Today, on “Confessions of Yesterdays Fat Guy” we get to watch Rex eat Crow and Humble Pie as part of his calorie intake… !! Good grief…

As I mentioned in my last post, when you make a decision to take on a fitness or weight loss program, follow it to the letter, EVEN IF you question it. After all, you spent money on that program so it should stand to reason that the experts SHOULD know what they are talking about… “Have a little faith Rex…” LOL!

Anyhow… today I want to take a few minutes to share something that is making a huge difference in my weight loss journey… the Harris Benedict Equation.

For those who are unfamiliar, the Harris Benedict Equation is a formulation developed to help people determine their BMI (Basic Metabolic Rate) and utilize basic math to either gain or lose weight based on their needs, wants or desires.

For those who want to lose weight, there is A LOT of good news for you in using this equation.

Here is what the equation looks like for both men and women. There are two separate scales for each… one in pounds (LBS) and one in kilograms (KG):

BMR calculation for men (KG): BMR = 66 + ( 13.7 x weight in kg ) + ( 5 x height in cm ) – ( 6.76 x age in years )
BMR calculation for men (LBS): BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) – ( 6.76 x age in years )

BMR calculation for women (KG): BMR = 655 + ( 9.6 x weight in kg ) + ( 1.8 x height in cm ) – ( 4.7 x age in years )
BMR calculation for women (LBS): BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) – ( 4.7 x age in years )

From here, we take the first calculation and do a second calculation based on this scale…

Little to no exercise: Daily calories needed= BMR x 1.2
Light exercise (1-3 days per week): Daily calories needed= BMR x 1.375
Moderate exercise (3-5 days per week): Daily calories needed= BMR x 1.55
Heavy exercise (6-7 days per week): Daily calories needed= BMR x 1.725
Very heavy exercise (twice per day, extra heavy workouts): Daily calories needed= BMR x 1.9

Depending on your current weight you will either be delighted or horrified based on your current eating habits. If you are underweight and want to gain muscle mass then this scale might be looked on as your friend. If you are severely obese and are eating 10,000 calories per day (consisting of Big Macs, bon bons and monkey bread) then you are might be disappointed based on your current mindset. Always remember though that “when you change your mind, your body WILL follow!”

For the first three weeks of Insanity I ignored this scale and went about the exercises while trying to stay under 2000 calories per day THINKING that the numbers this scale gave me couldn’t be right so if I cut huge calories I should lose massive weight. Guess what, I didn’t lose a pound… in fact, I fluctuated up and down by two pounds for the better part of three weeks.

If you don’t follow these numbers to the letter you can count on ZERO results when it comes to fat and weight loss. Long story short, if you are going to work out at that level your body NEEDS the fuel so it’s okay to eat, just make sure it’s healthy and managed.

Here’s what the scale looks like for me, right now…

Scale: 66 + (6.23 X Weight In Pounds) + (12.7 X
Height In Inches) – (6.8 X Age In Years) = TOTAL
X 1.55 or 1.7 based on exercise volume.

- 500 for weight loss
-0 if you want to stay the same
+ 500 if you want to gain weight

66 + 1713.25 = 1779.25
12.7 X 71.5 = 908.05
6.8 X 39 = 265.2

4117.57 – 500 = 3617.57

Can you believe that? I should be eating 3617.57 calories per day to lose weight? I couldn’t believe it! In fact, like I stated above, I doubted it! Turns out I was wrong. I started eating the way the Insanity Nutrition Guide told me to and the weight started coming off again.

Why? Because my body needs the calories for fuel. I’m working out twice a day. I lift weights every other morning alternated with daily cardio at the gym and then I do Shaun T’s Insanity workout in the evening. Now that I’ve been doing this daily for a month my metabolism is insane! The reason I’m losing weight is because even though I’m eating 3600 calories per day, my body is burning even more than that, thus the weight loss.

If you don’t eat enough to fuel your body bad things happen like catabolism where your body is breaking down healthy tissue for fuel (you don’t want that) or it will actually hold on to the fat it has already stored (versus burning it) because it’s believes it needs to because your aren’t giving it enough fuel.

Think of your body like a car. If you don’t give a car enough fuel it goes very slow or won’t run at all. If you pump the gas to much the car can become flooded and not start because the engine is getting to much fuel. The same thing applies to your body when it comes to food. If you don’t give it enough it will feel sluggish and tired and not do what you want it to do. If you give it to much fuel (over eat) you feel bloated and slow and fat. There has to be a balance.

You might even go so far as to say that we’ve all been lead astray with the thinking that we need three square meals per day. This is old school thinking and certainly doesn’t fit into a program of extreme fitness and/or weight loss. To keep your metabolism working for you, you need a consistent routine of strength training to build muscle, cardio exercise to burn fat and frequent, smaller meals throughout the day to keep the body working at peak performance.

Eating healthy is vital. You can’t do this and still eat garbage that isn’t good for you. When this system is combined with quality, “good for your body” foods then you have a plan of attack for getting healthy and fit!

With the nutrition program I’m following right now I can even have peanut butter sandwiches again! It’s not all about veggies and protein like so many want you to believe. In fact, the right amount of carbs, especially for muscle development, is essential to both weight gain or weight loss. The difference now? My PB and J isn’t the standard white bread, sugar loaded jelly and gobs of peanut butter, it’s 2 tbsp. of low fat peanut butter on healthy 12 grain bread with fresh blue berries instead of jelly… and you know what? It’s WAY better than the other!

Well, I’ve rambled on enough here and it’s time for my pre-workout snack before I head to the gym. I hope you have found this information useful.

Have a great day and God bless!

Rex – Yesterdays Fat Guy

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