Get up early on a Saturday morning and turn on the TV. Nearly half of the channels will feature an infomercial regarding some type of weight loss product, be it a new diet regime or exercise contraption. Many of them promise weight loss or spot reduction in a short period of time. “You too can drop 30 pounds or lose that inner thigh jiggle, for just 3 easy payments of $19.99, plus shipping and handling.” All the while, before and after images of “successful” people who allegedly used this product fill the screen above the tiny subtext “results not typical.” Do you ever wonder why the results aren’t typical? Because, in all likelihood, the people sporting those pictures didn’t use the advertised method alone to lose weight or firm up.
The reason that many diets don’t work, or that many “get fit in 10 minutes a day” routines don’t result in weight loss, is simple. They do not follow the basic weight maintenance formula on which our body operates. Every person has a minimum daily calorie requirement for his/her body to function – this is called a daily metabolic rate. It represents the calories required for breathing, digestion, sleeping, and other basic body functions. (Find out your daily caloric needs with this online calculator: ACE Daily Caloric Needs Calculator.) To maintain your weight, you need to meet that number of calories with proper nutrition and exercise. If you go over the calorie requirement, you will eventually gain weight. To lose weight, you must trim calories from your base requirement for your current weight.
A pound equals 3500 calories. Therefore, to lose one pound a week, you must have a calorie deficit of 3500 for that week, either by burning them off through exercise and/or not consuming them while eating.
Therefore, weight loss is a simple equation: calories burned must be greater than calories consumed…. or calories out > calories in. And to maintain our weight, calories out = calories in. Unfortunately, even though it is a simple equation, weight loss and weight maintenance are not always simple processes. Which is where those infomercials come into play… infomercials prey on our desire to get rid of our flab quick and painlessly. And anyone who has ever tried to lose weight knows it is not a quick nor painless process.
However, by sticking to the simple equation above, using a food journal, counting calories, and making an effort to move and be active each day, you can start a journey toward a healthier lifestyle… without paying three installments of $19.99 plus shipping and handling.
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