People have flown around the world in hot air balloons in eighty days. What have I done? I have lost 7 pounds. It just doesn’t feel like enough though. Would I say that if I was looking directly at 7 pounds of fat?
What have I learned? I want to say nothing, but that isn’t completely true. A lot about nutrition has been stored in my “useless trivia” section of my brain for many years. The difference is, I’m trying (what feels like fruitlessly) to implement this knowledge. Here are a few pieces of knowledge I had stored in my head.
One pound is equal to 3,500 calories
One gram of starch, sugar, fiber (aka Carbohydrates) is equal to 4 calories
One gram of protein is equal to 4 calories
One gram of fat is equal to 9 calories.
From fingertip to fingertip is your height
Your BMI is the ratio of fat in your body (mine has been off the charts for years.)
Your brain weighs about 3 pounds
The average human consumption should be 2000 calories per day
What does all that information have to do with losing weight? Almost nothing. I don’t know where the 3500 calories comes from. One pound of fat based on the knowledge above is actually 4082 calories. If you bas it on carbs or protein it is 1814 calories. Somewhere there is a math equation that I am unaware of and haven’t research. Knowing how many calories make up a gram of subgroup food doesn’t really matter. Calorie content is on most food now a days, and fresh produce is available on line. Fingertip and brain weight are just two pieced of useless trivia. Knowing the average consumption of 2000 calories doesn’t quite apply to me, because, I’m above average. Even the knowledge about BMI is going by the wayside because that is becoming an obsolete measure. Now focus is going waist to height ratios. That could be unsubstantiated rumor however. So where does that leave this information, still as almost useless trivia.
What do you need to know to lose weight? (In my opinion)
You need to burn more calories than you consume
Your body needs nutrients to survive. So consuming 1400 calories in chocolate and ice cream to create a deficit of 600 calories from the “average diet” won’t suffice.
These are the two basic things about losing weight; which I am doing. So why am I not losing weight? Eighty days in perpetual confusion. Maybe I need to start to weigh in every morning to monitor when things cause ups and when things (if ever) cause downs. But try to remain focused on the weekly progress, not daily fluctuation.
So, end result; what have I learned in the past 80 days with certainty: Homemade food, when prepared with thought, has a lot less calories than store bough prepared food. That about sums it up for now.
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