What I Wish I Knew In The Beginning #2: What is my "Body Type" (and why does it matter?)

Before we begin, I would like to recap what we've already learned.  In How to Size Myself Up, we calculated our BMR, added on the activity factor, and came up with a calorie number we should be eating each day to just maintain our current weight.  We then subtracted 500 calories from that total to come up with a general caloric intake figure we should aim for in order to lose 1 pound a week.

Your nutritional plan will, quite literally, make all the difference in your goals and results.  For people just starting out, a serious emphasis should be put on making gradual changes to your diet and nutritional intake before you even bother with getting all crazy up in the gym.  Walking for 30 minutes a day and altering the way you eat will make a massive sustainable change in the bodies of sedentary individuals.

This next installment of my "What I Wish I Knew" series will be applicable to both sedentary individuals taking their first steps and those who are well-seasoned in diet and exercise, alike.  This entry will discuss the following topics:

1. What is Metabolism? And how it affects weight loss...
2. Macronutrients and Micronutrients:  A brief overview, and target goals 
3. Every Body is Different:  Knowing your body type can offer valuable diet insight...
4. Pulling it All Together:  Diet diaries and battle plans!

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What is Metabolism? And how it affects weight loss

According to Dictionary.com, the term Metabolism can be defined as "the sum of the physical and chemical processes in an organism by which its material substance is produced, maintained, and destroyed, and by which energy is made available."  Contrary to the popular belief that metabolism just refers to how fat or skinny a person will become, the term actually encompasses a broad range of physical and chemical chain reactions throughout all your cells, every second of every day, in their effort to repair themselves, replace themselves, and provide energy for larger functions such as keeping your brain thinking, your heart beating, your stomach digesting, and everything in between.

Metabolism is a very complex and highly technical subject, so for the purposes of this article we we will keep it at a very basic overview.  Your body strives each day to maintain itself.  It generally wants to be in a state of homeostasis (stability).  So, it works daily to repair and maintain all the tissues that you are made of, and this requires energy.  If you consume too much food (energy), your body will break down that food and store it as fat around your body to be used at a later time.  If you eat too little food (energy), your body will either tap into those fat reserves or, in desperate times (such as in anorexic individuals), will deconstruct the muscle tissues in your body to get the energy it needs to maintain vital processes.  The heart organs of people who have died from anorexia tend to look like blocks of swiss cheese; there are literally holes eaten out of the muscle tissue that were used by their bodies just to survive.

For simplified purposes, when you take in more food (energy) than your body requires, part of the metabolic process is to convert that unused energy into easily accessible units that can be stored away, kind of like how you might take the abundance of fruit from a fall harvest and convert it into jams and jellies you can store in the pantry for later use.  Those jelly jars are fat cells in your body. When you are dieting to lose weight, you are creating a deficit in the number of calories you eat versus the number of calories your body spends each day to move you around (exercise) or do normal cellular functions in the body.  To make up that deficit in energy needs, your body will do the reverse of storing the energy:  It will tap into your "pantry of jam preserves" and metabolize the fat stores in your body for its energy needs, thus leading to weight loss.  A fabulous and fascinating article which talks about this topic in more detail can be found on Helium.com, in an article entitled How Body Fat Is Made.

Suffice it to say, therefore, that metabolism is a very important component of weight loss.  We want to keep your metabolism going strong and hard each day so you can expend the maximum amount of energy ("burn as many calories as possible") every day, even when just at rest. 

A simple Google search on "How to Boost My Metabolism" will yield endless tips and tricks on how one can get their internal furnace going on all cylinders all day long to maximize their daily caloric burn.  I will summarize the best and most basic techniques, here:

1. Eat smaller meals 5 - 7 times a day instead of 3 large meals.  Why?  Because your body burns calories each time it is put to the task of digesting a meal and sorting through the molecules.  Plus, if you give your body a stable, steady inflow of food, it will positively affect the hormones and enzymes released in your body which regulate hunger, cravings, fatigue/energy bursts, blood sugar highs and lows, etc. (to be discussed in a later blog post).
2. Sleep.  Yes, sleep! Why?  When you sleep, your body releases Human Growth Hormone (HGH) and Melatonin to start doing heavy repair and growth of your tissues.  It's during rest, not exercise, that muscle is repaired and built stronger and larger.  Without adequate rest, you will not have neough HGH and melatonin to restore your body and you will be left weak and groggy and unable to perform basic metabolic functions the next day as a result.
3. Workout HARDER.  Think quality, not quantity.  You'll often hear of a cardio technique referred to as HIIT (pronounced "hit"), which stands for High Intensity Interval Training.  Repeated studies have shown that your metabolism gets much more fired up (and stays much more fired up) by doing intervals than regular "steady state" cardio, even after your workout is already completed.  Examples of HIIT:  For beginnings, running 1 minute and then walking 1 minute.  Repeat for 30 minutes straight.  Intermediate:  Going all out on the elliptical, as hard as you can, for 30 seconds, then going at a regular pace for 45-60 seconds.  Repeat for 20-30 minutes.  Advanced:  Sprinting for 30 seconds, then jogging for 30-60 seconds (or running stadium stairs and then walking down them).  Repeat for 20-30 minutes.
4. Eat Breakfast:  Put your metabolism to work as soon as you can! And in WebMD's article Lose Weight: Eat Breakfast, Elisabetta Politi, RD, MPH, at Duke University Medical School says, "When you don't eat breakfast, you're actually fasting for 15 to 20 hours, so you're not producing the enzymes needed to metabolize fat to lose weight." Also, drink water.  Water has 0 calories and yet burns energy when you drink it and your body goes to work putting it to use, even if that means just pushing it through your system so you can pee it out.  
5. Lift Weights.  Sure cardio is essential to burning a lot of calories and creating a wider daily caloric deficit for you, but what about lifting weights?  You may have heard the phrase, "Muscle burns more than fat." But what does that even mean?  In basic terms, this phrase is talking about how many calories your body burns up each day in maintaining the muscle fibers in your body versus the fat cells.  According to the Mayo Clinic's article "Metabolism and Weight Loss:  How you Burn Calories", 1 pound of muscle burns approximately 6 calories per day at rest.  1 pound of fat cells, on the other hand, only burns 2 calories per day at rest.  While 6 calories and 2 calories do not represent much, we are also talking about a 300% increase in calories burned per pound of tissue while sitting around doing nothing. Wouldn't you rather burn more calories doing nothing?   These are the small things that add up to make a measurable difference.

