| Mistake #1: Not changing your calorie plan as you lose
weight. The fallacy of the "1200 calorie diet" plans and the like.
Most people fix their calorie intake to a given number and
expect to lose weight at the same constant rate over a period of weeks. Hence,
dieters look for 1000 calorie or 1800 calorie diet plans on the internet. The
fixed calorie diet plans don't work. If you burn 3000 calories a day at the
start of a diet, after a week or two of losing some weight, you are no longer
burning 3000 calories. Now you might be burning 2800 calories. If you fix your
calorie intake in the face of a decreasing calorie expenditure, your weight loss
will slow down more and more as you lose weight.
If you want to lose weight at a constant rate, you must
repeatedly:
decrease your calorie intake to accommodate the calorie
expenditure drop
increase your calorie output by exercising more
do both
I would like to note that you must set realistic slow
weight loss goals. If you go for fast weight loss you would not be able to
sustain it for a long period unless you go extreme in the calorie reduction
and exercise a lot. For people who have to lose more than 20 pounds (10kgs),
the goal should be a loss of no more than 2 pounds or 1 kg per week. People
who need to lose just a bit of weight should go for weight loss of 1 pound or
half a kilogram per week.
Why does my calorie expenditure drop as I lose weight? The
most important factors are:
You weight less. A smaller body burns less calories both
at rest and while active
You may involuntarily burn fewer calories. Dieters often
lack energy and move less
Calorie restriction suppresses the metabolic rate
You have less body fat, which may further suppress your
metabolic rate
These major factors contribute to an ever-decreasing
energy expenditure as one loses weight. The more a dieter cuts calories, the
bigger the calorie expenditure drop. The leaner the dieter, the greater the
calorie expenditure drop.
Now you must understand that if you want to succeed in
losing weight, you have to make changes in your nutrition plan. I recommend
burning more calories, because being more active facilitates smaller calorie
restriction and milder calorie expenditure drop.
It is very difficult to estimate the rate of the metabolic
drop. Here is the general rule: the bigger you are, the smaller the rate of the
metabolic drop. The more weight you lose, the more you have to cut calories or
increase exercise. If you are overweight you might need to cut just 10 more
calories for every lost pound, while if you are lean you might have to cut 60
calories for every pound lost. I picked these numbers just as an example.
Mistake #2: Overreporting the "extra" calorie expenditure
of exercise
Most people count the calories they spend exercising as
"extra" calories. There is a difference between calories burned while exercising
and "extra" calories burned exercising. Here is an example: you burn 300
calories on the treadmill instead of your usual activity (watching TV at home);
in reality, you have to subtract the calories you would have spent watching TV
from these 300 calories to calculate how many additional calories you burned.
Let's say that watching TV, you would have burned 80 calories. In this specific
case, you have expended 300 calories while exercising, and 220 "extra" calories.
Calorie counters mindlessly add the calories burned
exercising as "extra" and in some cases, this practice can significantly
influence the calorie calculations. Hence, calorie software counts the part of
your usual activities that overlaps with the extra activities twice.
How to estimate the "extra" calories burned exercising?
In order to make the calculations more accurate, I shall
first introduce the concept of MET values. MET values are a convenient way to
calculate the calorie cost of activities. MET values are multiples of the
resting energy expenditure per time. In plain English, a MET = 3 means burning 3
times more calories than resting. A MET = 1 signifies how many calories you burn
at rest (your Resting Metabolic Rate or Basal Metabolic Rate). Whatever you do,
you burn calories at a rate of at least MET = 1 with the only exception being
sleeping which has MET = 0.9. During the day, most activities include sitting
and walking which have MET values between 1.2 and 3. Your total daily energy
expenditure is calculated by multiplying your Resting Metabolic Rate by the
average MET of all your activities. Is your head spinning?
Let's use a real world example. Consider a female person
with a Resting Metabolic Rate of 1200 calories a day. One day has 1440 minutes.
Our example lady is burning 1200/1440 = 0.84 calories per minute at rest, which
signifies a MET = 1. Let's say our example woman just returned from an aerobics
class, where she exercised for 30 minutes. General aerobic class training has a
MET = 6. Our example lady has just burned 30 (minutes) x 6 (MET) * 0.84
(calories per minute) = 151 calories while exercising. Suppose our lady would
have chatted on the internet instead of exercising (MET = 1.5). In this example,
the woman substituted chatting on the internet with aerobic exercising.
Remember, that every time you do something you substitute one activity for
another. In order to get the extra calories, we have to subtract 1.5 (chatting)
from 6 (exercising). Now let's calculate the extra calories: 30 (minutes) * (6 -
1.5) (MET value) * 0.84 = 113 calories.
Let's consider what a standard calorie counter would have
done. First, it will assume an average calorie burn rate of 1 calorie per
minute. Then the counter will find that exercising for 30 minutes will yield 30
(minutes) * 6 (MET) * 1 (calories per minute) = 180 calories. The calorie
counter will add these 180 calories to your daily expenditure without
considering that a part of these 180 calories is already accounted by your usual
activities.
