How do I lose weight?

Franchise.. thanks for the tip, but, what does the number you get from this equation mean?

Are there certain ranges of numbers that are good/bad/ok? What's the deal with this?


EDIT*

Just found this on the net..

Harris Benedict Formula

To determine your total daily calorie needs, multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity factor, as follows:

1. If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
2. If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
3. If you are moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
4. If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
5. If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9


I workout about 4 days a week.. so I guess I'll take my BMR, 2374.1 x 1.55 = 3680

That is the caloric intake I need to maintain my weight? Yipes.

Here's the reference link:
http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equation/

 

I've been on Atkins since Novemeber and I've gone from 250 to 220. I'd like to lose another 15 or so pounds and then go back to a more balanced diet to maintain that weight.

I haven't been working out because I hear that you can't build muscle without carb intake so I would basically be waisting my energy. (Is this true Franchise3?) I've been drinking about 10 gallons of water a day.

Atkins gets a bad rap, but I think it's fine if you use common sense. Obviously, it's not healthy if you eat saugage, bacon and beef 3 times a day. I eat lots of chicken and tuna.

 

Everything I've read says that carbs are a vital piece to building muscle, so yeah you're right about that.

 

There isn't necessarily a problem with water-weight (your body is comprised of mostly water, of course - but the water weight I was referring to is "excess" water weight). There are certain foods that will make you retain excess water, which isn't really a problem - if you are at a lower bodyfat% the excess water will make you look somewhat bloated and less "cut" and of course, if you are carrying excess water, that weight will show up on the scale.

I merely stated this earlier because DonnyMost had dropped a substantial number of lbs in a short amount of time. If he made a radical change in his eating habits or exercise schedule, then the excess water weight would be the first to go. Usually dropping that much weight in that short of time would be a fitness no-no, but if a good deal of it was excess water, then that is perfectly understandable.

One of the big things that will make your body retain excess water is sodium (this is because your body maintains a proportion of sodium/water in your body - add more sodium and your body will hold in more water to keep the proportion equal), so chances are if you are eating a lot of processed foods or fast foods, then you are probably carrying around a good deal of excess water-weight. A lot of processed foods add a lot of sodium to them to make them taste better - take a look at some nutrition labels and you'll be surprised how much sodium is in some foods that you would have never expected.

 

There is no good or bad range of numbers. The equation will calculate your daily caloric needs to maintain your weight. Lots of factors go into this (height, weight, age, activity level, bodyfat%, etc). A 6'6" person will need more calories per day than a 6'0 person to maintain his weight and keep basic body functions running. A big negative for the Harris-Benedict formula is that it doesn't take into account bodyfat%. Off the top of my head, if I remember correctly, a pound of muscle will burn up to 50 calories a day, compared to 2 calories for a pound of fat. So, an NFL athlete who is 250, but has a ton of muscle will be a calorie burning machine, whereas an average person who is 250 will just be storing a ton of excess fat - both of these people weighing the same amount will burn a different number of calories per day at rest. Not to say the formula shouldn't be used - for most people it is a perfectly good estimate.

In short, the number you are getting is how much calories you should get per day.

I've never found the activity factor to be much use as it routinely overestimates caloric needs. The activity factor should take into account what kind of activity (ie job) you do throughout the entire day coupled with what extracurricular exercise you do. The info you found neglects stating how much work activity you will be doing throughout the entire day. ALSO, when you use the activity factor you are finding how many calories you need to maintain your weight with all the exercise included! This means no weight loss will result from exercising. I hope that makes sense.

To lose weight I'd stay around your base number (with no activity factor included) and add in daily exercise. This will probably put you somewhere around a 1000 calorie deficit per day, which equals 2 lbs per week.

 

True. When you lift weights you are depleting your glycogen stores, which you need carbs to restore.

I actually read the Atkins Diet book for leisure reading (weird, huh?), just so I could be well-informed. I can't be expected to make intelligent comments on it if I'm not well-read on the subject.

Like you said, a lot of people abuse Atkins and go on it without every actually reading how it works - they think it gives them the liberty to eat all kinds of fatty foods as long as they don't have carbs. A lot of saturated fat is bad for you regardless of what diet you are on.

Anyway, after you get off Atkins, don't be surprised if your body darts up a little bit in weight - it will just be water weight (carbs are a holding cell for water in the body).

 

Franchise3,

Thanks for your professional advice, great stuff man.

I too have been dieting for a while now (about 6 months or so) and have lost about 50 pounds in the process. I haven't worked out at all during that period of time, just dieting.

Generally, I eat around 1000 calories per day. The problem is I lost a lot of weight in the first couple of months, but since then that weight less has been going a lot slower, may be it's that "maintenance" mode thing you were talking about.

For the past couple of weeks, I have taken someone's advise that was similar to yours to up my calorie intake to around 1500 or so per day, so as to raise my metabolism level. I just did that formula thing and it says I should consume around 2800 daily to maintain my weight. So I am not sure if 1500 will prevent my body from slowing down my metabolism and thereby having a harder time losing weight or not, but that's what I have been following for a couple of weeks now, I hope it accelerates my wight loss somwhat.

 

I'll jump off of that bridge when I get to it!

