With all the quick fix fad diets on the market today, it can be very confusing to know which diets are best and more importantly which diets are safe.

So how do you know?

Well first, it’s important to understand a fundamental weight loss principle. If the calories you consume in a day exceed the calories you burn, you will gain weight.  If you burn more calories than you consume, you will lose weight.  If the calories consumed and burned are approximately the same you will stay the same weight.  This may sound simple, but it’s the truth and there’s no magic formula or fad diet program that can change this truth.

Many people loath the thought of calorie counting, but getting a good idea of how many calories you consume everyday is a great way to either lose weight or maintain your weight. 

Action step for today:

Forget the fad diets and take control! Start today by tracking the amount of calories you consume each day. It doesn’t have to be exact, an approximate calorie count will do. Don’t worry, after just a few weeks, you will do this automatically as you eat and you will begin to mentally track calories.

Here’s what I mean … Once you know the approximate calorie count for the foods you normally eat, you will know when you are taking in too many calories. I’m not talking about calorie counting for the rest of your life. What you are really doing here is re-training your body to self-regulate using your God-given ability to know when it’s time to stop eating. As I have already mentioned, I firmly believe that God has given us built-in sensors to know how much food we should consume daily based on how much we burn on a particular day.

The problem is that most people today have overridden their God-given sensors so often that they don’t work the way they are supposed too. And when they do work, we often ignore them.

Here’s how I think it’s supposed to work…

When you are hungry, it’s your body telling you that you need to eat. So you should eat. But until we re-train our bodies to eat the foods that are calorie dense and nutritious instead of the high calorie processed foods, we need to count the calories. So just think of calorie counting as a temporary re-training phase.

Here’s a little tip I use quite often…

If I’m hungry, I eat. But the trick is to choose foods that are nutritious that will satisfy you. For example, if I am feeling hungry between meals I will snack on a handful of almonds and raisins. This little snack satisfies me until my next meal. If instead I decided to snack on a candy bar or a bag of chips, I would be taking in too many empty calories and I would probably still feel hungry.

I welcome your comments, suggestions, and questions, so go ahead and leave your comments. I’d love to hear from you. Also, if you’d like for me to cover a topic in more detail or cover a topic that I have not talked about yet, just let me know.

It’s importance for you to know that this blog was created for you.  The goal is to build a community of people helping people. So if you would like to share your knowledge on a health and fitness related topic, just leave your comments. 

Be Organic God’s Way!

Edwin

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