WEIGHT LOSS TIP # 9 MEASURE MEASURE MEASURE

You need to measure just about everything. At one point I got sloppy with my body building training thinking I would remember the last weight I did - I didn't. I had no idea if I had progressed. I was guestimating serving sizes for meals. Soon as I realized I was not seeing much change in my muscle development, not increasing my weights nor getting body fat loss. I got back on track.

We almost always overestimate how much water we drink and how much exercise we get. We underestimate what we eat. That's why you should not eat at food buffets. Or graze and snack. Just eat your six meals/day and be done.I bought a small digital food weight scale. Interestingly I think I was guestimating my protein serving in my head using liquid measure because I was sure underestimating how much 2.5 oz of chicken or steak was. Believe it or not, it is a fair bit. Especially when you are eating 6 times/day.

Food safety tip: wipe down the scale with a mild bleach solution to prevent cross contamination of raw meat to other foods.

Write down every single thing you eat - it will help to sort out any problems later as well as make you pay attention to what you are eating and when. Measure your food. If you are eating 1/2 c rice - measure it.

Pre-pour your water for the day in a jug. Drinking glass by glass you will lose track and will also forget and then try and drink it all at once - not a good idea.

Always write down the weights you used in your workout. If you could squeeze out more than the required reps - put an up arrow next to it to increase the weight the next time. If you could not do all the intervals up in your cardio, write down how many and try to beat it by 10-20 sec or by adding another interval the next time. If you are using landmarks in the street - try to get to the next house or the next pole next time.

You will underestimate your working heart rate. Try to get a monitor. Take all your measurements as instructed as well as your weight. Weight alone does not give sufficient information to map your progress. If you are spending the time doing this, it makes sense to get it right so a) you succeed and b) you don't waste your time.

Keeping track serves another useful purpose. If for some reason you plateau, and you recorded honestly, you'll know exactly why. Week to week you will see progressive changes which will keep you motivated. I have posted a link for a body fat calculation. It will not be exact. It is just an estimate. The main thing is to use it as a comparative tool. To see if there are changes from week to week. CLICK FOR BODY FAT ESTIMATE In case you are tempted to go to some of the places below I have posted a link to their nutritional information. Most well known franchises have links to nutritional information - just use a search engine with the name of the place and "nutrition" e.g "Wendy's nutrition"Example:
Wendy's Mandarin Chicken Salad Cal 540, Fat 25 Carb 50, Protein 31 - remove the dressing and noodles and you can reduce it but best to make your own. You would have to do one hour of high intensity aerobics to burn that many calories.
Skinny Cow
Arby's
MacDonald's USA
Wendy's
Starbuck's

Sorry to spoil it for you but a mocha frappuccino blended is 380 cal, Fat 15, Sat fat 9 Protein 6 - and that is just a beverage.
Tim Horton's A Breakfast BELT is 440 cal Fat 14 Carb 59 Protein 21
My favourite a cinnamon raisin bagel is 270 cal Fat 1 Carb 55 Protein 10 but I believe that is without butter. Yikes.