The right combination of diet and exercise is the key to dropping excess pounds. Do your pants or clothing feel tight or snug? An effective way of dropping a pant size is to change your diet and increase your activity level. Creating a deficit of calories will cause a loss of weight and lead to a smaller waistline. But first you need to establish a baseline for your daily calorie intake. I use the
Harris-Benedict Equation as a guide for determining my caloric needs to maintain my current weight.
Women: BMR = 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)
Men: BMR = 66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)
As an example, I’m 48 years old, 6’1” and weight 175 pounds. Using the above equation for men, 66 + (6.23 x 175) + (12.7 x 73) – (6.8 x 48) = 1757 calories. If I want to lose weight, I would strive for 500 fewer calories per day, or to gain weight I would add 500 calories to my daily diet. It takes an accumulative deficit of about 3500 calories to drop 1 pound. Over the course of weeks and months, it can add up fast and shrink your pant size!
If you want to burn even more calories, other than through reducing the amount you eat, you need daily exercise. You burn calories through physical activities like biking, jogging, walking, swimming and other athletic sport activities. It’s recommended to get at least 30 to 60 minutes of daily exercise. By combining my reduced calorie diet and
P90X exercise, I burned over 13 thousand calories more per week than I consumed, and I was successfully able to achieve an average weight loss of 15 pounds per month for the first three months. Since February 1st, I’ve lost a total of 65 pounds and 7 pants sizes! In the video, you can see how I look going from a 44 inch pant size to a 32!
To help you stay motivated, I recommend you track your progress. There are many online resources that are free such as
www.fitday.com or
www.sparkpeople.com that have calories trackers that count what you eat, what you burn through exercise and help you reach your goal. It’s a great way to stay focused and get results!
One thing that you can do to greatly improve your health is by going with fresh fruits and vegetables. Skip the processed foods and choose foods that are lower in calories including whole grains and lean proteins such as fish and poultry.
Lastly, to rev up your metabolism and burn more calories, start training your muscles through
resistance workouts and weight lifting. The more muscles you build and develop, the more calories you’ll burn and the more weight you’ll lose. Soon you’ll be fitting into the pants you wore when you were younger and you’ll look and feel great!
It's never too late to start changing bad habits, habits that can shave years off your life and impact the quality of your life. So, if you want the straight dope on fueling your body with
nutritious food and what to avoid, I'm here to help and it won't cost you a penny for the free advice based on my own experience and what has worked for me. I hope you'll follow my blog and provide me with some feedback on my posts. I'll be catering good choices that include both dietary and lifestyle changes. So if you could use a boost to your engine, buckle up for the ride of your life and let's get started!
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