Weight Loss Goal Calculator
So you’re ready to take control of your health and get your weight under control? Knowing exactly how much weight we want to lose is essential, because studies on goal setting tell us that we need our goals to be clear and specific. Once we decide exactly how much weight we need to lose, the next step is to determine our PLAN to accomplish the weight loss, so we can get started working toward the goal.
One approach to creating the plan for how we will accomplish the weight loss is to use a weight loss goal calculator.
These are designed to help us know how many calories per day we need to “under-eat”, or consume less than our daily caloric requirements, to reach our stated weight loss goal.
That’s definitely not a bad approach, but it’s not perfect. These kinds of calculations are somewhat over-simplified and don’t reflect the way our bodies respond to our attempts to lose weight, which lead to changes in our metabolism and reducctions in our daily caloric requirements.
The way this calculator work (and most of the ones you will find online), is you enter your existing weight and body information (for example your height and frame size). You enter your goal weight, and you are able to also enter the date in which you wish to meet your objective weight. The calculator can tell you how much of a caloric deficit you’ll want to target each day to reach your objective weight in the time frame you specify.
There is one flaw in this process that should be noted, however. As we begin to lose weight, sometimes our body will slow down our metabolism in an attempt to accommodate the reduced caloric intake.
That’s an important reason why we should make small, moderate reductions in our daily caloric intake, to minimize or avoid any dramatic change in our metabolism.
Although some may feel that taking the time to record everything they eat and all their activity to be time consuming and cumbersome it may be well worth the effort. If nothing else it’ll give you a clearer picture of what you’re consuming, and burning and how it is possible to enhance upon that.
You do not necessarily want to do this for the rest of your life; a couple of weeks of documenting these items might be an eye opener regarding your nutrition as well as a fantastic way to implement changes inside your way of life if needed.
An interesting article was published by CNN Money (http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/03/pf/weight_loss_programs.moneymag/index.htm) which says the three major commercial programs are the only ones with randomized studies that prove they actually do work. That doesn’t mean these are the only ones that work, but it does mean that there is evidence to support their claims, not just marketing hype.
So go to the weight loss goal calculator, determine what you need to do to lose the weight, and consider getting started on one of these programs to begin to make the change you deserve.
