Eat You Must. Love you I do.

My husband is all of the best things you would want in your other half.  He’s intelligent, funny (an endearing brand of sarcasm compliments of his mother), loving, dedicated, and also pretty easy on the eyes if I do say so myself.  He’s also a man of few words (also compliments of his mother) and honest to a fault.  Mornings at our house are quiet.  Sure, there’s ESPN on the TV and the sound of eggs cooking, but the human interaction is limited to “good morning” and “love you”.  My husband usually sounds much less “evolved” during the morning hours.  Conversations do not take place during these wee hours, before the sun has risen over the bay and before the Keurig has finished brewing his favorite morning concoction.  I send him off to the gym (he is a personal trainer, remember?) with a belly full of breakfast sandwich and a kiss and that’s all he needs.  No lengthy conversations, no filler, no fluff.

Why do I tell you these things?  Because when my husband does say something, you can usually bank on two things:  1. It’s true  2.  It’s important.  Did I mention he was intelligent?  You see, my loving husband will finish a Master’s Degree in Exercise Science this year so he’s rounding third and heading for home in the education game.  I rely on him to steer me in the right direction for all things “fitness” when I get a little spazzed (which happens.  A lot.)

Now if you’ve been reading my blog so far, you know that I’m trying to get leaner and I’ve relied on HIIT training to do so.  You also know I’m trying to limit my calorie intake and up the protein in my diet, both important aspects to get that beach body.  What you don’t know is how much I’m struggling to lose that little pooch nestled in my midsection that will not go away.  I dutifully catalog everything that goes into my body with my MyFitnessPal app and eat every 2.5 to 3 hours.  I’ve avoided alcohol, exercised, and gotten plenty of sleep.  That pooch is still there.  Now my husband tells me, “You worry too much”.  That’s true too.  I am a product of my mother too after all.  Stressing will not be kind to your weight loss journey.  As a matter of fact, chronic stress is correlated with an increase of cortisol (and a larger mid-section), but since you aren’t one of my students, I won’t put you through a lecture on the endocrine system today :).

Anyway (sorry, Oooh shiny thing! moment), back to my train of thought.  When I received a text from Cam one evening last week while he was supposed to be at his institution of higher learning, I knew two things about this text message:  1. It’s true,  2.  It’s important.  He had written a small paragraph.  Wow, it really must be important.  It wasn’t an “I make fire” conversation like our quiet mornings, it was an actual paragraph (Capitalized and punctuated appropriately I might add.  I’m a sucker for a man with good grammar.  I suppose you can thank his Mom for that too :P).

He went into detail on how many calories I should be taking in to maintain my weight based on my BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) and my level of activity.  Turns out, it was quite a bit more than I expected.  I’ll save you the details, but needless to say, I have actually been guilty of depriving my body of too many calories. 

So the question I often get asked is:  How many calories should I be consuming?  Well, that depends on a number of factors so each individual is going to be different.   You can calculate your BMR and factor in your activity level to get a ballpark number of how many calories you should be eating a day.  If you want to lose 1 pound a week (which is a healthy way to do it), just subtract 500 calories from the overall suggested intake you need to maintain your weight.  My BMR is around 1552, my suggested caloric intake to maintain my weight (based on my personal activity level) is around 2400 calories.  (2400!).  So for me to continue to lose a pound a week (which for me is unreasonable at this point), I would cut out 500 calories a day for an intake of 1900 calories.  Now, I know what you are thinking:  “How on earth did you arrive at those numbers?”  and “It’s too early/late/never a good time for math!”.  

So here’s an easier way:  Runner’s World has a great BMR calculator on their website.  Just put in your height, current weight and age and it will give you calorie suggestions based on your activity level.  Pick your activity level and that’s how many calories will sustain your current weight.  Trying to lose weight?  Subtract 500.  You want slow and steady weight loss and you are more likely to keep it off.  

Remember to use the calories from the activity level suggested and not the BMR.  If you subtract 500 from that number you will pretty much be starving yourself.  And then you will get pregnant and die.  Not really(!), but you will be depriving your body of your most basic needs.  Maslow would not be happy.

Lessons of the day:  

Listen to exercise scientists (even when you are married to them and want to be exempt).  They study this stuff so that you can be better informed.

Exercise!

Eat!

Don’t communicate with a Halfacre before 5 AM and expect a conversation akin to a thesis defense :)

Hakuna Matata!