| It is very well known that in order to lose weight, | | | | protein contained. Using Excel's auto sum feature, |
| you must burn more calories than you consume. | | | | I would total the amount of calories and protein. |
| So how many calories do you consume each | | | | Whenever I ate at a restaurant, I used It |
| day? How do you know how many? Do you | | | | contains entrees for many, many restaurants. In |
| simply guesstimate? If so, then that is simply not | | | | the, rare, cases I could not find the restaurant, I |
| adequate. When you take the first step to lose | | | | used this rule of thumb to estimate my calories. |
| weight, you must get a handle on your eating, | | | | Carbohydrates and proteins have 4 calories per |
| period. It is impossible for most people to keep | | | | gram; fats have nine calories per gram. I simply |
| track of all this in their head. Therefore you must | | | | made rough estimates and since this situation did |
| have a journal of what you eat. One of the | | | | not happen enough, I was not overly concerned. |
| earliest things I did was create an Excel | | | | Once I started tracking, I discovered this was an |
| spreadsheet that I used to track what I ate on a | | | | excellent accountability tool. Because I was very |
| daily basis. Why would I do this? First, I needed to | | | | strict about putting everything I ate, I always had |
| get an idea of how much I was eating currently. | | | | the log in the back of my mind. I would hesitate |
| Without knowing, I had no basis to cut calories. | | | | to sneak, because I had to place it in my log and |
| But once I started, I learned quickly how much I | | | | see the daily caloric intake rise. |
| ate. I had always thought I was doing an okay | | | | I did allow myself once a week to enjoy my |
| job, but seeing the daily caloric values, I was | | | | favorite foods - I called it my "free day", a day I |
| shocked how much calories I consumed each day. | | | | did not track what I ate. You know, in spite of |
| On the flipside, I was able to see where I could | | | | eating very liberally on my free day, and I mean |
| cut back without adversely affecting my health. | | | | extremely liberally, I still ended up losing six |
| Now that you decided to keep a log, how do you | | | | pounds a week. Because I ramped my water |
| go about doing it? I know of people who use a | | | | consumption to about 96 to 120 ounces a day, it |
| notebook, and they write down what they ate | | | | clearly was not water weight I was losing. As |
| and kept track that way. Others bought software | | | | time progressed, I used this log to also track my |
| that has huge databases of all foods - including | | | | weight, and eventually I would track my waist |
| meals from popular restaurants. You simply select | | | | size, body fat composition, my basal metabolic |
| what you ate, and the program calculates not | | | | rate, and my estimated calories I burned from |
| only your calories, some programs even provide | | | | my physical training. |
| you nutritional information as well. There are | | | | Tracking what I eat was instrumental in my |
| web-based tools that do the same. I simply | | | | weight loss, and my spreadsheet remains a |
| decided to use a spreadsheet. | | | | valuable tool to this day. Take control over your |
| Using the food labels, I would enter what I ate, | | | | weight - begin by taking control of your eating. |
| how much calories it contained, and since I | | | | You will be surprised and pleased by the outcome! |
| wanted to track protein, I entered the grams of | | | | |