Most doctors and trainers will tell you that losing weight is a take in less calories than you burn simple equation. Is it really? Ughhmmmmits... ughhh no. That's pretty much of telling you "I don't have a year to explain this." Here's where you insert Avril Lavighowever you spell her name wailing off on someone being complicated. It's your body. Complicated is what it does best. It took a God to create it. You didn't think it was just going to have a button for losing weight did you?
But there's tons of websites that want to help you out.
Sparkpeople- This website is almost like myspace but not all annoying and filled with emo teenagers. You get your own page to show people who you are. There are groups you can post in but enough groups that you can find one with any interest you have. I'm sure if you're a hot toe picker you could even find a group for that. BUT HERE'S THE BEST PART. They ask you for your info: Height, weight, age, sex (gender, not how frequent, although that will help you lose weight). Then they ask you how active you are, even going into detail of how many calories you burn each week on average. A window will pop-up asking how fast you want to lose this weight or how many pounds per week you want to lose. Then they pull all that info together and tell you your range of how many cal/carbs/fat/proteins you can have in a day. On your welcome page will be 3 tabs on the side that say nutrition tracker, fitness tracker, weight tracker. Nutrition tracker helps you count your calories and tells you how much you have in each range left per day. Fitness tracker helps you track how many calories you burn each day so you can see how many you have left until you hit your goal for the week. Less calories burned means you need to eat less, more calories means you need to eat more. Weight tracker tracks your weight. AWESOME SITE! I love it. I've been on it since the beginning of my weight loss and it's been one of the best support systems I've ever had.
Livestrong- I've never been to this site but I know it's a lot like sparkpeople.
I know there are more like these two but I didn't really want to get into that today.
What I did want to get into is: You can do the calorie range data tracker thing yourself.
What do you need to know?
Your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate- the amount of calories you burn by staying in bed all day)
Your activity level
How much weight you want to lose each week.
There you go. Go lose weight now.
I'm just kidding. But that's why the easy answer is "take in less calories than you burn."
How do you find your BMR
You can go to this page
or (Make sure you find the answers to the equations in the parentheses first before adding or subtracting)
If you're a female: take 655+ (4.3 x your weight in lbs) + (4.7 x your height in inches) - (4.7 x your age in years) Answer is your BMR
If you're male: 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) - ( 6.8 x age in year )= BMR
Now take your workout level and use the Harris Benedict Formula
-If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
-If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
-If you are moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
-If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
-If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9
This now gives you your calorie intake per day if you want to MAINTAIN YOUR WEIGHT.
To see how to lose the weight you need to do the last step.
A pound of fat is about 3500 calories. Multiply how much you want to lose by 3500 and that is your calorie deficit for the week. This is how many calories you need to average LESS a day to lose the weight. WARNING, do not let your deficit be more than 1000 calories a day. This could cause your metabolism to shut down and go into starvation mode. Your metabolism will reduce by up to 50% of your bmr so you could end up gaining weight AND really hurt your body (organ damage if you do this for a long period of time) at the same time.
Lets use me for example.
My BMR= 655+ (4.3 x 247) + (4.7 x 70) - (4.7 x 27)
655+ 1062 + 329 - 127= 1919
So 1919 is my BMR
I'm a moderately active person so
1919 x 1.55= 2974 (calories I need daily to maintain my weight)
I want to lose 2.5 lbs a week
3500 x 2.5= 8750...
Did you really think I was going to continue with that? Pshhh no. I would have over a 1000 calorie deficit a day to maintain that. That's why 2 lbs a week IS THE HEALTHY weight loss choice when it comes just to doing the calorie counting thing.
SO lets say I want to lose 2 lbs a week. That's 3500 x 2= 7000 calories. I can do that because it's not over 1000 calories deficit a day.
3500 x 2= 7000
(its per day so) 7000/7= 1000
1000 calories a day is how much I need to take off my Harris Benedict Formula
2974= 1919 yummy calories a day and I can still lose 2 lbs a week. WOOT WOOT!
Does this system always work? Uhhh no :( Sorry
Why?
-Gender
-Race
-Proteins, fats, carbs
-Are you eating healthy calories? (Skip the "Tradition" song and start singing "NUTRITION!")
-How you were fed as a kid
-If you were a lazy butt as a kid
-Medication
-Traumas
-How long have you been trying to lose weight
-Have you changed your activity level
-You are not everyone else so your body will be a little different from everyone else. GET OVER IT.
You could lose 2 lbs a week. You could lose more. You could lose less. But in most cases this system works FOR YOUR BENEFIT. Very few gain weight off of it.
Now did you really want to have to sit in your doctors office on a paper blanket or sit at a machine someone sweat all day on to hear all of that?
You're welcome.
And now I take a bow and walk off.
But before I go (I post these to save up for school so I can do this become a nutritionist for a living)
Shakeology (has completely helped with my weight loss journey)
Beachbody (P90X, Insanity, TurboFire, Shakeology, Supplements)
Bravo....I love your blog! I have done this number game thing and thats was only because I was curious just to see. My body is NOT the norm. What a wonderful post.
ReplyDeleteI've heard much about Shakeology, but I can't seem to get past the price tag. You say it has helped you lose weight, but how? Do you just take it after an insanely hard workout like P90X or Insanity (which I have never been able to finish). If that's the case I would think the exercise would have helped more than the actual shake, but maybe I'm wrong.
ReplyDeleteShakeology isn't like a recovery system which goes straight to the muscles. It's a nutrition system. It's like a daily vitamin but mixed with a prebiotic, a probiotic, and an energy drink. What it does is clear out your system. Anything that is weighing you down, keeping you from digesting right, anything slowing down your immune system, the stuff that makes you feel like crap- it clears it all out. It regulates your thyroid, it sets up your stomach to pull more nutrition out, it raises your hdl and decreases your ldl (cholesterol). With this shake daily (I take it when I wake up) I get in a better workout, I eat less because my body isn't constantly looking for something, I'm mentally there instead of blah, my mood is better, my body is more regular when it comes to sleep and digestion, and I feel like an incredibly new person. You really are what you eat. Crap in, feel like crap. Good in, feel good. So pretty much because I'm eating less and getting in a better workout, I'm saving money. But I feel SO MUCH BETTER and that to me is work so much more than 120$ a month. Even with taking raw vitamins and going vegetarian I didn't feel as good as I do with this shake.
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