Everyone knows that to lose weight you have to eat less and move more. The real question is: how much? How much more do we need to flog ourselves at the gym? Every day? Five times a week? Three?
First time exercisers invariably decide they must slog it out at the gym every day, only to give up completely when they realise it’s not sustainable.
Been there. Done that.
Similarly, we know we need to eat less. But how much less? Lettuce leaves for breakfast, lunch and tea? Liquid diets? No meals out ever again? Strict diets, not adaptable to our fast-paced and unpredictable lives, are also doomed to fail.
Throughout my 20s, I struggled with my weight. Which is to say, every year it steadily crept up and every year I wondered why.
Now I know. Too many calories in and not enough out.
But how many calories are we supposed to be eating, and how much exercise do we need to do?
Like so many things, it turns out everyone is different. Different, except for one thing: we all have a number. A number of calories we can consume each day, without doing exercise, that will keep us at our current weight.
Every moment of every day, our bodies are using energy. To pump the heart, work the lungs, grow skin cells, eyelashes and even pimples. The body requires energy and it gets it from food. That is why, after all, we eat.
But how much should we eat?
Again, it depends on many things, including your height, your weight, your age, your sex.
Clever scientists have designed a way to estimate how many calories your body needs a day just to sustain itself even if you slept all day. Go here to find out your own ‘basal metabolic rate’. For me, it’s about 1550 calories. So even if I stayed in bed all day, I’d need 1550 calories to maintain my weight.
For someone who gets out of bed, but admittedly leads a fairly sedentary life, you can perhaps add another 250 calories a day needed to fuel the body to walk to the bathroom, to the car etc.
So how much should we eat? The answer is we should eat only what we need to sustain us at rest and on the move.
For me, I should be aiming to eat around 1800 a day to sustain my weight. If you are short, skinny, or a woman, you will need less energy than a tall, heavy man.
Makes sense right?
From January 1 this year, I decided to start keeping a track of every calorie I consume using the MyFitnessPal iPhone app. There’s also a website. On average, I have been consuming around 1750 a day - above the target I set myself of 1500 a day. There are days where I’ve stayed at 1500, or gone under. But there have been Saturday nights which tip the daily calorie total well above 3000. A bottle of wine will set you back 550 calories, after all!
But I’m playing an averages game - one blow out in itself won’t derail you. But blow outs every night will. The good, the bad, the alcoholic, it all gets recorded. It’s a great way to keep honest about what you are eating. There’s also a function on the iPhone app where you can search for calorie counts, or even scan barcodes on food for calorie counts.
At the same time, I set myself a target to burn 2000 calories a week in deliberate exercise, including going to the gym or on jogs. I wear a Polar heart rate monitor (they cost around $150) and it tells me how many calories I burn per session. On average, I’ve hit around 1730 a week in exercise calories burned. I didn’t make every session I planned. But I made most and that’s the important thing. It’s all about averages, you see.
So far, I have dropped 3.5 kilograms in just under 2 months. I’m happy with that. I’ll need to step it up a little to meet my target of dropping 10 kilograms before the federal budget on May 14.
Most importantly, I feel back in control of my body. If I put on weight, or don’t lose it, I know why. I either ate too much or moved too little. The body responds very quickly to the incentives you give it.
In the end, there’s no secret to weight loss. And there’s no easy answers.
In fact, it’s all a bit of a hard slog. It’s not always fun to exercise, and I know most days I’d rather watch TV and eat chocolate.
In today’s obesegenic world, with calorie dense food freely available and with so many shortcuts available to stop us from actually needing to get up off our arses, controlling weight is a constant battle.
But with so many negative health and economic impacts arising from obesity, it’s a battle we can’t afford to ignore, nor to lose.
That’s the real bottom line.
Comments on this post close at 8pm AEDT.
Facebook Recommendations
Read all about it
Punch live
Up to the minute Twitter chatter
Recent posts
The latest and greatest
The Punch is moving house
Good morning Punchers. After four years of excellent fun and great conversation, this is the final post…
Will Pope Francis have the vision to tackle this?
I have had some close calls, one that involved what looked to me like an AK47 pointed my way, followed…
Advocating risk management is not “victim blaming”
In a world in which there are still people who subscribe to the vile notion that certain victims of sexual…
Nosebleed Section
choice ringside rantings
From: Hasbro, go straight to gaol, do not pass go
Tim says:
They should update other things in the game too. Instead of a get out of jail free card, they should have a Dodgy Lawyer card that not only gets you out of jail straight away but also gives you a fat payout in compensation for daring to arrest you in the first place. Instead of getting a hotel when you… [read more]From: A guide to summer festivals especially if you wouldn’t go
Kel says:
If you want a festival for older people or for families alike, get amongst the respectable punters at Bluesfest. A truly amazing festival experience to be had of ALL AGES. And all the young "festivalgoers" usually write themselves off on the first night, only to never hear from them again the rest of… [read more]Gentle jabs to the ribs
Superman needs saving
Can somebody please save Superman? He seems to be going through a bit of a crisis. Eighteen months ago,… Read more
Most commented