3500 Calories.
If you want to lose a pound, you must burn 3500 more calories than you take in.
Lets say a person who normally consumes 2000 calories a day is maintaining his weight. If he then goes on a diet and reduces his food intake to 1500 calories a day he should, theoretically, lose a pound every 7 days.
(WARNING: MATH!! 2000-1500=500 calories per day deficit… 500 calories divided into 3500 calories to lose a pound= 7 days.)
NOW, let’s say that the person begins exercising each day as well, and gets his heart rate into that “fat burning zone” long enough to burn an extra 500 calories. This is a burn of 500 calories above and beyond his normal lifestyle, so technically he would lose an additional pound every 7 days.
So this suggests a person who was living a maintenance lifestyle (one where the food/calories he takes in every day equals the calories his body burns every day) who then drops his calorie intake by 500 calories a day and also adds 500 calories per day of additional fat burning exercise, could feasibly lose 2 pounds per week.
This is obviously simplified a lot; it doesn’t consider the fact that as you lose weight your body needs fewer calories each day, so it gets harder to lose weight. It also doesn’t consider that as you exercise you improve your body’s health and efficiency such that it takes more (or different) exercise to lose that one pound. It also doesn’t consider the balance many of us miss in our daily food intake as we diet; we tend to go from a diet of excess, where, by accident, we still manage to get all our needed vitamins, fibers, water, etc., to a diet of sustenance, where we frequently cut back so much that we fail to get all our body’s vital needs… like fiber and water.
Doing the math, it was easy for me to see that I gained weight due to excess. I ate far too many calories each day. I’ve discovered since I began this process that some of things I ate (or drank) were killers in a healthy lifestyle. My favorite lunch when going out with friends was a chinese buffet. I did the quick math (with my doctor’s help) and figured that a single lunch there, where I ate two plates of food, was equal to about 3500 calories… many of them FAT calories. I was eating nearly 2X as many calories as I needed for the whole day in only one meal. I was getting several days worth of my allowed fat calories in that single meal. Wow.
Do you like to eat out at fast food or convenience restaurants? Do you know the caloric count on their foods? You should. Check out this site to see if your favorite establishment is listed… if so check out the calories in your favorite foods. You’ve been warned!
I have lost over 80 pounds in around 5 months. That’s around 280,000 calories of better eating and exercising I’ve done in my life since March to lose weight. It’s easy. I cut back on intake and boost my output until the scales move. Yeah, easy… well, except the part where my scale stops moving despite my efforts. Easy except the part where I have to fight the urge to be lazy or eat like a horse every few days. Easy except for the fact that just because I’m on a diet doesn’t mean anyone else in my life is, so I have to find a way to live healthy at family get-togethers, on the road, at the movies, at 10pm while I’m watching the tube or feeling sad/mad/happy/glad (yes, I’m an emotional eater).
OK, so it’s hard. Really, hard.
But it’s worth the fight. Even if my scale stopped moving, and it has at times, it would still be worth the pain. Maybe the next pound of fat I was about to gain was going to be the one that stopped my heart. Maybe the next time I do an hour’s worth of cardio I secretly, quietly reduce my chances of a stroke. Maybe the next order of fries or slice of pizza was going to be my last. Too dramatic? Well maybe the next tiny little slice of apple pie is what pushes your scale UP a pound rather than DOWN.
The beauty of a great diet/lifestyle is in the details… it’s isn’t whether you eat well 80% of the time, it’s what you do the other 20% of the time. I lost weight because I fought hard in that “20% of the time.” I resisted the urges. I fought the laziness. It’s hard. for sure. I cannot do it non-stop for a year… the time I’ll need to lose my weight. That’s why I shifted to “maintenance” eating exercising last month. I needed a break for that other 20% of the time… I still had to be good the 80% though.
If you’re fighting hard and having little success getting the scales to budge look hard at yourself. Are you committed? Or are you there for only 80%?
Well, I have to go. I have an extra 400,00 calories that needs addressing. That’s a lot of working out out and good eating.
