Congratulations to team Livin’ La Vida Lo Cal!  They went above and beyond to bring in the points and grab first place on the Amazing Race Challenge.

Final scores were posted this morning as follows:

Livin’ La Vida LoCal – 1441.0
ABC’s – 1277
Hard ACT to Follow – 1239.50
Need a Hero – 1122.5
School Chicks – 1067.50
Small Victories – 1043.50
Kara – 963.50
Sizzlin’ Sevens – 625.25
KTS – 408

Check out the winning team’s thread and find out the pretty amazing lengths they went to in order to rake in the maximum points!  Amazing Race – Team Livin’ La Vida LoCal Thread

Congrats to Margaret, Kimberly, & Kim for going above and beyond!

Weight loss boils down to just one thing – calories in vs. calories out. It doesn’t matter how you achieve that; some diet plans reduce calories by cutting out food groups, some by restricting eating times, some by resorting to a short list of approved foods. But the bottom line is that any diet that works does so by causing you to eat fewer calories than you burn. Some people do very well on plans that don’t directly require them to count calories – but many others find that the flexibility of being able to choose their own foods is easier and more effective, so they turn to calorie counting as their diet and maintenance plan.

Of course, the first question that people ask when starting to count calories is the obvious one: How many calories should I eat?

For years people have heard various figures; 1500 calories, 1200 calories, even 1000 calories. The general mindset seems to be “the fewer calories the better” – and this has come from the media, from friends, from books, and even from doctors. The fact, however, is that not everyone needs the same amount of calories and fewer is not always better. Do you really think that a 300 lb man should be eating the same number of calories as a 150 lb woman?  Of course not! So picking some number at random is not the healthiest or most effective way to go about this.

So how do you know how many calories to consume?

The long and complex way to go about it is to use the Harris-Benedict equation. The HB equation is pretty much the standard in determining an individual’s BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) and their overall daily calorie burn (which are not the same thing). If you want to figure it out for yourself, the HB equation (which is different for men and for women) is this:

Men: 66 + (13.7 x weight in kilos) + (5 x height in centimetres) – (6.8 x age in years)
Women: 655 + (9.6 X weight in kilos) + (1.8 X height in cm) – (4.7 X age in years)

Using this calculation will give you your BMR – which is the number of calories you’d need to simply lie in bed and breathe.  You then multiply your BMR by your regular daily activity level to get the number of calories you’d need to maintain your current weight:

• If you are sedentary (little or no exercise): BMR x 1.2
• If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week):  BMR x 1.375
• If you are moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week):  BMR x 1.55
• If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week):  BMR x 1.725
• If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training):  BMR x 1.9

Most people will fall into the 2nd or 3rd range.  This number will be the number of calories you should consume to MAINTAIN your current weight.

Once you’ve figured out this number, you can subtract calories to begin losing weight.   How much should you subtract?  Ultimately that’s up to you, but the idea behind healthy, safe, and sustainable weight loss is to eat as many calories as you can, while still dropping enough to lose weight. The more calories you drop at one go, the faster you slow your metabolism, and the sooner your weight loss will hit a “stall” or “plateau”.  So ideally, reducing your calories between 20% and 30% is a good figure.

That’s a  lot of math, though, and can be confusing to a lot of people.  There’s a way to simplify this even more – a method that is remarkably consistent for men and women at all weights and heights.  That method is this:

Men:  Multiply your current weight by 12
Women:  Multiply your current weight by 10

So for example, if you’re a 250 lb man – eat 3000 calories.  If you’re a 170 lb woman – eat 1700 calories.  And so forth.

Looking for more?  There isn’t more.  That’s it.  Eat the number of calories that you get when you multiply your bodyweight as shown above.  For most people, that will provide a reasonable and safe level of calorie reduction – one that isn’t too extreme and produces results.

One more thing – keep in mind that all calorie estimates are just that:  ESTIMATES. Not every 170 lb woman burns the exact same amount of calories.  In fact each person will burn different amounts of calories each day – with variances of as much as 10% or more – depending on what they do from day to day.  So don’t freak out over 10 calories or 20 calories one way or another.  It’s the averages over the long term that count.

Next article we’ll talk about nutrients vs. calories.  While the bottom line of weight loss is calories in vs calories out … what you eat is as important as how much you eat, when it comes to being healthy as well as losing weight.

When someone is trying to lose weight, whether it’s a little or a lot, one of the best things they can do is set realistic goals. Often I see people setting unrealistic goals; when they don’t meet those goals, they feel like they’ve failed and they give up. On the other hand, when someone sets realistic goals, they can continue to feel a sense of accomplishment, which makes them want to continue.

Exercise is one of the things that people tend to want to go crazy with. People get gung-ho and say things like “I’m going to exercise for 2 hours every day, until I lose all this weight”.  Or “I’m going to run 5 miles a day, every single day!” It all sounds good on paper, but do you think most people really stick with that?  I don’t.  It almost sounds like the person is trying to punish themselves into being thin!

Realistically most people simply cannot carve 2 hours out of their day to exercise.  Aside from that, when you take someone who hasn’t exercised before (or hasn’t exercised much), after the first day or two of excessive exercising, they’re going to be sore and tired.  Someone who is new to exercising may suffer from extreme DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) and be in so much pain that they can’t workout again the next day or even the day after that.  Typically when that happens, the average over-enthusiastic exerciser gives up – because they feel that they’ve “failed” when they have to skip a day or two, or when they suffer pain. 

