Weight Loss Is A Numbers Game
April 13, 2010 @ 10:26 am
A number of the bloggers I follow don't weight themselves with any regularity ... or at all. The idea is that one shouldn't let their lives and weight loss efforts be ruled by a number on a scale; it emphasizes that this journey is about overall health and well being, about how clothes fit, etc. It's totally valid, and I agree with not weighing oneself daily, but I can't avoid the scale entirely.When I avoid the scale, bad things happen. Humans tend to have a skewed perspective on themselves; we're really good at fooling ourselves that we've not eaten that much, or that we're losing weight when nothing is further from the truth. I'm the king of this - and so I need a frequent reality check to ensure my perceptions are still grounded.
The Game
Whether you use a scale or not, weight loss is a numbers game. Number of calories in, number of calories spent. Spend more than you've eaten and you start tapping your reserves, a.k.a. fat. If you tap 3,500 reserve calories you lose a pound of fat. Then repeat the process 100 times.The key is knowing your basal metabolic rate (BMR) - this is the number of calories your body needs to fuel its daily operations. For me, it's around 2,200 - 2,300 (all equations are only estimates). That means to maintain my weight, I need to eat that many calories. If I eat less than that, I'll start burning reserve calories, which eventually whittles away at my fat stores.
You would think staying under 2,000+ calories is an easy task, that feels like a lot of food, until you start eating a lot of breads, pastas, and pints of Ben & Jerry's in a single evening. When I think about what I've been eating this week compared to what I must have been eating before, it astounds me. Especially when you consider how much exercise I was getting.
Exercise affects the numbers game by essentially giving you wiggle room. If I eat 1,500 calories a day, that's a deficit of 3,500 a week, or 1 pound. If I also exercise and burn 500 calories a day, that's a deficit of 7,000 for the week - or 2 pounds. The key is net calories - calories eaten less calories burned. Measure that against BMR and you have your deficit (or God forbid, a surplus).
The Awesomest Weight Loss Spreadsheet Ever
All this is basic weight loss that anyone on this journey comes to understand. But it's been refreshed in my head because it's become painfully clear that unless I focus on the numbers side of weight loss - and track what I'm actually doing - I will fail. So being a business & tech nerd, the obvious tool to turn to is a spreadsheet. I may have gone overboard. Click to see a full version.
It's pretty nifty if I do say so myself.
To calculate calories during the day I'm using www.myfitnesspal.com.
Will I be tracking this closely for the rest of my journey? I don't know. But for now I need to be retraining my brain to understand just how much food I should actually be eating in order to lose weight, and that means building a mental association between food and calorie counts, so that I can better gauge how well I'm doing (or not).
5 Comments
Michelle hastie — Apr 13, 2010 @ 04:00 pm
Being from the personal training world I thought it was a numbers game too. Turns out the numbers game packed on 25 lbs on my small frame in a yeR and took my clients on a roller coaster ride they never signed up for. If you want off that ride let me know!
Losing Weight Daily's Blogger — Apr 13, 2010 @ 06:01 pm
Hi Michell,
Thanks much for your comment. I can understand where you're coming from; there are a great many things that influence a person's weight loss journey. Many times it seems that just watching calories in and out and knowing your BMR isn't enough, and we end up packing on the pounds.
The reality is that the body is a crazily complex thing, and though it's simple science and rather obvious that weight loss is a numbers games, there are a great many things that influence those numbers. Food and exercise, yes, but also sleep, stress, hydration, balanced nutrition are all things that the body can respond to and effectively change the BMR.
In the greater context of my journey I'm constantly working to address those things - getting enough sleep, meditating, drinking water like a crazy person. This one aspect more directly addresses the fact I need to be better about watching my food intake, and for the time being, that means counting calories. More or less.
thanks again!
Reinaldo — Apr 15, 2010 @ 11:50 pm
You are absolutly right, weight loss is a number game. And I know it's tedious to count calories and everything (been there, done that), BUT... just try it for a month. I strongly believe a month is all it takes for intuitive eating to kick in. For example, measuring 1/2 cup of rice for a month gives you an unthoughted talent: before you know it, you can measure that exact 1/2 a cup just by eye. You check it with the scale and oh, it's pretty close! The same with meats, veggies, ice cream... with your spreadsheet, soon you'll discover the truth about all that ice cream my friend, and I see a facepalm coming in your future XD So, just keep track of everything you eat and you'll be in autopilot in no time. To tell you the truth, I thought you were already doing this. Now I understand one of your posts. This was the step you were lacking of. It's tempting to think that because we kick our asses in the gym we can eat whatever we want, but now that you'll be doing the maths everything will fall in place. Good luck!
Olof — Apr 16, 2010 @ 04:40 am
Did you have an anvil in your pocket last weigh-in?
Good work!
Losing Weight Daily's Blogger — Apr 17, 2010 @ 05:36 pm
@ Reinaldo - Yup! that's exactly the idea. track closely for the foreseeable future until it becomes automatic. I can already sense it heading that way, and my brain and body are adjusting.
@Olof - Ha! I know! 12 pounds is ridiculous ... I even checked the scale to make sure it was weighing things accurately BOTH weeks.