What we eat, how much we eat and when we eat are all habits. In order to lose weight you must change your eating habits. Reducing the number of calories you consume every day is the most consistently proven method to weight loss. But it’s hard to watch what you eat every day. I know. In my mind, I’ve struggled with maintaining my ideal weight (185 pounds). I’ve never had a problem exercising almost every day, yet despite my regular exercise, my weight still increased. Then, in 2007, after having completed my Rich Habits research, I discovered a formula for weight loss that I stole from my research. Those self-made millionaires who were able to maintain their ideal weight all had one thing in common – they tracked what they ate every day and used something that I now refer to as the 2:1 Rule. I took a page out of the book of these healthy millionaires and in seven months I was able to go from 212 pounds to 174 pounds. That’s 38 pounds!
The combination of the use of the Tracking Schedule and using this 2:1 Rule was so successful that my friends began talking behind my back to my wife, asking her if Tom was ok. They thought I had some horrific disease or something. I actually had to stop using this 2:1 Rule temporarily until I got back up to 185 pounds (I’m 6 foot 3, by the way). This 2:1 Rule is so simple, yet enormously effective. Here’s how it works.
Step #1: Track what you eat for a month. The purpose of this is to help you discover your Caloric Threshold. The Caloric Threshold is the number of calories you consume in a given day that will neither increase or decrease your weight. You’ll be able to find it by reviewing your Tracking Schedule. I included a copy of the Tracking Schedule in my book Rich Habits, but for those of you who don’t have the book, contact me here: http://richhabits.net/contact-tom-corley/ and I’ll send you a copy of it. Just include a note that you want the Tracking Schedule. Once you’ve found your Caloric Threshold, then the weight loss can begin.
Step #2: Applying the 2:1 Rule – Because cutting back on calories every day requires willpower, eventually your brain will overpower your willpower and force you back into old bad eating habits. The brain does this because willpower consumes too much brain fuel (glucose and oxygen) and habits are the brain’s primary tool in combating what it perceives to be excess energy consumption behaviors. This is why habits are so hard to change. Eating less every day requires willpower, which the brain perceives as an energy use threat. But I found a way that tricks the brain so that it will not fight you on your quest to lose weight. The 2:1 Rule works like this: 2 days in a row you reduce your calorie intake. On the 3rd day you eat normally. This confuses the brain. On day 3, just when the brain is about to turn on its excess energy consumption alarm, you confuse it by eating normally. The brain is relieved and goes back to normal alert status. If you do this during a 30 day period, you will have successfully cut back on your calorie intake for 20 out of 30 days. And the brain won’t care. It will not put up a fight. You win!
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