Not to mention that going from couch potato to marathon runner overnight is a sure recipe for an injury that will keep you from exercising for weeks or months at a time.

A more realistic goal would be to get *some* exercise every day.  30 – 60 minutes of exercise of some kind is the usual recommendation for a healthy lifestyle. For someone just starting out who has not exercised regularly in years (if ever), even a commitment to exercise 3x a week is much more reasonable.  Nor does the exercise have to be Olympic class weight lifting or miles of running.  Some basic body weight exercises and a little brisk walking is a good start.

Start slow. Work your way up. Pick exercises that you can do, maybe ones that push you a little, but don’t totally wipe you out. Before you know it, you’ll be running that 5k, benching your body weight, or whatever your long term goal is. But you have to work up to that level – and be realistic.

The year is flying by! We’re already a week into the February MPH Challenge and the numbers are racking up. Our January MPH Challenge set records and knocked the weight lifting numbers out of the park.

January totals:
Miles: 1042.28 miles
Pounds: 1,553,504
Hours: 92 Hrs., 21 Mins.

That’s a million and a half pounds lifted by our members in the month of January! Whoa!

Come join the February MPH Challenge on the board today.

Our January MPH challenge is now underway an we’ve already broken 1 million pounds lifted by our members! (See the numbers in the tab on the right).

Come join our January MPH Challenge today!

Congrats to our 3 Advent Challenge winners!

Cord the Seeker and SeeShannonRun tied for 1st place with the maximum number of points possible: 336
Ange took second place with a very close 329.4 points.

It was an awesome job by Cord, Shannon, and Ange – as well as all the members who participated over the month of December.

Come visit the forum and see what new Challenges we have running for the month of January!

Our November MPH challenge was a huge success. We beat our numbers from the other forums in every category, coming up with these totals for the month:
Miles – 852.23
Pounds – 980,535
Hours – 60Hrs, 25Min

Now we’re doing it all over again for December!

What is the MPH challenge, you ask? Well, it is an exercise challenge where we try to collectively work out as much as possible over the month. MPH – because we will be logging our workouts in three categories:

* M – Miles – any exercise that can be measured by distance
* P – Pounds – the total number of pounds we lift
* H – Hours – anything that can’t be measured by the above two methods, we will log by time.

At the end of the month, we will see how much we collectively lifted, how far we ran/walked/biked/whatever, and how long we did other exercises for. We’ll keep a running total posted on the forum and over to the right on the blog.

It is a challenge, but not a competition. We are going for a collective total.

Come join the December MPH Challenge today!

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Come over to the forum and join us for the December ADVENT CALENDAR Challenge.

This is a points based challenge, suitable for weight loss, weight maintenance, and even controlled weight gain!  Earn points for exercising, weight control, posting recipes, and meeting each of 31 different nutrition or exercise based “picture” challenges.

Come join us today!

A day late, maybe, but not a dollar short by any means.

Yesterday was the one month anniversary of our weight loss and fitness forum.  In that month we’ve racked up the following stats:
Members: 70
Threads: 335
Posts: 2,544

We have 3 successful challenges going.
We have a Christmas card exchange going.
We have people posting recipes.
We have support from a kickass trainer who gives advice here.
We have maintainers, beginners, trainers, people in the middle of their journey, and people who are becoming friends.

And here are some of the things our members are saying:

I’m having a great time here, with great people.
You have crafted an awesome site, and I look forward to being part of it as it grows.

We are blessed by the presence of many of the most supportive people on any forum. People who have acquired an amazing pool of weight loss knowledge and are prepared to help others reach their goals. People who are focussed and therefore project a great example to anyone looking for inspiration and the way forward.

I like that it is smaller and more personal than some others…I don’t just feel like a number. I feel like my opinion and thoughts DO count and can make a difference.

I’m so glad I found this forum. Unlike some other forums I really feel like I’m a part of a community and get lots of support Thank you!

Come join us and be a part of our “rockin’ forum” (so says Korrie)

I stole this line from Lyle McDonald because I love it so much.  It’s perfect for the holidays and goes in line with the last tip on the topic:  Plan to Maintain.

There are a plethora of bad choices that face us during the holidays.  Do we have another helping?  Do we have dessert?  Do we have 2 desserts (who can resist taking a piece of both types of pie after Thanksgiving dinner)?  Do we have another glass of champagne?  Do we take the chocolate that’s offered?

Sometimes you can’t say “no” without being the Grinch – and sometimes we don’t want to say no.  But saying yes doesn’t mean you can just abdicate all responsibility and go crazy.  So instead make reasonable choices to indulge where it’s important.

• If you want both kinds of pie, take two 1/2 slices instead of two full servings – and skip the whipped cream or ice cream on top.
• Pick either dressing or potatoes with dinner, not both.
• Alternate glasses of water with whatever alcoholic drink you’re having.  (Not only does this slow down your consumption of alcohol, it’ll help with alcohol related water retention the next day.)
• Have an appetizer or dessert, but not both at the same meal.
• If the choice is between veggies and a rich creamy spinach dip or fried stuffed mushrooms, choose the veggies and dip.

In other words:  if you’re going to choose to eat something that falls on the “bad” side of the equation, at least make it a better bad choice.

Or as another friend of mine says:  just because you take a small step off the path, it doesn’t mean you should throw yourself down the side of the mountain.

Enjoy your holiday reasonably rather than making it an all or nothing.

(And please remember during the holiday season to drink responsibly if alcohol is part of your celebrations!)