Scale Busting Tips! Yes, again!!!!
So you are not losing weight, you are putting on weight but the clothes are tighter, not looser, so it is not necessarily muscle or you just hit a plateau. Well, here is an old post that I am not sure many of you saw that is part of my scale busting tips.First let me tell you a story. I mentioned that my stepdaughter is taking a boot camp. She loves it & is getting hooked on exercise for sure! She is tightening up, has new muscles in her arms & her butt is lifting after just 2 weeks (5 days per week). She is also eating a very well rounded & pretty clean "diet" & switched over to mini meals when she used to skip meals being too busy as an esthetician. She told me yesterday about how they had these little pieces of chocolate in her salon & she thought, "hey, these can only be 15-20 calories each so I can have some". Well, after eating them for a couple days, she decided to read the label and got "label shock"!!!!!! She had not realized how calorie & fat dense they were.... leading me to my point..... never ASSUME because we know what happens when we assume!! Also, portion control. She loves the nut butters like many of us. For me, it is power PB & for others of you it is natural peanut butter. My suggestion to her and to you: Portion out your serving size for the first few times. See what it looks like as a tablespoon or teaspoon full.. whatever is your portion. Also, see what it looks like spread on a piece of bread if that is what you are using it for. If you do this a few times first, you should be able to use it without actually measuring it out once you get the hang of it. You can apply this to other foods as well.
Many people think they know what they are eating, they think they are correct about the portion size, they are sure they are only eating so many calories per day... BUT, most studies prove this is false! "Most people underreport what they eat – in fact, we can underreport the amount of food we eat in a day by as much as 45 percent. According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey,about 18 percent of the men and 28 percent of the women surveyed were underreporters. In another study, researchers showed participants nine restaurant entrees, which they classified as ranging from “very unhealthful” to “more healthful,” and provided them with brief descriptions as well as serving-size information. The participants were then asked to estimate the calories and nutrient levels in each of the entrees. What the researchers found is that the underestimation of calories increased as the entrees became increasingly “unhealthful.” On average, less-healthful items were underestimated by more than 600 calories. The bottom line is that you're probably eating more than you think. Take a look at this article, What You Get for the Calories, and see if you're surprised by how many calories you get for what you're eating."
Back to my old post challenge. Here it is:
So, you say that you are doing everything right and the scale will not budge. Hmmmmmm, I wonder if you are playing the "fooling yourself" game. Yes, many people hit that plateau but there are those out there that know they are lying to themselves & don't want to face the truth.
Are you logging your food? If not, as much as you may hate to do this, it may be a real eye opener. It is fact that a lot of people miscalculate how much they are eating. Most people say they are eating less than they really are on any given day or week.
Do you measure your portions or do you just wing it? Well, winging it can add to extra pounds every year! 3500 calories equals 1 pound so just eating 100 calories more each day than you burn off can add up to 10-12 pounds per year!
HERE IS THE CHALLENGE FOR 1 MONTH:
1. Log your food. Just try it and see if it provides answers to why the scale is not budging.
2. Portion Control. When you go to eat, put the food on the plate or in the bowl you are using. Then BEFORE you eat it, take it & measure it out.. portion control! So, have you been totally wrong about how much you have been eating? Is that portion you put down on the plate prior to measuring it way more than you thought? Is that an "AHA" moment!!!
3. Bag your nibbles. I have posted about this before. I saw this on The Today Show. One lady found out she was eating 1000 calories more each day than she thought! What she did was carry a large ziplock bag with her & every time she went to nibble on foods she was cooking, or eat the french fry off someone else's meal, or take a bite off the kids plate, or take a piece of candy from the co-worker's candy jar ( you see where I am going with this), she put it in the ziplock bag instead of eating it. A real awakening about what you are truly eating!
OK, take the challenge & then see if that scale moves downward. It may be hard mentally but it will be worth it at the end of the challenge! Let me now how it goes!
Let me know if you learned anything from this challenge or my stepdaughter's experience. Have you done the same thing yourself? Are you picking at certain foods during the day that may add up to more calories than you think? Pass on all your horror stories and/or words of wisdom here.
I used to do a boot camp 3 days a week at 5:30am in the morning and loved it. Great post it is really sad when you see how hard you have to work out to burn those calories. A lot of people think just b/c I am working out I can eat whatever I want..not true. Takes a lot to burn that food.
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Jody, you're awesome! - I think you could be very effective at helping a lot of people, like being a fitness coach. I know your About Me says "Advisor". So are you doing this already?
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Kristi, your points are so valid! It does take a lot to burn calories and food is a big part of it as well. I want to respond to your great post yesterday on that. Food is a huge factor in all of this. Like you, people wonder why I work so hard but I have to if I want to maintain.. plus being older, it is just plain harder & the bod fights you. They don't realize that I was heavy at one point, that it has always been hard for me & that I have fat cells hanging out from when I was younger just waiting to "plump up" again. OH NO!
Josie, I just have no idea what I said to deserve that compliment from you but thank you! I used to be a personal trainer in my early 30's but have not done that for years & years. I do help friends/family that ask me for advice (not for pay) but I don't have the most recent certifications like Kristi. I guess my goals are to write about my experience being heavy as a kid & all the ways I went about losing it the wrong way before getting to the right way & all I have learned about listening to my body along the way to makes changes as needed. I also would love to do fitness modeling for old folks but my looks are not very conducive to the camera. Looks are a dime a dozen in souther California! Does not hurt to dream...
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You would do great at speaking and stuff, maybe even a book. Your likeable and sincere personality mixed instructional flair would do wonders for the masses! Seriously. I'm not blowing smoke.
And don't dream. Do it! You've really got a lot going for you.
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You have me thinking! I did ask advice from Kami Gray over at The Denim Diaries so I am at least researching it.
Thx again!
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great advice! i know when i'm logging my food there are days i CRINGE!! i'm a big one on the snack baggies too!!
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Hey, at least you log the food & face the facts. That is good!
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