Why are you doing this to yourself?

I hear from so many people who are trying to diet so hard and they are following all the "rules" of dieting
ad still they are not seeing the weight "slide off" like they think it should

I'm starving!! 
I'm eating 1200 calories and not losing - what should I do? 
I haven't lost in six weeks - help!! 
I'm eating 1200 and exercising 6 days a week for 3 hours a day and not losing??!! 
I want chocolate!! 
Help me - I'm going to binge!! 
I hate veggies!! 

LET me address these one by one

Why set 1200 calories as your goal - and even then under-eat? 

MOST people 1200 calories will not result in optimal weight loss

yes I know this is the "tried and true" weight loss calorie goal, and it fails, because its unrealistic.
you can diet for 2-4 weeks at this level and lose weight, but after that, your body will level out, and hold on to the weight, because for most people this is nearly  starvation
especially if you're a bigger person(like many of my clients) with 50 or more pounds to lose

the normal BMR for a 35 year old woman who is 5 ft 5 inches  and 250 lb is 1880 calories
so to MAINTAIN HER WEIGHT NOT EXERCISE , NOT GET UP OUT OF BED OTHER THAN THE BATHROOM , AND WALK MAYBE 2000 STEPS A DAY IS  1880 CALORIES!!!
 now throw in a normal  "dieter"
because lets face it , at 250 , she is obese that puts her BMI at 41, which is in the EXTREMELY/Morbidly obese category.

so she has a goal of getting down to 140 which would put her in the high end of the "normal" range
so being an "experienced dieter" she sets her calories for 1200 a day, because well she has 100 lbs to lose, and she wants it off in a year or less.
she also starts exercising, but because of life, she is just going to walk, 3x a week for an hour well at her weight thats going to burn almost 500 calories (495) so , if she is only eating 1200 calories , that means 3 days a week , she is ACTUALLY only consuming 700 total calories a day.
now, for most people this will work just fine.
For about a month...
so our dieter has lost 20lbs
and a two and a half  months into it
she is not losing ANYTHING
and she is frustrated.., and she is hungry... and because her metabolism is trying to get her to conserve, she is also tired ... and her healing is slowing down..
 AND get this
SHE IS STILL OBESE!!
but she is frustrated, she is doing all the "right things" according to weight watchers , according to her doctor, according to ALL her friends on facebook...
she is "dieting" properly.. and she is not losing weight....
so she is going to stop dieting, because after all "it didn't work"
all she lost was 20 lbs... not anywhere near the 45 she had expected to lose...

oh and get this, now that she has went back to her normal eating, she has felt deprived, and her body has been deprived during the last 2 and a half months, so she is going to most likely eat 2000-2500 calories a day ... and she is going to gain the 20lbs back, and give it a few more friends...





Why don't you eat your exercise calories? ?
You exercise , and burn off calories,  You have to fuel your body back part of those calories, I know it sounds counter productive, but in reality its not, if i work out and work out and work out,  and stay the same calorie level , my biology says, oh no I am in a race for my life, who knows when the next food is , i better hang on to some more fat..


Why don't you plan ahead? ?

Plan your meals,  I do this kind of intuitively, at breakfast when I sit down with my shake or yogurt or oatbran.
 I plan dinner ahead, I admit I do not always stick with it, but I plan my food for the day.
 I know as well how many calories dinner will be before I cook it, and then  when it is being made I ensure I am staying in the calorie limits imposed and "budgeted" for that meal.


Let me reiterate this , FAT is fairly new, in the levels and amounts of obesity we see in society now.

Our body has developed over THOUSANDS of years, to SURVIVE , and for most of our ancestors, starvation was literally only a day or two away, FAT didn't happen until  more modern agriculture,  and even then it was fairly rare,in the average classes- because agriculture even 70 years ago was much more labor intensive than it is today.


It's not rocket science. 
It's not a race. 
It's not a diet. 


Its a new way of looking at food , activity and life..

its a new smarter mouth
 a well educated way of looking at life...