Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolf mom
How come something so simple - "count calories and exercise" - can be so hard??  |
It's a big learning curve isn't it? The main thing I've learned is to eat for what you are doing in your life that day. The nutritionist that I saw said that ya won't starve as long as you have 1200 calories. she said if you were 4 ft tall and weight 90 lbs soaking wet you still needed at least 1200 calories.
If you want to lose two pounds a week you need a deficit of 1000 calories each day between what you use and eat and your resting metabolic rate. (This is because 7000 calories = 2 lbs of fat, so 1000 calories over 7 days will usually equal a 2 lb fat loss).
So for example, on a day when I exercise, my RMR target is somewhere around 2700 calories. That means that I can eat 1700 calories that day if I want to. If I am not exercising, my RMR is closer to 2200. If I want to lose two pounds a week, I have to eat only 1200 calories on days that I do not exercise. However, I find that I like food and am extremely motivated to work out because I want to eat more! L! There are calculators online that will tell you ( generally) what you RMR is and how many calories your kind of exercise burns.
What most diet programs do is that they average all of that out. On days when you exercise you can eat 1700, on days when you don't you can eat 1200. You exercise 3 days a week for a total of 5100 calories, and the other 4 days equal 4800 calories. So they just add that together, and divide by 7 and tell you to eat 1400 calories a day. But that only works if you do the exercise. I find that knowing how the numbers work helps me to make better decisions than just applying the averages.
Also, it doesn't stress me out if I see no weight loss or even a slight weight gain in any given week because I am still gaining muscle mass (which weighs more than fat) as long as the trend is going down over a 3 or 4 week period. Muscle gain is only going to help me in the long run because it will cause my BMR to go up since muscle burns more calories at rest than fat.
The day in and day out is easier if you stay home to eat. I still find going out to eat a nightmare! There is just not enough information usually to help you make good decisions, but if you stick to something largely paleolithic (meat and vegetables that are grilled) you can make pretty good choices now and again.
Sorry to drone on so - I guess I am just excited about what I am learning. People tell you to count calories, but they don't tell you how, or why to do it and make it work for you. Wish I had known this years ago!
Cindyc.
(and a lot of luck - Wisconsin Ann)
