I’ve personally been using this fat loss drink:  Best Fat Loss Drink

If you’d like a free sample, let me know.

Helping You Help Yourself,

Jeremy Henderson