The Summer Team Challenge Theme Has Been Announced!

If you are an inactive person who weighs 200 pounds, every nutritional label in America is written for you! If not...they aren't!

This week at the Team Challenge I spent some time with my Healthy Weigh friends who are close to reaching their goal weight and are now learning what it takes to stay there. I'll be walking them through a process of stabilization; a 6 week process where you increase your calories week by week until you reach your calorie limit based on your goal weight.  Some clients will be very close to goal at the end of this Spring Team Challenge, others will keep at the weight loss phase of the program.

I wanted to shed a little light this week on what life after the weight loss phase looks like...stabilization and maintenance.

Being highly effective people, we began with the end in mind, in this case goal weight. Each client wrote down their ideal maintenance weight and then calculated their approximate calorie intake for that weight based on this chart.

Multiply your ideal maintenance weight by:

10 if you are inactive (sitting most of the day, no regular physical exercise)

11 if you are moderately active (sitting most of the day but do engage in physical exercise regularly or at least 3 to 4 times per week for 1/2 hour or more)

12 if you are active (standing and/ or walking most of the day and engage in regular physical exercise)

13 if you are very active (walking or involved in strenuous physical labor most of the day and engage in regular physical exercise)

That number is your approximate total calories to maintain your goal weight.

I know that there are many more complicated ways to estimate and discover your appropriate calorie intake for your goal weight...the truth is, you will find the same answer at the end of every story problem. I've done them!

So, we  did the math and found our number.

We have fifteen or more men in our group. Only a few of them will be able to eat 2000 calories to maintain their weight. Everyone else in the room will range from 1250 calories to 1800. So why does every nutritional label in America say..."Based on a 2000 diet."? Good question! The only people that can and should be eating 2000 calories per day are men weighing close to 200 pounds, or a woman who weighs 155 and works in a job performing physical labor all day and then drops by the club to work out on the way home!

I've spent over 30 years helping people lose weight. I am proud to say that I administer one of the greatest weight loss programs available any where...but losing weight has never been the hard part. People knuckle down, eat less, move more, and then lose weight.

Keeping if off for life is the struggle. I believe that our nutritional labels aren't helping matters. It would make sense that most people in America would believe that they should eat 2000 calories...right? It says that on the back of every food label everywhere!!!

I read an article the other day in search of an answer to this problem. It said that 2000 calories per day was used as a standard because that is how many calories it would take to maintain the average American. Wow, how sad is that? What if our labels said "Based on a 1500 calorie diet?" What would the average American look like then?

I am a 120 pound 56 year old woman. I exercise 3 to 4 times a week for 1/2 or more. My maintenance calories are 1320. That's it...no more. No matter what a label says, I am responsible for consuming the amount of healthy calories that my body needs to maintain this healthy weight.

Do the math. Accept the truth. Be responsible. Reach your goal weight and keep it off for life...eating just the amount of calories that YOU need to maintain your ideal maintenance weight!

We took a serious look into the maintenance life of our clients this week but then we looked a little short term to the Summer Team Challenge!  I announced today the theme of our next challenge. "Live Your Best Life!" I've been inspired in the last few years by a couple of books by Donald Miller. They have inspire me to live a better story.  My hope is that I will be able to encourage that same kind of inspiration in the weeks of summer 2015! I'm excited!!

Our winners of the week:
Noon: Team "Tiny Hinys" Janie and Abbie with a 2.42% of weight loss.
6PM: Team "Dad & Daughter Duo" Frank and Melanie with a 2.76% of weight loss for the week!

Our Heart winner of the week: Mikaela S. with a 2.90% weight loss for the week! Congratulations to you all!

Your Challenge for the week:
Lose 2.0 pounds for the week to be entered into a drawing for a FREE Summer Team Challenge. (two winners)
Enroll in the Summer Team Challenge!

Next week is the final week as we turn in our #25sheets!  It's been a fun 10 weeks watching you all get active and stay active! You've hiked, boated, rode horses, walked and played! It's been awesome!

I'm look so forward to the Finale of this Spring Team Challenge! Every group takes on it's own personality and this one has tugged at my heart strings! What a great group of people!

Here's to a GREAT finish as we close out this Spring Team Challenge!

Always encouraging you...and hopefully enlightening you too,

Letha