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How I Lost 10 Pounds in Less than 2 Months using LoseIt

I believe physical health is important for the leader. I have written about this before HERE. I know there are times a leader can’t do anything about his or her health, but if there is an option, the leader should strive to be healthy. It makes me more productive when I feel better physically.

Recently I lost 10 pounds to get in even better shape.

A short history:

I’m 47…I feel good…and I’m in good shape physically. I run almost everyday. I monitor my weight and I eat semi-healthy. In my mid thirties I got slightly overweight, about 15 pounds, and decided to do something about it. I worked hard to reach my ideal weight and stay there consistently for almost 10 years. In the last 18 months, due to stressful, fast-paced living, and lots of traveling, I added back another 10 pounds. I tried what had worked before to lose the weight, but nothing seemed to work.

Some call it a middle-aged spread.

The story:

On March 30th of this year, I had lunch with my friend Michael Hyatt. I hadn’t seen Michael in a couple months and instantly recognized how well he looked. He had obviously lost weight. He is slightly older than me, so I knew he would probably struggle as I had, so I asked him for his secret. Always a teacher, Michael shared with me that he had been closely monitoring what he eats using the LoseIt application. I had tried this application, but never disciplined myself to actually use it. Michael is one of the most intentional guys I know and a tremendous mentor, so I knew if he was recommending it I should do this!

This time I was determined. It worked!

Here’s how the LoseIt application worked for me:

I loaded the application on my iPhone, iPad, and laptop. I wanted it easily accessible and thankfully it cloud syncs with all three.

I set a goal in the application of where I want to get to in weight. Based on my age and height, the program figures an estimated calories I can eat per day to lose the amount of weight per week I say I want to lose. Right now I’m set at 1.5 pounds per week. You could do 1 pound or 2 pounds. I took the middle number. This gives me an estimated date to reach my target.

Before every meal I look up the foods I’m about to eat. I also use the MyFitnessPal app, which seems to have more foods available, but they are not always as accurate. This decision alone saves me hundreds of calories a day simply in awareness.

After each meal I enter in the foods I have eaten. LoseIt has many of them pre-loaded and once I save them I can always go back to that food easily. Most of us repeat meals and foods we like, which makes this feature helpful. By the way, the picture is a stock photo, not mine. I actually cut out most sodas and junk food too. This process makes me think healthier to save calories.

Following any exercise I add the time spent, which figures a calorie lost value and adds that number to my daily calorie allowance. This is huge motivation to exercise more, even if it’s simply walking.

Everyday I add my weight for the day and it shows me my progress towards my goal. You can choose to add your weight whenever you want. Some want to do this daily, but some want to do it weekly.

In less than 2 months, I’m at my desired weight again. I’ve actually set a lower than desired weight gaol I’m working on now so that when I fluctuate I gain towards my desired weight, not above it.

People say they don’t want to be that strict with their eating habits. I agree, and I don’t intend to be forever either. I like to eat what I want to eat, but I do plan to be smarter about what I eat and this process has helped me form healthier habits. I would, however, remind you that if you went to Dave Ramsey for money advice, he would first have them write down everything they spend. It’s the same with what we eat. If we don’t know, we are likely to overeat, eat the wrong foods, and will struggle to remain a healthy weight.

Want to accept a challenge to get healthier? Are you serious about this process?

Join the fun!

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Ron Edmondson

Author Ron Edmondson

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Join the discussion 13 Comments

  • Ron! To be frank, I have never used any such technical application to gauge my weight. I see to that I jog regularly and consistently; And, to a certain extent I try to be conscious about my food intake. Nothing more than that. (To me, all such application seems weird.)

    I feel Yankees are more scientific and advanced in living and maintaining their life in a healthy way.

  • Hi Ron. I can attest to the usefulness of loseit. I had hit my highest weight of 240lbs in Jan of 2009. I had just bought a wii & wii fit for our kids (yea right ;-)) on a trip home to the states, and when I weighed myself it said that I wasn’t just overweight, I was obese! That hurt. I decided that I couldn’t stand it anymore and to lose weight. I downloaded the loseit application to help me really keep track of my calories and excersizes. I went on a light diet and started jogging. My goal was to lose 2 lbs a week. Living in Bolivia, its really hard to keep a perfect count of calories, but the app really helped me to be aware of what I was eating and kept me visually motivated towards my goal. In October of that year I hit my desired weight of 176 lbs!

    Since then I’ve stopped using it, and have been pretty good at keeping my weight down, although I have gone back up about 10lbs. (Our trip back to the states for the Exponential conference didn’t help any in that ;-)). Anyway, I’ve been wanting to get back down to my ideal weight again. I’ve been trying, but really haven’t had any success. I think that it’s time to dust the loseit app off again and get back to work. Thanks for reminding me!

  • @dscottwilke says:

    Great job! I started using loseit.com just a few days before you — two months ago today as a matter of fact. I've had great success with it as well, just passing the 25lbs-lost mark this week. I agree with all the benefits you described. I also started using it based on Michael Hyatt's recommendations. That guy is a wealth of great information and advice for many areas of life!

    I think just having to log everything I eat and drink was an eye-opening experience, especially early on in the process. I thought I had been eating "okay", but when I saw the whole day's worth of eating all listed out I was amazed at how much I was over-eating. Like you, I've given up the sugary sodas (still drink diet sodas, though). That one change alone has saved me hundreds of calories a day. I've also greatly increased my fruit/veggie intake and cranked up my running mileage.

    Another side benefit has been that since I'm eating better foods and a lot fewer sugary, processed foods I've noticed my taste buds have changed. Regular foods just plain taste better now — everything from pineapples to turkey sandwiches to even an occasional Chick-fil-A sandwich (okay, those have ALWAYS been good).

    Like you, I'm recommending loseit.com to anyone who will listen. For anyone with the desire and determination, loseit.come can help them achieve their goals.

    Keep up the great work!

  • I've been looking for something like this. Thanks for walking through it for us! Downloading it now!

  • artiedavis says:

    OK, Bro. You have gone far enough! Every time I look around you raise the bar some place else. Now stop all this it's make my life harder trying to "Keep up with Ron." That runs through my head, "Keep up with Ron."
    10-Blog Posts
    400 tweets/day
    Plant churches
    Travel and see people encouraged and saved on all 7-Continents!

    Love you man :). Thanks!

  • darrell says:

    Thanks Ron — I have recently found myself under a similar conviction with health and I am working on my own plan to attack this matter. I have been thinking a lot about it in the terms of the Lords prayer. We are basically asking God to bring heaven's reality and make it earth's experience. Well if I am not healthy I am not exactly letting the kingdom of God (or his perfect design) come in my body.

    I think an application like the one you are using is really important because it forces people like me to take time and think through the decisions they are making. It also helps bring a little more strategy behind getting healthy.