“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”- Peter Drucker
I believe that the above quote is vital for anyone who wants to be successful, no matter the endeavor. Whether you are trying to lose weight, increase sales in your company, increase your free throw percentage in basketball, or gain strength in the weight room, you must be able to track your progress in order to truly improve. That’s why when it comes to health and nutrition, I believe in tracking how many calories you burn and how many calories you eat. However, before you begin tracking your calories in and calories out, you must first creat a clear and concise goal. Do you want to lose 10 lbs in 6 months? Do you want to increase your squat by 30 lbs? Do you want to take 15 seconds off of your 1 mile run time? You must have a clear understanding of your goal before you develop your plan, track your progress and adjust your plan accordingly. The goal-setting process should look like this:
- Create a clear and concise goal
- Develop a game plan to achieve your goal
- Track your progress
- Adjust your game plan, if necessary
Let’s say, for example, you want to lose 20 lbs in 5 months (you have a friend’s wedding in May and it’s the start of beach season! Lol!). You get with your coach and develop a plan to achieve that goal. It involves hitting the gym four days per week with a mix of weight lifting and cardiovascular training, and even more importantly, he/she builds a nutritional plan for you. That nutritional plan is developed not only to help you maintain energy in your training but to help you lose weight at a sustained rate. They looked at your calorie requirements, macronutrient requirements, fiber, water, etc. All of those components play a role in how quickly your body sheds the undesired weight. But, what if, after all of your coach’s hard work in developing that plan, you just begin to eat whatever food you want, whenever you want and don’t track anything? What would happen? The answer is, who knows? Nobody can guess the outcome because it is a complete crapshoot. You may be eating portion sizes that are too large, or you may be consuming way too much sodium, or you may be eating foods that are giving you inflammation. Who knows? You haven’t tracked anything so it’s impossible to tell. In fact, you have much better odds of going to your closest casino and playing blackjack and beating the House than just taking a “swag” at your diet and accomplishing your weight loss goals!
There is certainly an art form to nutrition plans that nutritionists and coaches create for clients. But there is also a science. The science, in simple and very general terms, is that when you eat more calories than your body requires, you will gain weight. And vice versa, when you are in a calorie deficiency, you will lose weight. The issue though, is that many people either choose not to track their progress or they haphazardly track their food while messing up serving sizes, not condiments, and all of the “little calories” that add up, and provide skewed data to their coach. And although most coaches I know are passionate about helping their clients, they can only do so much with limited or skewed information. The more accurate the data, the more precise we can become with our advice and any changes we may recommend. If you look at the goal-setting process above, Steps 1, 2, and 4 can be done together with the assistance of a coach. They can help you create your goal (or at least tell you what is realistic), they can help you develop the game plan to succeed, and they can make any adjustments to the game plan, if necessary. But Step 3 is all on you. You are responsible for tracking your progress. In your weight loss journey, you are responsible for tracking your calories burned in your workouts (when possible) and are always responsible for tracking what food and beverage you put in your body. If you do not, then you are likely wasting your own time, money and energy fighting a losing battle. Don’t do that to yourself! You DESERVE to take control of your eating habits and your health once and for all! In 2020, make the decision to track your progress. This will not only give you short term weight loss success, but will help you develop a habit that will serve you in many other aspects of your life!
If you have any questions or are looking for some tips on how to track your calories in or calories out, please let me know! I hope all of you have a blessed week!
Coach Rich
Richard Fitzgerald 