I'll save you the boredom of reading more, and will let you do your own research.  Here are some great, simple, reputable articles:

• 11 Scientifically Proven Ways to Boost Your Metabolism (Greatist.com)

• 10 Ways to Boost Your Metabolism (WebMD)

• 7 Ways to Boost Your Metabolism (MSNBC.com)

• Metabolism: Popular Myths and 9 EASY Ways to rev It Up (Bodybuilding.com, one of my favorite sources of info along with CutandJacked.com)

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Macronutrients and Micronutrients: A brief overview

Big words, simple meanings.  From the medieval latin word makros, "Macro" just means large, or large scale.  Macronutrients are therefore just the nutrients that living organisms need in a large quantity.  There are 3 main classes of macros, and they are Fats, Carbohydrates, and Protein.

Micronutrients, you therefore can assume, are the nutrients we require much less of.  Such nutrients, which are typically measured in milligrams and micrograms as opposed to grams, are things such as iron, potassium, sodium, and all of the -iums you see on a multi-vitamin label.  If you eat a clean diet full of a diversity of veggies, fruits, healthy whole grains, lean proteins and dairy, you will not need a multi-vitamin.  It is easy to get your daily allotment of micronutrients with a healthy diet.

Consumption of macronutrients, however, are up to interpretation.  Based on your general body type (discussed in the following section), you may need to eat more carbohydrates, less carbohydrates, more protein, or more/less fat to achieve the body you desire.  The general guidelines are as such:

• Protein:  10% - 35%  of caloric intake
• Recall each gram of protein equates to 4 calories.  30% of calories from protein for a 2,000 calories diet would therefore equate to 150g of protein (2,000 * 30% = 600 calories, 600 calories divided by 4 calories per gram = 150g grams.)
• Bodybuilders usually strive to get 1 -2 grams of protein per pound of body weight.
• I typically stick to the 30-35% range
• Carbohydrates:  45% - 65%
• 1g of carbs also = 4 calories, so 50% of calories from carbohydrates on a 2,000 calorie diet = 250g (2,000 * 50% = 1000 calories, 1000 calories divided by 4 calories per gram = 250g grams.)
• I only allow myself 35-40% calories from carbs, since I respond best to a low-carb diet
• Remember, simple  sugar is only a FORM of carbohydrate.  Fiber is also a carb.  Avoid / limit sugars, but DO eat healthy carbs like whole grains, Ezekiel bread, sweet potatoes and other healthy sources of non-sugary carbohydrates like berries and apples.
• Fat:  20% - 35%
• I like to aim for 30% calories from fat.  1g of fat = NINE (9) calories, so for a 2,000 calorie diet, that would be 67g of fat.
• Not all fats are made the same! Some fats BURN fat.  Nuts, avocado, olive oil and Omega-3s (fish fat) are all healthy fats that are good for you and your body spends a lot of energy digesting them.

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Every Body is Different:  Knowing your body type can offer valuable insight...

In American psychologist W.H. Sheldon's 1954 book, Atlas of Men, three main body types (known as 'somatotypes') were defined as part of Sheldon's "Human Classification System".  These three body shapes were called Ectomorphic, Mesomorphic, and Endomorphic.  While some of Sheldon's hypotheses ended up not being scientifically accurate, his work in classifying body types has helped modern scientists and athletes alike understand how different body types may correlate with different metabolisms and "aesthetic programming". In short, different body types have different features, different strengths and weaknesses, and require different training schedules and diet and workout plans in order to change one's physical appearance and bodily composition.  Whilst you may be a mix of one of these three types, all humans fit somewhere on the somatotype spectrum, and we cannot change what we were born with.   Knowing your general body type can thus help you understand a little bit more about how your body operates, and how to design an appropriate diet and fitness plan that might work better for you than others.   This is not an exact science, but it is good to know about and contemplate as you proceed with customizing a plan that works for you.

