Calories In = Calories Out

Just wanted to share a nutrition concept.

Most people who are looking to lose weight think the answer is a lower calorie, starve myself diet. What they are really doing is setting themselves up for not only failure but a relapse. How many times have we "dieted" only to give up and put more all the weight and then some back on?

So, why is that we can lose so much weight so fast on this concept of basically starving ourselves, only to regain the weight, sometimes only "eating what everyone else is"?

The body is comprised of two main elements. Fat and lean muscle. We all want to get rid of the fat because that's what makes us not only look, well, fat, but also is the contributor to so many health problems. Here is the nuts and bolts of why this happens.

When we starve ourselves in an attempt to lose weight, or even inadvertently by just not making the time to eat, we end up starving the muscles in our bodies as well. When the body thinks it isn't getting enough food, it will go into a protective mode and begin storing everything it can. This is why when you diet by drastically lowering you caloric intake, it works for a few weeks then stalls. At that point you are given a choice, give up and gain the weight back or drop the calories even more to regain more weight loss.

As soon as you decide to drop the calories even more, your metabolism, the fiery furnace inside your body, slows even more. Your body then begins to take away lean muscle for fuel, saving the stored fat for protection. You may lose more weight, but it won't be from fat loss! Think of your metabolism like a wood stove. If you don't frequently add fuel(wood), the fire will eventually go out. Food is our fuel and it needs to be continually added to our wood stove to keep the fire burning. At the same token, if we overload our stove with too much fuel at once it can also have a adverse effect on how hot the fire burns.

So we end up in an endless cycle. As we lower our calories in drastic measures, we in turn lower the metabolism. This will cause the body to store everything and then take from our bodies the energy it needs to survive, robbing from lean muscle. When our muscle mass shrinks, our metabolism slows even more. Remember, the more lean muscle we have, the more we burn fat. Larger muscle require more energy, thus burn more calories.

In order to achieve a successful nutrition plan you must base it on calorie deficits. This means the calories you burn each day must be more than the calories you consume. This is done one of two ways. Either lower the calories you take in, something we see ends the wrong way, or increase the amount of calories you burn each day.

No one ever said being in shape and having a healthy lifestyle was easy. There is hard work involved. But what are the rewards? Remember to eat healthy foods, divide your food intake into 6 periods of consumption throughout the day, exercise regularly and stay off the scale. You can lose fat without actually losing weight. Muscle takes up a third of the space on our body as the same weight in fat. You may even gain a few pounds at first but remember, as the muscles get bigger and stronger, they become fat fighting machines. Soon you will be able to eat more and not gain weight, your metabolism will raise and you will exceed any fitness goals you may have set for yourself.

A good guideline to setting yourself up is to figure out what best suits you for your age, current weight and body fat percentage. There are plenty of good online calculators for determining your current caloric needs for maintenance. Once you find that out, implement and exercise plan, and get yourself in a calorie deficit. You should shoot for 15-20% lower calories than your maintenance level. This is a small deficit but the weight you loose will be close to 100% fat loss and your lean muscle will remain intact. The American College of Sports Medicine states that the minimum caloric intake for women should never drop below 1200 per day, men 1800. They also stated that a caloric deficit should never go further than 1000 calories. Another thing to remember is one pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories per week. If your maintenance calories are 2500 per day and you drop it by 500 per day, you will lose about 3500 calories in the week, thus one pound of fat.

So get on track. Get a fitness plan. Start out small and work up but get that needed extra exercise. Even if it is a half hour brisk walk around the block, do something! Find your maintenance level for your caloric intake, and get into a small deficit and watch that fat melt off you. Remember it is a process. To quote Tony Horton, "Rome wasn't built in a day and neither is your body!"

Here is a good online free calculator to help you.
Calorie Calculator

Feel free to stop by my website and see what programs can work for you!
J-Squared Fitness


One last thing...this is only a guideline. What may work for some may not work for others. I in no way claim to be a medical professional nor do I claim to have all the answers. Always consult you doctor before going on any program and be sure you are doing what works for you.