Count Calories or Fail

I’m considering doing a talk about this when I’m ready. For me, success is defined as trimming up that extra 20 lbs that has always been around. Failing is not being able to do that.

Before simply embracing the counting of calories, I was more interested in creating the correct cultural/social environment to be trim, but that never worked year after year due to the unhealthy design of our society. Thus, I had to find a technique that worked without any cultural/social help.

I counted calories off and on for several months, and it became clear that when I did that, I automatically did not overeat. When I stopped counting calories, I would always overeat (because my weight would creep up a little).

Counting calories includes both calories eaten and calories burned. I start with the basics - use a pedometer to determine my average day (2700 for me) - and any extra workouts are added to that. I bore down to the detail level of one pushup = about 1/2 calorie, for example.

Here is a general rundown of what I’ve been doing: