New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year to everyone!

If you're like me you enjoyed possibly a bit more food and drink than planned for. Yes, I always say that I won't eat and drink so much over the holidays, but when they arrive... all that's out the door.

Additionally, with fewer client hours booked over the holiday, I think I'll have more time to exercise, but it seems like I have even less. It's the family commitments, catching up on chores at home, office work, and of course, Christmas shopping. I think I only managed about four or five workouts from Dec 20 - Jan 4th. This is the period that I'll officially call "the holidays".So with fewer hours spent exercising, and way more food and drink consumed, I'm left with a pound, maybe two at most to get rid of.

Ok, so my pound or two of body fat hardly seems interesting enough for a blog post, so why am I writing about it?

Well actually, its just my segue into the content of my blog post. The thing is, I've received probably twenty or thirty emails in the past two weeks from folks who've gained the "typical" 10-15 lb holiday fat, and they want to know how to get rid of it.

I Want To Know How They Gained It???

My concern is that I really ate and drank way more than I should have. In fact, thanks to my brother in-law Eric's amazing cheesecake, I ate to the point of discomfort because the damn thing tasted so good!

But I only have a few extra pounds to lose. Whereas the emails I'm getting are from people who say they've gained 10-15 extra pounds.

So somewhere here there's a disconnect. And the solution lies in the disconnect. Let's take a closer look.

Oh by the way, I got this cool watch for
Christmas, so now I can calculate
all my calories on the fly!

With each pound of bodyfat containing about 3,500 calories, at the high end of the scale at 15 lbs gained, an accumulation of 52,500 calories is what we're dealing with.

Divide that into the 14 days (Dec 20-Jan4) that I consider holiday time, and you have 3,750 calories that must be consumed above and beyond your normal caloric intake.

Now without getting to specific here, if you need between 1500-2500 calories a day to maintain your weight, we're talking about 5,250 - 6,250 calories that must be consumed daily over 14 days to give you enough overall additional energy to have you store 15 lbs of body fat.

I would definitely say that there were probably 2 or 3 days when I hit those numbers, but for all 14 days? No way! In fact, usually the day after eating so many calories, my body just felt stuffed and I ate much less the next day.

If you want an idea of how much food this is.. here's a quick sample menu for 6,000 calories:

Breakfast

6 eggs
4 toasts with butter
10 pieces bacon
1 butter croissant

Lunch

Fettucini Alfredo
2 glasses wine
1 piece cheesecake

Dinner
10 oz steak
2 baked potatoes with butter and sour cream
1 complete tub Hagen Daaz
2 cups milk


If you're coming even close to this on a daily basis, there's your first clue! So how come so many people are gaining so much weight over the holidays?

I think the disconnect is in people's ability to be honest with themselves. Folks don't start off on December 20th, eat lots and by January 4th end up with 15 lbs of extra body fat. I think it starts back in September or October, when the weather starts to get colder (at least up here in blistery cold Canada). People's kids are back in s

chool and few people maintain the same energy expenditure over the colder months as they do during the warmer months.

Here's a likely scenario:

Starting October 1st, energy expenditure drops by around 300 calories per day on average (a fast 40 minute walk). And beginning at Thanksgiving, which in Canada is in October, people start eating more. Let's say about 300 calories more each day (a measly single doughnut or bagel). These numbers are just on average and may be more or less depending on the person, but they'll prove my point.

The sum is 600 calories of additional energy that is available to the body on daily basis. If it's not burned off, it's stored, since this is above your daily caloric requirement. So over the course of 90 days, you have 90 x 600 = 54,000 calories. Which is basically the same number as we started with.

The weight comes on slowly, and for most people who aren't very aware of their bodies or who are already carrying enough bodyfat to blur muscle definition, they won't notice until they've gained a full ten pounds or so. But by the time December comes around, the sluggish feeling is already upon many people, and they seek out quick

bursts of energy that come from sugary foods. This of course only makes the problem worse and they certainly gain that last five pounds by the time January 4 comes around.

Ok... so what have we learned here?

Causative factors:

1. Less energy expenditure (less movement)
2. More energy consumption (more food)


The Solution?

1. Although for some in practice it seems pretty tough, the solution is really quite simple. Move more!

The type of movement we're talking about is really just enough to get a decent sweat. A brisk walk after dinner or in the morning before work, or even on your lunch break. Take your dog for out for some exercise while you run or walk. Of course going to the gym is great too, but that takes extra time, so for some it may not be an option.

If this is your idea of taking your dog for a walk... just quit now!

The point is that you have to make a commitment to forming the habit. Without the habit, you won't do it frequently enough for it to make a difference. The 300 calories you'll burn in 20-60 minutes each day (depending on the exercise intensity) is practically impossible to "catch-up" if you only get out twice a week. Even though you can burn off the same number of calories during the exercise if you exercise for long enough on those two sessions, the effect on getting rid of fat will be nearly impossible to match. Remember, the longer you exercise at a time, the more efficient your body becomes. So shorter, more intense activity but more frequently will keep your body relatively inefficient at using calories to get the work done. This is a good thing, since an inefficient machine uses more gas to do the same amount of work.

2. When it comes to eating, being honest with yourself about how you eat is something more people need to work on. I've known so many people who say they don't eat badly, but who I see eating tons of stuff on a regular basis that I would only eat on my cheat days.


Draw The Line

I call it drawing the line. For me, I'll eat big at Thanksgiving. But folks, we don't have Thanksgiving "holidays", we have "Thanksgiving". It's one day only! Yes, I know there's leftovers, but that's fine. I'll consent to a day or two of eating some additional leftovers. This brings up the calorie intake, but it won't do anything to you long term if you draw the line at 3 days... Thanksgiving, and two days of leftovers. After that, I return to my normal eating habits. And they pretty much stay that way until Christmas. Which for me as I say is December 20th until January 4th. That's a whole two weeks, of delicious, yummy, anything goes.

If you can draw the line and not cross it, and form some good exercise habits, you won't end up with 10-15 lbs of fat to lose come January.

But if you do have some fat to lose, don't make resolutions to train 2 hours a day and eat 1200 calories a day to lose it in just 6 days, instead, work your way backward. Move more (300 calories of expenditure) and eat a little less (300 calories less to burn off), and a couple months will go by and you'll be back in shape.

Put it this way folks, 3 months will go by regardless of what you do, and when you get there, either you'll still have your "holiday" fat, or you won't. If you've been unsuccessful in the past with lofty goals of losing it faster (as the media and supplement industry so push on us), then why not try something different. Pick small changes that you can apply consistently and when those 3 months have come and gone, only you'll know it took 3 months... everyone else will just be impressed!

Of course so will you!

Here's to small but consistent changes for 2009!

:)
Shane