How Much to Eat

Welcome back! Todays installment will be broken into 2 parts. Part 1 will provide you the tools you need to determine how much food you should eat daily, and to determine how much you actually are eating. Part 2 will be an opportunity for me to rant on a topic that's been irking me for a while, buckle up spin class, steppers & treadmillers.

So in the previous installment,  http://www.everydayhealth.com/blogs/burnfatfaster/welcome-newbs  I asked readers to take an honest look at themselves and ask if they know their maintenance caloric needs (the amount of food needed to neither gain nor lose weight) and their current caloric intake (the amount of food you're actually eating.

If you answered no, don't despair, we'll get there in a minute! If you answered yes, it might still be wise to polish up your targets. If you answered yes, but are still frustrated with your lack of results then definitely continue on.

HOW MUCH TO EAT: There are many different formulae for estimating maintenance caloric needs, however, they are all similar and will give you a good starting place. This is only an estimate, so fine tuning will likely be required for each individual.

A) Basic Calorie Needs = Body weight x 11
+
B) Metabolic Rate = A x Activity Level*
+
C Maintenance Caloric Needs

ACTIVITY LEVEL* Mostly Sedentary  30%
Active   40%
Very Active   50%


* 30-40 yrs old subtract 5%
* 40+ yrs old subtract 10%


So using myself as an example:
A) 205lbs bodyweight x 11 = 2255 (would keep me alive on bed rest)
B 2255 x 35% (31 yrs old, active) = 789 (how many calories I burn by moving)
C) A+B =  3044 (Maintenance Caloric Needs - how much to eat to neither gain nor lose weight)


Now knowing your Maintenance Caloric Needs is an important start, but its meaningless without knowing your Current Caloric Intake. If you're eating more than your own maintenance caloric needs you will gain weight; less and you will lose weight.


http://www.everydayhealth.com provides an awesome food & fitness journal for free! This is a great way to help you determine how much you're eating and how many calories you're burning. It even provides calculators for the above equations (or something similar as mentioned).


So now that you have determined your Estimated Maintenance Caloric Needs, spend a week or two measuring everything you eat with a scale or measuring cups, and tracking your Current Caloric Intake to see how close you are to actually maintaining your current weight.


Next post I'll talk about how to interpret your week of calorie tracking, and how to use this info to design your own personalized plan to either gain or lose weight. A plan that will use the foods YOU like, the exercises YOU enjoy (or at least will benefit from) and will get you the body YOU desire!


PART 2: THE RANT


I am a dedicated exerciser and have been since the day I decided I didn't want to be fat anymore. It just so happened that it was in the early winter so the weather conditions here in Southern Ontario were less than ideal for outdoor exercise. Having no treadmill or gym membership I began walking @ 6am EVERYDAY. Walking a few blocks turned into jogging a few blocks, which turned into jogging a few more blocks, and so on. I did this everyday for a year and lost about 100 lbs!


When I say EVERYDAY I mean it! I ran in the sleep, slush, rain, frozen rain, hail, blizzard and whatever awful thing Mother Nature could throw at me. With time I begain to thrive on it; "Bring it on! Nothing can stop me!"


The next year I bought a treadmill. I thought it would be nice now that I'm not so desparate to lose weight, to stay indoors and that I'd continue on. Well that treadmill got lots of use, but not only did I get bored, I found on the days I did go run outside I felt weaker than running inside.


Machines make things easy for humans, thats why we design them. Exercise machines are no different, or they're just a way to make money. A treadmill has a moving path, and I'm quite sure we don't have moving sidewalks a la Jetsons Future Vision. So your hamstrings don't have to work so hard, because the ground is moving FOR YOU. A bicycle (whether stationary or not) provides mechanical advantage and you sit down. Abs don't have to work much to hold you up, legs don't have to work hard, just switch gears.


Get outside and enjoy the world! Even on the "gloomy" days and through the winter. Its better for you and its more interesting. Nothing cracks me up more than arriving to work on my bike, and walking past the "spin class" whose members all drove to the gym to ride a bike for an hour.


That just ain't right.

Matty Smith

Welcome Newbs!

Hello & welcome newbs to the Burn Fat Faster Blog! THE place to be if you want to lose fat without giving up your favourite foods!

This Blog is being written as a comprehensive guide to Body Recomposition. For you, the reader, to get the most out of it, please read each post in order and subscribe to this blog to keep up to date.

Burn Fat Faster is written by a post-obese personal trainer with over 10 years in the fitness field. For a trainer to truly understand the plights of the overweight, they must have experienced it first hand. I know just how hard it is to go from flabby to firm, fat stomach to flat stomach, stretch marks to six pack, and now I want to share this information with you; so you can transform your body and your life!

For those who don't know me (yet) I'm Matty, and I'm a recovering Fatty. I grew up with no real weight problems, as I was an All Star football player; but I also never felt comfortable with my shirt off. Looking back, I was quite lean, so it amazes me that even then, I felt this way. By "this way" I mean fat. No sugar coating. Even before I got fat, I felt fat. That said, it never kept me from taking my shirt off at the pool, it never really affected my life; I was a kid, I didn't really care.

Fast forward to the late 90's. No longer playing football, and not eating healthily I packed on the pounds FAST! At my worst I stood on the scale at 278lbs, however weigh ins were few and far between, so my actual weight probably got up to 300lb before I changed everything.

Now I'll save my own story for a later post, this one is about you: the newbs. Suffice it to say; I am a recovering Fatty which means I am not fat anymore.  I lost over 100lbs of fat (without giving up any foods, including so called junk food), and then gained about 30lbs of muscle, and with my own sick pack abs in check, my objective now is to help you achieve the same!

So where do we start? With you of course! Without a doubt I can surmise that you're here because you're not truly satisfied with your current physique. Whether Male or Female, Teen age or middle age, I can help.

I can help by explaining things that will move you in the right direction. Short of personal training with me (sorry not accepting new clients at the time of this writing) I can not promise results. I can promise to offer knowledge, thougtful application of theory, and even guidance all free of charge. I feel blessed that the universe allowed me to recreate myself and to change my life, in writing this blog & offering my guidance I hope to pay forward some of the blessings bestowed onto me.

Back to you: before making any direct statements or imparting any esoteric wisdom of fat loss, a reality check is in order. Be honest with yourself.

Do you know how many calories you need to maintain your weight?
Do you know how many calories you're eating daily?

If you answered no to either, than this is your starting point. You must first determine how many calories are needed to sustain the body you have right now. Then you must strive to eat less than this amount to lose weight or more to increase it.

Tomorrow's blog will provide you with the formulae required to determine your maintenance caloric needs, as well as tips & tools for tracking your food intake!

Feel Free to leave questions & comments, or to email me directly for futher help!

math_hue@hotmail.com

Become a Former Fatty,

Burn Fat Faster!!!

Matty Smith