Ok guys....here's the geek in me! IT IS A NUMBERS GAME!

For those of you who know me, know that I am all about the math.  I love numbers and for a while I have been trying to figure out, why I didn't lose weight just following a normal diet.  The truth is that all of us obese people have so much stored energy, that if we ate zero calories for the next few months, our bodies would live off of our reserves for all that time.

So here's the math....

Each pound is worth 3500 calories.  So in order for me to lose a pound I have to have a calorie deficit of 3500 calories.Right?

First you have to identify you resting metabolic rate.

Definitions:

BMR and RMR are estimates of how many calories you would burn if you were to do nothing but rest for 24 hours. They represent the minimum amount of energy required to keep your body functioning, including your heart beating, lungs breathing, and body temperature normal.

• BMR stands for Basal Metabolic Rate, and is synonymous with Basal Energy Expenditure or BEE. BMR measurements are typically taken in a darkened room upon waking after 8 hours of sleep; 12 hours of fasting to ensure that the digestive system is inactive; and with the subject resting in a reclining position.
• RMR stands for Resting Metabolic Rate, and is synonymous with Resting Energy Expenditure or REE. RMR measurements are typically taken under less restricted conditions than BMR, and do not require that the subject spend the night sleeping in the test facility prior to testing.

The Harris-Benedict equation for BMR:

• For men: (13.75 x w) + (5 x h) - (6.76 x a) + 66
• For women: (9.56 x w) + (1.85 x h) - (4.68 x a) + 655

The Mufflin equation for RMR:

• For men: (10 x w) + (6.25 x h) - (5 x a) + 5
• For women: (10 x w) + (6.25 x h) - (5 x a) - 161

Where:

w = weight in kg

h = height in cm

a = age

or you can cheat and just go here to check what your RMR is: 

http://www.shapeup.org/interactive/rmr1.php

So according to the calculator my current RMR at 280lbs is 1941 calories.  So I'll round down to 1900 in my calculations.

Here's the real math:

Current Weight 280 lbs Goal weight 180 lbs Excess Weight 100 lbs Total Excess Energy        350,000 calories 

So I have 350,000 calories saved up that I can use to survive on.   I think this is the key into seeing life through an overweight persons's eyes.  Sometimes regular nutritionists don't get why a 300 lbs person, eating a 1900 calorie diet doesn't lose weight....well...they may, but at a pretty slow rate, see we use those 1900 calories to live on, and don't start using our stored energy reserves.  In my case 350,000 calories!!!

So here is my daily calorie burn:




Resting RMR: 1900calories



Exercise 300 calories


Total Calories burned/day  2200 calories

So if I consume 1900 calories per day:

Total Calories Consumed: 1900 calories




Total Calorie Deficit per day 300 calories

(total calories burned per day (2200 calories - 1900 calories eaten)

Total Defecit per week: 2100 calories (300 calories a day times 7 days)



Total weight loss per week: .06lbs  (2100 calories divided by 3500 calories)

It would take me 1150 days to lose 100 lbs (350,000 total calorie "saved up" divided by 300 calories a day), you can imagine how disheartening that can be.  Also think that this is with doing at least 300 calories worth of exercise a day, and eating no more than 1900 calories a day.

No look at what my rates are after WLS, and I think this is the KEY to success.  I am currently eating between 800-900 calories so let's round up to 900.

Total Calories Consumed: 900 calories

Total Calorie Deficit per day 1300 calories

(total calories burned per day (2200 calories - 900 calories eaten)

Total Defecit per week: 9100 calories (1300 calories a day times 7 days)

Total weight loss per week: 2.6lbs (9100 calories divided by 3500 calories)

It would take 270 (350,000 "saved up" calories divided by 1300 calories a day) days assuming that my RMR stays the same and that my consumption doesn't go up beyond 900 calories a day.

I think that is the reason weight loss surgery is successful.  There is no way I could have been satisfied with 900 calories pre surgery, all the talking heads and "experts" seem to think that eating a balanced diet is enough to lose weight. It is, but we can see that at a very slow rate.  So slow that it is easy to give up and just compound the problem.

With my new tiny stomach, I am full with very little, my body is forced to "feed" on it's stored energy and burn those extra calories.

The one thing these numbers don't take into account, is that weight loss will slow as we lose weight or it may speed up, depending on how much muscle we build.  Muscle increases your RMR and if you don't build muscle and just lose weight, your RMR will also decrease, seeing as it takes less energy to move a lesser body mass.....

I may get into more calculated equations, but for now, it helps to know that I should be losing between 2-3 lbs a week....hopefully....We'll see on Friday.....