Lose That Sixth Grader

Almost fifteen years ago I weighed about 220. I remember because it was the year I got married and I had been working out diligently in preparation for the wedding. Fast forward and I wake up one day weighing 265! I’m only five feet and nine inches tall. I say to my self “This is crazy! How did I get here?”

The answer is simple. Subtract 220 from 265 and you’re left with 45 pounds. Divide 45 pounds by 15 years and you get 3 pounds gained per year. That’s not dramatic is it? Go from 220 to 223 and who worries? Then 223 to 226, still no problem.But add all those little 3 pound weight gains over the years and bam without really realizing it I had gained 45 pounds.

What’s amazing to me is that I did a lot of lifting weights, walking, tai chi and even some running during those years. If I had been completely sedentary, I would probably be over 300 pounds. I’m glad I kept some activity going. The problem was it wasn’t consistent exercise, day in day out, week in week out. And even worse, my diet generally was not the most careful as far as portion control or staying away from fried and fast foods. Plus I have a giant sweet tooth.

So, how easy is it to gain three pounds a year? One pound of fat is the equivalent of 3500 calories. Let’s break it down, but first to make the math super easy lets round that 3500 up to 3600. Multiply 3600 calories per pound by 3 pounds and you get 10800 calories. Divide 10800 calories by 12 months and you get 900 calories per month. So if you eat just 900 calories per month more than you burn and over the course of the year you will gain 3 pounds of fat.

What does it take to eat 900 extra calories per month? I typically drink about 3 cups of coffee a day. One tsp of sugar is about 15 calories. I would usually use two, so that’s 30 calories per cup times 3 cups or 90 empty calories from sugar in my coffee per day. Do that for just 10 days and you’ve got your 900 calories. Just two teaspoons of sugar in each of your three cups of coffee per day and you can easily gain three pounds a year or more.

How can these numbers be turned to your advantage? The first thing to take note of is that these numbers clearly show you that you can’t out train a bad diet. Why not you ask? As an example say, like me you weigh 265 and you run 30 minutes 3 days a week. How many calories does that burn? Each session is about 600 calories, so that’s 1800 calories a week. In a month you burn 7200 calories from running, but just from the sugar in your coffee every day you consume 2700 calories per month ( 900 calories/10 days *30 days/month ). That gives you 7200 minus 2700 for 4500 more calories spent running than consumed with your daily coffee. Looks good so far right?

But say you use whole cream in your coffee, guestimate and subtract another 2700, now you’re only 1800 calories ahead. Still feeling good right? But then you go out for lunch one day eating a Big Mac, large order of fries, large strawberry shake and a couple packages of ketchup. Guess how many calories you just consumed? Big Mac 540, large fry 500, shake 740, ketchup 30. That’s a total of 1810 calories.  So by having your daily coffee with sugar and cream and one McDonald’s lunch you’ve wiped out the caloric deficit you built up by running three days a week all month. That’s why you can’t out train a bad diet.

But turn it to your advantage. By simply drinking your coffee black you eliminate 1800 calories per month. Instead of the Big Mac meal, make a healthy choice of a salad perhaps with grilled chicken. Instead of having dessert daily, cut it down to once per week. A few simple changes in food choices and exercise and suddenly you’ll really be in that caloric deficit, burning more than you take in and the weight will come melting off. I’ll write more about good food choices later, but two of the best things I’ve found to help create the caloric deficit and make smarter choices necessary to lose weight are Eat Stop Eat and Eat This Not That.

While you’re at it check out some of the workouts I’ve been doing. As I watched the Capital One Bowl today they mentioned an interesting stat. The University of Georgia running back, Knowshon Moreno, is the only running back from that school to have consectutive 1K+ yard rushing seasons, except for Herschel Walker. Moreno had 2 1K+ yard seasons, Walker had 3. Why am I mentioning that? Walker claimed to have never lifted weights until he was a professional football player. His workouts consisted of pushups, pullups, situps and sprints. He was an amazing physical specimen. Remembering that gave me even more faith in my choice of Turbulence Training bodyweight workouts and intervals.