more than you work off (through exercise, your basal metabolism, etc.), you will gain weight. If you take in less than you work off, you will lose weight. This can be accomplished in three ways:
1. Eat less (fewer calories).
2. Exercise more.
3. Eat less and exercise more.
The healthiest way to lose weight is to lose at a rate of one to two pounds per week. One pound of fat is equal to 3,500 calories. So if you want to lose one pound of body weight in one week, you will have to find a way to create a 3,500-calorie deficit in your body. If you want to lose two pounds in a week, you will need to create a 7,000-calorie deficit. That breaks down to 500 or 1,000 calories a day, respectively, that you need to shave off of your intake, or work off with exercise.
Every body uses a certain amount of calories each day just to survive. This is called your basal metabolic rate (BMR). Some sources also use the term resting metabolic rate (RMR). There are many different theories and ways to estimate your own basal metabolic rate (see Appendix E to figure out yours). Many factors beyond basic survival will increase the amount of calories your body uses (exercise, working, sickness, etc.).
To figure out the net number of calories your body requires to meet your weight-management goals, just do the math: calculate your basal metabolic rate, adjust it for your activity level (see Appendix E), then subtract the number of calories that correspond with your weight-loss goals (e.g. subtract 500 calories a day to lose a pound a week). This number becomes your daily caloric goal. When you want to eat more, add enough exercise to offset the extra calories.
Many people try to overcomplicate the simple input/output rule, either to make excuses for why they can’t shed the pounds or to sell a particular diet plan. Here are a couple of common myths:
Myth #1: It’s all in the genes.
I have heard this excuse almost more than any other: “I just don’t have the
Yes, there are some people who have been blessed with great genes (and also blessed to fit into great jeans). Though it may not look like it on the outside, their bodies are still working off more calories, due to their high metabolism, and, therefore, they can eat more and still look great (dang it!).
Genetics plays a role in our metabolism, and our upbringing does too — some of our food preferences have to do with what we were served by mom and dad in our early years. Genetics also plays a role in our risk for certain diseases.
You have two choices when it comes to genetics. You can let it overtake you and put you in the victim seat, or you can take the bull by the horns and change what you do have the power to change within your genetic parameters.
When we start working within our own means and not stressing about our genes, we realize how much control we really do have over our lives and our health.
Myth #2: Calories count more at night.
Late-night eating has become taboo in the dieting world. Some diets tout an
The real, underlying problem with eating at night is that by the time you have eaten throughout the entire day and finished dinner, you are most likely at your calorie limit, if not over it. When you sit down to watch TV and grab a snack, you are overloading your body’s calorie level and that extra gets stored as fat — due to the amount of food that you have already eaten throughout the day, not the specific time at which you are now eating.
The other problem is that at night while watching TV, you don’t normally reach for carrots and Brussels sprouts — you typically go for chips, ice cream, cookies, etc., foods that tend to be higher in fat and calories and lower in nutritional quality, which again leads to an overload of calories for the body.16-20
Principle 2: Balance Your Basic Body Ingredients
So, it’s really all about calories, right? Well, yes and no. Calories count, but the
“If it’s all about the calories, can I just determine how many calories I need, and then eat my calorie load in donuts and cheeseburgers? As long as I stay under my calorie limit I’ll still lose weight, right?”
On one hand, that’s true, a person will lose weight by staying in calorie-withdrawal mode (eating less than the body works off). But there is so much to be said about the value of the calories that go into one’s body. The human body cannot function on calories alone. It requires many different nutrients. If you cut off all but those that come from donuts and cheeseburgers, you will actually do significant harm to the body over the long run.
This is the underlying cause of a new phenomenon spreading throughout our nation: too many people are overweight and undernourished. They have gotten an overabundance of calories from the wrong sources, and therefore have gotten bigger while at the same time starving their bodies of what they really need to function effectively. We are literally eating ourselves to death.
“More die in the United States of too much food than of too little.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society
Our bodies need six ingredient categories every day, in varying quantities, in order to function efficiently:
The three macronutrients (carbohydrate, protein, and fat) actually supply calories for the body. The three micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, water) don’t supply calories; they supply various nutrients that are vital for optimal health.
Carbohydrate
Carbohydrate is the fuel for the body. If you don’t put gas in your car, it won’t run for very long. If you don’t replenish your carbohydrate stores, your body won’t run efficiently for very long.
In fact, the only form of energy that the brain can use is glucose — the broken-down form of carbohydrates. If you starve your body of carbohydrates, your body will make glucose from other sources, but in the process it also produces waste products that have to go to the liver to be detoxified, and then to the kidneys to be flushed out. Maintaining such a pattern year in and year out could eventually overload both the liver and kidneys. Not exactly optimal living.
The current recommendations for carbohydrate intake vary, but generally, between 45 to 65% of calories should come from carbohydrates, preferably whole grain or complex sources (see Appendix A for more information on carbohydrates). 21-22
If carbohydrates are so important for the body, why do they get such a bad rap? It’s a matter of the type and amount of carbohydrate that we put into our bodies.
There are basically two main types of carbohydrates: simple and complex.
Simple carbohydrates are just that, simple sugars. The body doesn’t have to work very hard to get the energy from this source, and therefore it is pretty easy to overeat these types of carbohydrates