6th Rule: Eat Enough Calories to Lose Weight!

                  

Written By: Tony Schober,

     So you're ready to embark on this new fitness lifestyle, and you do
what most people do when they want to lose weight - exercise more,
and eat less. Unfortunately, most people sabotage their weight loss
efforts before they even get started. They do this by not eating enough
calories to lose weight.

     Seem like a bit of an oxymoron? After all, we've been taught that if we
eat less we'll lose weight. This is true, but with several conditional
statements. There is a sweet spot with calorie intake that will make it
much easier for you to lose fat and hold onto valuable muscle. While
there are those people that still eat too much to lose weight, there's an
even greater amount of people who eat too little.
 
     When you eat too little food, you restrict the amount of nutrients your
body gets. Not only that, but you end up having to fight an uphill battle
against fat loss that almost always ends in you losing. Eating too few
calories slows down your thyroid, negatively impacts hormones, and
slows down your metabolism - and that's just the short list.
 
     How many calories should you eat to lose weight? That's the million
dollar question. Those calorie calculators might give you a good
starting point, but none of them are going to nail down your required
calorie intake. How could they? There are millions of unique people,
with unique metabolisms, with unique lifestyles, that are inputting
numbers into a calculator that uses a single formula to determine
calorie intake. They give you a great starting point, but that's all they
do.

I Personally Use and Recommend the BodyMedia Fit Armband To
Track My Daily Calorie Burn and Accurately Set My Calorie Intake.

      When you start a new fitness program, you start placing a new and
large amount of stress on your body. You more than likely went from a
sedentary lifestyle to exercising nearly every day. This is not the time
to get impatient with weight loss and start drastically cutting calories.
Eating less and less food is not going to give you faster results. Just
the opposite actually.
 
     Always aim high with your calories. It is much easier to come down in
calories than it is to come up. Always eat as much food as possible to
lose weight. Try setting your calories at 10-12 times your body weight.
Eat that many calories for at least two weeks before you even think
about lowering them.
 
     Do not gauge your progress over that time with the scale. Buy a cheap 
pair of body fat calipers and take body fat measurements. If your
body fat has decreased over those two weeks, but your weight is still
the same - don't change a thing. This means you are adding muscle
and losing body fat, which is what every fitness lover hopes to
accomplish. You are changing your body composition for the better.
 
     In time, you might have to lower your calories, but I think you might be
surprised at the drastic changes your body is undergoing, and you
might not have to change a thing. Instead, you've just experienced an
epiphany and noticed the difference between fat loss and weight loss
first hand. Vary rarely does anyone need to go below 10 times their
body weight in calories to lose weight. Start high, be patient, and your
body will start changing right in front of your eyes.

Read more about how to determine how many calories you 
should eat.