Fred’s Approach to Fitness & Weight Loss

Posted by Fred Lecavalier on Mar 28, 2011 in Miscellaneous, Personal | 0 comments

I’ve never been a big fan of all the available diets out there, the so-called ‘miracle work-outs’, and the misleading diet pills. I’m a firm believer in a practical method: defining a goal, preparing a plan to reach that goal, maintaining that plan, and tracking progress against that goal. Another important thing is to share your plan with someone, be it friends or family. Getting help and support from people close to you can make all the difference in the world and it also serves as additional motivation to know that your successes or failures will be shared with others.

The biggest issue with diets, in my opinion, is that they are short term goals for weight loss. Most of the time, once the target weight has been reached, the diet stops and the weight slowly comes back on.

The approach I’ve taken myself and recommend to others is quite simple, and should work for everyone who is dedicated. To start, a goal is defined. The goal should be an overall objective for weight, body fat, muscle mass and fitness level. Now that a goal has been identified, the next step is to identify the current situation, and this means logging. For easy log evaluation, using a decent cycle period based on a multiple-week schedule is helpful, as cycles can be set to end during the week-end. I would recommend a cycle length of 4 to 8 weeks.

For many, the most difficult aspect of this method is logging. It does take quite a bit of time to setup, and keep track of logs. The most important thing to log for weight loss purposes is, obviously, the daily calorie intake, but daily body weight and body fat are also important. Getting into the habit of noting down everything meal, and properly identifying the caloric content of the meals and snacks can be challenging at first. For the first few weeks or so, logging may involve some research online to find out how many calories are in the common meals, drinks and snacks. This is usually where people get shocked to see exactly how many calories they ingest on a daily basis, as it usually is much greater than they expected. After one cycle of calorie and weight logging, the logs will offer a good idea of the daily and weekly caloric intake, as well as an indication of current weight tendencies. With a month’s worth of daily logs, it becomes simple to identify if weight is going up or down or remaining stable.

Now that the goal and current tendencies are noted, the plan must be defined. This is the part where the willpower will come into play; especially in situations where the current tendencies are contradictory to the goals, for instance if you are currently gaining and want to start losing. In most cases, a daily or weekly limit on caloric intake would be required, as well as a minimum requirement for weekly physical activities. Naturally, reducing the amount of meals with high calories, or high sugar content as well as increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables is always a good way to help.

After one cycle of following the plan, it’s time to evaluate the results, and modify the plan as necessary. The trick is to do this after every cycle until the goal has been reached. Once reached, the weight loss method should become a weight maintenance plan, and should only be terminated once the new nutritional habits are proven to be good for weight maintenance. Only then should the logging become unnecessary. Nevertheless, I would still always recommend a mild weight management plan to be drafted, followed and evaluated periodically. Otherwise, the road back to weight gain could be closer than expected.

Disclaimer:
Please note that this methodology should always be done with guidance from a doctor or health care professional. This information is offered in good faith, no warranty is given to the accuracy or effectiveness, or any of the comments, suggestions or information provided herein.