Over the last 10 years I have tried a number of different weight loss approaches. The Mediterranean Diet, South Beach Diet, P90X, Turbo Fire, and variations of all of them combined. Each time I have varying levels of success in losing weight, but after a few months I am right back to where I started. While reading South Beach, I learned the importance of eating the right types of food together to hold of diabetes. In P90X, I learned about muscle confusion and how to really get your muscles to burn calories all day long. It all makes sense, but I have a hard time working out 50-120 minutes a day. Eating mostly the same food over and over again gets old. As I took inventory of my life I had to be honest that I am a 50 year old, overweight male, who thinks he is younger than he is, works out on occasion, but can't sustain it long term, and who loves the taste of food.
In April I ran in to a friend that I didn't recognize. He had lost a great deal of weight over a three to for month period. His face had changed, his waist had changed, and he talked of feeling better (I have since heard that he has passed the 30 lbs. mark). When I asked him what he was doing he told me basically the same story I told you. Diets, exercise, temporary success. He told me he knew what he should do, he just wasn't doing it. He told me that he had down loaded a free phone app called My Fitness Pal. He uses it to keep track of his calories. If he walks into a restaurant he can type in the name and he can see what the different meals will add up to. It asked him about his activity level, his target goal, and basically told him how many calories to eat a day. He said it was working.
For the last 49 days I have been using My Fitness Pal to track my calories. I also hooked it up with Endomondo (a program that tracks my exercise), and it automatically adjusts the calories I can eat for the day based on my exercise. I kind of like gadgets and things I can use on the IPhone, and since using this app, I have dropped 21 lbs. I learned a lot while reading about the other diets I have tried. My food choices are based on the knowledge I have gained over the years, but tracking calories has been the ticket for me. I am not working out more than I used to, although I am working out some, because I travel for work I am eating out everyday and yet still losing weight.
If you have struggled like I have over the years this is worth trying, and the application is free. This is definitely helping in my battle and I think it can help you in yours
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