It should be noted that regardless of whichever form you are, you ABSOLUTELY can become totally ripped, fit and awesome looking, and can enhance your performance to be competent in just about anything.  So don't let what the genetic jackpot gave you become an excuse for you to say it can't be done!  I personally find myself to be an endomorph with mesomorphic qualities.  I choose to use that to my advantage :)

Ectomorphs

Ectomorphs are described as people with long, narrow limbs and bodies, narrow shoulders and flat chests (both male and female).  Ectos are NOT just people who are skinny or lean! There is an air of fragility, or delicacy, about this body type, with a lean and less sturdy skeletal structure. Ectos are often referred to as "naturally thin", the type of people who can "eat whatever they want, and not is ironically considered "less efficient"), and thus find it difficult to put on weight -- including muscle mass.  Ectomorphs need a large amount of calories in order to gain weight and muscle mass, and a large amount of calories to maintain that mass once built.  Because ectos tend to have a lower body fat percentage, once muscle mass is built, it is very visible and ectomorphs can sport a very chiseled toning to the body.  Leaning out is rarely an issue for ectomorphs; even those who are "skinny fat" (lean, although with subcutaneous fat on the body nonetheless, and very little muscle definition).  The challenge for this body type, is putting on enough weight and then maintaining it.  Ectomorphs can benefit largely from supplements, and their workouts should be focused to short, high intensity ones with a vast focus on weight training.  McLovin'?  Defo an ecto.

According to Obi at MusclePharm.com, an ectomorph should try starting with a diet of 25% protein, 55% carbohydrates and 20% fat.

Endomorphs

Endomorphs are pretty much the opposite of Ectomorphs.  They are thick and burley in appearance.  Just because someone is "fat" does not mean they are automatically an endomorph!  If you think that you are doomed to fatness if you are an endomorph, bear in mind that Mike Tyson is an endomorph.  That man was a beast when he was taking care of himself.

Some might call endos "big boned", and they have a large portion of body composition made up of fat.  Endomorphs find it very difficult to lose weight, and they gain weight rather easily.  One particular quality about endomorphs is that, while they may gain fat easily, they find it quiet easy to bulk up with muscle.  Endomorphs tend to have very strong arms and legs, and find building their quadriceps fairly easy with proper training.  Endomorphs, as can be expected, have a very energy-efficient metabolism (which means it is slower than the other body types) and require far fewer calories to gain muscle mass and maintain it.  Endomorphs are the type that need to constantly watch their caloric intake so as not to disturb the balance of lean muscle mass and fat gain.  An endomorph's workout routine should consist heavily of cardio as well as weights; the cardio, to keep body fat percentages down.  Supplements aren't usually needed so long as protein intake is adequate.

According to Obi at MusclePharm.com, an endomorph should try starting with a diet of 35% protein, 25% carbohydrates and 40% fat. **I personally disagree with this, though.  I think 35% protein, 35% carbs and 30% fat might be a better starting point.  25% calories from carbs is extremely low and difficult for a beginner to achieve.**

Mesomorphs

Yes Brandi Chastain, we are sure as hell talking about you!  Mesomorphs are the "holy grail" of genetic body types, in my honest opinion.  They have well defined bone and muscular structures, and a naturally athletic physique.  Even when they are overweight, you can tell that mesomorphs would have excellent bodies, if only they would be trained accordingly.  Mesomorphs gain muscle easily, but they also gain fat much easier than an ectomorph. Male mesomorphs typically have broader shoulders and a rectangular symmetry, whereas females have an "hourglass" figure.  Mesomorphs gain and lose weight relatively easily with proper diet and exercise. They respond best to weight training, but since they can put fat on easily, mesomorphs must watch their nutritional intake.  Thus, a combination of weight training with some (though not excessive) cardio works best for mesomorphs.

According to Obi at MusclePharm.com, an endomorph should try starting with a diet of 30% protein, 40% carbohydrates and 30% fat. **This is also just a very balanced, good ratio to stick with regardless of your body type.**

HERE is a basic Body Type Test by bodybuilder.com, a source I find to be reputable.

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Pulling it All Together:  Diet Diaries and Battle Plans!

We've talked a LOT about definitions and such, so let's tie it all together here.  We know that diet is 80% of the battle.  If you are going to start anywhere, it's cleaning up your diet.  I will discuss "Clean Eating" in my next post, but for now let's stick with the basics:  You should have a target number of calories and a general idea of what % of calories you want your macronutrients to consist of.  If you are unsure, stick with the general guidelines of 30% calories from fat, 40% from carbohydrates, and 30% from protein.

You really must log your food intake.  At least for the first couple months.  Keeping a daily food journal will show you where you are getting your calories, will help you adjust your diet to meet your physical needs, and will scare the living shit out of you (in a good way!) when you realize how misunderstood you were about how much you were actually eating.  There are millions of online diet diaries, the most popular and successful of which are on SparkPeople and MyFitnessPal .  Both are free, multi-functional, very useful, and have mobile apps.  You can also buy any number of physical books at the bookstore or online which you can carry in your purse or book bag, and manually record the foods you eat.  Eventually, you may just want to make your own spreadsheet.  I have a fabulous one I can share with you, just email me at theallnaturalathelete@gmail.com.   

