Welcome to round two. Lesson 1 was a brief introduction, which included an assignment to build your personal pyramid. This lesson will focus on the caloric aspect of weight loss or in other words, our diet and nutritional intake.
Calorie Allowance
Basal Metabolic Rate
The amount of caloric intake your body needs simply to survive doing nothing at all is called Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). Use this calculator to figure your BMR. Note your BMR for your records.
A BMR is commonly between 1500-1800 calories. Additional calories beyond this limit are extra lovin' and will provide the energy needed to move throughout the day. Since you walk around, you have more energy expenditure, thus you need more energy or calories. Depending on how much energy you use (running, walking, climbing stairs versus taking the elevator etc), you can adjust for how much energy you need to consume.
Caloric Needs Based on Activity Level
An average diet is about 2000 calories for women and 2200 for men. This is why so many nutrition labels have a 2000-calorie diet as their standard. Here is the catch. You can eat anything you want, when you want as long as you are smart about it. Calculate your caloric needs for your activity level.
This should not be too far off from the 2000-2200 mark. Now that we have those two numbers, the basal metabolic rate and the daily caloric intake, you can find the difference of the two. Simply subtract the BMR from the caloric need. This will be your free play as far as energy intake goes, or the part of your diet that determines weight loss and weight gain. Note your calorie needs for the amount of activity you perform and the difference of this and your BMR.
Make reasonable goals for yourself and write them down. Play around with the calculators to find the values needed to accomplish your goals and use that calorie need to adjust your diet. (For example, if my BMR was 1750 and my caloric need was 2200, the difference would be 450 calories. This is almost the equivalent of an average meal. Variation in this value will determine how my weight is affected.) Calorie diaries are useful in keeping track of your intake and can be found on the internet for free should you choose to use one.
WARNING: As your exercise increases, your energy demand will naturally want to increase, but until you meet your goals you should wait to increase energy intake beyond your caloric need. This point is crucial. Many people gain an appetite with exercise and consume the energy used (and often more), leaving them where they started or worse.
Summary
Using the term 'energy intake' to represent food, and the term 'energy used' to suggest exercise we can come to three poignant conclusions. These are the fundamental principles to successful weight loss:
- Weight Loss- Energy intake is less than energy used
- Maintain weight- Energy intake equals energy used
- Weight Gain- Energy intake is more than energy used
Before the next lesson:
- Determine your BMR
- Determine your caloric needs based on your activity level
- Find the difference between the above values
The weather is getting beautiful and soon we will be looking and feeling great, come back next week for Lesson 3, which will provide helpful tips for proper calorie consumption.
