Once you thoroughly understand the ‘tweaking process’ and its entirety [which was discussed in a previous article], you can then make your way into a gym (if you haven’t already), and watch the fat melt away that much quicker. Tell your trainer to start you off slowly, unless of course, you have the desire for 2nd gear, then it’s full speed ahead.
The calories at the end of the day will tell you if you will gain, lose, or maintain. If I take my previous numbers and add them and subtract where necessary, I can take note of the following: 5,000 calories consumed throughout an average ‘non-tweaking of food’ day, minus the 2400 calories that we burned while sedentary, leaves us with an overture of roughly 2600 calories for the day – this will put you at an obvious surplus. If you decide to exercise for 30-60 minutes each day, you can subtract an additional 300-600 calories depending on what exercise you did, the intensity, and many other potential variables, taking the number down to around 2,000 (surplus) calories. Obviously, if you are at a surplus, you will be gaining weight, but not nearly as much if you don’t apply the above methods. If you are breaking even at a few hundred calories over each day or less, you’re at a maintenance level and if you are at the rare chance of a deficiency in calories (bodybuilders, fitness models, medical conditions), then you will lose weight.
Overall, shedding a few hundred calories per meal, per day, you will see a significant change in your weight and you will start liking what you see in the mirror even more. Several weeks of this, most people will then start replacing their ‘hamburger meals’ with healthier meals so they can fine-tune their conditioning with the weight management program even more. It’s not that you don’t get to eat these meals ever again, you will just eat them less frequently and really lack the desire because you’ve become more acquainted with a healthier lifestyle and better eating habits.
Now with your new found knowledge, you won’t have to ask your Dietician, Personal Trainer, or Nutritionist if it’s okay for you to eat this snack or meal. You know by counting calories that it’s not exactly which foods that will always determine (good foods are preferred), your goals at the end of the day but how much. We practice by focusing on quantity of calories to reduce weight initially, THEN, we can focus on quality (if you’re extra disciplined then these can both be done at the same time). This method can be implemented using the ‘tweaking method,’ which is determined by counting your total calories for every meal and every day.
