Fit-Bullets Friday: December 9th, 2022
Fit-Bullets: Calorie & Protein Ranges, Quick Results, Acceptance vs Wanting Change, and January Warnings
Happy Fit-Bullets Friday!
Here are 4 things I wanted to share with you this week...
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Calorie and Protein Ranges
My Weight Loss Calorie Calculator (which you can download for free at the bottom of this email) will give you calorie and protein guidelines.
And I don’t recommend you to be too exact when you try to achieve those numbers.
Instead, try to hit a range.
For example, let’s say your goal weight is 150 lbs.
My calorie calculator will tell you to aim for 1800 calories - target weight in lbs x12.
Instead of aiming for precisely 1800 calories, aim to finish within 100 calories of that number.
In other words, aim for 1700-1900 calories per day. If you finish the day within that range, that’s a successful day.
For protein, my calculator will tell you to aim for 150g protein per day - target weight in lbs x1.
But 150g protein can be a real challenge to hit, especially if you’re not used to focusing on protein.
Instead, let's take 150g as the top end of a range. We can calculate the bottom end of the range if we take your target weight in lbs and multiply by 0.7 - in the case of someone aiming for 150 lbs, that would be 105g.
And therefore aim for a protein range of 105-150g protein per day.
105g is a lot easier to achieve than 150g - but if that’s still challenging, check out my free “How to eat more protein” pdf which you can download at the bottom of this email.
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Quick Results
This week on Instagram I said:
The quicker you try to lose weight, the longer it’s going to take.
And in the same post, I said that if you’ve been trying (unsuccessfully) to lose weight for more than a year, there’s a good chance you’re trying to do it too quickly.
Check out the post here for a more detailed explanation and a realistic plan for the next 12 months.
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Acceptance vs Wanting Change
Accepting your body for what it is while also wanting to change it … is not a contradiction.
You can 100% accept your body and at the same time still want to make changes.
And by “accept” I mean being OK with your current state.
To be kind to yourself instead of fixating on your "imperfections" and hating the way you look, and to accept that this is where you are right now.
Because maybe you had kids.
Maybe you’re getting over a bad relationship with food.
Maybe you had medical issues.
Any one of those things can drastically change the way your body looks and feels.
Accept that this is where you are at this point in time.
But you're allowed to also want to make changes that will make you healthier and more confident.
And you are the only one who gets to decide what those changes are. Not society or your partner or some random stranger on the internet.
You get to decide.
If you want to lose 30 lbs, cool.
If you want to build 10 lbs of muscle, cool.
If you want to feel confident in a bathing suit, cool.
And remember…
You don’t need to look like a fitness model.
You don’t need to be size zero.
You don’t need to conform with any particular beauty standards.
As long as you're healthier and more confident, then you’re winning.
And f*ck what anyone else thinks.
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January warnings
If you’re currently “taking a break” from your regular habits - workouts, walking, eating protein, eating veggies, tracking calories - because you don’t think there’s any point, you need to be aware of a couple of things:
First, do not expect to be able to pick all those habits back up at once in January. It’ll take weeks.
Look: forming habits, even ones you’ve been following until recently, is hard. You won’t be able to restart these five things at once.
Especially if you have kids and other demands on your time.
Habit formation is hard. Most of us should stick with forming one habit at a time.
So expect it to take at least 4-6 weeks before you’re doing them all again.
Alternatively, you can keep doing them.
Not necessarily at the same frequency or intensity.
But do them enough to keep the habit muscle working. So that when you do want to get back to fat loss in January, you’ll have everything in place to crush it from the very beginning of 2023.
And that brings me to the second thing you need to be aware of.
If you think there’s no point in continuing with those habits because the numerous events coming up are going to stop you from losing weight, you’re missing the many reasons to do those things - whether you’re losing weight or not.
Sure, you don’t need to be so concerned with tracking calories - that isn’t a habit I’d expect anyone to maintain long-term.
As for the other habits…
Go on walks because it’s good for your health and reduces stress.
Strength train because you want to get stronger.
Eat protein and veggies because they’re good for you.
These are not habits that you only follow while trying to lose weight.
These are lifelong habits.
These are the habits you need in place for long-term weight management, to stay healthy, and to thrive for decades.
Once you can accept and internalize that, you stand a much greater chance of having your current weight loss attempt be the final attempt you ever need to make.
And what's more, if you can figure out how to mostly stay on track with these habits during a busy holiday season, you'll stop giving up when life becomes challenging.
So sit down.
Pull up your schedule.
Figure out how you're going to get in a couple of workouts and a few walks each week.
Think about the many meals you do have control over in December.
And come up with a simple plan.
You've got this.
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See you next time,
Daniel