If You Can Balance Your Checkbook, You Can Lose Weight

The process of losing weight and monitoring your food intake has
many things in common with balancing your budget. Below, we’ll
take a look at some of the elements that are found in both.
Sometimes, just being able to visualize the weight loss process
in a new way can bring clarity and help you in achieving your
goal.

Daily Metabolism = Daily Budget

Your daily metabolism is the amount of calories you are allowed
to consume each day without gaining weight. For the average
female, the typical daily metabolism is 2000 calories a day. For
a male, the typical daily metabolism rises to 2500 calories a
day.

It may be useful to think of your metabolism as your daily
budget. It is the amount of money you are allowed to spend each
day. If you go over this amount, you’ll have to borrow money and
go into debt. If you spend less than your budget, then you will
have money to save for purchases (eating food) or payment toward
any existing debt (excess body fat).

Calories Consumed = Money Spent

Calories represent the amount of energy that is contained in
food. The more calories that you consume over your daily
metabolism, the more weight you will gain.

In our comparison, we can visualize calories as the equivalent
of money. Each time you consume calories, you are spending money
from your daily budget (metabolism). So the primary goal is to
not overspend more than you are allowed each day, otherwise, you
will go into debt (gain weight).

Your Excess Fat = Your Debt

The excess fat that you have is the result of overeating,
consuming more calories than your daily metabolism has allowed.

There is approximately 3500 calories in a pound of excess fat.
What this means is that if you are 50 pounds over weight, you
have essentially consumed the equivalent of 175,000 calories
over the amount you were allowed by your daily metabolism (over
an extended period of time). As a result, you have created a
debt of 175,000 calories of fat on your body.

The only way to get rid of this debt is to either decrease your
spending to less than your daily budget (consume less calories
than your daily metabolism)…or…to get a job and earn more
income (exercise).

Eating Food = Making a Purchase

The more you eat, the more calories you consume.

In many ways, this is the equivalent of making a purchase. You
do not want to spend more than what your daily budget
(metabolism) will allow. Otherwise you will begin to accrue a
debt (gain weight).

Not Eating Food = Earning Money

Each hour that you spend not eating, your body is hard at work
burning the calories that you consumed from your previous meal.
When your body finishes consuming the calories from that food,
it then gets to work on burning the calories from the existing
fat that you have on your body.

One way to picture this is that each hour you spend not eating,
you are earning money for the purchases that you made earlier in
the day (food consumed). If you’ve paid off all your purchases
from the day, then you can begin paying off your debt (your
excess fat).

Exercise = Earning Money

Exercise is the most important aspect of any diet. It is like
earning extra money to spend each day. It allows you to spend
more money on making purchases (eating food) or you can use the
extra money to pay off your existing debt (your excess fat that
you are trying to lose). This is why exercise is such a
marvelous supplement to any diet. It allows you more freedom,
because you have more to spend.

There are dozens of other similarities in losing weight with
balancing a budget; however, these are the fundamental elements
to focus on. The real challenge now is applying the discipline
that’s necessary to monitor your weight and make sure you don’t
over spend the calories that you are allowed each day.

1. Prev:close Kept Secrets to Weight Loss Lesson #16
2. Next:Online Weight Loss Program – Your InnerSkills Success Team