Good morning friends. The picture is just one of my stock photos for a typical breakfast for me.

This morning I enjoyed a huge breakfast of 12 oz of catfish seasoned with chilli lime seasoning and seared in a spray of extra virgin olive oil. 1 cup of Spanish rice, 1/3 cup left over black beans and 3 large scrambled eggs with black bean and corn salsa with a liberal dose of habanero hot sauce.

I love to begin my day with a hearty breakfast that will fuel me into the late afternoon or evening depending on how active I am. This breakfast provided me with a lot of protein which we need to either build or maintain lean muscle mass. Maintaining lean muscle is a must do when losing weight. Know that too large of a caloric deficit will cause your body to lose muscle along with fat. You do not want that to happen. It can not only make you weaker, but you want as much lean muscle as possible because of how it helps your body to be more efficient in fat burning.

This style of breakfast also provides needed “COMPLEX” carbs which our bodies also need along with plenty of healthy fats and fiber.

Here is a case in point where Free Style can get you in trouble if you are a slow loser or even gaining. No matter what approach you utilize in weight loss, it still comes down to Calories In versus Calories consumed. I actually love the FreeStyle program but it is quite easily misunderstood by many.

Your body has a base metabolic rate which dictates how many calories a day you require all dependent on gender, age, level of fitness and activity level. If you exceed this caloric requirement by 500 calories a day for 7 days, you can full well expect to gain 1 pound of fat. Because of fluctuating water retention, your scale could read a larger gain. Conversely, a 500 calorie a day deficit will lead to a loss of 1 pound of fat in a week.

Typically, FreeStyle as intended will have you in a daily caloric deficit. But, we all know that for any number of reasons, not everyone follows it as intended. And I lay the blame largely on Weight Watchers for being to vague about it with the online only community.

Here is a prime example of why you have to be mindful of every bite you take. My breakfast this morning equaled 7 points. 6 for the rice and 1 for the amount of salsa I used. My breakfast totaled 937 calories of which 712 of those calories were “Free”. Zero points for 12 oz catfish, 3 large eggs, 1/3 cup of black beans. The 7 points came from 1 cup of rice and 5 tbsp of salsa for 225 calories.

No matter your daily allowance of points, if your BMR requires 1700 to 1800 calories a day to maintain your current weight, 937 calories is half or better than what you can eat in a day and just maintain. 712 of those calories did not count against your points at all. Depending on the types of good you consume during the day, you can very easily remain within your point allowance and still far exceed your daily caloric needs.