Some ‘quick and dirty’ math today.
Here is a hypothetical situation for you…
Your basal metabolic rate is 1,500 calories (Remember, this is just an example I’m not saying that YOUR BMR is exactly 1,500).
If you include your daily exercise, and the costs of eating, your total daily energy Expenditure is 2,200 Calories per day.
So the total amount of calories that you burn in a day is 2,200.
Now in this hypothetical situation, you’ve decided that you want to lose some weight.
You read around on the internet and discover that if you eat 500 less calories per day, the over the course of a week you should lose 1 pound of fat.
So you give it a try.
You count your calories meticulously. With precision that would make NASA engineers jealous.
You know for an absolute FACT that you ate 500 less calories EVERY SINGLE DAY.
But you still didn’t lose weight.
What gives?
Did you slow down your metabolism?
Is your metabolism broken?
even worse…did you enter Starvation mode?
Actually…. It’s none of the above.
You’ve been eating 2,900 Calories for the past year (part of the reason you are trying to lose weight in the first place)
2,900 -500 = 2,400
Bottom line: Even with you’re new diet, YOU ARE STILL OVEREATING BY 200 CALORIES!!!
This is why the old saying ‘eat 500 less calories to lose weight’ doesn’t work….because it’s not a complete sentence.
it should be:
“Eat 500 less calories per day THAN YOU BURN”.
I know it seems overly simple, but this example may help a lot of people who are struggling to lose weight. You can be ‘dieting’ and still overeating.
The amount you need to eat is probably a lot less then you might think.
BP
