PATIENCE: Find Your Fit Routine

Trying to lose weight? While you could go with a quick and potentially unhealthy dietary plan, health care has proven time and time again the success of hard, calorie-based numbers with lifelong exercise and well-being; regardless of your dietary plans or sinful chocolate desires, using the PATIENCE plan is an effective strategy not just to lose weight, but to keep it off.

The PATIENCE plan:

1. Preparation
2. Assertion
3. Time
4. Intensive cardio
5. Effective weight training
6. Nutrition
7. Controlling food portions
8. Eating healthy for a lifetime

Preparation: Getting the Facts for Your Fit Routine

Preparing to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight is, by far, the biggest step towards overall happiness and proactive health care! Once you set up your routine, all you need to do is stick with it to achieve personal health care.

Start with calculating your BMI, or Body Mass Index. Try this handy calculator out:

BMI Calculator

Your BMI will determine whether you’re underweight, the ideal weight, overweight, or obese.

Now using the BMI calculator, find out what is considered the healthy weight range for you; it’s not nearly as thin as Hollywood portrays. You may be closer to a healthy weight than you think, or have no need to lose weight at all! You may even need to increase your weight to reach a healthy BMI.

Once you’ve discovered how many pounds you need to adjust to reach the ideal number, it’s time to calculate your BMR, or Basal Metabolic Rate. This will show you how many calories you burn at rest.

BMR Calculator

Remember that this is calories at rest. In other words, this is how much you burn if you sleep 24 hours a day. You’ll get to increase this number!

Let’s find out how many calories you burn from exercise, walking, or simply running or operating a computer. You’ll do this using the Harris Benedict Equation:

1. If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
2. If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
3. If you are moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
4. If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
5. If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9

The number you get from your BMR and the Harris Benedict Equation is how many calories you need to maintain your weight. If you want to lose weight, you need to slightly lower this number.

Calorie plans are all about calories in (diet) and calories out (exercise). Calorie deficits alone do not lead to prolong health, and if you consume 4000 calories a day, exercise won’t keep up with your calories in.

Find the Fit Plan That’s Right for You

Let’s say, after calculating your BMI, you want to lose 15 pounds in 5 months. Yeah, I’m talking about that Freshman Fifteen . This is roundabout one pound a week.

There are approximately 3500 calories in a pound of stored body fat. This means, in 5 months, you’re aiming to lose 3500 x 15 = 52500 calories. Over 150 days, or about 5 months, that’s 350 calories a day. Ask yourself these two questions:

1. How much additional activity am I willing to incorporate into my daily routine?
2. How many high-calorie foods am I willing to eliminate from my diet?

There are 150 calories in a single can of Pepsi Cola. If you drink soda, eliminating one soda a day, and then exercising the additional 200 calories a day, could get you the weight loss you desire for a healthier BMI and better lifelong health care.

A Calories Burned Estimator will help you find an activity that’s right for you for your 200 calorie exercise. For example:

• Low impact aerobics burns 190 calories in 30 minutes. A half hour on a treadmill isn’t half bad.
• Moderate swimming burns 190 calories in 30 minutes. You don’t have to do laps endlessly, just jump in a pool and play “find the quarter” a little bit each day.
• Walking and playing with children burns 248 calories in one hour. Talk about a health loss plan, increasing time spent with your kids!

The fitness plans you can come up with are endless. Give it some variety; your body will build resistance if you do the same thing every day—it stored that fat over millennia of evolution and will fight to keep it—so changing up your exercise and your foods helps tremendously.

One less chocolate bar, 15 minutes stepping up and down on a pile of old books, and 15 minutes lifting a jug of milk may get you your 15 pound weight loss in half a year of assertive, dedicated effort.

Which brings us to our next step in PATIENCE…

Assertion: Acting Out Your Fit Routine

Now that you’ve done the preparation for your routine, it’s time to be assertive with your plan. Here are five steps that will help you be assertive with your goals:

1. Make a calendar. Even if you’re just putting an “X” through every day you go to the gym or the pool, a calendar can help keep you on the right track.

2. Track your progress. Logs help you track how many calories you eat a day; how much exercise you do a day; and how much weight you lose a week.

3. Get a buddy. If you have a friend that’s also trying to lose weight, the group effort may make your routine that much more enjoyable.

4. Try new things. There are so many ways to cut back calories and exercise them off, there’s no reason to deter yourself with methods that aren’t working for you.

5. Positive reinforcement. Every time you finish an activity for calorie burning, reward yourself with your favorite activity or hobby. Be careful about jumping in cold water, though; studies show that lowering your body temperature after a workout could slow your metabolism to its resting rate faster, which means less calories burned!

Time: Give Yourself the Time to Lose the Weight

Any plan that tells you that you’ll lose 10 pounds in 10 days is likely unhealthy. The slower you lose the weight, the slower your body will gain it back. Let your body understand that your new weight is your lifestyle; take six months or a year to lose the weight through hard work and dedication.

As a general rule of thumb, one pound a week is an excellent goal. This may be higher or lower depending on your current weight. If you’re unsure, ask a doctor .

Intensive Cardio: Get Your Heart Working

Every time you feel sweat on your back or your heart pumping a little faster, you’ve just burned a decent amount of calories. Even if you park at the end of the grocery store’s lot and power walk in, that cardio and increased heart rate will help you with your goal.

Effective Weight Training: Your Muscles and Metabolism are Friends

If you have next to no muscle mass, you’re in for a treat; the more weight training you accomplish, the faster your metabolism is going to be. Muscles are the key component to your body burning calories, so just a little weight training could bring your fit routine leaps and bounds.

Nutrition: Eat Healthy, Live Healthy

You don’t have to eat like a rabbit for the rest of your life to eat healthy. When you’re at the grocery store, check the calories in the foods you buy; you can even look up dishes from your favorite restaurants online. Restaurants also have calorie menus on request.

Controlling Food Portions: You Can Really Have Just One

You get a chocolate cake for your birthday; every slice is 400 calories. This doesn’t mean you have to throw the chocolate cake out. If you have more than one slice a day though, you’re in trouble.

Controlling your food portions is potentially the second most important part of lifetime calorie-fit routines, right behind preparation. Make sure you eat until you’re no longer hungry, not until you’re bursting at the seams.

Eating Healthy for a Lifetime: You’re Not Just Dieting

Once you lose the weight, stick with your newly developed healthy eating habits. Make sure to be active throughout the day. Lifelong personal health care starts your assertive desire to keep yourself healthy, from your daily walk to your dinner vegetables.