If you’ve been following my blogs, you already know the most important thing about losing weight is burning more calories than you take it. Period. If this is still questionable in your mind, read my last blog “Exercising to lose weight? Here’s why that may not be the BEST strategy.” I promised to give you practical tips for reducing calories without feeling hungry and here they are:

Know Your Enemy
Whether you realize or not, your surroundings influence what and how much you eat. In today’s fast-paced, mega-portions and sedentary environment, it’s way too easy to eat more calories than your body burns up. Set yourself up for success by:

• Replacing tempting food with healthier or pre-portioned options. Out of sight, out of mind. Even having a candy jar in your eyesight will cause you to eat more. Get rid of it.
• Never, ever eat out of the bag or container, otherwise you’ll eat mindlessly munch away. It’s super easy to scarf down 500+ calories when you’re eating from the ice cream carton or that big bag of chips.
• Serve yourself using small(er) plates and glasses. You’ll put less food on your plate and you’ll eat fewer calories. Yes, plate and glass sizes have increases dramatically over the last few decades – hence the bigger portion sizes
• Avoid all-you-can eat places. We’re wired to eat, regardless if we’re hungry so it’s better to just stay out of these restaurants.
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As a Registered Dietitian and Certified Personal Trainer, I absolutely HATE diets. I hate when people go on them and I hate it EVEN MORE when people go off of them and gain the weight back (and more in many cases).  I’ve seen it happen so many times and we’ve got to find a way to stop the madness for the betterment of all humankind. Diets equal deprivation, diets mean giving up food I love (like salt & vinegar chips), diets equal hunger. So why do people do them? I believe it’s because we’re sold on the fantasy that losing weight can be quick and simple if only we do one thing – cut carbs, drink a magic potion, do a cleanse, cut sugar.  NOT! The reason they don’t work in the long run is because people can’t stick to them so they go back to old habits. It’s kind of like paying off all your credit card debt only to run them up again because you haven’t changed your spending habits.

Meet Allan Hoffman, 35 years old, starting weight 555 lbs, uses a wheelchair to get around, has a fractured vertebrae in his lower back and it’s fair to say he had a very difficult childhood. He’s struggled with his weight forever, battles depression and over the past 10 years his weight has gone from 305 to 555 lbs. Talk about having to overcome some challenges! His doctor said he should have gastric bypass surgery to lose the weight. Enter the exerspy and the dotFIT team.

It must have been fate because Allan reunited with a half-brother he never knew he had, who happens to be one of dotFIT’s team members. Allan gets an exerspy, a few phone coaching sessions and starts using the dotFIT Me program to shed the weight. With his physical limitations, we had to start slow. Fast forward three months, and he’s dropped 62 pounds. Here’s the strategy we used:

1. Identify WHY you want to lose so you stick to the process. Allan’s motivation was twofold – 1) meet his biological father face to face for the first time this summer and 2) see his 6 year old son graduate from high school. He keeps a picture of his son on his computer to keep him focused.
2. Set realistic and achievable goals. Allan’s ultimate goal is to weight 210 lbs so we set him up to lose 2-3 pounds a week.
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Have you seen menus with the calories on it? WOW! What a difference a little info makes. I was sitting outside in sunny southern California on the patio of a popular restaurant. It was a gorgeous evening – 80 degrees, sun was setting and I was decompressing from a day at the office, waiting for friends. As I checked out the menu, I noticed that the calorie content of every dish and most beverages was right next to each item. WOW! I was blown away at the calorie content of some of the dishes – the salads, in particular. What was more amazing was the impact this had on my behavior. And the reason it had such a big impact was because I knew two critical pieces of information for weight control: 1) How many calories I burned that day and 2) how many calories I had eaten already. So, I knew how many calories I could eat in order to avoid gaining weight that day. And guess what? I made my dinner choice based on that information. What would I have done otherwise? I would’ve ordered my favorite salad (BBQ chicken) and been way over my calorie limit for the day. Translation: I would’ve gained weight.