Day 25 (428-6) What Worked Then Should Work Now

Honestly, I've been weighing myself each morning and I've noticed that my weight is stuck at 428.   I went back to 2010 posts in this blog and re-read a few posts. I found this one along with a comment from a fellow life style changer...  I think Seth had it right and what he wrote goes along with with Derek has been trying to get across to me.   1900 per day and a good calorie burn in  exercise/movement is what it's going to take to burn fat... no mucle.   It takes the combination of the two.  I'm very glad I have this blog...

ETL

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March 13, 2010 Weigh In: 411 lbs, Lost 1 lbs

I often tell my boys that baseball is a thinking man's game. Well losing weight is a thinking person's game as well. For the past two weeks I subjected myself to a little experiment with the goal of figuring out just what my metabolic rate really is.

MyNetDiary's software computes my BMR at 3180. WebMD and other web based calculators confirm this number to be about right for my age, height, weight and level of daily activity. I've been very meticulous in recording EVERTHING I eat since I started this journey on 1/6/10. My average per day for the past two weeks has been 1945 calories which means I should be burning 1235 per day, 1 pound every 3 days...RIGHT? So I should have lost about 4 pounds, RIGHT? Well, during the past 14 days I've lost only 1 pound. Why are the numbers off? I've come up with two reasons:

First, I have not been exercising. If I move my ass I will burn calories. It's that simple and I take total responsibility for not following through on this goal. The weather is getting warmer. I will be coaching two baseball teams soon. My activiy level will increase. All good things. But I also need to get into a routine of daily activity. I will work on this.

Second, the BMR calculators are wrong in my case. I have a slower metabolic rate than the average 411 pound, 49 year old, 6 foot man. I have to believe that based on my two week experiment my actual BMR is more like 2000. To prove this I went back in the records (thanks MyNetDiary) and looked at my caloric intake for those weeks when I was shedding pounds a month or so ago. My average intake was 1500 calories per day. Hmmm.. Well numbers don't lie!

Conclusions:

BMR calculation software may not be right for everyone as a measuring stick. My BMR is actually around 2000. A 1500 calories intake per day should allow me to burn around 500 calories each day (with activity, more). Which is about 1 pound a week. If I have a day where I go 1600 or even 1700 that will be just fine. But 1700 is the absolute ceiling for me.

I need to get myself in the habit of being active. I will burn more calories and lose more weight when I do this.

The big positive is that I am eating good foods and have not gained any weight back. Trust me, I don't take these two accomplishments for granted. However, I now understand the rate my body burns calories and I will do my best to use this knowledge to achieve my goal.

COMMENT FROM SETH:

SethMarch 13, 2010 10:47 PM

In my studying...and we've all done our own form of studying...for a male, cutting your calories that low at a long period of time would only put your body into starvation. In starvation mode - calories are burned mainly from muscle and not fat. Before you cut it that low this is what I would do:

1. Keep it between 1900-2000 cal/day.

2. Hit a calorie burn of 400-500 each day.

3. Up the water intake to 90 ounces +

4. Get your fiber from fruits and vegetables -- lots of these. suggested amount is 25-35g per day. The more fiber you take in -- the more *stuff* you are putting out. It will clean you out.

5. cut sodium.

These are just a few things I would do before I cut so drastically. You have to have teh calories coming in to keep that metabolism.

Also, use the online tools only as tools to benefit your weight loss and not the primary decision maker.

Keep up the good work. A one pound loss is a loss - even if we don't like the amount...it's one hard fought pound