Back to BMR. So you found a BMR calculator on line and it told you your BMR is 1,700, which means your body uses 1,700 calories per day to keep itself functioning. That’s where we left off last time, no?
Ok, good. Then let’s think about this: your body uses 1,700 calories per day to function and you consume 1,900 calories in a day, what happens to the excess 200 calories? Your body holds onto those calories and they typically end up stored as fat in various places on your body – chin, butt, gut, love handles – you know, the sweet spots! (This example assumes we do nothing else to burn calories in a day, which is a bit simplistic but keeps the example easy.)
So let’s flip the example and say we consume 1,500 calories in a day. Where will your body get the 200 calories it needs to make all of your organs work? It will dip into your fat stores and burn what it needs to make up the shortfall. It doesn’t necessarily mean you are losing weight because you may be doing other things at the same time to build muscle, and the weight of the new muscle may offset the weight decrease from the fat loss. Muscle is denser and weighs more than fat. But you are burning fat – and that’s usually thought of as a good thing.
Let’s also keep in mind that it is important that your intake be of quality calories. Can’t stress this enough. Krispy Kremes and Frappuccinos ain’t gonna do it.
A while ago, I think I mentioned previously, I was coming off some injuries and did some training with a former bodybuilder. She put me on a diet close to my BMR of 1,850 calories and an intense weight and HIIT regimen.
I ended up losing ten pounds (unintentional) and about ten percentage points of body fat – went from 157 pounds to 147 and 19% body fat to 9%. I ended up adding calories during the program to stabilize my weight and gain some back. (Since then, as I mentioned, I’ve gone on a growth thing and am up to 177 pounds). The long and short, however, is that the program worked in terms of making me lose fat – ten percentage points, in fact.
I took in an amount of calories a bit above my BMR (at the time it was 250 calories over my BMR), burned a great deal of calories with each workout (roughly 500-1,000), my body needed more calories per day to function than it had to work with after subtracting the calories burnt during exercise from what I consumed, and thus dipped into my fat stores to make up the difference. I lost fat, and although I put on some muscle, also ended up losing weight.
So if you’re toting a few extra lbs around that you’d like to be rid of, or are just looking to burn off some fat, start by finding your BMR. Then pick a calorie figure a little above that number (5 to 15% on top of your BMR), and take in that amount of calories per day (quality calories) in a 40% protein, 40% carb, 20% fat ratio (refer to prior post).
Combine this method of eating with an exercise plan like the four days on one day off plan I mentioned in an earlier post and will get into detail on as we move forward, and you’ll lose fat and probably weight. I think an exercise program that focuses on building muscle makes the most sense because as you add muscle to your body, you naturally burn more calories even at rest.
Or, if you’re looking to put on weight, find your BMR and add a bunch of calories on top of it. The amount will vary from person to person but we’re talking hundreds and hundreds of calories over your BMR. Although, unless you’re a naturally very large person or doing some seriously intense training or on special sauce, you probably don’t want to get above 3,000 calories per day. But you cannot gain weight without taking in the extra calories. You can lift all the weight you want, but if your body doesn’t have surplus calories to build into new tissue, you will not gain weight. In fact, you’ll probably lose weight.
More on exercise programs and what to eat to get to your daily calorie goal, as we move forward. Until then, here’s the cocktail and exercise song of the day. Enjoy!
Cocktail of the day – the Aviation. A lovely lightly lavender colored libation from the Prohibition era. Hope you enjoyed that alliteration.
The picture above shows the cherry garnish not in the drink. I prefer to use Amarena Cherries and put one in the glass with a small amount of the syrup, and then pour the cocktail on top of it. It’s a really good drink.
Exercise song of the day – One Minute by Kanye (love him or hate him, there’s only one).
Clauds June 23, 2020
How do you know if you are losing muscle, not fat? Any telltale signs?
oldaffitness June 23, 2020 — Post Author
Hey Clauds – what’s happenin’? All good, I hope! Anyway, to your question.
So we’re talking about telltale signs of muscle and fat loss. For both, you gotta measure yourself. Measure your upper arms and legs. Aim for the muscular middle halfway between the shoulder and elbow on your arms and the hip and knee on your legs. There’s typically not a lot of fat there to interfere with your readings. If those measurements are dropping, you may be losing muscle (it could be fat loss, too, so you really need to scrutinize). Measure these areas anyway, because increases indicate muscle growth, which, if you’re exercising, is probably what you’re going for.
And who doesn’t like muscle growth? It’s amazeballs.
Also, and this may sound obvious, if you look in the mirror and you’re wasting away or experiencing drastic weight loss, there could be a problem. So get it checked out. It pains me that I feel the need to point this out, but you never know these days.
Scientifically speaking, your body doesn’t want to burn muscle (protein). It goes for glucose flowing in your bloodstream and stored in your liver and muscles as glycogen first, then fat, before it gets to the protein. It doesn’t really get to this phase unless you’ve caused a starvation situation, either through actually starving yourself or exercising really intensely and not nourishing yourself properly.
For fat loss, body fat percentage (BFP) is your barometer. Go on-line and get yourself a set of body fat calipers. There are also services out there that will measure BFP for you for a fee. Either way is great – it’s up to you. But measure yourself now for a baseline, then every couple weeks and see how you’re trending. Maybe I’ll go through the BFP measurement process in a future post. But seeing your body fat numbers drop is a really satisfying thing. Unless you get under 4% – then it can be a real problem! See – ’cause you can die if it gets too low.