IMPORTANT TIPS:

1. You want to be eating a small meal every 2 - 3 hours. Meals are no longer the size of football stadiums; they resemble something more of a balanced snack.  Each meal, you will want a protein, a carb and a fat.  Examples could be 4oz salmon fillet and some steamed asparagus, a piece of fruit and a serving of almonds, some nonfat greek yogurt or cottage cheese with fresh berries and walnut bits, a hardboiled egg sliced up ontop of a bed of spinach with olive oil and lemon juice, carrots and hummus, a protein shake, a piece of toast with peanut butter, etc.  Think of your meal plan less as Breakfast - Lunch - Dinner, and more as Meal 1, Meal 2, Meal 3, Meal 4 and so forth. 
2. Eat your carb-rich food items earlier in the day so that you have the whole day to work them off.  Save your lean meals (veggies and lean meats) for the evening time so that when you're sleeping, you won't have all these fats and sugars in your system just lying around with nothing to do. 
3. Aim for 100 fl. oz of water a day.  Flush that system of yours! 
4. Clean eating is a long process of learning and adapting, so for now, just stick with basic common sense.  Stay away from crap food, soda, juice and unhealthy desserts.  Try to only eat fresh ingredients, and avoid chemicals, added sugars and preservatives.  Stay away from boxed things; they are typically loaded with crap.  Start reading your labels (I'll include this in my next blog post) and start making smarter, more common sense decisions.  Stay away from the fancy marketing, don't let packaging that says "Healthy!" or "Diet!" on it fool you; that stuff is full of crap designed to make it taste good but do nothing for you.
5. Always have your meal plan prepped for the week.  Have snacks pre-cooked, pre-measured and stored away so that the second you are hungry, you make a smart decision instead of a bad one.

 

I plan to write next about the tenets of "Clean Eating", how to read labels, and how to get moving!  Until then, start laying the foundation of the greatest experience OF YOUR LIFE :)

What I Wish I Knew When I First Started #1: How to Size Myself Up

CONGRATULATIONS!  

You've decided to embark on your very own health and fitness journey, and in preparation of the process, you're doing your research.  Sure, it's easy to say, "I want to lose weight."  But, how does one go about doing it?  Where does one even begin?

The first words that probably come to mind are "diet" and "exercise", as they should, but there is so much depth to these generalizations.  We aren't just talking about swapping Snickers for sneakers; we're talking about SCIENCE, man.  Math.  Life.  The human body!  All fascinating subjects.  And as any moderately experienced person can confirm, it is much easier to accomplish something when you understand fully how it all works, so that you can apply that knowledge to your own path.

In this first edition of my "What I Wish I Knew When I First Started" series, I am going to discuss an overview of the following topics:

1. One Basic Definition:  It's not a "DIET", it's a Destination Road Map
2. Taking Measurements:  How to do it, and why it's important
3. Weighing Yourself, and why NOT to do it daily
4. What is "BMI", "BMR" and "RMR"?  And how do they impact my nutrition plan?

And lastly, a topic that people seem to be most concerned about....

    5.  Just tell me how many calories I should be eating!

As a quick aside, I should make it perfectly clear that I am NOT a health or fitness professional.  I have no certifications, and the only education I have is from my own years of self-research, trial and error.  Please consult a health professional before starting any drastic nutrition or fitness program, especially if you have special health considerations.

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One Basic Definition:  It's not a diet, it's a road map

First of all, you need to ditch any preconceptions you have of the word "diet", and all the shame, misery, fear, loathing, anticipation, and unreasonable expectations that come along with it.  For the record, the word "diet" is NOT a synonym for a food intake restriction program aimed at making you hate life and the whole process necessary for achieving the body of your dreams.  According to Webster's Dictionary, the word "diet" was first known to be used in the 13th century.  The origin of the word is Middle English in the form of diete, from the Latin diaeta, and from Greek diaita, which all, quite literally, mean the "manner of living"; and from diaitasthai, meaning "to lead one's life".   In the modern tongue, the word diet is simply "habitual nourishment; what one eats and drinks on a routine basis."

 
All of this is simply to understand the following point:  When we use the term "diet" and "dieting", don't get your panties in a twist.  It's not about restricting food; it's simply all about changing the foods and drinks you routinely consume.  A former trainer of mine once said, "15% of your body is affected by the 2 hours you are in the gym; 85% is affected by the 22 hours you are out of the gym."  While exercise is crucial to your fat loss and muscle gain pursuits, and tremendously improves the utility and overall health of your body, being completely intentional in how and what and when you fuel your body makes the biggest difference.  So from here on out, when we use the term "diet", I want you to think of it less as a millstone around your neck, and more simply as a nutritional road map that is going to get you from Point A to Point B in the most efficient and effective manner possible.

It is inevitable that people will eventually give you shit for "being on a diet".  You will learn to come up with different ways of putting it, therefore, to keep people from being a thorn in your side.  To those who know me, I tell them I am training for [insert fitness goal] and am watching my macronutrients (big words deter people from asking more questions).  To those who don't know me, I just tell them I have food allergies and have to be careful of what I eat.  Done deal.  Learn to be forgiving of people when they try to peer pressure you, or tell you that you don't need to be on a diet, or tell you that you have issues thinking you need to be on a diet; they just don't understand.  And often times, people feel threatened by your healthy eating habits because deep down, they want to pursuit the same goals as you, but they don't have the strength to commit to it (yet).  So don't try to convert them, and ask them to not try to convert you, and soon enough, people will learn to accept your lifestyle change.

