Weight Maintenance or Loss is based on the simple idea of calories in/calories out!
Today's objective:
Find out how much your body needs for calories on a normal day.
This is known as your basal metabolic rate, and it is key to the science of weight loss. If we are to conquer emotional or binge eating during this season (or any season, for that matter), we need to know how many calories our body burns in a day without any effort of our own.
This is best done at the doctor's office with a tool which measures your breath over a period of time. But if you do not have the ability to get this checked, a simple online calculator can estimate this for you. Mayo Clinic offers one here: http://www.mayoclinic.org/calorie-calculator/itt-20084939
Knowing this number is important for two reasons: 1. It tells us the number of calories we must consume to maintain our weight, and 2. It allows us to adjust this number based on our diet and exercise so as to lose or gain weight.
Those of you concerned with maintenance need only shoot for maintaining this number. Those of you who want to lose weight need only subtract from this number by diet and exercise. Those of you who will, like the majority of Americans, gain weight over the season, will eat in excess of this number over the holidays.
How do we track our calorie intake and output? Using a fitness app like myfitnesspal helps this. You can search and barcode scan from the largest social media database for the nutritional info of thousands of food choices. You also have the ability on this app to input your exercise routines. There is cross app capability, so that this can easily be done with a Fitbit or your favorite gps running app. It also syncs with Apple's new health app.
Some helpful things to know:
It is dangerous to consume too few calories. If you have a health condition, this can also complicate things. If you have any concerns, consult your doctor or nutritionist.
1 pound of fat = 3500 calories. If you want to lose 1 lb a week, which is a normal and healthy goal (most nutritionists advise 1-2lbs a week is healthiest), all you need to do is subtract from your basal metabolic rate just 500 calories a day by diet or exercise.
Generally the average diet is 2000 calories a day. Subtracting just 500 calories from this without any exercise should in theory mean that if you eat 1500 calories a day, and your basal metabolic rate is 2000, then you will lose a pound a week without picking up a dumbbell or hitting that treadmill.
Similarly, if you changed nothing in your diet, and burned 500 calories a day with exercise (easily done in an hour at the gym), you would experience the same results. Most people find that a combination of diet and exercise makes for the best results.
Building muscle helps your overall metabolism and makes your body and heart stronger and healthier. In this model, just a 1700 calorie diet with 300 calories burned in exercise a day will yield better results in the long run than just diet or exercise alone.
In theory, those of you who want to eat in excess, and take off the calories in the gym, can achieve success. Just know that the exchange for food calories and gym time can be eye opening. Just google it! Also, don't be upset if you go the route of strict exercise to curb the gain, because building muscle means water retention and a denser body mass. Eating too much salt can also contribute to water retention and normal fluctuations of body weight from day to day of 1-2 pounds.
With all of this said, figure out that basal metabolic rate, and then make a plan for what will work for you. Then get tracking!
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