Small Changes Lead to Big Results

Who wants to live their life losing 10 pounds in a week only to regain 15 pounds after quitting their incredibly hard diet? Many people do this continually – wash and repeat. That sounds like a terrible version of the Twilight Zone – harming your metabolic capabilities and hurting your psyche. So what’s a person to do? One option to shoot for a realistic caloric deficit of 100-200 per day that can result in 0.8 – 1.7 pounds a month which seems trivial but that equals 10 – 20 pounds a year respectively! The best part is creating a gentle caloric deficit like this is really simple.

Here are two options:

Snack Swap: If you would simply swap your normal, at-work vending machine snack with a piece of fruit, you could have cut out 150-200 calories! Get this; one 2oz. (56g) bag of salted potato chips has roughly 307 calories which you could have swapped for something like a large peach which has only 68 calories (175g; not to mention the vitamins, nutrients, fiber…etc.). With that swap you would actually be eating more food while saving yourself 239 calories. Do that every day for a month and you save 7100+ calories which equals to 24.9 pounds worth of calories a year!

Drop the Sugary Drinks: Sugary drinks are literally packing the pounds on people; they are so easy to consume! Let’s take the example of your typical classic Coca-Cola (12 ounce can) which has roughly 140 calories in it. If you simply stop drinking one soda per day you can literally cut out 4200 a month or 14.6 pounds a year worth of calories (51,000+) – that’s pretty simple!

Wrap-Up

It’s not all about cutting out calories; it’s about living a long, healthy life. If you’ve tried and failed in the past, it’s time to stop thinking of weight loss as a sprint. Instead, start thinking of weight loss as a fulfilling journey. Have patience with yourself in order to make weight loss work – make the small changes and give it time!

Josh (M.S.) is an AFAA Certified Personal Trainer and the founder of Always Active Athletics: “Your #1 Source For At-Home Fitness and Nutrition”.  He loves blending science with sustainable practices that can be implemented by literally anyone in order to live a healthy life!