Calorie Counting

I mentioned controlling my calorie intake in my last post and I wanted to follow up with a tool that has really helped me. It's an iPhone application called LoseIt! It's super simple to use and it has taught me a lot about the calorie content of what I eat. You can set it to help you lose weight, gain weight, or maintain your weight, and it calculates the number of calories you should eat per day based on your height and age. Donald and I have been using it for a month or two now, and coupled with a little added exercise, we have lost at least 20 pounds together.

The most important thing it taught me was about portion size. Now that I'm paying more attention, I feel good knowing that I'm taking charge of my health and that makes me feel good and in control. Our weight loss is likely to be maintained because we have educated ourselves about what we eat and how many daily calories are healthy. AND, we don't have to skip dessert if we don't want to - just take a walk or eat a little less for the rest of the day.

Counting calories is not everything of course. This app doesn't judge whether your daily calorie allotment is spent on donuts or salad. It's simply a tool. Debates rage about the best way to evaluate the food we eat for nutritional value, as well as how to calculate a healthy weight for someone - BMI, waist circumference, etc. - especially because of recent news on the obesity "epidemic". Hopefully there will be more and more tools and information available to the public so we can all have what we need to make good food choices. When in doubt, though, moderation is key.

Do you struggle with your weight? What would help you? What are your biggest challenges? What can we do to help?