Weight Release Calculator + Planner
Weight Release Questions Answered
A: We took the amount of sedentary calories that you burn a day (based on your age, height and weight) and subtracted the amount of calories needed to meet your weekly weight release goal. This daily calorie budget does not include exercise.
A: Releasing weight too quickly stresses your system and also creates a diet mentality. Most long term weight releasers let go of weight at a slower pace that allowed them time to adjust their body and mind to their lifestyle change. Love, don't rush yourself down the scale
A: You don't want to create a stressed out and deprived mind or body by taking your calories too low. Try adjusting your weekly weight release goal to a more modest amount or try adding exercise. Walking 30 minutes a day burns about 150 calories which you can add to your daily calorie budget.
A: When you burn calories in exercise, those calories can either be added to your daily calorie budget allowing you a larger budget for the day or those additional calories will be added to your overall net calories burned for the day.
A: Going over budget is not the end of the world. if your goal is to release a pound you have a 500 calorie buffer above your daily budget for weight release before you are in the weight gain zone. You can make up the additional calories on following days or be okay with going over a bit. it's consistency in the long run that releases weight long term. Don't sweat the small stuff!
A: There are a lot of products out there that claim to boost your metabolism. Unfortunately most of them only raise your metabolism a few calories a day, if that! When you exercise you increase your metabolism with the calories you burn with the additional physical activity. This still is the best way to burn more calories—no magic pills...sorry!
A: One way to bank calories for the weekend would be by adding the calories burned in exercise over the week to your daily calorie budget for the weekend. The other idea would be to reduce your daily calorie budget Sunday through Thursday by about 100 calories then you can spread the extra 500 calories that you "saved" and apply them to Friday and Saturday.
Record Keeping Questions
A: Tracking calories is the only accurate way to keep clear on your food intake and exercise output. We tend to underestimate how much we eat by 50-100%. Tracking allows us to see clearly how we are achieving our weight release goals. When we don't track it is easy to expect losses on the scale that we didn't really earn, get discouraged and give up. Tracking also allows us to see where we can improve on our eating plan. It's no wonder that 74% of weight masters tracked their food while releasing weight.
A: Lose it and Fitness Pal seem to use equations that trend towards allowing for a higher daily calorie budget. Feel free to use the daily calorie budget they give you but if you are not seeing consistent results you may want to adjust your number in Lose or My Fitness Pal to the number that we give you which is derived using your resting metabolism and your daily sedentary calories.
TO ADJUST YOUR LOSE IT! DAILY CALORIE BUDGET
1) Click the “Goals” icon at the bottom of the interface
2) Click the scale graphic on next page
3) Click “Edit” on the upper right of the next page
4) Scroll down to find “Daily Calorie Budget” and adjust to the number given on the Shift Weight Release Page calculator
TO ADJUST YOUR MY FITNESS PAL DAILY CALORIE BUDGET
1) Click the “More” icon at the bottom
2) Click the “Goals” button on next page
3) Click “Calories” and adjust to the Daily Calorie Budget given on the Shift Weight Release Page calculator
Weight Release Questions
Most weight masters weight themselves every day or once a week. if you weigh once a week the best day for most is Friday morning since after the weekend you may retain more fluid due to extra restaurant eating or additional calories. Weigh yourself first thing in the morning without clothing, get the data, get off and get on with your life.
The first couple of weeks of a weight release journey will not reflect just weight loss but water loss from your body which is a natural part of the weight release process. If you burn 3500 calories in a week's time you will release 1 pound of fat/lean tissue and a bit of water but often in the beginning you release extra water weight on top of that. So the scale may say you have released 4 pounds in the first week but in reality you have only released one and will eventually need to pay the extra weight back to the scale, so to speak. Most people experience this "pay back" and think they have stopped releasing—not true—if you are still burning calories you are still releasing weight and need to keep going. The scale will eventually adjust and around week s 6-8 you will see a release more consistent with the amount of calories you are releasing on a daily basis.
Because there is less of you to move around the world your budget will go down about 6 calories per pound. When you record your weight release in the Lose it or My Fitness Pal app they will adjust for this.
You will often see the scale pop up during a weight release journey and it will have nothing to do with actual weight gain but some sort of fluid or water retention in your body from salt, hormones, the weather, travel etc. Do not despair! If the scale is up a pound from the day before ask yourself, "Did I really eat 3500 calories over my daily body burn?" If the answer is no then the pound is water weight and should go away in a day or two.