Losing Weight

Someone wanted me to blog about this so here it goes nothing.  Losing weight isn't hard.  Ya, thats right, it isn't hard.  Insert Bertstare...

Some people reading this are going to say, "Well ya... it's easy to say that when you're skinny."  Honestly, I've gotten that more times then I can count.  It's as if all I do is go home, sit on the couch, and watch TV and the pounds fall off.  For years i've been spending time in the gym busting my ass to stay in shape so i can do the physical activities that i enjoy.  What is really interesting, I get teased a lot from the way i look, to working out too much (as if an hour a day is a lot), to what I eat/don't eat, and more.  It's kind of a social taboo in the adult world to openly make fun of people that are out of shape, yet, it's interesting how much flack I see people get for combating weight gain.  The psychology behind that is a whole different blog so I'll get to the real point of this blog and save my mindless ranting.

CALORIES IN vs. CALORIES OUT.  Thats all it is... i can't repeat that enough times.  You could eat Honey Buns all day if you wanted to and you will lose weight as long as you burn more calories than you consume eating Honey Buns.  One of my bosses that lost a lot of weight used to say, "If you don't eat like a chunky butt ... you won't be a chunky butt."  I had mad respects for this because he openly acknowledge what was a fault in his mind (didn't beat around the bush) and took action to fix it.  You can't ask for anything more.  Furthermore, he didn't do anything but limit the calories going in.  I think he lost something like 70-80lbs.

You're starting point should be figuring out your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR).  It's is essentially how much energy your body consumes at rest.  There are various formulas for calculating it, here is the one I have used:

For Men

For Women

P = Total heat production at rest, m = Weight, h = Height, a = Age



So for me at 184lbs (83kg), 6'2 (188cm), and 27 years old my Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is roughly 1,966.  Remember though... this is just my body at rest.  Futhermore, there are some common things that effect your BMR:

Genetics - Surprise surprise.

Weather - Cold increases your BMR.

Pregnancy - You gotta feed another person duh!

Meals - Small meals more often will increase it.

Age - BMR decreases with age.

Muscle - Increases your BMR.

Crash Diets - I like to call them starvation diets.  They decrease your BMR.

Your BMR is really just a starting point.  You also have to figure in your daily lifestyle to your weightloss goals.  While my BMR is roughly 2000 calories i need to eat probably twice that to maintain my current weight because of my lifestyle.  You can use the Harris Benedict Formula to help with that:

If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2 If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375 If you are moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55 If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725 If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9

If you take into account your daily activities by using the calculations above.  I would guesstimate that if you are the average person that does light activity (#2 above) on a daily basis, then eating at your BMR should put you in enough deficit to drop a pound a week.  So for me, when you factor in #2 to my BMR of 2,000 you get 2,750.  If i just ate my BMR of 2,000 a day i would be at best -750 calories a day or 5,250 a week.  Since a lb of fat is equivalent to 3500 calories then that is at best 1.5lbs a week of fat loss.  Realistically its probably more like a pound a week.

Now here is the big kicker and it's something that makes me bertstare all the time...

You CANNOT run to the gym and walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes and then go have Honey Bun and expect to lose weight.  I see this a lot at the gym.  Someone will walk in, jump on the treadmill for 30 minutes, and then they will go grab a smoothie.  Basically, they did nothing but waste their time.  The people doing this, i'm guessing, have a big misconception as to how many calories are burned while exercising versus what they're consuming in that smoothie.  Walking for 30 minutes burns around 200 calories, while the smoothie they are slurping down is at least equal, double, and possibly triple that amount.  Do the math... they're in for a dissapointment.

The best thing you can do is pick up some weights and mix it in with cardio.  I'm talking real weights ladies.  Not those pink 2.5lb things i see.  Trust me, you are not going to look like the lady below without some hormonal magic.

I hate hearing "I don't want big bulky muscles" from women.  Sorry, but you're worried about something that isn't going to happen.  At worst if you went to the gym every day for a year and mixed weights with cardio you will look like this:

Yes... i'm aware she has one of those dinky 5lb weights in her hand.  Trust me, its for show.  She looks good and that is from weights, cardio, and eating good.  Muscle is the key to looking younger and feeling younger.  Don't believe me?  Both these women are in there 50's... note the muscle definition...

I'm going to end my rant with a few points: 

1. Burn MORE calories than you take in and you will lose weight regardless.
2. Muscle makes it easier to maintain weight.

3. Muscle tightens and lifts the skin making you look younger.

4. Being fit and having muscles will make you feel younger.
5. Proper nutrition makes a huge impact.

Edit on May 31, 2011 - I just noticed that I put 'Burn less' ... major typo.  I can't believe I missed that.  Fixed now though.

