Week 5 - Know your burn

So far I have mainly talked about how to think about weight loss. I haven't yet touched on how to actually get started. So today I would like to talk about the first step in actually getting to your goal. 

Most of the time when I hear people talking about a weight loss goal they first talk about how much they think they should eat. While that is very important, they forget to mention what comes first: knowing how much their body burns. Why do we care? Remember that your goal is not actually WEIGHT loss it's FAT loss. If you put yourself at too high of a calorie deficit or force your body into ketosis (like in low-carb diets) you will likely lose a higher percentage of lean body mass. That's the good stuff like muscle that burns calories just by existing. If you really want to maximize your FAT loss, knowing what your body burns in a given day is vital to knowing how many calories you should actually eat in a day.

It is also important to know when it changes. As you lose fat, your body will likely (though not always) need less calories to maintain it's mass than before. In some cases (like in the case of some individuals who increase their metabolism by significant daily physical activity), they may need more to maintain a proper deficit. 

So how can you tell what your body burns?:

Guess:

• Most weight loss programs out there take a few indicators (BMI, age and gender) and assign people to 1200, 1500 or 1800 calories a day. Though most people will lose weight at these levels, it is a cookie cutter approach that is meant for everyone to lose weight. Since it is also based on BMI, it does not take lean body mass into consideration. The upsides, however, are that it is easy and you will likely lose weight. The downsides are that you don't know whether it is fat or muscle that you are losing. 

Estimate:

• The difference between guessing and estimating is all a matter of information. You can use nutritionist certified software, a nutritionist, or a series of complicated formulas to more accurately  estimate your basal metabolic rate. Usually you will have to include body fat percentage, overall health, and lifestyle. The upsides are that you will have a more individualized program and likely be able to eat more than if you had a generic guess. You can also update your estimation based on lifestyle changes to make sure you are anticipating changes to your metabolism. The downside is that it is more work and may or may not cost money.

Measure:

• There are many devices out there on the market to measure your caloric expenditure. They range from the very basic pedometer which simply measures steps taken to very accurate metabolic armbands which include sleep monitors, heart rate, sweat output, body temperature, and acceleration. The upside is that they can be very accurate and give you data from day to day. No one burns the same amount of calories every day and therefore needs exactly the same amount every day. The downside is that, in order to get the data it needs to be worn. The best data comes if you wear it as close to 24hrs as you can. They can also get pretty expensive if you go for a more accurate model (I personally think it is a great investment and use a metabolic armband every day). 

Whichever method you choose, set a goal calorie intake based on your daily output. I'll be writing about that next week. 

My Progress: 

Weight: 185.1. I will be asking my trainer to give me measurements this week so we will see how much of that is actually fat. Wish me luck!

Successes: I FINALLY got to the weight room this week! I ended up doing four days in a row which was awesome! I am extremely sore and will probably give myself more breaks between sessions in the future but I really wanted to hit my goal of four times a week. 

Confession: I had two days of no deficit with the holiday on Monday and had a hard time reaching my 500 calorie deficit goal the rest of the week but it was still overall a week of progress.