If Calories IN = Calories OUT, then Weight MANAGEMENT

If Calories IN < Calories OUT, then Weight LOSS 

If Calories IN > Calories OUT, then Weight GAIN

That’s it in a nutshell.  Your calories in are the calories you get eating!  Your calories out are the calories your body burns through your base metabolism plus the calories you burn during activity and exercise.  

If you want to lose weight, you must eat fewer calories than you burn to create a calorie deficit.  To lose one pound of fat, you must have a calorie deficit of 3500 calories.  That’s about 500 calories per day through a combination of reducing your food intake and getting more exercise.

 Truly, that’s it.  If you have never done a food diary and added up calories, you do not know how many calories you are consuming.   And every calorie in every nibble, every bite, every drink counts.   If you don’t know why you are not losing weight, an important first step is to add up what calories you are consuming.  Do it for one day, just to get an idea. 

I hear often that people don’t feel that their diet is too bad, but they have gained weight over the years.  I believe them!  They probably don’t have too poor of a diet, but they are overeating/overdrinking at times and not undereating at other times to offset.  If you have 350 extra calories on a weekend in cocktails and food, and you never adjust your calorie intake during the week, that is 350 extra calories you have stored.  If you do that once a month, over one year, you have gained over one pound.  Then do the math -  over ten years that’s ten pounds, twenty years, twenty pounds, etc. etc. etc.

 Studies show that we UNDERESTIMATE how much food we are eating and OVERESTIMATE the time and intensity of our workouts.  We need to get REAL about this if you want to get serious about weight loss.   

9/08/09     At my Real Fit Cardio Club (email me for info!), we've been talking about target heart rates and what is an aerobic workout.  In general, an aerobic workout is 70-80% of maximum heart rate.   60-70% is a good target for if you are just starting out, for endurance or for recovery.  So what number is that for you?  For a rule of thumb,  you can subtract your age from 220 and multiply that by 70%-80%.

So, if you are age 48, it goes like this:

 220 - 48 =  172 , so

60% = 103,  

70%=120 and

80%=138 . 

BUT, once you are over 40, I find these calculations often are too low.  So, you can fine tune your heartrate by have a submaximal heart rate test done.  With this, you will check your heart rate at near your peak to get your own personal heart rate zones. 

Using the above client as an example and performing a submax HR test, she was found to have a peak or 90% heart rate of 163. So in this example, her 90% was 163, which means the maximal HR (100%) would be 181(163/.9).  So the actual aerobic zone would be 127 (70% of 181) to 145 (80%).  Higher than using the age charts. 

Of course, make sure you have a go-ahead from your doctor before starting any exercise routine.

If you have any questions, email them to me and I will answer them here on my website.