People often ask me: "how do I lose weight?"
| The answer to that question is both easy and HARD! The easy answer is that if you eat more calories than you burn, you will gain weight and, conversely, if you eat fewer calories than you burn you will lose weight. Easy, right?
Here is the hard part. The only way to really know how many calories you eat is to track what you are eating and COUNT THE CALORIES. Yuck. It is a miserable job, I agree, but it works. For you techies with smart phones, there IS an app for that - there are actually several apps for that. But I'm old fashioned (OK, maybe just old) and I prefer pencil and paper. You can find the calorie count of just about any food on Google. |
The other consideration is your BMR (not BMI). What? This is your Basal Metabolic Rate, which is the amount of energy you need while you are at rest. In such a state, your energy will be used only to maintain your vital organs, which include the heart, lungs, kidneys, the nervous system, intestines, liver, lungs, sex organs, muscles, and skin. In other words - it is the energy consumed while you are lying in bed or in a coma!
How do you calculate your BMR? Good news - there is an app for that. Just Google "Basal Metabolic Rate (Not BMI) calculator". It will ask for your age, gender, height and weight. For example, my BMR is 1,357 calories. So, I need to consume 1,357 just to stay alive. If I consume less than 1,357 calories, my body will go into starvation mode and starts digesting fat and muscle - and it can only do that for so long. The rest of my calorie consumption depends on my activity. On a less active day, I aim for about 1,550 - 1,600. On days where I go for a run or a swim, I eat 1,800 - 2,000 calories.
By tracking calories (both in and burned) I have lost about 5 pounds in the past month. Remember, I am a bit older and it gets harder and harder to lose weight as we age. I hope this helps. My door is open if you want to talk.
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