I am often asked about ideal weight and calorie calculations. There are ranges for “ideal weights” but this is my philosophy on “ideal weight”…
If you have a significant amount of weight to lose (30, 40, 50 + pounds), weight is a somewhat valid measure of progress. BUT… it is not THE measure. How we feel and look is a much better measure. How our clothes fit… how our comparison pictures look (never trust your memory on this one… it fails every time… pictures never lie).
I did a fun little exercise one night… I asked everyone to guess my weight. Between my Fan Page and my personal profile, I had 108 guesses. 2 people got it right. Check out my blog post on it: How Much Should a Fitness Model Weigh?
There are several charts for calculating an ideal weight if you are trying to figure out nutritional information which leads me to my next point… calorie counting…
We have been “trained” to weigh ourselves and count calories. I challenge YOU to stay OFF THE SCALE for the next 4 weeks and to stick with CLEAN, portioned, and timed meals.
We don’t count calories in the SKFitLife Challenge, yet we achieve results like this:
How can that be? We stick with CLEAN, portioned, and timed meals that you can put together anywhere you happen to be. Letting go of counting calories is so freeing.
Each person needs their own “success formula” on the number of servings but these are the serving sizes we typically work with:
- The protein servings are 3-5 ounces
- Starch servings start out with having 1/2c. per serving… if you do not see any change within the first 2 weeks, let’s bring you down to 1/3c. of starch each serving
- Fruit servings have 1/2 piece of fruit or ~1/4-1/3c.
- Fat servings have 1T of good fat as your serving. If you are having something else like an avocado, nut butter, salmon, or nuts, use a serving size that will equate to about 16 grams of fat (which is what 1T of oil is).
- FILL UP ON VEGGIES! They are great!!! You are NOT going to get fat eating veggies.
- Extras??? Sauces, dressing, etc… IF YOU ARE EATING CLEAN, having a little sauce on the side in addition to your nutrition mentioned above will NOT put you over where you need to be for your daily intake.
The problem I have with diets that count calories is that they are all about restriction… they just take away nutrients and your body will shrink for a while until you hit that low point where your body wises up and says, “NO MAS!!!” Then you start to hold onto fat forsurvival. This is the danger of Yo-Yo Dieting:
Have you been in the Yo-Yo cycle? Ready to get out? Follow these steps:
- Stop going on diets.
- Start keeping a food log.
- Stop restricting.
- Start eating.
- Seriously… LIFE begins when you stop chasing skinny and start making decisions based on will it make you healthier or will it take away from your health?
