Last Updated on June 4, 2017 by Michael Brockbank
For those who have incredibly large weight loss goals, such as myself, it can seem overwhelming. A lot of people get a sense of intimidation when they need to lose 100 pounds or more. However, it’s easy to adapt to weight loss goals as long as you don’t focus on the whole. Let me explain.
Setting Weight Loss Goals
Now, losing weight doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll be healthy. Keep in mind that you need activity and nutrients for the body to rebuild itself. Meth and crack can help you lose weight, but they are far from healthy.
So, where do we get started for making weight loss goals seem less distant?
Step 1: Set Your Ultimate Goal
Your ultimate goal is the primary objective you want to achieve. For myself, it is 180 pounds. When I started, I needed to lose 107 pounds to reach this goal. This number can seem far away, especially if you know you have troubles with motivation like I do.
We’re going to use the end result as more of a guideline than a focus. Yes, you want to weigh a certain amount. However, it’s not what you’ll be thinking about every day. Or at least, you shouldn’t. I’ll tell you why.
When you reach for something that is incredibly far, it’s easy to become discouraged from the slightest problems that come up. When many people don’t lose a lot of weight compared to their goals, they become less confident and often demoralized. This leads to giving up as it seems too difficult.
Don’t worry about losing the total amount. Just focus on the here and now.
Step 2: Create Daily Food Goals
One of the most important parts of achieving massive weight loss goals is by eating better. This doesn’t mean you have to absolutely cut tasty foods from your daily routine. However, it does mean you need to reduce portion sizes and bring in some healthier alternatives.
One of my favorite free tools for this purpose is MyFitnessPal. By recording every morsel of food you eat, you can see just how many calories, carbs and nutrients you’re taking in throughout the day.
Recording your food on a daily basis is vastly important for weight loss goals. It gives you a visual reminder of how much you’re overeating. Using MyFitnessPal is one of the best ways to do it. When I started using it, I was blown away with how poorly I was eating every day.
Your food goals should be conducive to your physical activity. After all, you still need to eat to stay alive. Your body will burn the fats for energy, but you still need certain vitamins and minerals that are not produced within the body naturally. So yes…even fat people like me need to eat.
Keep your portion sizes logical. Eating correct portions of foods is one of the fastest ways to drop the pounds. For example, a serving of Chewy Chips Ahoy! cookies is only two cookies, not two bags. I used to be terrible at this, especially when it came to cupcakes.
My daily goal is a net calories intake of 1200 to 1500 calories per day. This is because I sit most of the time whether I am working or playing. If you’re more active, you’ll want more calories. This is another reason why I use MyFitnessPal. You can set intake goals according to your lifestyle.
Step 3: Create Daily Activity Goals
Another vastly important aspect of making weight loss goals is to be more physically active. After all, you need a way to burn the fats around the body. While you may still burn away fat naturally by decreasing the food intake, being active does more than just slim down the waist.
If you’re obese as I was, you don’t want to jump into activity too quickly. For instance, I had heart issues when I started. I gradually worked into a semi-routine of activity by starting with walks and very easy exercises. This is like prepping the body to do more work.
The more physically active you are, the more you can eat. This is because the body is going to burn everything it can to keep functioning correctly.
Daily activity goals will be different for everyone, but they should center around doing more than what you have done in the past. Personally, I like to exercise and train myself to break personal records. Here is an example of how I broke my push-up record recently.
- Set a record for push-ups at 14 reps.
- Four times per week, I did three sets of 25 incline push-ups. These are easier than regular push-ups.
- After two weeks, I set a new personal best at 20 reps.
Daily activity goals should be something that you can do now that is more than what you’ve done in the past. For instance, I use my Fitbit Charge HR to track my calorie burn daily. Then, I’ll create a goal to burn more than my weekly average. Even if it’s just 100 calories burnt more today than yesterday, it’s still a step in the right direction.
Step 4: Weigh Yourself Once Per Week
You should never weigh yourself on a daily basis. This is because there are too many variables that can fluctuate how much the scale says you lost. Here are some of the most common:
- Retaining water: Happens often when you eat a lot of sodium or don’t drink enough water in the day.
- Muscle weighs more than fat: When you increase activity, muscle density replaces fat tissue.
- Being regular at number two: It’s easy to gain weight according to the scale if you’re not regular in your, well, bathroom routines.
Why I don’t want you to weigh yourself on a daily basis is because you might get discouraged. I’ve seen a lot of people get frustrated when trying to lose weight because the scale tells them they aren’t losing anything over the week. In reality, these people are often replacing fat stores with muscle development.
For those who have no definition in their body when it comes to muscle mass, it may take a bit of time to see a significant difference in the scale. That’s because the body is creating density – in a good way.
Unfortunately, too many people will give up because they don’t seem to lose weight fast enough. Keep in mind the average human is capable of losing roughly 10 pounds per month by changing eating habits and increasing physical activity. For example, I can easily lose three pounds per week just by keeping MyFitnessPal calories in the green.
Don’t worry about your daily weight. Just focus on your two daily goals of eating and activity.
Step 5: Take Measurements Once Per Week
Taking measurements of your body is perhaps a better way to track progress…at least in the beginning. By measuring your bicep, chest, waist and thighs, you can see the inches drop over time. That is, until you start developing more muscle mass. At which point, the measurements will increase – but in a good way.
The reason measurements are more accurate is because the mass of fat will decrease as muscle develops. This means you should see changes on a measuring tape easier than you will on a scale. Remember, muscle density has less volume than fat. It will take up less of your body as it develops.
Case in point, a friend of mine was getting frustrated because she wasn’t losing a lot of weight according to the scale. However, it turns out she dropped two pant sizes. She doesn’t seem as frustrated now as she did the first time standing on the scale.
Step 6: Be Patient
When you have incredibly high weight loss goals, you need to be patient. You’re not going to lose 100 pounds inside of a month. That is, unless you cheat yourself with drugs or operations. Both of these methods do not guarantee health.
As long as you achieve your daily goals to eat less and get more activity, you will achieve those higher loss goals.
Also keep in mind that everyone has a different physiology. Not everyone has the same level of metabolism. What works exceptionally well for one may not work all that great for another.
It’s best that you customize the experience for your own body type and mentality. After all, it’s your mental state that affects weight loss goals more than anything. If you don’t believe it will work, then it won’t.
Reaping the Rewards
Sounds simple enough, right? That’s because weight loss goals are not all that difficult if you approach them the correct way. Don’t fixate on losing 100 pounds. Keep your mind in what you can do today to improve life.