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Taking Your Measurements:  How to do it, and why it's important

I didn't take my measurements or a "before" photo when I first started, and it has been my only regret.  I didn't do it because I couldn't bear to see the evidence that I was truly not in the shape I had imagined I was in, the shape I felt I deserved to be.  I was already a competitive athlete when I embarked on this mission, so I couldn't bear to be honest with myself and see how truly far I had to go.

Measurements and "Before" photos are terribly useful when you need them most: When you get a month or two in and feel you have done SO much work, but you aren't yet Hulk Hogan or Pam Anderson (circa 1992).  When you complete the first leg of your journey and find yourself realizing you will need to be patient and keep at it for the long haul, you'll come to a crossroads of needing to renew your vows, so to speak.  This is when I wish I had 'before' photos and measurements.  Had I compared my current stats and progress photos to where I first began, I would have had hard evidence that I was, indeed, progressing.  And when I finished the 2nd leg of my journey and even self-doubt couldn't deny the changes in my appearance and clothing sizes, I would have loved to compare stats and pictures and swim in a moment of well-earned pride.  I would have loved to have had a photo sequence to post on my Fan Page demonstrating that I was 'walking the walking'.  But I think I waited about 3 months before I finally took an honest bikini progress photo, the kind that put it all out there with nothing to hide behind. By then, my results and my journey seemed far less dramatic than they actually were.

So I recommend you take your measurements as detailed below, and snap a couple before photos even if you don't actually look at  them right away.  Just download them onto a safe piece of media, and keep them for later.  Consider it a time capsule you can't wait to crush open in 12 weeks. 
 

How to Take Your Measurements:

Get a measuring tape.  (If you don't have a measuring tape, use string or yarn and then measure the string or yarn against a ruler or yard stick).  It helps to have a friend assist you in your measurements, so grab a buddy you can trust, if possible.  Grab a pen and paper, and list the following categories: Bust, Biceps, Waist, Hips, Thighs, Calves, Height and Weight

Now, it's time to measure these areas:

1. Bust:  Wrap the measuring tape around your body across your nipple line.  Your arms should be down when you are done measuring.  The measuring tape should be pulled neither too tight, nor too lose.  Just comfortably across the skin is sufficient.  Record your measurement.

2. Biceps:  The proper way to measure biceps is to bring your arms up in a traditional bicep curl flexing pose (see photo).  Flex your bicep, and the measurement should be around the apex of your bicep, or else the midway point between the crease of your armpit and the crease of your elbow joint. Record the measurement.

3. Waist:  Waistlines indeed vary amongst men and women, and can sometimes be tricky to determine where to measure.  A good rule of thumb would be to measure the narrowest part of your belly area, which is most always simply the latitude of your belly button.  Do not flex or suck in your stomach.  Just stand regularly and comfortably, like you would if you were standing in line at the grocery store, for instance.

4. Hips:  Your hips should be measured at, generally, the widest point, which is usually in line with your pubic region and is in line with the widest point of your booty.   When you measure that area, stand up straight with your legs together so that your feet are touching.  Do not flex anything while you are measuring.  Just stand normally.

5. Thighs: Your thighs should be measured directly at the midway point between your knee and your "in seam" (your crotch).  Stand with legs hip-width apart with your weight evenly distributed, and measure at this point.  Flexing isn't necessary, as your quads will already be slightly flexed (you are standing up, after all!). 

6. Calves: Calves are the only ambiguous region to be measured, in my opinion.  People's calves apex at different points of there body, so basically what you'll want to do is stand up straight and have your buddy measure the circumference of your calf at the widest point.  Again - no flexing.  Just stand with feet hip-width apart and weight evenly distributed across both feet.  If you do not have a buddy assisting you, stand up in front of a full length mirror, eyeball wear your calves are the greatest, then gingerly bend over (taking care not to flex unnaturally) and measure. 

7. Height:  Your height (just like age and gender, even!) is actually a very important variable to know.  Your height affects various calculations which assist in determining body fat, caloric intake targets, BMI, etc.  Your height is essentially a necessary reference point to help bring meaning to other measurements.  If you say you are 200 pounds, it's impossible for one to know whether you are underweight or overweight.  That assessment relies heavily on whether you are only 5 feet tall, or 7 feet tall.  If you do not know your height, the best way to approach this is to take off your shoes, stand on a hard flat surface with your heels firmly on the floor and your back pressed against a hard, flat wall.  Make a mark on the wall at the where the crest of your skull is.  Then use your measuring tape to measure the height.

8. Weight:  Please reference the following section.

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Measuring your Weight and why *not* to do it daily

Measuring your weight is a critical evaluation tool and tracking statistic for any person aspiring to change their body.  But there are many considerations you must take into account before understanding your weight.  At the end of the day, it is best to rely on your measurements and, more practically, how your clothes fit, as the best scientific assessment of body change.  But, that said, let's dive into the key points:

1.  Muscle weighs more than fat (well, relatively speaking). 

 

Muscle is much more dense than fat and, in relative terms, it weighs more.  Sure 1 pound of fat = 1 pound of muscle, but the sizes are much different.  The average overweight person could thus technically weigh just the same as a fit competitive athlete, and many male body builders could assuredly weigh more than an obese person. What can we learn from this?  Take your weight with a grain of salt.  If you've done it right, you will eventually get to a point where you have lost all the fat and will start putting on muscle weight.  Do not become one of those people who becomes maddeningly frustrated with the scale when it doesn't budge in 3 weeks.  It could be that you are shedding fat and gaining muscle at a rate that causes your physical mass to net the same weight, even though your body is changing.  Let how your clothes fit be the judge. 

