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July 7, 2005

Obsessive Compulsive Mind Bender

Last week through me for a loop, so I went a did some research to learn a few things about losing weight.  I credit this site for all the great information I gathered.

In order to be the weight that I was before I started this website I must have been eating 3000-4000 calories a day. My weight had been steadily increasing since giving birth 17 months ago. I always assumed, because I was eating so much, that any decrease (even a little) would help me lose something. I WAS WRONG. It doesn’t work that way. A slight decrease would only make me GAIN a little slower.

Doesn’t that suck? Here’s how it works. Below are my stats.

Female 33, 5'2", 185 lb
BMI=33.8 (Body Mass Index, 20 more pounds until I’m considered just overweight instead of obese. Oh joyous.)
BMR=1,594 (Basal Metabolic Rate) the calories I burn when I’m doing nothing
RMR=1,497 (Resting Metabolic Rate) what I burn when I’m doing less than nothing

If I were to take in account some activities that I do in any given day the amount of calories I expend would go up.

Food - preparing, at home
136 calories in 1 hr
Eating – sitting – (plenty of this going on)
82 calories in 1 hr
Taking a Shower – (I work from home so I don’t take too many of these )
54 calories in 30 min
Dressing and Undressing – (I work from home, so not too much of this going on)
54 calories in 30 min
Watching - TV or movie
109 calories in 2 hr

I’m going to round the number, but maybe it’s safe to say that I burn 2000 calories on an average day (no exercise included)

That BMR and RMR are key numbers to know. Either one (probably more accurate to go with the RMR) is about the calories I need to eat to STAY THE SAME WEIGHT. That is to stay 185, it goes lower once I lose some weight.

It is important to know your BMR for whatever weight you are. You need to eat about 500 less calories a day than your BMR or RMR to lose 1 pound a week. Or better yet, so that you’re not starving, exercise can knock those calories out too.

Around 3500 calories will amount to a pound. In order to lose a modest 2 pounds per week you need to cut back or burn off 7000 calories.

See how tough this is?!

Here’s how it breaks down for me:
Aerobics - high impact = 441 calories in 45 min
So I better eat only 1500 calories a day at most.
If I do that amount of aerobic activity every day and eat only 1500 calories then I will lose 2 pounds in a week. In my next post I'll show how hard it is to eat no more than around 1500 calories a day.

WOW, that really puts things into perspective. It makes what we’re doing that much more amazing. For someone who came from eating thousands of calories to get used to eating only 1500, or so, is quite an accomplishment.  While on this obsessive compulsive mind bender I looked up some nutritional information of places where I sometimes eat out.  I'll post that next, but basically, I never want to eat out again.

I feel a lot better about my no loss last week.  It apparently takes quite a bit of work just to not gain (for me anyway).
 

Posted by hopeful @ July 7, 2005 11:18 AM