The skinny on calorie intake and outgo

This diet is NOT a get skinny diet. It is not about weight loss. If you have a BMI in the "normal" range, by all means, skip this post. Check here to see:

http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/

If you don't have a "normal" BMI, consider this analogy. You have a 2010 Mercedes sports car. You also have a 1979 Buick. You put premium gas in BOTH cars. The good gas improves the performance of both cars, but the Mercedes still way outperforms your Buick. Your Buick needs an overhaul. If YOU are a Buick, you might need to lose weight in order to feel the maximum effects of healthy eating.

This post is going to make you do math. I know, it sucks, but if you want to know the REAL deal about what YOU need to do for your unique body, you must do it. The fact is, there really is a FORMULA for weight loss. You MUST burn more calories than you eat. Period. But, you need to know how many you burn AND how many you eat in order to really know that you are, in fact, on a diet. If there isn't a deficit between what goes in and what goes out, then you aren't really on a diet, are you?

The good news is..... IF YOU ARE ALIVE, YOU ARE BURNING CALORIES!! Wahoo for this! You don't HAVE to go to the gym for an hour every day to lose pounds. You CAN do that, and you'll look hotter if you do, but you don't have to. If you spend the whole day resting, sitting or laying on the couch reading a book, watching TV, looking out the window, you are still burning calories. The bigger you are, the more you are burning. A 500 lb man will burn more calories while laying on the couch than a 100 lb woman. This is why he eats so much. His body burns more calories. If you've ever done Weight Watchers, you know that bigger people get more "points" than little people. That is because they burn more calories. This calorie burning rate is called "Resting Metabolic Rate" or RMR. To find out what your RMR is, go to this site:

http://www.shapeup.org/interactive/rmr1.php

Plug in the information. It will tell you how many calories you'd burn if you rested all day. That calorie total is the bare minimum number of calories you need to sustain you IF you are a couch potato.

You are NOT a couch potato. You take a shower, do laundry, make meals, run the vacuum, wrangle kids, drive the car, go to your job, take showers, get dressed, have sex, and any number of things throughout the day. All of these things burn calories. You get to add 100 to 200 calories to your RMR just for regular daily stuff like I just listed. If you exercise, you get to add even more. Go to this site to find how many calories are burned in ANY activity.

http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.php

All the little things I listed above, add up very slowly, so you can guess on 100 to 200 depending on if you had a busy day or a sedentary day, but real exercise will add quite a few calories. You'll want to know how more you can eat, so go check it out!

Next, for the calories that go IN, go to the following site and sign up:

http://www.sparkpeople.com/

Set up your account and choose to track the following:

calories
fat
carbs
protein
fiber
sodium

the first 4 are automatic. The last two must be selected by you. Sparkpeople will likely recommend too many calories for you. Change the number to better reflect the research you just did. I'm a small person. My calorie window is 1250-1400 calories. I allow myself 1400 on a busy day and 1250 on a lazy day. I allow myself up to 1600 if I shovel snow for an hour, go for a long walk with the dog, take the kids sledding, or do a workout video.

RULE #6

A. Go to sparkpeople at least once a day, every day, for 3 weeks and enter in every single item you eat. Try your best to stay within the limits given to you in each category. Yes, it is tedious, but you don't have to do this forever. For 3 weeks, you are going to track your calories and nutrients and you will pay attention to what the numbers say. Notice how you feel when you don't get enough fiber and protein. Notice what the scale says when you go way over your sodium goal one day. If you click on "see today's full report" you can see your whole day, plus a pie chart that indicates what percentage of your food intake went to carbs, fat, and protein. Try to manage your meals to make your pie chart look like the recommended pie chart.

B. After your 3 week stint on sparkpeople, you may step away from it if you feel like you are ready. HOWEVER, for every day that you fall off your own bandwagon, you MUST go back to sparkpeople for a day, up to 3 weeks. So if you go away for the weekend and eat like a silly person, then come back, re-read my rules, and do sparkpeople for 2 days. If you blow it and eat Twinkies and Coke for a month, and then decide you are ready to be sane again, then come back, re-read my rules, and go back to sparkpeople for 3 weeks.