Seriously, thanks for the good advice. Good to have a professional on the bbs.

 

I'm not sure what your height and weight are (I'd need to know that to be sure), but it sounds like 1500 may still be a little low - but if you aren't exercising regularly still and just dieting, it may be perfectly OK based on what your height/weight are.

One of the worst things people can do is consume a level of calories that are far below their maintenance level. You'll lose weight, but the harmful part is a good proportion of lost pounds will be muscle along with the fat. And, like I said before, a pound of muscle can burn up to 50 calories per day.

Just as an purely hypothetical example to help illustrate my point, let's say before you lost those 50 pounds your maintenance caloric level was 2500 calories a day. You lose those 50 lbs, but due to the very low amount of calories you are consuming, 15 lbs of that number is lost muscle. 15 lbs x 50 calories per day that muscle could be burning = 750 calories. Now all of a sudden your maintenance becomes 2500-750 = 1750 at most (probably more like 1700 because the lost fat consumes about 2 cal/lb per day). Now you can see why it becomes harder to lose weight - your maintenance level is much lower!

In evolutionary terms, your body is programmed to lose muscle first if it isn't receiving sufficient calories. In a time of scarce food/famine, the body has no need for calorie-draining muscle and it needs to protect its fat reserves in case it needs to live of them. Nowadays, famine isn't really an issue, but that is still how the body will react to a large calorie deficit.

 

I'm surprised this hasn't come up yet, but basketball is certainly not an ideal exercise for losing weight for most people. Lots of stopping between running and jumping. You want an activity that provides a constant level of exertion for an extended period of time. The fitness folks will talk about an "ideal fat burning range" based on your working pulse rate as a % of your max rate and all that stuff. Suffice to say that you want to work at least that hard.

For me, the following exercises are golden: running, biking, and swimming. YMMV.

 

I'm not so sure about that.

Maybe organized basketball isn't an ideal exercise, but playing a pickup game certainly is.. all you do is run and jump.. very little stopping..

 

I've never had pho (I should probably find a place that has it, sounds tasty), but from reading about it just now I'll throw in my 2 cents.

It's no doubt a lot of water weight. I'd imagine pho is very high in sodium, which is a main culprit for retaining excess water. Someone who is more familiar with the dish may be able to chime in and say if this is true.

Best way to get rid of excess water weight? Drink more water, believe it or not. If you don't drink enough water daily, your body will hold onto every drop because it doesn't know when it is going to get more. Drinking more water will help flush out some of the sodium in your body and it will also signal to your body that it can get rid of the excess water because it will be receiving a steady supply. Also, working out will help too (sweat = salt + water), just make sure to rehydrate afterwards.

As far as weighing yourself, weight can fluctuate greatly from day-to-day and hour-to-hour. I can literally go though a range of -/+5lbs of my normal bodyweight throughout the day. If you look at the scale constantly it can make you go insane! Pick a specific day and time and only weight yourself once a week on that day at that specific time. If you do this you will see a definite weight-loss trend.

 

OK, Franchise, now that you're back in this thread...

What's up with situps and crunches? I've heard that they're completely useless. Are they a good way to burn fat in the gut, or are they strictly for muscle definition after excess fat is lost? I can barely do 50 crunches, and I have to do them in sets of ten.

 

This is actually something that is being argued in health journals constantly right now, whether steady-state cardio is > interval-type cardio.

In high school, before I was really into fitness, I lost 30 lbs over the course of a summer doing nothing but limiting my food intake to ~2000 cal/day and playing pick-up basketball. I have no doubt I lost some muscle mass because my diet wasn't ideal, but that's an entirely different story.

The name of the game is: burning calories. If you can't stand running/biking/swimming, you'll be more likely to neglect going to the gym because you can't stand those types of exercises. Do what you enjoy. The results may not be as fast, but you'll be more likely to stick with it.

 

Strictly for muscle definition. Two things:

1) Crunches are better for abs. Full sit-ups target the hip-flexors more.

2) It's impossible to "spot-reduce" fat. You won't lose fat for your stomach by doing sit-ups, you won't lose fat from your thighs by using the thighmaster, etc. This is a long-standing myth that has been perpetuated by infomercials and products to help boost sales. The only way to lose fat from a specific area it to lose fat from all over the body with exercise+diet.

You may want to keep doing the crunches though, because then the definition will already be there while the weight is coming off. There is no better feeling then losing some weight and then seeing the faint outline of your abs.

 

Let me add on to this because I don't want people to think that the only use for crunches is strictly aesthetic. They also help strengthen some of the core muscles which are very useful in a ton of other exercises, sports, etc.

 

I haven't seen my abs since the 6th grade! I hope they're still there.

Franchise3, I was told that taking a potassium supplement is a good idea if you're not eating a lot of carbs. Why is that? What exactly does potassium do for your body?

Now that we know you're a professional trainer, we're never going to leave you alone. Just be aware of that!

 

I lost about 50 pounds in one Semester.

I strictly cut out all sodas and drank strictly water. I played basketball 5-7 days a week for about 2 hours. And the midnight snacks had to go also.

I went from about 225 to 175.

Now I'm up to 185 the biggest I've been in a few years. I plan on getting back to 175 the same way.