It's All About Calories

First, the bad news. Weight gain and loss is directly tied to the amount of calories you eat versus the calories you expend through exercise. Now, since my brother recently asked me, "what's a calorie?" I will take a moment to explain.

A calorie is a unit of heat energy. Specifically, in chemistry terms, it's the amount of heat energy required to raise 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius. How this relates to your body is that when you eat food, the food molecules are broken down chemically and that energy is either used by your body to perform work (like building muscle, or constructing new cells) or is stored (as fat). If you take in more calories than you burn, you will start to get fat.

Trivia: technnically, food calories are really kilocalories. The amount of energy in one "food calorie" is actually equal to 1000 "standard calories." This is not a problem however, because all of the ratings for various exercises showing the number of calories burned are actually kilocalories as well. Sometimes you'll see these calories called "nutritionist's calories" or "Calories" with a capital "C." Here at our web site, all calories mentioned are really kilocalories. Don't worry about it... that's why this is trivia.

Now, in the world of calories, it takes 3500 calories to equal one pound of body weight. So, if you take in an extra 3500 calories in your diet this week without exercising, congratulations... you've just gained one pound (probably all body fat). The good news is that you can lose one pound of fat by either removing 3500 calories from your diet, or adding 3500 calories of exercise to your weekly schedule, or a combination of the two.

What's 3500 calories? It's actually not much if you're eating the wrong kinds of food. You can consume 3500 calories in one meal if you eat two Double Whoppers (1010 calories each), a King Size order of french fries (590), a King Size onion rings (600), and a chocolate shake (440). Don't laugh... this is what I used to eat for dinner if my family went to Burger King... or something similarly outrageous.

So the bottom line here is that if you want to lose weight, you have to create a calorie deficit. That means you have to burn off more calories than you eat. You had to eat more calories than you burned to get fat... now you have to reduce the calories to get lean. It's that simple. In order to know how many calories you're taking in and burning off, you need to write them down...

Start a Food & Exercise Journal

OK, now this is something that I heard about several times before I actually started doing it... and you know what? It really works. I cannot stress how important it is to write everything down that you eat and do. All you need is a little notebook. Make four columns: what you ate, how much of it you ate, how many calories were in it, and what time of the day you ate it. It's that simple. Also write down any exercise or other activities that are more strenuous than just sitting around.

Taking the time to recognize what you're eating is the first step to losing weight. A lot of people truly don't realize how much crap they're eating. When I first started doing this - and writing down everything I was eating - it really opened my eyes to the volumes of junk food I was eating before. I was a slave to cookies, chocolate, chicken wings, and pizza. When I first took the time to look up the fact that a chicken wing has 150 calories in it (yes, one wing), I was astounded. I used to eat 20 wings and 2 or 3 slices of pizza for dinner.

Now you can get yourself one of those little calorie counter booklets from your favorite book store. Sometimes you'll even see them in the grocery store. They're invaluable. Once you get to know the foods you eat on a regular basis, keeping track of what you eat is really quite simple. You will gain a better appreciation for what you're putting in your body.

Also, I sometimes find that having to write my food down is deterrent enough to not eat a junk snack. I might be laying on the couch at night, wanting to snack (but not really hungry - you've been there). I think to myself that I don't feel like getting up to get a snack because I don't feel like writing it down. This is a small side benefit, but it helps me sometimes.

So please, please, please, take my advice and journal everything you eat. You do NOT have to do this for the rest of your life... just until you hit your goal weight. By that time, you'll be able to keep a good mental track of what you're eating, and you'll be more aware of what you should eat, and how much exercise you should be getting every week.

Also, you do not have to obsess over every little calorie! Counting your calories can be as detailed as you like. If you want to track every last celery stick, by all means do so. However, you can just round your calories off to the nearest 10, or 20. Don't worry whether or not something contains 24 or 26 calories. In the end, it doesn't make that much of a difference... but whether something has 100 or 200 calories does.

The important thing... and I cannot stress this enough... is write everything down!

We have an online Food & Activity Journal system right here on our web site. You can log everything you eat and it will count up the calories for you. Visit the Database section for details. It's pretty easy to use, but I'll post detailed instructions soon.

Eat More to Lose Weight

We're not going to starve ourselves! In fact, proper weight loss is best accomplished by eating more frequently than you're probably used to! Let me say that again: you're going to eat more food than you are right now. You're going to eat better food, more often, but at a lower calorie intake.

