Back to Basics

What is weight loss, really?

What do we know about weight loss? In its most basic language, it’s a reduction in our caloric intake and your body using your fat for energy instead.

Seems simple enough, right?

But it’s much more involved in that, really. Every body is different and every body requires a different amount of calories each day. My husband, for example, is 6’3 and weighs approximately 215 pounds with 25% body fat. On an average day, he walks close to 17,000 steps, roughly 8 miles, and he burns close to 4,000 calories in a day. My husband needs at least 3,500 calories a day just to keep himself from losing weight. That’s right, my husband has to eat the equivalent of a pound to sustain his weight. I am much different, on the other hand. I am currently a stay at home mom. On a lucky day, I average maybe 4,000 steps around the house while I pick up and clean and tend to the baby. If I want to sustain my weight, I would need approximately 1,700 calories a day.

You’re probably wondering how I’ve figured this out, right? There is a very simple, easy tool that I highly recommend for figuring out your caloric intake. The TDEE Calculator. TDEE stands for Total Daily Energy Expenditure. It calculates your age, height, weight and body fat to let you know how many calories you burn each day. It gives info on your BMI (Body Mass Index), BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) and many other stats. It also has useful tabs that let you know where to cut your calories for losing weight, increasing calories for bulking, and also has information on your macros (protein, carbs, fats).

So every body is quite different. Everyone has different activity levels, weight, height. There is no one-size-fits-all for weight loss. It is strictly unique and it is up to you to decide how to do it. There is no right or wrong way of going about your diet. Some things may be better for you than others (eating a bag of skittles vs frozen grapes for example), but it is simply up to you to decide how you want to go about eating your calories.

There are several different types of eating, fad diets, etc that many people live and swear by. And that’s great! But they may not necessarily work for everyone.

For example, I spent 2 months on the keto diet. While at first, I lost 11 pounds within the first couple weeks, my weight was climbing slowly back up, even while I was within my recommended macros of fats, proteins and carbs. Why is this? I was doing the same as everyone else I’ve seen on keto! Oh yeah, I don’t have a gallbladder anymore. The gallbladder plays a very important role in breaking down and digesting fats. So if you don’t have a gallbladder, it is very difficult for your body to break down those fats that you’ve ingested. So I was actually experiencing more bloat, more fatigue, and yep, weight gain. So keto wasn’t the right alternative for me. But that’s not to say that it is for someone else. We are all different with different genetic makeups, different activity levels, physiques, you name it.

Over the next few weeks, I will be going more in depth with different diets and ways of eating; the benefits, the risks, the highs and lows. But generally speaking, a good understanding of what your basal metabolic rate and caloric intake are great for starting out.

Fun Nutrition Facts:

• There are 3,500 calories in a pound
• Macros consist of proteins, fats and carbs
• Both carbohydrates and proteins have 4 calories per gram
• Fats have 9 calories per gram
• The best time to weigh yourself is in the morning after using the bathroom