So I have been reading different message board posts by women lately who are eating well below the suggested 1,200 calories per day mark.  Why is that?  Maybe they don’t like to eat or they want to stay the same weight that they are or even GAIN weight.  Yes, that’s right, by eating less than 1,200 calories per day, you can actually gain weight and here’s why: when you consume too few calories, your body thinks you are starving it, so it goes into what is called “starvation mode” in which it hangs on to fat to feed itself because it thinks it’s starving.  PLUS, eating less than 1,200 calories is not sustainable.  Yes, you may be able to do it for a little while, but it’s not feasible to think that you can and will do it forever.  So what else can happen?  You binge.  You may call them “cheat days” or have days where you “just couldn’t help” but eat the entire bag of Doritos or half a cake.  It’s called binging and more often than not, people binge because they have deprived themselves of foods they enjoy and/or much needed calories.  So then what happens when you binge?  You gain weight - period.  Unless, of course, you burn, burn, burn a ton of calories all in the same day, and who is really going to do that when they’re stuffed full of Doritos and cake?

Here are some good tips to follow when trying to lose weight:

1.  Do not starve yourself or deprive yourself - becomes friends with your food.  That’s right - become friends with your food.  Food is NOT your enemy - you are.  You can eat more than 1,200 calories per day and still lose weight.  Make healthy choices, learn to like food and what it can do for the body when you choose the right foods.  Do not deprive yourself of foods that you enjoy eating.  If you like cake, okay, have it, but don’t eat a HUGE slice - just eat a thin slice or a few bites, whatever it takes to satisfy you.  For some healthy recipes, visit my Recipes section here at WLIC.

2.  Find out what your BMR is - this means the calories your body burns every day just at rest.  You can find a good BMR calculator here:  http://walking.about.com/cs/calories/l/blcalcalc.htm  Calculate how many calories your body burns just resting and you can subtract from that number to get the number of calories you need to take in on a daily basis and still lose weight.  You may be surprised at the number, so give it a try.

3.  Exercise.  Sorry, folks, but there is no other way around it - you have to get up off your butt and move it!  Dancing, cleaning, taking care of your children, cooking, aerobics, weight training - all of these activities burn calories.  Every time you move you burn calories - so just move!  http://www.fitday.com/ has a free program where you can input your calories by different food, calculate how many calories you are burning per day with each activity you do or just “at rest,” a journal, reports, and much more!  If Fitday doesn’t suit you, try http://www.sparkpeople.com/ and join the community there.

4.  Don’t beat yourself up.  This is the most important thing to keep in mind - you’re human; it will take time to implement change, so if you find that you have a bad day and you don’t stick to your weight loss plan, remember that tomorrow is a new day!  Don’t beat yourself up and then quit trying to reach your goal.  Forgive yourself and move on.