Don't Try To Predict How Much Weight You'll Lose in A Week

You are not concerned with that with this program. You are going to lose gradually - it may take a whole year for all the weight to come (depending on how much you're trying to lose) and once it comes off you're going to be able to keep it off.

So don't open yourself up for the pitfalls of counting your calories, and counting how many calories you burned on your treadmill or your walk, and add 'em all up and expect to have lost 3 pounds...only to find out that you've actually gained a pound!

The above is what happened this week to this guy whose blog I've been following for so long - the one who is 60 years old, eats one meal a day, and goes for 4 mile jogs every day.

He'd been on travel, he was very careful what he ate, eating his one small meal a day, he did his jogs on the treadmill, and he comes home to find out that he's gained a pound.

Everyone on his message boards - which he very rarely reads - points out that his problem is with the 1 meal a day. He whines in his blog about how it's taking him so long to lose weight "this time" - people on his message board point out that it's because he eats one meal a day - he pays no attention - and so he continues to either not lose weight or in this case, gain a pound.

Who knows why he gained that pound? It's probably just water weight or something.

But let's move on from that guy and think about you.

If you eat only one meal a day, and that a small one, and jog 4 miles a day, why don't you lose weight?

Well, there could be a myriad of reasons. First off, eating one meal a day triggers your body into starvation mode. That means you're body thinks you're starving, it's duty is to keep you alive, so it slows its metabolism down and conserves all that fat you're trying to lose.

Second, how old are you? The older you get, unfortunately, the slower your metabolism gets (even if you eat a reasonable three meals a day). It just takes longer to lose weight, period.

Third - how much working out have you been doing. Remember that muscle mass weighs more than fat, so if you've been lifting weighs, you may initially gain a bit of weight before you start losing it. But since a toned musculature feels better than flab, believe me you want those muscles!

Fourth - water weight. Salt retains water, so if you've eaten something particularly salty, and drunk a lot of water, that water may take an extra day or so to filter out.

Bottom line, don't worry about it!

What you're looking for is a general trending downward of your weight. If you only lose one pound a week - that's still 52 pounds in a year. If you only lose a pound every two weeks - that's still 26 pounds a year!

Once you reach your desired weight - then you have to use a bit of discipline. You need to maintain your same exercise schedule, but you can have slightly larger portions at each meal. Easy to do since you're used to eating a balanced diet.

So again, don't step on a scale every day. If you must step on a scale, do it once a week.

You'll be happy, and your weight loss program will be successful.