If you're like I used to be, you're probably skipping breakfast. This means that when lunchtime comes around, you're starving, so you probably overeat the wrong kinds of food (like pizza, wings, Chinese, etc.) for lunch - and I'll bet it's fast food or takeout. Then, you don't eat anything again for six to eight hours, and pack in a monster dinner.

Now here's what happens: your body isn't getting any food first thing in the morning, so your metabolism isn't getting started. Your "calorie-burning fire" doesn't get started in the morning, so you're not really burning as many calories as you should be.

Also, your body is saying, "uh, oh - I'm not getting any food. I better hold on to whatever body fat I can because we're starving!" This is bad. If you don't eat enough food, often enough, your body will basically go into starvation mode and hang on to whatever body fat it can.

The key to unlocking your stored fat is to feed yourself enough good food so that your body doesn't need to store any additional fat, while at the same time getting plenty of exercise and strength training to burn whatever fat you currently have and build muscle.

Creating a Calorie Deficit

As we discussed earlier, you have to create a calorie deficit. That means you need to burn off more calories than you take in. Now, your body is going to burn calories just sitting around doing nothing. This is called your BMR (basal metabolic rate). The bigger you are, the higher your BMR. For now, we're going to skip all of the complicated math require to calculate your actual BMR and just use 1900 calories as a round number (an average 200-pound man would have a BMR of about 1900.)

So just sitting around at my desk all day, and watching TV all night, my body need 1900 calories just to maintain itself. That's good. So, if I could limit myself to a 1900 calorie diet, I would not gain (or lose) any weight. Yes, technically that's true... however you're not going to build any muscle either, and eventually your muscles will atrophy (just like space shuttle astronauts). So we know we want to work in some exercise in there for overall health.

OK, so let's say that our guy here has a moderately active job where he walks around the office throughout the day and burns a conservative 300 calories just at work and in his day-to-day activities like shopping (this is a very low figure - it's probably a lot higher for most people).

Rule of thumb: figure out how many hours you're "on your feet" at work and multiply that number by 100 to determine the calories you've burned. If you're a school teacher, for example, and you're on your feet all day long, you can easily burn off 500 to 700 calories.

Now, we're going to add in some exercise by taking a brisk walk for 30 minutes every day. That's a good start. It will get my heart pumping, work up my leg muscles, and make me feel great. I'll burn about 150 calories a day on my walk.

So, now I'm up to burning off 2350 calories (1900 + 300 + 150) day. So if I limit myself to a 2350 calorie diet, I won't gain or lose any weight... or I could eat the same 1900 calories I was eating before and actually lose weight. How much weight would I lose?

Well, if one pound of body weight equals 3500 calories, and I'm burning off an extra 450 calories a day, that means I will lose a pound every 8 days... about a pound a week. This is a very healthy goal weight-loss figure to shoot for... about a pound or two a week.

Can you see where I'm going with this? All you have to do is reduce your calorie intake and increase your daily activity. Now, I've picked these nice round figures just to show you how this works. I'll teach you how to actually calculate your BMR and figure out how many calories are in various activities later... but the bottom line is that you need to eat fewer calories and burn off more calories with exercise.

How Many Calories Do I Need to Eat?

Once again, there are a bunch of factors that go into calculating metabolic rates and all that jazz, but you can use this chart as a basic measurement of how many calories you should be eating as part of your weight-loss diet. Notice it's based on your current weight and your gender. Women need fewer calories then do men. Also, if you're a smaller person, you need less energy than a larger person. Use this chart to determine how many calories you should be eating on a daily basis. This is just a rough estimate. The real "good" values would be based on your height and age, or body fat percentage.

How Many Calories Should I Burn?

Now, this all depends on how much exercise you can schedule into your busy week. Obviously the more you exercise, the faster you will lose weight however you don't want to go "gung ho" and bite off more than you can chew. I recommend starting off slow and gradually increasing your exercise routines. If you're really out of shape and haven't done any exercising in the past few years, you need to take it easy so you don't hurt yourself, get injured, and then stop exercising altogether!

Let's take walking for example... start off by walking for 15 minutes a day for a week. Then, up it to 30 minutes a day. After another week or two, see if your body is comfortable with a lite 5 minute jog followed by 20 minutes of walking. Then, after a couple weeks of that, try jogging for 15 minutes and walking for 15. See how we're progressing slowly? Whatever you like to do... do it slowly at first. If you like cycling, start out with a leisurely 20-minute bike ride. There will be plenty of time for that 30-mile bike-a-thon later when you're in shape! We'll talk more about exercise in the exercise section.