2. Weighing yourself can be the quickest way to develop an unhealthy obsession that is completely ineffective, in every single way imaginable.

Men and women alike are susceptible to this pretty dangerous obsession, although it's likely to be more damaging for women.  As I stated before, people have a habit of using what the scale says as a definitive indication of progress, results, and what constitutes "perfection".  And since most women are concerned more with losing fat than necessarily gaining muscle, they tend to pay more attention to the scale than men.

Regardless, the outcome is usually a daily ritual of weighing yourself and then being in a depression and beating yourself up if the scale doesn't reflect what you think it ought to be, or else applauding yourself if it does.  Both situations can lead to the same thing, which is either quitting your diet and eating crap food (or rewarding yourself with crap food), or else it  provokes more and more aggressive dieting tactics to combat some flaw, failure or misunderstood weight "gain".

Something you must understand now, which I will explain later:  In order to lose weight, YOU MUST FEED YOURSELF.  Starving yourself will only cause your body to retain fat (after all, your body only cares about survival; it doesn't know what a diet is.  If you starve it, it will think there is a famine and will store all the energy reserves it possibly can).  Further, prolonged abuse of your metabolism could caused irreversible metabolic damage which could really put you in a bad spot forever.  More on that later, but for now, please do not pay so much attention to the scale as you do your measurements and clothes fittings.  Becoming obsessive about your weight is pointless; it will make you feel desperate and hopeless when, as explained above, your weight is not 100% reflective of all the progress you're making.  Be patient and the results will make themselves evident.  

And all of this brings us to the final point:  

3.  DO NOT WEIGH YOURSELF DAILY.

....because (1), your weight will NOT change daily.  If it does change daily, it's either water weight gain or loss, a bowel movement you have or haven't passed, the amount of food you have or haven't eaten before weighing yourself, or what clothes you are or aren't wearing.  You may lose several pounds when you first start your diet and exercise program, but that will mostly be excess water weight, toxins, and GI tract waste being flushed from your body.  Your weight loss will eventually level out, and weighing yourself daily is a surefire way to become discouraged.  (2), as discussed above, you may become obsessed with the entirely wrong metric.  Causing yourself worry and grief over weight gain will do you no good, especially if you are putting on muscle in place of fat, which weighs more.  Check the before and after shot to the right -- she weighed less in her before photo than her after photo.  But...which bod would you rather have??

My recommendation is to weight yourself once every week or two, until you get to the point where you don't need a scale to measure your progress anymore (or, frankly, you don't care.)  I weigh myself once a month now.  When I am pushing for real results (leaning out or building muscle) I will do it every week.  Always weigh yourself at the same time of the day, preferably in the morning after you use the restroom, to achieve as consistent of results as possible.

 

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BMI, BMR and RMR:  How do they impact my nutrition plan?

  

1.  BMI

The acronym BMI stands for Body Mass Index.  It is a general way of assessing whether someone is a healthy weight based on their age, gender and height.  Because the composition of our bodies naturally changes overtime, age does become a rather significant factor in calculations such as these.  Similarly, men and women have naturally different body compositions and distributions of fat and muscle, thus making gender important on the genetic level of body statistics.

English BMI Formula

BMI = [Weight in Pounds / (Height in Inches x Height in Inches)] x 703

Metric BMI Formula

BMI = [Weight in Kilograms / (Heigh in Meters x Height in Meters)]

There are countless BMI calculators online, a simple Google search will provide various results.  Here is a link to one on WebMD  which I find to be reputable and thorough.  The website does a good job of explaining your results.  Bear in mind, however, that BMI is not an exact science; some women may have larger breasts than others, or bigger or smaller bones, or more or less muscle, which will affect the results.  Most body builders will register as an unhealthy / obese BMI because the calculation does not take into account the difference of weight in terms of fat and muscle.

2.  BMR and RMR

BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) and RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate) are, confusingly, basically the same calculation.  They both measure the approximate number of calories a person burns if they spend a full 24 hours completely at rest.  Essentially, the caloric measurement indicates how many calories your body needs just simply to exist -- how many calories it needs to keep your heart beating, your lungs breathing, your kidneys filtering, your cells repairing and regenerating, etc.  Your body burns hundreds of calories a day doing simple tasks such as growing your hair and nails, replacing old skin cells, and metabolizing foods in your stomach.  The main difference is that the BMR is a much stricter calculation.  Most online calculators, despite being BMR or RMR, are usually done using the RMR formula.  Here is a decent online RMR calculator:  http://www.startlosingweighttoday.com/rmr/

My RMR is 1,440 calories.  This means that if I were to not even so much as lift a finger all day long, I will still burn almost 1500 calories just by existing.  Do you comprehend the importance of this?  This does not take into account the times I get up, move around, walk to my car, vacuum the house, walk up the stairs to my apartment, or the 850 calories I burn on average at the gym each day.  People who restrict themselves to less than 1500 calories a day are just flat out doing it wrong.  Don't make that mistake! 