Movement is Life

"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers." - M. Scott Peck

     Change, a word that can bring great hope to people.  Hope that tomorrow will be a better day.  Hope that the pain and suffering will go away.  At the same time, the word also strikes great fear in so many souls.  Fear that doing something different than you normally do will only make the pain you feel now worse.  There is almost no middle ground in the concept.  People either wrap themselves up in it or shy away from it like the plague.  Yet, there is only one right answer... and that's to embrace it, to welcome it, to put it on your plate, gobble it all up and then ask for more.

Marcus Aurelius was Roman Emperor from 161 A.D. to 180 A.D.  He was the last of the "Five Good Emperors" and was one of the most important Stoic philosophers.  He wrote this:

"Keep constantly in mind in how many things you yourself have witnessed changes already. The universe is change, life is understanding."



     My eyebrow always raises when I hear people say things like, "I can't change" or, "I won't change" and, "This is who I am".  Change is reality.  It is the way of the world.  You don't have to work at change, it is here to stay, it is a fact of life, and life will move forward without regards to you.  The best thing you and I can do is adapt, learn, and grow.  My eyebrow raises to the statements above because to me they translate to, "I can't learn" and "I won't grow".  Once you've quit, given up on yourself, and lost all hope you've just relegated yourself to standing on the sideline.  It is the death of your spirit.  You've decided that enough is enough and you will embrace the pain and suffering deep down until the day you die.  The reality is, you get the spend the rest of your days stuck in the past, living with failure, blaming yourself, and being a shell of a human being.

     Below is a scene from the movie Rudy.  You could say this was the climatic moment in the movie.  Had this scene gone any different Rudy Ruettiger might not have graduated from Notre Dame, might not have been carried off the field by his teammates, might not have ended up as a motivational speaker, and certainly wouldn't have a movie made about him.

     Charles Darwin kind of had it right when you developed his theory on Natural Selection.  The belief that those that are the strongest and best at adapting will survive.  Human beings are a little extraordinary when it comes to this theory though.  We've all seen the people that have been given everything and have failed.  We've also seen the people who have been given nothing and succeeded.  For us, it almost always comes down to will power.  That belief in yourself.  That little whisper in the back of your mind that you have developed during your life that either says, "I can't" or "Bring it on ... I'll take some more!"  Nike explains the whole concept pretty well...

Change is constant.  It is a fact of life.  Nothing stays the same.  You can embrace it by growing, or become stagnant and slowly wither away out of fear.  Facing that fear is the only way forward.  Think about all the great people that inspire you and ask yourself what they would do.

My Fridge and Pantry

I've gotten a lot of questions over the years about what I do to stay in shape.  Interestingly, I haven't gotten so many questions about what I eat.  I find this interesting because diet is the most important thing.  It outweighs fitness by a large margin, and most people don't seem to understand this.  There are reasons why body builders stuff their body with protein and marathon runners slurp down gel packs instead of big macs when they're running. 

I was watching a documentary about Dean Karnazes who is one of the worlds top ultramarathon runners and found his normal diet vs. his race day diet interesting.  Day by day he essentially lived on a Paleolithic Diet of fish, lean meat, vegetables, roots, nuts, fruit, and excludes grains, legumes, and dairy products.  However, in race day you could seem him scarf down a few pizzas on a 150 mile run.  The reason for the drastic change is that the foods on race day are highly processed and easily broken down by the body.  He said to consume Paleolithic food on the run would cause gas, bloating, and discomfort since it generally lacked easily processed carbohydrates.  One of his races he consumed a whopping 26,000 calories.  As you can imagine, trying to eat 26,000 calories worth of meats and vegetables while running would leave a normal person in pain.  Furthermore, trying to eat 26,000 calories clean is almost impossible.  Yet, I can scarf down a Honey Bun for an easy 600 calories a piece mmmmm.  Shoot, I'd probably throw up.

Hopefully, the above is a decent explanation why diet feeds physical fitness and not the other way around.  So... on to what you will find in my fridge:

- Pickles (Claussens mmmmm)
- Eggs (Regular and Hard Boiled)
- Turkey
- Chicken
- Shrimp
- Mixed vegetables
- Frozen fruit (For Smoothies)
- Salad
- Almond Milk (I'm Lactose Intolerant ... ya ... go ahead an laugh lucky)
- Bison Meat (High Protein, No added hormones, all natural, low fat) 
      Note: Bison meat is one of the best things ever.  I would eat a lot more if it wasn't so expensive.

In my pantry you will find:

- Oatmeal (The one that comes in the tub and isn't highly processed)
- Beef Jerky
- All Natural Peanut Butter
- Honey
- Mixed nuts
- Popcorn
- Lactose free protein powder
- Organic gluten free cereal
- Flat bread
- Potato chips (can't help it)

A standard meal for me would be something like mixed vegetables with shrimp, toss in some mixed nuts, maybe a pickle, a glass of water, and a protein shake with some frozen fruit and peanut butter.

Feel free to ask me any questions.  I'm not an expert on nutrition but, I think I have a decent understanding of things.