Basic Pursuits

Often you hear that calories in must equal calories out for our weight to stabilize. Well, yeah, sorta.

Here is the real formula (not so secret, but almost never examined):

Energy = Work/maintenance + waste + storage.

This means that the energy you eat will be consumed in work/maintenance, excreted out, and stored (mostly as fat). If the waste and work consume less energy than you EAT, then your storage will be negative and you'll lose weight. Eat more than you need, you'll gain weight.

Simple huh? How about that waste factor? Do you now how many calories your body casts off in an average day? Of course not. And you have no control over it anyway.

What about the maintenance, also known as your basic metabolic rate, do you know what that is? Probably not. In any case you are restricted to a "best guess" and you have absolutely no control over maintenance either.

What about the work factor? Here you have some control, but not as much as most people think. Let's say that you start an exercise program and put in a brisk walk for a mile. When you come back you feel great. You decide to celebrate and have a beer. What is the net result?

Your walk burned up pretty close to 100 calories. I'm grinning. But your beer added back 150 calories. That sucks! I'd have to walk nine miles to offset a six-pack.

The factor that you have the most control over is the energy in. There's no getting around it. Yet it's the last place most people go to control their weight.

Here's what you do:

1. Start measuring what you eat. I recommend Cron-o-Meter.
2. Adjust your diet so that you are getting all your nutrients from real food.
3. Then adjust your calories gradually. Fewer if you want to lose; more if you want to gain.
4. Observe the results and make appropriate gradual adjustments.

This ain't really a diet. It's the way to optimize your eating for life.