Every Sunday morning my newsletter goes out to people interested in weight loss, healthy eating, and great food in general. But for my patients it is their weekly reminder to weigh themselves, see if they lost a pound, gained a pound, stayed the same– and if they are unhappy then to look back at their food logs and see what led to the lack of progress.
Throughout the years we have called this several names: our first was “if you can measure it you can manage it.” Later we called it “if you plan for your meals you plan for success, and if you don’t plan for success you are planning for failure.” Now we call it “scale or fail.”
Here is the simple premise:
Your body doesn’t lie. It is the perfect calorie counter- you are not. The brain doesn’t remember the food you eat – we simply are not wired that way. The eye is lousy at determining portion size. If you want to lose weight, biology has set you up to fail. If you want to gain weight – your body is perfect at doing that.
Here is how to combat it:
Record every thing you eat – everything you drink. Lots of great apps out there for that – even we have an app for some of our clients that uses voice. But for most LoseIt, myfitnesspal – all good. For those who prefer the easy way: write it down in a notebook. For those who want easier- take a photo of everything you ate – so every week you can look at that album.
But don’t just believe your eyes: Weigh your food — yes, that chicken breast is likely not 4 ounces, it is probably 10 – and that is a lot more calories. Lots of kitchen scales that make this handy. Oh- we make it simple: unlimited fruits and vegetables – but not what you put on it. So measure the meat, the bread, the dessert.
Weigh yourself every week
Some people don’t like to do this- they like to measure their abdomen, or thighs. But get some way that you can measure your progress
You then can see if your program is working. You don’t have to be surprised by gaining a lot of weight over a month or two- you can see what your plan is doing– if it is doing anything.
Simple? Yes. Will you do it? You should if you want to succeed with your weight loss plans.
