Stop the presses. We have found the cure for obesity. Haven't you heard? If you happened to miss it in the press, I am here to happily hand it to you.
The cure for obesity is to take in less calories than you burn. This will result in weight loss. To determine how many calories you need per day, without exercise, take your weight times ten for women and times twelve for men.
That's it. The cure. The method to achieve the cure is record keeping. That's right, keeping track of what you take in, what you burn with exercise, and what you weigh. Record keeping will get you to the weight you want to be.
Here's the secret that I have learned as well. You don't want to hear this. You would rather spend $25 of your hard earned money on a book like The Secret. Perhaps you bought thigh reducing cream or tried a body wrap that promised a loss of inches in just minutes. Why? Because The Secret tells you all you have to do is imagine what you want and it will come to you. Guess what, Shakti Gawain wrote that same book 30 years ago called Creative Visualization. If she was wise, she made a lot of money off that book and its spin offs. Hope sells. There are lots of bestselling books out there to prove it. You Can Heal Your Life, The Secret, Do What You Love and The Money Will Follow... How many of us bought those books full of hope and optimism. Books that told us what we wanted to hear.
Now I'm not here to burst any bubbles. Bubbles can be fabulous. I'm here to simply help people actually achieve their weight loss goals, without selling them anything in the process. I am not selling a book or product. In fact, I am giving this information away for free because I believe you deserve to know the truth.
Here's the other secret I know. You don't want to do the work. You would rather blame your genetics, metabolism, busy life, processed food industry, etc... for your weight. Guess what, your weight is your own doing. Except in the rare cases of people who have to take medication that causes weight/water gain, like steroids, your weight is within your control.
So here's the challenge I am posing to you today. If you are serious about losing weight, I challenge you to keep track of what you eat today and for the next six days. Write it all down and estimate the calories. A great website for calorie counts is www.calorieking.com. If you have never done this, you will be amazed at what you learn. If you have tried to lose weight before and been unsuccessful, or unable to keep it off, I challenge you to keep records for one week and report back about what you learn.
I promise, you will learn things about yourself you didn't know before.
That's it for now. Good luck and let me know how you're doing.