I started with The Abs Diet, created by David Zinczenko, the editor-in-chief of Men’s Health magazine. I lost 7 pounds within two weeks of starting. That was pretty exciting after seeing little to no weight loss in the previous 5 months. I lost about 10 pounds over the first six weeks. After that, well not so much.
For a few months at the beginning of 2008 I experimented with counting calories. It was an enlightening experience but ultimately too time consuming for me. I’m glad that I decided to do it though because I think it affects my eating today. I have a rough idea of my daily calorie consumption now. I know the difference between a 2000 calorie day and a 3000 calorie day at least. Most importantly, I know what a serving size of most of my foods looks like. That was a huge eye opener.
Today I’m mostly winging it. I try to get a lot of protein while keeping my calories in the neighborhood of 2500 calories. I try to listen to my body. If I’m hungry, I eat. If I’m not, I don’t. I’m going to try this little method for a while and see how it goes. If I struggle with losing weight I’ll have to bite the bullet and go back to counting calories. It’s a lot of work but it definitely works. I lost about 30 pounds when I did it.
