“What`s the best thing for losing
weight?”, I have heard this question so often and most likely it is the
question you want to have answered. First let me backtrack I have spent a great
deal of time learning about the body, working out and most things to do with
health and fitness. This will culminate in a Masters in Exercise Physiology
soon to be completed in the next month.
I am also a qualified P.E teacher and a training competing athlete. I
have worked with people from high level athletes to the little old lady that
needs to be able to lift her grocery`s. Of all of the things that dominate the world
of health and fitness, obesity is the biggest of them all (no pun intended).
So back to the question “what is
the best thing for losing weight?” this is a broad question and I’ll assume
that you want to lose body fat and look and feel better. Losing fat mass and being healthier ,because
that is what we should aim for is a matter of behavior change. Right now you
say so “how do I do that?” Behavior change is a complex thing but I will aim
to simplify it for you. Firstly lets break it down, what is weight gain is
caused by? Often weight gain is due to eating too much making poor eating
choices and a lack of physical activity. So what do we do about that? Well
something I am passionate about is keeping a food diary.
First though let’s look at this
more logically for example a man eats 1800 calories a day and exercises for 30minutes
he burns 200 calories. He then goes and eats a chocolate bar that`s 241
calories. It becomes a little bit
clearer that what and how much we eat makes a bigger impact to our waist line
then most exercise an average person may undertake. There is an old saying “you
can`t train away a bad diet”. Now let me make this clear this isn`t a license
to not exercise in fact diet and exercise go hand in hand. In this post though
I am focusing on keeping a food diary. A
couple of extra reasons to keep a diary includes a recent study that lasted for
six months published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found those that kept a food diary lost
twice as much weight as those that didn`t. Furthermore keeping a food diary has
been shown to increase the chances of losing the weight and keeping it off. A
food diary can also provide insight into what you eat and what is really going
into your body. So should you keep a diary in a note book? Well you can but my
advice is to use technology. There are literally dozens of apps and programs
for computers that are simple and effective. These apps and programs are often free and
provide easy to access food databases and information displays. Often you will
find that they will be able to track food intake and exercise. The two I have
had experience with is Myfitnesspal and Mapmyfitness programs. These are both accessible
on multiple platforms and are free.
Let me start with Mapmyfitness I started using this to log both my food
and my exercise and it has an easy to
access menu and is easy to navigate. I found it a little bit less user friendly
for the food diary portion and this was the main purpose for me to use this
app. The exercise section though is great. It contains a lot of different
choices and allows you to put in many selections of activity. Something that is handy is the ability to take
on fitness challenges that can often be set in your local area. How? Map my
fitness has the ability for you to map a route that you take and it can tell
you cool statistics like your elevation and ascent. Of course a big factor in
weight loss is support and this app has the function to share your achievements
with your friends and support network.
But what about Myfitnesspal well I have been using this app for a few
years now and I think it`s great. It is simple and effective. Mapmyfitness
tends to be a bit overwhelming at times and for those that are used to in some
degree to using a smart phone or computers this will be easy to use. The data
base is quite large so more often than not you can find the food or brand you
are looking for. During set up you set your weight goal and activity levels as
well as the usual information. You can also choose how many meals you have and
what nutritional information you see. The drawback I have found is the exercise
portion is lacking a little bit. The choices of exercise are limited and though
it calculates the calories burnt it can be quite off in either direction. I tend to use a heart rate monitor to get
around this and more on this in the future. My fitness pal is redeemed by being able to
input your own recipes and share your diary with other people if you wish. For
me I have always advised using myfitnesspal because it is simple to use. The
results for people I have worked with are always positive when they use
myfitnesspal as part of their weight loss.
A few other things though when using either program you should measure
your food so you’re accurate and try to keep notes. Make using it a habit as this
will take discipline but you will be rewarded much like exercising with discipline.
Believe it or not keeping a diary makes you more aware and responsible and more
likely to achieve you S.M.A.R.T goals. Lastly if you are thinking I don’t want
to choose you can always use booth. Both programs can now be linked so you have
the best of both worlds. So visit www.myfitnesspal.com
and www.mapmyfitness.com now and
improve your health now. Only you can achieve your own goals, no one can do it
for you.
