Using a Fitness Blog to Lose Weight

Millions of people struggle with weight loss. Nobody should ever feel like they are alone to win the weight loss battle. A fitness blog can be a great tool to use to help yourself stay on track to lose weight. After I had my second child, I began a fitness program to lose the 50+ pounds I gained during that pregnancy. It was the heaviest I had ever been in my life and I wanted to get rid of the weight quickly. Overall, it took me about 1 year to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. The first 35 pounds came off within a matter of months, but the last 15 pounds was a bit tougher. Okay, a LOT tougher.

Why Start a Fitness Blog?

Starting a fitness blog can keep you motivated and focused on losing weight. Eventually you will gain readers (if you choose to make your blog available for the general public to read) and they will kind of hold you accountable because they will be looking for updates from you on a regular basis. This can really help you stay on track and working towards your goals.

This can work the same way even if you choose not to make your blog public. You are still holding yourself accountable to maintain the progress you are making to lose weight. Think of it as an online diary for your fitness goals.

If you don't have any friends, family members or roommates who can help to motivate you, a fitness blog can.

How to Start a Fitness Blog

It's a good idea to begin a fitness blog by using one of the many free hosts available including Blogger (by Google) or Wordpress. Both of these sites provide free hosted blogs where you can create a new fitness blog for yourself.

1. Choose a related title - this can be whatever you wish
   
2. Set your privacy options - whether or not you want search engines to crawl your site and make it public
3. Begin writing blog posts - try to write at least 3 posts per week
   

What Information to Include in a Fitness Blog

You don't need to write about your whole life in your fitness blog, but that doesn't mean you can't either. Write only about things that you are comfortable putting out there. If you use one of the popular free blog hosts, you can make it so your blog isn't available for others to read on the internet. I know a lot of people aren't comfortable with writing personal information about themselves online.

What you should include:

• Your workouts and/or any exercise activity you do on any one day. Include the name of the activity or exercise and the number of calories burned. There are a number of online calorie counters that offer calculators you can use for free.
  
• Nutrition information. This is optional, I actually have never done this, but I have thought about it more recently. This would include either writing how many total calories you have eaten in a day, or by listing each food you have eaten and the amount of calories consumed.
• Progress pictures. Also optional of course. For privacy reasons, you can always post photos without showing your face or head. Progress pictures could be shared every 30 days or at each milestone reached, whichever occurs first. For example, if your goal was to lose 20 pounds, you could post a picture after every 5 or 10 pounds lost until you have met your goal.