You've heard a million times that the key to successful weight loss is including both diet and exercise changes. Sounds simple enough, right? Well the answer actually is pretty simple in an equation that I gave you in my last weight loss post:
Calories eaten - calories burned = weight loss or weight gain
Yeah, okay, I'll admit it, it may be a simple idea, but not simple in practice. When you are bombarded with all this diet information in the media: good carbs/bad carbs, high protein, fat free, etc, etc. I'm here to tell you it is actually pretty simple once you've had a little practice. It involves the scary step of calorie counting, but it gets easy after a while.
How many calories am I eating?
The first step to counting calories is transforming what is on your plate to a number on a piece of paper (or in your iPhone apps). Duh - look at the back of the Doritos bag. Yeah, I know not everything you eat comes out of the Doritos bag. Some of it comes from McDonalds, some from Papa Johns, and some from Taco Bell. Oh wait, those are all the places I eat. Here is a tool that is abosultely necessary to learn calorie counting (it makes it sooooo easy):
I actually have the program on my palm and I'm sure there are iPhone apps as well. In today's world, we eat out so much that its nice to have all those restaurants' calorie information in a easy to find source (it cost like $6 and is at pretty much every bookstore). You could check all the restaurants websites (this does work) but it is a lot of work. Do yourself a favor and buy this book. (Disclaimer: I am not recieving any financial benefit from Calorie King for endorsing this product.) If it doesn't have the exact item you are looking for, you can always find a similar one, it doesn't have to be an exact science.
All calories are created equal!
Despite much of what the media inundates us with, the scientific reasarch does not show any difference between one calorie of chocolate and one calorie of steak and one calorie of papaya. No matter how well written the book is and how smart the author sounds (cue pictorial example):
All calories are created equal! I'm not going to say this is an irrevocable truth of all eternity, we may uncover subtle differences in the years to come, but as far as the equation above goes, it doesn't matter. Just ask this young woman with the obviously great personality:
Let's not get crazy now, if all you eat all day is chocolate, you will be eating VERY little food and not getting many of the wonderful benefits that come with eating other things (vitamins, minerals, fiber, variety). I'm just saying this is part of the good news: you don't have to quit your favorite foods cold turkey (in fact cold turkey is delicious). Turns out the foods that are the most filling for the calorie toll they take are fruits and vegetables, so make friends with them. Also, lean protein tends to keep you satisfied longer, so make friends with those foods, too.
Another calorie inequality rumor that I don't buy in to is that calories are worse after 8PM. Your calorie metabolism is more a refection of how you have been eating over a few days, and late calories do not automatically become fat. I do, however, think that not eating after 8PM is a good idea, because if you are like me that is when you pound the treats. It is an easy way to stop some mindless eating (while you are watching American Idol) and thus the racking up of empty calories.
How many calories should I be shooting for?
This is a little more complicated, but again has some simple mathematical solutions. If you want to lose weight slowly (which is BY FAR the best way to do it, and the best way to ensure lasting weight loss): just take a week or two to calculate how many calories you are currently taking in. Sometimes just keeping track of what you are eating will result in weight loss. Lets face it, some of us are lazy, so eating that extra cookie is so much more work when you have to get up and write it down. After you've figured out what your average is per day, cut it by 25% and see how it goes. If you really eat a lot, it may need further trimming.
Want to lose weight fast? First calculate your basal metabolic rate (BMR), which can be done here . Your BMR is the amount of calories you would burn in a day if you were in a coma. In other words, sleeping all day without any exercise. For quicker weight loss, set your calorie goal at this level, but I wouldn't recommend going more than 200-300 less than your BMR. This calorie total is basically at an unsustainable level, so when you finally get back to a 'regular' diet don't let the numbers bounce up too high or all the pounds will come flying back.
Tip for success:
Give yourself a day off every week (I stole this from Body for Life - italics due to book title, not sarcasm). This will increase your chace of staying on your diet and give you a well deserved break. Don't be stupid about it, though. There is no point in eating 1500 calories a day for 6 days if you eat 10,000 calories on one day. Just relax the the reigns a little bit.
WARNING: USING THIS POST (AND ANY WEIGHT LOSS PROGRAM THAT IS JUST BASED ON DIET) AND NOTHING ELSE WILL RESULT IN FAILURE. Any diet that produces weight loss automatically sends the body into some state of starvation. The body's natural response is to turn down the metabolism. Thus decreasing your 'calories burned'. The ONLY HEALTHY way to increase metabolism is to exercise. Diet after diet with no exercise will just decrease your BMR so low that it is almost impossible to lose weight, and will make you gain weight back faster when you are eating a 'normal diet'.
Another calorie inequality rumor that I don't buy in to is that calories are worse after 8PM. Your calorie metabolism is more a refection of how you have been eating over a few days, and late calories do not automatically become fat. I do, however, think that not eating after 8PM is a good idea, because if you are like me that is when you pound the treats. It is an easy way to stop some mindless eating (while you are watching American Idol) and thus the racking up of empty calories.
How many calories should I be shooting for?
This is a little more complicated, but again has some simple mathematical solutions. If you want to lose weight slowly (which is BY FAR the best way to do it, and the best way to ensure lasting weight loss): just take a week or two to calculate how many calories you are currently taking in. Sometimes just keeping track of what you are eating will result in weight loss. Lets face it, some of us are lazy, so eating that extra cookie is so much more work when you have to get up and write it down. After you've figured out what your average is per day, cut it by 25% and see how it goes. If you really eat a lot, it may need further trimming.
Want to lose weight fast? First calculate your basal metabolic rate (BMR), which can be done here . Your BMR is the amount of calories you would burn in a day if you were in a coma. In other words, sleeping all day without any exercise. For quicker weight loss, set your calorie goal at this level, but I wouldn't recommend going more than 200-300 less than your BMR. This calorie total is basically at an unsustainable level, so when you finally get back to a 'regular' diet don't let the numbers bounce up too high or all the pounds will come flying back.
Tip for success:
Give yourself a day off every week (I stole this from Body for Life - italics due to book title, not sarcasm). This will increase your chace of staying on your diet and give you a well deserved break. Don't be stupid about it, though. There is no point in eating 1500 calories a day for 6 days if you eat 10,000 calories on one day. Just relax the the reigns a little bit.
WARNING: USING THIS POST (AND ANY WEIGHT LOSS PROGRAM THAT IS JUST BASED ON DIET) AND NOTHING ELSE WILL RESULT IN FAILURE. Any diet that produces weight loss automatically sends the body into some state of starvation. The body's natural response is to turn down the metabolism. Thus decreasing your 'calories burned'. The ONLY HEALTHY way to increase metabolism is to exercise. Diet after diet with no exercise will just decrease your BMR so low that it is almost impossible to lose weight, and will make you gain weight back faster when you are eating a 'normal diet'.
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1 comment:
Nice how you snuck in a depeche mode song for the title. i'm on to your tricks.....
so you are now my PID. primary internet doctor. do you feel special? can you look at dane's ears via webcam?
i like your posts. you will be happy to know I just calculated my BMR, and that Dane had his first round of vaccines last week. See what a good patient I am?
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