Unlike
what you hear from the thousands of diet peddlers or the diet drug companies,
losing weight is actually very simple: take in fewer calories than you burn
each day. But, how many calories should
you be consuming? That question was
answered almost a century ago by Harris Benedict and is referred to as your
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). BMR is
defined as the number of calories your body consumes at rest to maintain your
current weight. To determine your BMR,
use the following formula:
Women: BMR = 655 + (Weight x 4.35) + (Height x 4.7) - (Age x 4.7)
Men: BMR = 66 + (Weight x 6.23) + (Height x 12.7) - (Age x 6.8)
*Weight is in
pounds and height is in inches
Once
again, your BMR is simply the number of calories used by your body to sustain
life. Since lifestyles vary widely, you
must apply a multiplier to find the approximate number of calories that you
actually burn each day. I recommend
using a sedentary (1.2) or light activity (1.375) multiplier since most people
fall into these categories but tend to overestimate their activity level by as
much as 50%. Therefore, to find your
approximate calorie requirements, multiply your BMR by your activity
level. Because I am a 38 year old, 5'8",
155 pound male, my BMR works out to:
BMR = 66 + (155
x 6.23) + (68 x 12.7) - (38 x 6.8) = 1636.85
Calories needed
to support 155 pounds (sedentary) = 1636.85 x 1.2 = 1964.22
If
math is not your thing, you can use one of the many BMR calculators available
on the web or use the one I provide at http://www.wellness4one.com/wellness-calculator.aspx
In
order to lose weight, you must either consume fewer calories than your body
needs to sustain its current weight or burn more calories through various
activities. As you may have heard
before, a combination of diet and exercise works best.
It
may be easier to think of your daily diet as a checking account. The major difference being instead of having
overdrafts and financial problems as your punishment for overspending, you get
something much more dangerous: weight gain and obesity.
The
good news with your calorie account is that it fills up every day with a
certain number of calories you can spend. For me, that number is around 1964. This is the approximate number of calories my body will burn if I do
little else but go to work and sit behind my computer all day. Therefore, if I only ingest 1964 calories, my
diet is in balance and I neither gain nor lose
weight.
In
the same manner, let's say I needed to lose a few pounds and I am only taking
in 1664 calories; I know that there are 3500 calories in a pound of fat. In a little over 11 days, I will lose a pound
of fat. That's not very fast you say. Well, all I had to do to lose that pound was
switch two cans of your average soft drink with diet drinks or, better yet,
water.
However,
say I really like cookies and I take in an extra 300 calories. Now I have to work a little overtime to pay
for this and, for your diet, this means exercise. Never fear, without much effort I can burn
the calories with a brisk 20 minute walk.
Ok,
so it's not that easy. Let's say I hate
to exercise and I think I don't have 20 minutes to walk. Incorporate the walk into your daily
life. Instead of finding the parking
spot closest to the store, pick one farther away and avoid the door dings. Go one further and walk to the store if
possible. Instead of using the elevator
or escalator, use the stairs. Simple
things like these will add up: play
catch with your kids, work in your garden, or just stand sometimes instead of
sitting (you'll burn twice as many calories).
Removing
the mystery behind diets and weight loss is the key to successful weight
control. It's important to remember that
your diet is not something that you start and finish or can cheat. Your diet is with you every day for the rest
of your life. To control your diet, you
should know your BMR and how many calories you have to burn each day. When losing weight, either eat fewer calories
than your modified BMR (BMR x Activity Level) or increase your physical
activity. A combination of eating less
and doing more generally works best.