Weight Loss For Men:
Just Do It...or Just Diet?

Men can put on a few extra pounds, just like women. But weight loss for men is a more hush-hush issue.

We don't tend to talk with our friends about the latest diet for men. If we decide it's time to lose weight, that's a conversation we're most likely to have with ourselves.

Do we want a prepared diet, from a book? Atkins appeals to some men. It's our typical meat and potatoes diet......without the potatoes.

Sometimes they try to sell the women's diet programs to us. As I write this, ex-quarterback Dan Marino is trying to convince us that Nutri-System weight loss for men is the thing.

He'll send us a month's worth of "manly" meals. But the food on the commercials doesn't look so manly. Is this a women's weight loss program designed to look like a men's weight loss program?

Men and weight loss: the job is to lose weight. Do your job

The truth is, men are less likely than women to approach dieting with special food we can buy or a book to guide us. For men, weight loss is a task. We're capable of formulating a plan and then trying to stick to it.

Here's a man who has done just that...and documented it, for others to learn from. He proves that the most important weight loss tool is your brain!

Weight loss for men means:

• eating less
• exercising more, and
• sustaining these efforts over time

In other words, a weight loss program for men can be one that the man comes up with himself.

Give me the numbers

I get it. I understand that losing weight means I need to eat fewer calories and burn more. Men like tools. Here are some major tools:

A Body Mass Index Calculator (BMI)

to determine a healthy weight relative your height. (BMI is a reliable indicator of total body fat.)

A men's metabolism calculator

to determine how many calories you burn just doing nothing

A workout calculator

to determine how many calories you burn doing different activities

An after exercise nutrition calculator

to determine how much you need to eat after a workout...without overdoing it

And of course, I'm going to need to get a handle on how many calories are in the foods I'm eating.

Does it really have to be any more complicated than that?

No, it doesn't have to be. Of course, health and fitness have to do with more than just weight. Weight loss for men means focusing on healthy calories rather than empty ones, so your body has the fuel it needs.

But it's my belief that the first diet you put yourself on should be one designed by you, for you. After all, only you know what foods you can do without, and which ones you can't live without.

Neither Mr. Atkins nor Mr. Marino knows that.

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