I commend you on taking the time to read this article to learn basics of losing weight and adopting a healthy lifestyle that you can follow for life. Now I know I’ve said it before and I’m sure I will say it again but healthy living is a journey. So change your mindset and accept that it is a lifestyle with no end point. Until you do this you will just jump from diet to diet without ever achieving long lasting success. Not to mention that restrictive diet plans are not healthy and will probably make you miserable. The truth is there is a better way. In this series I will explain the basics of exercise science (the concepts that are not controversial) along with the training and diet strategies that we hear about everyday. With the facts you can choose what will work best for you. I do not believe in one training modality it is all about what you can and will incorporate into your life. So let’s get started.

Fact: Weight loss is a numbers game. Calories in versus calories out.
Knowing this as you proceed is crucial to your success because we can argue all day long about which exercise method is best but your results come down to this 1 concept. Regardless of your plan if you consume more calories that you burn you will gain weight it is that simple.

Fact: There are 3500 calories in 1 lb. To lose 1 lb per week you need to create a deficit of 500 calories per day.
Your body does not care how you create this deficit all that matters is that there is a deficit. You can do this by cutting calories or increasing your activity level. Generally a combination of the two works best.
***Note there is a small percentage of people with metabolic disorders that make it more difficult to lose weight. However these are the minority. Remember you should always check with your doctor before beginning any fitness program.

Next you need to Calculate your resting metabolic rate (RMR):
Your RMR is the number of calories you burn per day at rest. Once you know your RMR you can more accurately plan your diet to create the 500 cal per day deficit and lose weight. I strongly urge you to calculate this because once you know how many calories you burn you can better customize your eating plan.

Men RMR= 66 + (12.7 * height) + (6.27 * weight) – (6.8 * age)

Women RMR = 655 + (4.57 * height) + (4.36 * weight) – (4.7 * age)

Then based on your activity level multiply by the following multipliers. This will give you how many calories you burn in 1 day.

Sedentary = 1.3
Moderately active = 1.4
Very active = 1.5

I got this formula from the e-book The Truth About Six-Pack Abs by Michael D. Geary. I have seen it in other places though and I used it when I first started my workout program. It helped tremendously. If you do not want to calculate it yourself there are a number of calculators on line all you need to do is google it. Keep in mind while exercise is essential to getting healthy and lean diet is about 80% of the equation so do not skip this step.
*** These formulas are just an estimate of your calorie burn to use as a guideline. Everyone is different with a different distribution of lean body mass and fat so this is not exact. I do believe it is a good guideline to start with though. There are also tools you can purchase that calculate your calorie burn more accurately such as the BodyBugg which I use. If you are interested in more information on that leave a comment and I will do a review.

The last concept I would like to address today is about how to calculate the caloric expenditure of exercise. Now I do not expect you to actually do the measurements and calculations for each individual exercise you do. However I think it gives you a better idea of what exercises will be the most effective for you dependent on your goals. I will get into specific exercise modalities in future posts in this series.

So a key component to the results of your workouts is how much work you are actually doing. The formula for work is:
W = F * D
W= the energy expended during an activity
F = the weight you are lifting (this can include your body weight in some exercises
D = the distance you moved the weight

The point here is that the heavier the weight and the greater distance you move that weight the greater the calorie burn will be. Many people spend a lot of time working small muscle groups within a small range of motion and therefore get poor results. Why because they are not doing a lot of work. It’s a very simple principle but it is often overlooked. People spend endless hours working small muscle groups like their abs resulting in very little work instead of doing whole body exercises that are a lot more work. Keep in mind calories are energy units and work is energy expended so if you increase the workload you increase calorie burn. This is essential because remember it all comes down to calories in versus calories out.

Thank you for taking the time to read my article. Please come back tomorrow when I will dig into cardio exercise discussing the benefits and the ways you can incorporate it into your workout plan. Please leave a comment on what you liked or disliked and of course feel free to ask questions. Please retweet if you found the information useful.

To your health
Laura

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