The Math (Yeah gross, I know, but just read anyway cause it’s important…)

What a person weighs is determined by the ratio of calories they consume to the calories burned in their daily life or in a more common and pithy form—calories in vs. calories out. Unfortunately, I don’t have the resources to figure out exactly how many calories I burn everyday (that takes a lot of high tech and expensive equipment), but to get an estimate, there are several calculators available online to help get an idea of my BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate which is the number of calories that someone of my gender, height, weight, and age would generally burn per day if all I did was stay in bed. This is just the energy it takes a body to keep the heart, lungs, and other systems functioning. For me, a 25 year old female, at 5’2" and currently 148 pounds, my BMR is approximately 1470 calories per day. In other words, if I were bed ridden, I could consume this many calories each day and maintain my same weight.

A single pound of fat is made up of 3500 calories, so in order to lose those 28 pounds of fat, I would need to create a deficit between how many calories my body burns each day and how many calories I am consuming. (About 7000 calories a week to lose 2 pounds per week, which is considered a healthy rate of loss.)

At the same time, it is important to not reduce the calorie intake so much that it causes one’s body to slip into a state of fasting. At that point, rather than burning fat, your body will try to hold onto anything it gets and you are unlikely to lose. Also, take it from someone who has a long history with eating disorders, anything you lose from starving yourself WILL COME BACK AS SOON AS YOU START EATING AGAIN. Not to mention that side effects of constant fatigue, jitteriness and in severe states, fainting, hair loss, and eventually heart failure and death will result.

The Diet

I work at a hospital and have asked several doctors and also a few personal trainers and nutritionists what they consider a healthy number to cut back to. The consensus was in the range between a minimum of 1200 calories and up to 1500 calories per day for someone of my height and weight. Men of course get more calories since they tend to naturally burn more (punks…), as do people who work a very active job like athletes or some construction workers. As a rule, I was advised that if I became weak and shaky, or if I felt too constantly tired, I should try adding about 100 calories to my daily intake and re-evaluate. I have found that I can function pretty well when I stay between that 1200-1500 calorie range. I can usually vary within that range and stay on track, as some days might have a few more temptations than others. The beauty is that you can budget portions of those tempting treats into your diet without ruining it.

The Workout

Since you can only safely cut back so many calories in your diet, it is important to include physical activity in any weight loss plan. When I first started out at the 190 pound mark, I was completely sedentary so I started off by just adding some walking into my routine each day. I would try to skip elevators and instead chose stairs and purposely looked for far off parking spots. Eventually I got up to walking a minimum of 1 hour extra per day which I typically split up in a few walks of 20-30 minutes. Also a helpful goal in starting out is to purchase a pedometer and strive for about 10,000 steps per day. The average sedentary person only takes about 3,000 steps a day.

Since I am more physically active now, I can and need to increase the intensity of my workouts. I belong to a gym (which I should go to more often than I do, and intend to), and was blessed with an affordable opportunity to utilize a personal trainer. If it is something you can afford, I highly recommend it as you will learn a lot and have an added source of accountability. They will push you to discover your limits which are often much further than you ever expected and you will learn a lot.

The other bonus to working out is that muscle burns more calories than fat, so the more you work out, the more calories your body will burn when you are at rest. Every pound of muscle on your body will burn approximately 50 calories per day at rest, whereas each pound of fat will only burn about 5. Plus exercise will benefit your health in so many ways other than just your physical appearance.

I am sure my trainer would also want me to preach that weight and strength training is vitally important…not just cardio. A lot of women get the wrong impression that if they lift weights they will end up bulky like a female body builder. And that is ludicrous. If you ask any of those women about it, they will tell you that the muscles they have WILL NOT happen by accident. They train for many hours everyday to get that tone. Doing a normal amount of weight lifting (say 30 min, 3 times a week on various areas of the body) will give you a more attractive toned look, while building the muscle that will, as I said above, BURN MORE CALORIES!

So let’s do it! In my next blog, I will detail my own workout and eating plan. If I stick to it, I will soon get to start blogging about my my progress!