Every bit counts no Matter how Small.

So how do you  lose weight?

Simple, you need to create an energy deficit. In other words, consume less energy than you spend and you’re body has no choice but to burn some bodyfat (after all that’s what it’s there for in the first place).

So how do you create an energy deficit?

1) The easiest is to eat less calories than you burn. This means less calories than your BMR or your daily energy expenditure. Sadly for most people their BMR accounts for all the daily calories burned. (the other things that can burn calories are purposeful exercise and lifestyle activity)

2) Increase your lifestyle activity level. But this only works if you don’t compensate by eating more calories. This is actually tougher than it seems. Most people who have a busier or more active day just end up eating more and erase any weight loss benefit from being more active.

3) Do more exercise (or start exercising). This is different from lifestyle activity because exercise is usually for shorter periods of time and at higher intensity. Again this only works if you don’t compensate by eating more calories.

4) Take a supplement, or coffee, or green tea, or anything that you think will help you stick to your weight loss program. This is likely more of a placebo effect than anything, but going through the ritual of taking a vitamin supplement or a workout supplement might just make it all seem more real and keep you focused.

I have a friend who is successfully losing weight and he takes a different mix of supplements and vitamins every day.

The Ritual of Taking Supplements Might Be More Important than what's in Them.

He doesn’t really care what they’re supposed to do, but the ritual of taking them reminds him to stay on track with his eating and so far he’s doing great dropping 3-5 pounds per week for the past 9 weeks. (can’t say anything he’s doing isn’t working!)

The point is anything that can help you stay on track and focused on your weight loss goal is worth doing. If it means having a special coffee or tea twice a day then go for it. If you think you’d rather have a post workout shake and it helps you avoid overeating in the evening then the post workout shake might be critical to your success.

You’re the only person who knows your weaknesses and barriers when it comes to exercise, weight loss and eating. So once you find a system and ritual that works for you stick with it.

Real weight loss success comes from consistency, and consistency is usually rooted in rituals that make you feel good about the process and that remind you to stay on course.

John

Guess How Many Calories Are In This Pizza

This is a personal sized ‘Chicken Pizza’ that my friend Becky Osterhout (Venus Index model and fitness competitor) made for me.

Tomorrow I’ll have a video up showing you exactly how she made it, but for today I just want you to guess at how many calories you think are in this pizza?

The pizza is about 5 inches in diameter (just in case you can’t tell from the pic)

I’ll be revealing the actual calorie count in tomorrows video.

John

Energy Balance is defined by a Stable Body Weight

After reading yesterdays comments I’m getting the impression that many people assume we can burn more calories in a day that we really do.

For most of the population our BMR/RMR accounts for almost all of their calories burned in a given day.

BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate; the amount of calories you burn lying down doing nothing)…and I guess more accurately our RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate; which is the calories you burn sitting around vs lying around)

If you don’t partake in purposeful exercise (a workout) and don’t have a physically active job (most people don’t) then you’re just not burning that many calories in a day.

So if you’re RMR is 1900, and you don’t workout or have an active job, you probably only burn around 2000 calories per day.

If you do an average workout like most gym warriors for an hour or so 3-4 days per week, you’re only burning an extra 300-400 calories on those days…that still doesn’t help with the days that you’re not working out.

I think people just grossly overestimate how many calories they think they’re burning (to justify eating more)

The bottom line is this. If you’re goal is weight loss, and you’re not currently losing weight, then you’re eating too much.

John

You don't need to hit the bullseye every day to lose weight or gain muscle

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about specific dietary protein content for muscle building as well as specific daily calories for weight loss.

I usually answer with a general range of what is most likely going to be adequate. This however never seems to be a good enough answer. It seems that many people think there is an exact number of calories they must eat per day to lose a specific amount of weight (ex: 1 pound of fat loss per week)

Same with muscle building. Some guys think that they must eat a precise amount of protein each day in order to build a specific amount of muscle.

In both cases this is a flawed way of thinking. We can never know with certainty exactly how many calories we’re consuming or burning on any given day.

Likewise we have no idea how many grams of protein it actually takes to support muscle building.

Instead we have general ranges that we can approximate to be effective. The key here is that they’re ranges and not exact numbers.

If your goal is weight loss, then a calorie deficit (no matter how big or small) is your daily goal. There is a whole range of calories you can eat to achieve this (ex: if your BMR is 1900, any amount of calories less than 1900 with contribute to weight loss)

The specifics don’t matter, just the general trend.

John

The Claim: Certain foods cause you to burn more calories digesting them than others

Answer: FACT

Protein actually has a slightly higher thermic effect than carbs or fat. In other words it takes a bit more energy to digest and metabolize protein. But this effect is minimal and will never help you actually lose body fat.

The thermic effect of protein might add up to at most 10% of the food eaten. In other words, it would be eating 1000 calories in order to burn 100. This is a pointless road to travel if your goal is fat loss.

Just eat less total calories to burn fat, and don’t bother concerning yourself with the composition of those calories.

John

In the previous post I asked you all to guess at the calorie count on a banana nut muffing and a bowl of home made pasta with a light sauce.

The real calorie count of each are as follows:

Muffin = 390 calories

Pasta Bowl = 407

If you guessed they were the same you were right.

The point of this exercise was to show two things.

1) We all seem to have a much different assumption about calories in a given food. If you scan the guesses in the comment section some people were guessing as much as three times as many calories as other people. Clearly as a society we’re not all on the same page with our assumptions about calories. Some of us are in completely different books!

2) Two different foods of wildly different appearance and size can have the same calories. The pasta is in a full sized pasta bowl. It was home made and had a light sauce based with some chicken broth, corn starch, some orange bell peppers and some chunks of onion and basil (and a touch of garlic…tasty stuff)

The muffin is just a standard commercial muffin you could find at most coffee shops.

Awareness of the food you are eating and the amount of calories in that food goes a long way for helping you lose weight (if that is your goal)

I’m guessing some of you will be a bit surprised at this answer, and some of you hit the nail right on the head with your guess.

If you had to choose between the two, which one would you rather eat? Or would you just hit em’ both! Or go half and half?…or both of these plus a pizza! ha!

Anyway, let me know what you’d do if both of these items were on the table in front of you right now.

John

Many people who are trying to lose weight underestimate how many calories are in the food that they eat. This adds to the frustration and confusion of the battle to lose weight.

The following two pictures are of a banana muffin and a bowl of homemade pasta with a light garlic and basil sauce.

Take a guess at the total calories of each and put your answer in the comment section below.

(I’ll reveal the real amount of calories in both in a couple days)

Banana Nut Muffin

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Pasta Bowl

Pasta Bowl

John