Output > Input

So the "aha moment" for me in this journey came during a discussion with a friend of mine. He's seriously one of the smartest people I know, if not the smartest. He's a doctor, for Christ's sake. We were talking about losing weight; what he's been doing; what I've been doing, etc. This discussion came about 4 weeks into my journey and to be honest I was swinging in the dark hoping to hit something. I was trying to get more active and then watch what I was cramming into my mouth, but you can see from the early part of the blog, it was very hit and miss. He was saying it's all about how many calories your body needs on a daily basis. I know, what you are going to say, "Well no shit, that sounds simple, right?" Yes, it's a very well known concept, but I wasn't really paying that much attention to the number of calories I was taking in. Sure I thought I was eating healthier, and I was, but I was still not gauging was I was taking in. So I did a little research and came across this article that shed a lot of light. It also allowed me to figure my BMR, which is the daily amount of calories I need to have for my body. Your body will roughly use 60% of your daily calorie intake just to fuel the necessities, like breathing and such. So I figured my BMR by the following formula:

Men:
66 + (6.3 x weight in pounds) + (12.9 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)

And that let me know that if I wanted to maintain my current weight, I needed to have around 2700 calories/day. If I cut out 500 calories/day I will average about a pound a week loss and if I'm exercising and burning an additional 500 calories/day, that will give me my 2 lb per week average.

Quick side note for all my female reader (yes it's singular, I'll be shocked if there's more-but I digress) here is the formula for the ladies:

Women:
655 + (4.3 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)

So anywho, I decided to try and only consume 2000-2200 calories per day and continue to work out. When I work out at the gym, I'm averaging about 650 calories burned per 45 minutes, so the workouts are right where I need them to be, it's just getting my calorie intake figured out.

Last week was the first week I've really kept track and I was down 4lbs so something is working. It's all about keeping track of what you are putting in your mouth (insert joke here, go ahead, I teed it up for ya, swing away....I'll wait....you done?) whether it's counting calories or working on a point system. I find the better I keep track the better I do. When I lost all the weight before I was doing "Girth Gazers" and they have a point system, again as a way if keeping track of what you are consuming. You get so many points per day and everything has a point value based on the the "Girth Gazer" formula. So it's really six of one half dozen of the other, whatever floats your boat. Figure what your output needs to be and then adjust your output, no matter what the input is, just write that shit down.

59 days left