Bottom line: burn as many calories as you can, but do it safely! Let's take that same 200 pound man from our previous example. If we put him on a 2000-calorie-per-day diet as our chart suggests, and his BMR is going to burn 1900 calories at rest from just daily maintenance, then he only has to burn an extra 100 calories in his day to break even.

Now keep in mind that most people don't sit around and do nothing all day. If you have a moderately active job, you're probably going to burn off 300 or 400 calories just walking around on the job all day. It's hard to quantify day-to-day activities like that... but let's say you burned off that 400 calories at work (very easy to do!) Heck, you can burn off 200 calories easily by just walking around the mall or grocery store shopping for an hour!

Now all of the exercise you add in beyond that will just come off your waistline! Personally, I try to get 10 to 15 hours of exercise in a week - but you shouldn't start there. Start with 2 hours of exercise a week (maybe four, 30-minute walks) and work your way slowly up from there. I did!

Make Sure You Get Enough Calories

Now here's something that's vitally important... you want to make sure you get enough calories every day, otherwise your body will go into "starvation" mode. You want to make sure that you eat your 200-300 calorie meals at least four times a day to keep your metabolism running. Otherwise, if you don't eat, your body will go into starvation. It will realize that it's not getting enough food, and will hold on to body fat. In fact, your body will eat its own muscle tissue before it breaks down its fat reserves if you're starving. It's important to get enough calories spaced throughout the day to keep your fire stoked. Don't think that by starving yourself you're going to lose weight. It will be the wrong kind of weight. Remember, your body will eat it's own muscle tissue first before burning fat if it doesn't have enough protein.

I would say that the minimum calories you should be eating is about 20% less than your recommended amount. So, if the chart about says you should be on an 1800-calorie diet, you should make sure you're getting at least 1440 calories a day.

One Week Boot Camp

Now, if you want to jump start your body on its way to fast weight loss, here's what you're going to do. Ignore the charts above, and drop yourself right down to a 1000-calorie-per-day diet immediately. In addition, make sure you get at least 15 minutes of walking (or some other easy, basic, extra exercise) in every day as well.

You will do this for exactly seven days... no more! No less. After the first three days, however, you're going to add 500 calories to your daily diet so that we can trick your body into thinking it's not starving. Then, you'll finish out your week with four more days at 1000 calories. Then stop!

Now, you will go back to eating the normal amount of calories as indicated on the chart above. This is to shock your metabolism and get it fired up by eating lots of frequent, smaller meals. We want to stop the process, however, before your body goes full-blast into starvation mode and holds on to all of its fat reserves. After one week, we'll bring you up to a safer "baseline" level (see the chart above).

Here's what I recommend:

It's not going to be easy. You won't be able to eat any junk food for these first two weeks. You can, however, eat plenty of good foods - chicken, salads, whole grain breads, etc. It won't be easy, but once you get through it, you'll be able to add lots of calories back in to your diet, and feel more normal again... in fact, after eating only 1000 calories for a week, you'll probably have a hard time bringing yourself back up to 2000 calories (or whatever you should be at).

Now, you're not going to eat the same thing every day. The chart above is just a sample of what you could eat one day. You can mix it up a little. Notice how I spread my food out throughout the day - eating every 3 hours (or as close to it as you can). Eat often and you won't need to eat as much (more on this later).

Here's why this works: dropping your calorie intake down to 1000 calories will shock your body into new eating habits. You will cleanse your body of toxins (like those monster grease burgers you've been eating) and get some good, healthy food in you. You will notice weight loss after the first couple of days, but you'll be keeping your energy up by eating good foods at regular intervals. You can stop any cravings you're having with water, or add some extra veggies in there - you can eat just about as much green vegetable food as you want (see the sections on vegetables later).

Note: if you're finding it hard to stick to 1000 calories, you can bring this number up to 1200 calories, or even 1500 calories. Obviously the results won't be the same, but I don't want anyone here thinking they have to starve themselves. If you weigh a little more, you might want to give yourself a few extra calories per day to get started. I was almost 300 pounds when I did this, and I went on a 1200-calorie diet for two weeks, then after that I moved up to an 1800-calorie diet for most of my weight-loss program.

Now that I'm down to 189 pounds, I eat about 2000 calories a day. My body fat is almost down to where I want it. Once it's there, I'm actually going to go on a weight-gain diet to put on some lean muscle mass. That's a whole different web site though... I'll let you know how it goes!  :)

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