How I lost weight and am keeping it off.

What’s up buttercups?

Today I would like to talk to you all about learning how to lose weight. OH BOY this is controversial. Probably going to get a lot of sassy comments about being wrong. Allow me to share some back-story folks. I was raised in a family that cheese, butter, and bread were life. Dessert was always available and fast food was a way of life----until recently. What I am actually saying is I was an obese child. In fact I weighed more as a little 9 year old than I do now as a 25 year old. Yea I may be small now, but that’s a pretty impressive feat. I started learning about health and wellness as a 12 year old. I struggled with an eating disorder, then struggled with being overweight again through college. Thanks to many helpful people and my relationship with God I am now happy, healthy, and wanting to share my not-so-secret secrets with you lovely people.

Eat when you are hungry

Only up until recently have I learned an amazing thing: if you eat when you are hungry, and only when you are hungry you will lose weight. What?!? NO WAY. Okay so it is a bit more complicated. You have to actually know what your real hunger is and what your brain wanting a milkshake and fries is. But ultimately, if your body burns more calories than it takes in, you lose weight. Depending on your size and different health conditions the speed of losing weight can vary, but yea it’s pretty simple.

Do not “go on a diet”

I do not follow any diet. Any diet you follow will probably cause you to lose weight, initially. The reason is you are finally watching paying attention to what is going into your body. You could do that with the food you would normally eat anyway, and just make sure it is within the calories your body needs. You can go vegetarian or vegan and still be overweight. I am a vegetarian. I have been an overweight vegetarian, an underweight vegetarian, and a healthy weight vegetarian. The point is, any foods you eat you can lose weight with. You can eat a diet of solid twinkles and lose weight...you'd be incredibly unhealthy, and I do not recommend it, but it's just the truth.

Track your calories

Basically plan out what you are going to eat. If you want to eat pizza that day, go for it baby! But, maybe you should then skip out on Mickey D’s for breakfast. The best thing I can tell my Type A folk out there is there is an amazing app out there called Lose It. It taught me how to budget my calories and figure out what being full and hungry actually meant.

Working out does not make you lose weight

You may have been thinking, “but, you haven’t talked a lot about working out here…” That’s right friends, I haven’t. That’s because weight loss is really more about your food. I love working out, and it is very important for your mental, emotional, and physical health. However, if you eat way too much food normally, the calories you burn working out will most likely replaced by overeating if you aren't careful.

I have been an overweight marathoner, an underweight runner, and a healthy marathoner. I am not training for anything right now, and doing HIIT workouts these days. I am still the same weight as I was in training season. The length and type of workout does not matter as much as your calories for losing weight.

If you overeat healthy foods, you will still be overweight

If you think you eat pretty healthy, you could be right. But eating healthy you can still intake way too many calories. For these friends I recommend you take an honest food diary. If you like technology use the LoseIt app. Just honestly calculate how many calories you take in throughout the day. Even include the “little things” the Hershey kiss or one m&m (is it ever just one? You’re a stronger man than I if it is). Do that for a week, honestly. My dad’s doctor had him do that when he said he didn’t eat that bad. It came out to nearly 4,500 calories a day.

This was a long post. Sorry about that. Losing weight is so simple and so complex at the same time. Leave questions and comments. I’ll try to answer if I can.

Until next time my friends!

#weightloss #fitness #healthy #simple #schedule #workout