Sunday, February 10, 2013

Diet secrets - Part Two


Metrics

Metric... Not the Canadian band (which was awesome, but the last album is just  - well - weirdo.), and not the system as well, as I may stick with pounds and inches. Doesn't make any sense. But, well, I am doing my diet on american soil, and they like to stick to those weird measurements and football, and are still calling soccer,  soccer - go figure.
Ok, now the joke part is over (did you have a blast ?) , let's see : I am -kinda- a scientist, at least I am -for sure - an engineer. I like numbers and I like to understand how things works. If I have a problem, I will figure a solution. If you have a problem, I will figure a solution for you. If you have a problem and do not want a solution, but just want to talk about it, I will not listen and find you a solution. Ask my wife. It does not help.

Back to the subject ... People can argue what they want about good and bad calories, and diet is not about numbers, and quality cannot be measured, ya ya, in the end , this all burning fuel for the body and believe it or not, it follows the law of entropy. What's going in, going out. I mean, what you eat in the end, is important, and I will talk about that later, but indirectly.


As some people proved it, you can lose weight in eating McDonald's all day. That's a bad idea, but it works. Why ?

 Energy = calories = food intake.

Do you do not get FAT by eating FAT. I repeat, you do not get FAT by eating FAT. You do get fat by eating fat because it is very difficult to eat the correct amount of fat needed daily, as fat is very calories rich. And your appetite will have hard time to signal you, you ate enough. Basically, you will eat too much fat. And that will get you fat. Still following ? More on that later.

Ok, let's go back to the scientific approach. What do you need to lose weight ?
(except strong will to change your diet, and no fears - see previous posts)


- A Scale that do fat and muscle comparison. (Body Mass Index - BMI).

My scale. Works good enough.

THE scale. the IHealth IScale. with Ibluetooth and IPhone Integrated. I-Really ?


A scale, obviously, because that will one of the main tool to follow your progress and adapt your food consumption accordingly. Because you can make a first guess about your daily calorie intake, you still need to correct it along the way. Because we do not want to lose too much weight too fast, and we still want to lose a little. It is likely (using any calculator online) that you will find a ballpark for your daily calorie intake - let's say 2000 for a male in his 40's. However, you will have to refine this number, while following your food consumption to eat less or MORE. Idea is not to suffer. Idea is to change your diet, and hit a reachable target - let's say 200 to 500 calories less than you need per day. That should give you at least one pound per Month, up to 4. Eventually, you could go for less, but an easy goal, is an easy goal, and the reward is the same.

MAGIC NUMBER : 7500 CALORIES = 1 POUND of FAT

Why the Scale should measure the BMI. First, it is cool. You know how much fat you are losing - or not. But, the real thing is you do not want to lose muscle. If you lose too much weight and do not train, your body will compensate by eating its own muscles. (Yes, you should train). If you lose really a lot of weight too fast, it will even eat your brain cells. Not cool. No worries, you need a huge deficit for this happen, and no risk at all if you are losing 1000 calories / day. Or 500, which was my target.
Does it work ? Well, not really. It will not get you an accurate reading. Great. Those cheap scale are using an electric current differential between fat, water and muscle, and give you, at best an approximation. However, they work well enough to give a reference point (even if it is wrong) and to help track progress. If you want to know your real BMI, you will have to go to the doctor and that will be expensive (but that will give a base reference for your cheap scale too). IN a matter of facts, We do not really care about the real fat percentage, we already know it is too much. What we care is not losing muscle, that we do not have enough, or not losing water, yes, we do not drink enough - Coffee does not count - It is the opposite, and losing fat - that we do have plenty. And that will do the trick.


- A Tape Measure.


... To get an idea of your belly size. Use it at the belly button level. For girls, it is more complicated, but for men, weirdly enough, your fat percentage is directly related to your waist size. You will store fat everywhere, but at the same ratio than around your belly. I repeat : your waist size is directly proportional to your fat percentage. You can talk about your abs, your weight, your body composition, blah blah. Your belly does not lie.

As a funny story, right now, at size 28 - which matches a 29 inches waist size at the belly button - I am not capable of finding my size in shorts in any surf shop on the island. They do not carry anything smaller than 30. And most of the typical size are 36 and more. And yes, it is true that - a while back - they began to widen the size to matches with the evolution of the population and than a SHORT size or  a '28' does not matches anymore the original measurements 20 or 30 years ago. People are getting bigger, but that's Alright  because Jeans too.


Anyway, here is the lesson for today. Do not lose weight too fast and at the wrong places. A simple measurement tape and BMI scale should give you plenty of indications about your body evolution.
Now, You are almost setup. You are still missing one SUPER important tool, but this is already a very long post, then ... next week !


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