Do the Math

Here are some numbers for you; you may calculate them in whatever way you see fit.  I’m sorry I have no heart-warming motivational story to go along with the numbers, but I find that sometimes I just have to look at the facts and ignore the distractions.  Sometimes I’m blunt that way.

Calories per pound:  3500.  This means that if I weigh 140 pounds, but I know I should weigh 130, I need to get rid of 35,000 calories-worth of weight.  I can burn those off by exercising, or I can just eat less every day and burn them off by living.  Ideally, I’ll do both.

My personal resting metabolic rate (RMR): approximately 1650.  I’ve had this tested a couple of times; it basically means that I burn about 1650 calories a day just by existing.  It includes a minimum of normal activity, but not things like going up and down stairs, or walking through parking lots, or exercising.  For the record, I’m a totally average-sized American female:  I’m exactly 5’6″, and I have normal sized bones.  Most people do–we used to think Lee was big-boned, but then he lost weight.  Turns out he was just fat.  Sometimes the truth sucks.

Calories burned by walking or running:  approximately 100 per mile (don’t ask me why it’s the same for walking or running, when running seems so much harder–it doesn’t make sense to me, either.  Just deal with it).

So here are some possible combinations of all these numbers:

If I want to lose ten pounds, I have a choice.  I can eat fewer calories than my RMR (1650) requires, sit around the house and not do much, and eventually I’ll lose the weight.  On that plan, if I eat, say, 1200 calories a day, I’ll lose a pound every 8 or 9 days.  Seems reasonable.  I happen to know, though, that eating just 1200 calories a day feels pretty restrictive, and requires keeping track of EVERYTHING I eat (been there, done that–may yet do it again).

Another option is to eat closer to my RMR–1650 calories per day–and increase the activity level.  This requires thinking about things like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking at the far end of the parking lot, walking upstairs instead of hollering at the kids, doing yardwork instead of reading, and going for a short walk after dinner instead of watching television.  And paying very close attention to what I eat–probably still some calorie counting, at least till I can “remember” what a 500-calorie meal looks like.  With a fairly average activity level like this, I can still lose a pound every 8 or 9 days, if I’m careful.

A third option is to add in some substantial exercise.  If I do everything I listed in the above paragraph, plus go for a 4-mile walk or run every morning, I can eat closer to 2000 calories a day and still lose weight gradually.  Or I can stick with something closer to 1700 calories per day and lose that pound every 6 or 7 days (it’s generally recommended that you not lose more than a pound a week if you want to stay healthy and keep it off).

Here’s another interesting way of looking at it:

If a pound is 3500 calories, that’s 35 miles of walking, if I don’t change my eating habits.

4 miles a day for a month is 120 miles, or roughly 4 pounds.

BUT–1 Oreo cookie is 55 calories.  So if I go out and walk some random distance for 30 minutes, convince myself it was a long walk without checking the mileage, and then eat a handful of Oreos, I’m going to GAIN weight (that 30 minutes was most likely TWO miles, not four).

Do your own math.