Your RMR is a good tool to use as a starting point for calculating how many calories you should be consuming in order to meet your goals.  Understanding your caloric needs, in conjunction with what your goals are (weight loss/gain) will be the ultimate guide for you in determining an initial nutritional plan.  This plan will invariably change (as so too will your goals, eventually), but having an idea upon which to base your entire meal plan is incredibly important otherwise there is no real way to tell if you are eating too much or too little. And how infuriating can THAT be? 

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So, just how many calories should I be eating?

To round out this article, determining your caloric intake is the best place to start when finally making concrete changes in your routine and really getting the ball rolling.  Once you know how many calories you need to eat, you'll know how many calories you'll need to burn in order to start tackling your goals.

First of all, let's talk physics.  A Calorie is not actually something you eat.  A calorie is rather a unit of energy.  In scientific terms, a calorie is the amount of energy needed to increase the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius.  Calories do not apply just to food; it is a unit of ANY kind of energy.  For example, according to Discovery Health's article entitled How Calories Work, a gallon of gasoline contains 31 MILLION calories.  Check out these interesting factoids:

In terms of our diet, the food energy we derive from macronutrients (fat, protein and carbohydrates) is as follows:  4 calories for every gram of carbohydrate, 4 calories for every gram of protein, and 9 (yes, nine!) calories for every gram of fat.  Thus, a 10 gram bar of fat would equate to 90 calories, whereas a 10 gram bar of protein (or carbs) would only be 40 calories worth of food energy.  

It is important to note that calories are not bad!  We need the energy we get from food calories to perform every bodily function, from breathing, to pumping blood, to growing new skin cells, to recovering from colds and injuries, to keeping our bodies warm in the winter and cool in the summer.  We burn calories replacing donated blood (approx. 650 calories per pint!), growing hair and nails, digesting food, and of course just moving around.  In short, energy is required for all functions we perform.  Calories should not be avoided, but they do need to be monitored.  Calories only become an issue when you eat more than you burn, upon which they are stored as fat in your body (more about this in a future blog post).  

One pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories.  Therefore, in order to lose one pound a week, you would need to create a calorie deficit of 500 calories a day (500 cals/day x 7 days/week = 3500 calories).  But this doesn't just mean decreasing the amount of food you're eating by 500 calories.  In order to truly LOSE weight, you would need to eat 500 calories less, per day, than what you burn.  Allow me to explain.

Remember your RMR calculation?  Mine was 1,440.  It's the number of calories (energy) I approximately need to perform basic bodily functions.  In order to figure out how many calories I should eat just to break even (ie, calories eaten minus calories burned = 0), I would have to figure out where I fit on the following scale.  Once I determine my "Activity Factor", I multiply it to my RMR calories to determine how many calories in total I burn each day (approximately):

 

Activity Factor	Category	Definition
1.2	Sedentary	Little or no exercise and desk job
1.375	Lightly Active	Light exercise or sports 1-3 days a week
1.55	Moderately Active	Moderate exercise or sports 3-5 days a week
1.725	Very Active	Hard exercise or sports 6-7 days a week
1.9	Extremely Active	Hard daily exercise or sports and physical job

I workout 2 hours a day, and my workouts are very rigorous.  On the weekends I spend even more time being active.  But I have a desk job 5 days a week, and so I tend to multiply my RMR by 1.6, which is in between moderately and very active.  1,440 * 1.6 = 2,304.  What does this mean?  This means that I should be eating 2,304 calories a day to neither gain nor lose any weight, but rather just to maintain my current weight.  But I want to lose weight.  If I wanted to drop a pound a week, I would want to aim to consume 500 calories less than what I currently burn:  2,304 - 500 = 1,804 calories of food a day.

And that is precisely my daily intake:  1,800 calories/day.

Now, these are just broad generalizations.  Obviously every person is slightly different, and it will take some time and fine tuning in order to get your plan perfectly designed.  But everybody needs a starting point, and this is good enough :) Most doctors agree that it is safe to aim to lose 2 pounds a week, but no more than that (unless under the direct supervision of a trained medical professional).

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In my next entry, I will discuss macro and micronutrients, body types, and how to design a good starting nutritional plan based on your general needs.  I will also include a spreadsheet template (if I can figure out how to link it up) for a diet diary, otherwise I will discuss options for logging your daily food intake in an effort to learn what works best for you.

See you soon! 

What I Wish I Knew About Clean Eating and Leaning Out In the Beginning: A Prolouge To The Series

So, you've decided to lose weight and get ripped.  You've decided it's time; YOUR time.  No more waiting.  No more wishing.  You've packed your bags and you're ready to go on the journey of a lifetime, full of high hopes and trepidation, belief and doubt, an idea of courage but mostly anxiety.  That's good; that's what fuels the first step.

The paths that bring people to this decision are as many as the stars in the sky.  Perhaps you've been trying to lose weight your whole life.  Perhaps you've been lean your whole life, but child-rearing or the typical sedentary adult lifestyle has changed your figure in less desirable ways.  Perhaps you've always had "a little extra" and were (and still are!) perfectly happy with that, but health problems have come into focus.  Perhaps you are already lean, or an athlete, but you're looking to enhance your performance (and physique, of course!).  

It doesn't matter what brought you here.  The only thing that matters is, you've made this choice.  YOU have made this choice.  You.  This is for you, not for anybody else.  And only you can make this happen.  There absolutely will come a point in your journey, no matter how much support you initially start with, where you will feel like you are completely alone in your battle.  Therefore, you need to do a couple things right now before you depart on this incredible experience.

