thirtytwo

Today is the 51st day of my self imposed weight loss diet… and so far its trending well. I’ve lost 11lbs so far, on average, that’s around 0.22lbs a day or 1.54bs a week….which is within the ideal range of 1- 2lb per week.

Im not sure if you can see the 11lb decrease from these pictures….but a lot of my friends seem to think so…

June 14, 2008 - 2 days before I started the diet at 189 lbs

July 10, 2008 – 25 days after I started the diet at 182 lbs
July 30, 2008 – 45 days after I started the diet at 178 lbs

Anyway, just an update on how I lost the first 11 lbs. Ive modified my initial plan (blog post dated June 16) based on my own analysis on what I think would work for me and what woud not…and they are …. :

COUNTING CALORIES COUNT! If weight is a number…therefore, manipulating it will involve some math. After extensive googling of the subject, here are some of the facts that support my theory…

Our body needs energy to live. This energy is measurable by a unit called CALORIE. We get it in a form of food..we eat the food and the our body transforms it to energy. In order to compute our TOTAL CALORIE REQUIREMENT PER DAY we need to know these two things :

BASAL METABOLIC RATE (BMR) in calories per day… is the number of calories a person need to perform day to day internal body functions e.g. breathing, digestion, blood circulation, perspiration, …etc etc…need I say more? in short, even if a person lies in bed all day and doesn’t do anything he/she would still consume this much calories. So what is this magic number? Googling BMR will direct you to various sites that will compute it for you (ex: http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/ ). BMR is a function of a person’s weight, height, age, and gender. Male BMR is higher than Female...i know that is so sexist…(hahaha). The heavier a person is the higher his/her BMR. The older the person is, the lower his/her BMR. That’s the reason why people gain weight as they age. Ideally, a person should decreases his/her calorie intake (food intake) as they grow old to maintain his/her current weight. You can also compute your BMR using the Harris Benedict formula…or Mifflin http://health.drgily.com/basal-metabolic-rate-calculator.php

Now, since we don’t really lie in bed all day…it means on top of the BMR, we consume additional calories to perform task like…sitting, standing, walking, chewing…etc etc… What is that magic number? If you want a really detailed analysis, list down all your activities for 24 hours, from sleeping, sitting standing, walking, and exercising, then compute total approximate calories spent per day. Sometimes this is given as a % of our BMR depending on our activity level starting at say 15% upwards depending on how active a person you are.

In order to track the energy we get from food, it is important to list down everything that we eat and drink (except water which is zero calories) on a daily basis. Calorie equivalent of food can be obtained from the labels (always be mindful of the serving size portion and the unit whether kj or kcal)…website…e.g. http://www.acaloriecounter.com/ or by simply googling it.

BASIC ENERGY EQUATION

Energy in from food = Energy out from BMR + activities , if we want to maintain our current weight

Energy in from food should be greater than the energy out from BMR + activities , if we want to gain weight

Energy in from food should be less than the energy out from BMR + activities , if we want to loose weight. Obviously, I fall into this category. How much calorie deficit do I need? That would would be answered by the next equation

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CALORIE AND LBS: to loose 1lb of weight (hopefully mostly fats) = 3500kcal decrease in calorie intake (deficit).

So if I want to loose 1lb of weight per week I need to decrease my calorie intake by 3500kcal per week divided by 7= 500kcal deficit per day.

IDEAL DISTRIBUTION : where will I get this 500kcal per day deficit? Ideally 50%(250kcal) should come from food deficit, and 50% (250kcal) from activity deficit in layman term….exercise….yup unavoidable sad fact..:(

Food : from my 2018kcal requirement per day I would subtract 250kcal. Which means I can only eat 1768 kcal worth of food maximum per day. Make sure the calories are from healthy foods (not fatty), fruits and veggies, wheat bread, lean meat, fish, so that you still get the nutrients that your body needs even though your dieting.

Remember :

Don’t starve yourself…eat small meals every 2-3 hrs.

Drink at least 2L of water a day.

Sleep 7-8hrs a day (this is just way too hard to follow).

Make sure we consume at least 1200kcal a day (minimum).

Exercise : I need to consume 250kcal per day on exercise. Im really not a sporty person, the easiest sport I can think of is walking (if it can be called as such). If I do brisk walking for an hour everyday, that would cover the 250kcal I need to spend on activities daily. There are many websites that give calorie equivalent of activities depending on a persons weight (ex http://primusweb.com/fitnesspartner/jumpsite/calculat.htm ). The heavier you are, the more calories you spend to do a certain activity.

RECALCULATE ! I want to emphasize one thing though… daily calorie requirement is a function of a persons current weight…so if our weight change significantly (hopefully decrease in my case)…. our calorie requirement will also change. So, calorie requirement computation should be updated from time to time…say monthly. In my case I update it weekly because I’ve preprogrammed my excel to do it everytime I input my current weight at the start of each week.

I still have 21 more lbs to go to reach my initial goal of loosing 32lbs. *siiigggghhhh.

Unfortunately my weight has been stuck to 178lbs for the past 17days. This is what dieters call “plateu stage”…and im beginning to hate the word more and more…especially every morning when I step on the scale …They say it would last for 3-4weeks. Apparently my body needs something shocking to dereail it out of this mode. I should start going the gym... and I should do it soon… *double siiiiiggggghhhhhhhh…