Lauri's Blog

By Lauri Porten, ACSM Certified Personal Trainer

Weight Loss in the "Real World"

As a personal trainer, it's important for me to "walk the talk" by engaging in the same healthy activities and habits that I recommend to my clients.  No one wants to work out with an out-of-shape and flabby trainer!

When I talk with clients about eating plans and nutritional goals, they'll often ask me about one or more of the popular diet programs they've read about or heard discussed on Oprah.

I'm not a big fan of most popular diet programs, particularly those that force you to eliminate one or or more food groups or programs that require you to consume primarily one type of food over another.

It's not that all diet programs are inherently bad, sometimes they can be useful for people who need a “kick start” or those who need a way to break out of the bad dietary habits that have lead to weight gain and health issues. Depending on the type of diet, these programs may be a good resource for healthy eating ideas and options.

For many people though, diets can be too restrictive.  They often lead to an “all or nothing” mentality where you're either on your diet or you've blown your diet. Sound familiar?  How many times have you started on a diet (with the best of intentions!), only to fall off the wagon for a day or two, then decide to scrap the entire thing altogether.

An alternative to this diet-induced madness is to simply focus on healthy, balanced eating and manage your food intake with a tracking tool like mygraphite.com.  The benefit of this approach is that you learn to manage your eating in the “Real World”. You're not waking up every day obsessed with following a diet program to the letter of the law.

Instead, you start eating real food, in real situations, in portions and quantities that fit within your calorie budget. Want to enjoy a glass of cabernet for dinner?  No problem.  Just work the 122 calories into your calorie budget.  Need to grab a bite on the run this afternoon?  No problem!  You've done a bit of work ahead of time and you know 3 places you can stop for a healthy, calorie-friendly lunch option.

Below I have included my food log from earlier this week.  The good, the bad and the ugly!  It's not perfect meal plan, but it's reasonably well balanced.  My choices reflect some of the "Real World" options I alluded to above.

Remember, it's about consistently eating healthy and managing your calorie budget.  Perfection is not required!

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By Lauri Porten, ACSM Certified Personal Trainer

What's the #1`food for beating hunger?

Bananas!   Finally, my favorite snack is getting a little love in the press.   Check out this post from Health.com Blogger, Shaun Chavis on why bananas are the best bet for beating those mid-afternoon hunger pangs. 

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/food/bananas-the-ultimate-hunger-buster-2456998/

At 100 - 140 calories each, Banana's are a great tasting, healthy snack that can fit easily into your calorie budget.  You can add a schmear of natural peanut butter for a protein boost too!

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By Lauri Porten, ACSM Certified Personal Trainer

Understanding Your Daily Calorie Needs Is Key First Step for Weight Loss

FACT: 66% of Americans are overweight or obese.

FACT: 88% of Americans have no idea how many calories they should consume in a day to maintain their current weight, according to a recent national survey.

Do you know your number?   If you're like most Americans, you don't have a clue.  

It's widely known that the key to losing weight is to consume fewer calories than you expend.    Having a frame of reference for calorie consumption and expenditure is a critical first step in tackling your weight loss challenge.

Consider this example:   

Joe is 57 years old and weighs 257 pounds and 6 feet tall.    He is a sales manager and spends most of his time at a desk.

Using Graphite's free Calorie Profile tool, he enters his birthdate, gender, current weight and height.   He selects an activity level that reflects his typical work day.    In this case, “Deskbound/Sitting”.




Joe's number is 2545.    This number (Daily Calorie Baseline) reflects the amount of calories he can consume each day and maintain his current weight.
    
By knowing his number, Joe now has a frame of reference for determining how many calories he should eat and how many calories he should burn with exercise to lose weight.   

As previously mentioned, the key to losing weight is to consume fewer calories than you expend.   

A simple rule of thumb for losing 1 pound a week is to consume 500 fewer calories than you expend each day.    To lose 2 pounds per week, consume 1000 fewer calorie than you expend each day.


1 lb/week = 500 calorie differential each day

2 lb/week = 1000 calorie differential each day


To lose 1 pound per week, Joe could eat 2000 calories each day, which is 545 calories less than his Daily calorie baseline.

To lose 2 pounds per week, Joe could still eat 2000 calories daily and burn 500 calories each day in exercise to create the 1000 calorie differential.

Weight loss is a math problem!    It's not about the latest diet craze, magic diet pills or starvation.   It's about managing the calories you eat and the calories you expend through exercise.     

Using Graphite's free Calorie Profile tool to calculate your number is a excellent way to begin your weight loss adventure.  

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