The Beginning: Stats

Height: 5’7”
Weight: 165.8 pounds
Chest: 39”
Wrist: 6”
Bicep: 12”
Forearm: 10.5”
Waist: 39”
Hips: 39.5”
Thigh: 22.5”
Calf: 14.75”

Body Fat %: 27.10
Lean Body Mass: 120.86
Fat Mass: 44.94

BMR: 1553
TDEE: 2135

Wow, that’s a lot of information! On the plus side, I’m enjoying doing all these calculations and fitting these puzzle pieces together. It’s like CSI: My Body. I’m really looking forward to these numbers going down, down, down.

These numbers are giving me a starting point. Too often when trying to lose weight, I go all willy-nilly and confuse myself to death. Am I eating enough calories? Too much? What foods should I be eating? How much of each? How much should I exercise? When? What exercises should I do?

To be honest, I think this confusion is part of the reason I keep failing. I am one of those people who likes things laid out, in order. I like graphs and charts and formulas. I like organization. I’ve gone ahead, and started doing up an excel spreadsheet, to track my process and plan my approach. And now, I think, I’m finally onto something!

My goal is to lose 40(.8) pounds in 160 days- or 6 months. I’ve broken down my goal into two, smaller goals- I want to lose 25 pounds in the first three months, and 15.8 pounds in the last three months. I know that the smaller you are, the harder it is to lose weight- so I decided to break up my weight loss plan to account for that.
I am going for my own, personal version of “X-Weighted”, this show I watch on Slice, sometimes. These overweight people have six months to make a lifestyle change. At the half-way point they do a weigh in, and then again at the end of the six-month period.

I know now that my Basal Metabolic Rate is 1553. Factoring in my activity level, my total daily energy expended is 2135 calories. I want to lose 25 pounds in the first 90 days (and 15.8 pounds in the following 90 days), I know that I will need to lose 1.94 pounds per week during the first half of this program, and 1.24 pounds per week during the second half.

Since there are 3500 calories in a pound, in order to stay on track (based on the figures above) I need to create a calorie deficit of 6,790 calories per week (3500x1.94). That’s 970 calories per day (6790/7). So if I burn 2135 calories in a day, and I need to create a deficit of 970 calories per day… that means I can eat 1165 calories per day.

Wow. That’s hardly anything. :(

Ah, well… keep in mind, exercise burns calories! That’s right. My goal is to burn at least 200 calories per day through exercise (hopefully more, of course!). So if I subtract 200 from 970, that leaves me with 770… meaning I can eat 1365 calories per day! Hrm. That sounds a lot better! But that’s assuming I actually DO my exercises and don’t wimp out!

So, if I’m having a lazy-butt day and don’t feel like doing anything… fine. I only get 1165 calories per day to eat. Too bad, so sad. If I exercise, I can eat up to 1400 calories per day. Yay!

But: I MUST be careful not to start getting in the mindset of ‘rewarding’ myself with food. I’ve done that in the past. Let’s just say that the 200 calories I burn taking a nice long walk will be completely wasted if I reward myself with a 250 calorie chocolate bar. Know what I’m saying? Yes, keep that in mind, self!