So. It’s Halloween again then. The time for kids dressed in sheets extorting chocolate and the start of the yearly waistline expansion.

We like to think that it’s mainly the two-weeks over Christmas that we get tubby, but we’re really in denial! We start that steady decline today.

October 31st.

Halloween.

It doesn’t have to be that way though.

In fact, in tomorrow’s Lean Living Chronicles (my twice monthly email coming to an inbox near you), I’ll be talking you through exactly how to avoid today being the start of the usual 5-10lb fat gain that plagues Brits this time of year. If you’re not signed up to get your copy yet, just stick your details in the box to the right there  so you don’t miss out >>>

Thespian and starlet Marvelous Marilla Wex is in day 18 of her 21 day challenge to ditch some unwanted excess from her midsection and get in stage-ready shape. Or as she more descriptively put it, “More Tank Girl, less tank…”

After decapitating a bookstore customer in a pre-menstrual rage for being rude to a sales assistant (alright, she just had a bit of an argument, but I like to imagine it my way. Plus there’s ninjas when I picture it. And a shark.) instead of downing her usual calorie-nightmare fail-safe of a Kit-Kat Chunky, she used her smarts and found another way to enjoy chocolate.

You can read all about it here:

Marvelous Marilla Wex’s Calculated cheat

So why does what Rill did work? And how can you do the same thing? I’m so glad you asked…

Ultimately, if you take your long term health and muscle toning out of the equation, the only thing that really matters for weight loss is the amount of calories you consume. Provided you’re taking in less than you’re expending, the weight will come off. To prove this, a professor of nutrition at Kansas State University recently ate a diet of which two thirds was deliberately made up of junk food for 10 weeks, dubbed “The Twinkie Diet”

Lo and behold, he lost 27lbs.

Why? Because he’d calculated his calories so he was eating less than he expended.

That’s it.

Now, there is study after study showing the long term negative effects of eating this kind of food, and he’ll never sculpt the kind of body that will turn heads, but it does show that, if you’re not losing weight, to say you need to cut out carbs, or only eat certain foods with other foods, is a complete fallacy.

So the key here is, if you have a bit of a weak moment or a cheat every now and then, provided it fits within your daily calorie target, then it’s really not going to slow you down. So be smart. Be like Marilla. And you too could lose 2 inches off your waist in 14 days.

I’m so impressed with how hard Marilla’s working, I’m going to take her on after her 21 days to take her all the way. So stay tuned…

So here’s a question for you…

At a recent nutrition seminar I held, I asked people in the audience to put their hands up if they knew roughly how many calories they were eating each day.

Three people put their hands up.

Tell me in the comments below, do you know roughly how many calories you eat each day, or are you on a pre-calculated personal training or other eating plan, or do you rely on guesswork and the grace of whichever God gets you out of bed on a Sunday morning? Post below!

Let’s see who’s brave enough to answer!

But before you do, have a chuckle at this cartoon…