I came back from Spring Break refreshed, rejuvenated, and full of regret. You see, after spending five days feasting in New Orleans for their Mardi Gras Festival, I came back to campus with an extra six lbs. Though inevitable, I wasn’t about to let the vacation weight gain stop me from feeling good in my skinny jeans, and so I asked my mother for advice. Mind you, she lost 40 pounds in three months at the age of 52. She adviced me to count calories. Does this sound hard? Actually, it really was. Before you read the rest of this article there are some things to note: 1. Everyone has a different metabolism and so trying this does not entail you’ll lose exactly six pounds (you may lose less or more, but you’ll definitely lose some weight — it all depends on your body’s BMI). 2. This requires a LOT of self control. 3. Exercise is only 30% of weightloss, but I actually didn’t even exercise to lose any weight (though I may have lost more if I had).
A little bit about my own BMI, to give you some perspective. At 5’1 and 116 pounds at the starting point, I needed 1200-1400 calories to maintain my weight. I wanted to go down to my original weight of 110 pounds. To do this, I needed to hit less than 1200 calories and so I limited myself to 1100 calories a day. Now that I’m back to my original weight, I maintain it by keeping my calorie intake in between 1000-1200 calories.
So let’s start with the basics: Starving yourself is NEVER the way to go (unless you want a slower metabolism, which will kick you in the butt in the long run); eating more meals with smaller portions is ideal (because this actually speeds up your metabolism and you’ll be able to eat more in the long-run without seeing the effects the next morning); and diet pills are only temporary relief so I highly, highly suggest not using them.
So how did I do it?
The answer: I ate Healthy Choice’s dinners and snacked on low-calorie snacks.
Healthy Choice is a TV dinner brand that includes a variety of low-calorie meals. They give you your full serving of veggies, protein, and carbs. In between meals, I suggest eating fruits to balance out your meals so that you can receive all of your body’s needed daily intake. Who says you have to give up carbs? I’d rather be overweight than feel like I have no energy any day. Also, you don’t have to limit yourself to this brand, there are many others you can try. As long as you count your calories and don’t deprive yourself of nutrients, then another brand can do.
Timing is also very important, and this may be difficult due to the nature of us being college students. I usually eat my dinner before 5 pm. Anything after that is a small snack like a fruit or even popcorn (which is surprisingly low in calories).
Perhaps the reason why this works so well is because these meals don’t completely fill you up, which is why it is so necesary to snack in between AND the reason why you need so much self control. The more little meals you have, the faster you’ll start burning off those extra calories. Just make sure that one meal NEVER makes you full, otherwise you’ll have ruined the process for the day.
With that said, this has been tried and tested. I can guarantee that it will have some affect if you, let me reiterate it again, have the self control to do so.
Good Luck!