First of all, you need to take a deep breath and realize you ARE completely alone in this battle.   I don't say this to discourage you -- I say this to motivate you. The most satisfying victory one can experience is by achieving a great thing by one's own accord.  There is nothing quite like full ownership and the pride of knowing you accomplished a goal all on your own.  The greatest changes we experience as humans are those that are earned throughout the process of overcoming great trials. At the end of the day, it can only be YOU who decides what you will eat, and it can only be YOU who decides if you really will stick to your workout plan, and how intensely you push yourself.   

IT IS OK IF THIS SOUNDS TERRIFYING and completely unappealing... but don't let it deter you! When the blacksmith told the blob of metal, "Hey, I'm gonna throw you in the fire and burn you so badly that you'll melt, and then I'm gonna hammer the hell out of you!" Of course the blob of metal was terrified.  That sounds awful!  But the pain does not last forever, and when that blob of metal felt itself taking shape for the first time, endured the first few blows of the blacksmith's hammer, that's when it was able to feel the change and see the natural process of transformation begin.  And in the afterglow of all the hard work of endurance and determination and patience, out of the fire came a sleek weapon of enviable form;  something composed of the same material, yet entirely changed. And what, then?  Do you think that blob of metal would wish to itself that it was nothing more than a blob again?  I think not.  There is so much pride, so much value, so much strength and so much beauty in the art of taking charge of one's own life, one's own physical form, and refining it to it's maximum potential.  We are human, and our bodies are capable of incredible things.  What have you got to lose?

Accept that you cannot rely on anyone other than yourself to do all the hard work that results require of you.  It is your own rite of passage, it's only through the fire that you will truly change and grow.  If you can accept this, if you can be OK with knowing that in your darkest hour, when friends become tired of your refusal to go out and drink all night with them, or "just have one bite, it's not gonna kill you!", or get upset with you that you have to leave an event early because you have a 6am trail run that you want to be fresh for, or that one morning when all you want so badly is to stay and sleep one more hour and not have to schlep out in the cold dark morning and trek to the gym, then I can 100% guarantee you that you will be successful.  Having support is always a good thing, but do not make it the only crutch that's propping you up in this journey.  Stand on your own two feet, and command them to work for you.  You are in charge, and your prize is waiting to be earned.  You need to BE EXCITED for the amazing things ahead of you, if you are willing to literally endure the sweat and tears (and sometimes blood, if you're a clumsy runner like me!) in order to earn the results.

If you CHOOSE to do this, I swear to god you will never regret it, not a single moment will you ever regret the sacrifices this journey demands of you.  It will take all you have and will ask for more.  If you give it more, it will return to you everything you gave plus dividends.

Next, buy a bulletin board and hang it somewhere where you can visit it.  You might choose to put it somewhere public such as by your fridge, or by your bathroom mirror next to the scale, or you may choose to put it somewhere private, like inside the door of your closet.  On that bulletin board, pin pictures, quotes, or things that remind you of why you want this as badly as you do.  Pull out a pad of paper right now and list every single reason why you are doing what you're doing.  Sure, the big items are important, but do your best to spend most of your time focusing on the little things, the personal things, the things that really touch on the nerve.  It doesn't matter how petty or silly they are, how "immature" they might seem.  We all have our reasons for wanting to improve our skills and appearance, so best that we use them to our advantage in the beginning.  Pin this page on your bulletin board (or, as I call it, the Wall of Inspiration) and leave room for new additions to the list.  Never throw the list away; it will one day become a sentimental relic, a tangible item where you can see your goals and dreams morph from what they were at the beginning, to what they will become as you continue to be successful.

Lastly, I want you to take to heart these words and know that they are a cliche for a reason:  You can do this.  There is nothing stopping you except your own self.  Weight loss?  Muscle gain?  There is no grey area:  it is all math.  Calories in, calories out.  There are a million programs and diets out there that you can "buy" and be promised results, but the reason why most of those fail is because the advertisements make everything look so easy.  Once people realize that it isn't easy, but actually quite miserable at times, they quit.  They don't think they're strong enough. This is not an easy endeavor you are choosing to take on.  But just because it's not easy, doesn't mean it's not possible, and it sure as hell doesn't mean it is not euphorically enjoyable.  It's just a matter of whether you are willing to give what it takes to see success.  How bad do you want it?  How badly do you want to be successful?  Because I can tell you that you don't need to spend money to lose weight and tone up.  Everything you need to know, which I will compile in this blog series I'm writing right now, is all on the internet for free already.  You just need to be willing to invest the time, effort and patience into figuring out what needs to be done, and then do it.  

That's why I'm writing this blog series, to gather together all of the basics, all of the important stuff, to get you set and going on your way.  There's nothing I could have wished for more when I first started out.  I plan to write a multi-blog series of everything from the basics of calculating your body metrics and a general idea of your caloric needs, to discussing the what clean eating is and why it's important, and then will discuss fitness techniques (weights before cardio... and why weights are important!) and everything in between.  I hope to post a new entry every week or two.

If you are ready and firm in your resolve to have the most challenging and rewarding journey of your life, to face the challenges and end up making new friends who share the same goals and dreams as you in the process, to finally do something for yourself that you so desperately want, then slap a smile on your face, be grateful for the opportunity that you can completely change your life at a moment's notice, and take that first step.