Do you now see the difference between 113 calories and 180
calories? If that woman spends 5 hours a week in that aerobics class, the
standard calorie counters will overreport her calorie output by: (180-113) * 10
= 670 calories a week. The woman will be fooled that her metabolic rate has
dropped while she just overestimated her calorie expenditure. Enter weight loss
plateau, wasted time and efforts. Do you have the time for trial and error
calorie estimations?
Remember these two rules:
Report only extra activities to your calorie counter. If
your walk to your office every day, do not log "walking to office for 30
minutes" as an extra activity. Consider only unusual activities that
contribute to extra expended calories!
Always subtract the calories you would have burned
instead of exercising. A general rule is to subtract from 1.2 to 1.5 from the
MET values. In some cases, you need to subtract a greater MET. If you
substitute 30 minutes of bodybuilding (MET = 6) for 30 minutes of slow jump
rope (MET = 8) then the additional MET would be 8 - 6 = 2.
How to find the MET values of activities based on
standard tables?
In order to make the above calculations, you need to know
the MET values of activities. Standard tables give: name of activity, duration
and calories. Standard tables assume an average calorie expenditure of one
calorie per minute. To find the MET you just need to divide the calories by the
duration.
Example: "Bicycling, stationary, general", "20 minutes",
"140 calories"
MET of "Bicycling, stationary, general" = 140 / 20 = 7
I know these calculations are somewhat tedious and in many
cases the standard calorie calculations are close to correct. However, in some
cases they can significantly over or under-calculate the calorie expenditure of
activities and compromise your weight loss plan with daily miscalculations.
Mistake #3: Training with light weights and lots of reps
I have seen countless number of ladies come to the gym,
get the lightest possible dumbbells, crank out some hundreds of reps and go
home. Most often, these women do not get the results they want. The problem with
this type of training is that it does not burn many "extra" calories unless you
spend a considerable amount of time in the gym. Hefting Ken and Barbie weights
in the gym has a MET value of 3, which means that it burns 3 times more calories
than resting in bed. Almost anything you do during the day has a MET value of
1.2 to 2. Browsing the internet on your computer has a MET value of 1.5. Realize
that almost anything you do during the day (average MET = 1.5) has about 50%
overlap in calorie expenditure with training with very light weights (MET = 3).
If you pump super light dumbbells in the gym, only about half of the calories
burned are "additional".
Of course, you can burn a considerable amount of extra
calories training with light weights but you have to really extend the duration
of this type of training. Curling 5 pound dumbbells for 4 sets of 20 reps and
chit-chatting for 20 minutes in the gym is not going to burn many extra
calories.
Remember the rule: the less intensive the activity
(smaller MET), the greater the calorie expenditure overlap with casual
activities; the less intensive the activity, the more time you have to spend
doing it to expend a good deal of extra calories. Always subtract a MET of 1 to
1.5 to arrive at the additional expended calories.
Mistake #4: Using "average person" calorie estimations
You can find all kinds of tables showing the calorie cost
of different physical activities on the internet. These tables don't show your
calorie expenditure. They actually tell you the calorie expenditure of an
"average person". These tables assume you are an average person that burns one
calorie per minute at rest. Yes, we covered this in the first part of the
article and it needs repeating. Most men burn more than one calorie per minute
and most smaller women burn less than one calorie per minute at rest. In
reality, these standard tables overestimate the calorie expenditure of smaller
people and underestimate the calorie expenditure of bigger than average people.
Combine this with the common mistake of counting all burned calories as
"additional calories" and you have a wide range of possible miscalculations.
Mistake #5: Going on very low calorie diets (VLCD)
Research has shown little to no difference in the weight
loss rate of 1200 calorie diets and 800 calorie diets. The 1200 calorie
threshold is the point where further calorie restriction does not yield faster
results. Diets in the range of 800 to 1200 calories a day suppress the resting
metabolic rate from the very first day and after some weeks on these diets, the
metabolic rate has dropped by up to 20%. This metabolic drop is just a
consequence of the calorie restriction factor; other factors such as the level
of leanness may further depress the calorie expenditure.
A big percentage of the quick initial weight loss on a
VLCD is water. VLCDs create an illusion of fast fat loss, while in reality most
of the weight loss is water. It is hard to continue a very low calorie diet for
a prolonged time because the harsh calorie restriction makes you hungrier than
ever. People on VLCDs often lack energy and move very little. When you stop the
diet, you are prone to instant overeating. Eating a very low calorie diet is the
ticket to yo-yo dieting.
Instead of using very low calorie diets, I recommend diets
with a mild calorie restriction and an emphasis on exercise. Overweight people
who know what they are doing can employ VLCDs for a limited time. It is
important to get enough vitamins and minerals from supplements, because such low
calorie diets are woefully inadequate in nutrients. Water intake should be high.
Bodybuilders, powerlifters and athletes must stay away
from very low calorie diets because the large calorie restriction causes a
greater proportion of the weight loss to be muscle loss.
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