The Slim Blog

Most people understand the rule that if you eat more than you burn you gain weight, if you burn more than you eat you lose weight. This energy balance equation is well researched and well proven, but the diet and slimming industry has done a very good job of over overshadowing it with myths and fads.  This article aims to get back to basics and remind dieters and slimming club members of the magic numbers of weight loss.

•There are 3500 calories in 1lb of fat weight.

This means that you have to eat 3500 more than your body burns to store 1lb of fat weight, or burn 3500 more than you eat to lose 1lb of fat weight. In terms of food, 3500 calories is about 9 king-size mars bars, or 6 bottles of wine, or 4 large pizzas. Yummy! In terms of physical activity, it would take about 4 hours of non-stop running to burn off 1lb of fat, which is like running a marathon. Not so yummy.

Dieters often make the mistake of thinking that if their weight is up by 1lb on the scales, they must have stored 1lb of fat. Slimming clubs don’t teach their members that the weight on the scales is not just showing changes in fat, it’s showing changes in fat and lean tissue, and this lean tissue is mainly made up of water. On average water weight fluctuates by 3 - 4 lbs a day, so if your weight is up 1 or 2lbs in a day, the chances are it’s water retention.

To put it in perspective, an average sized woman who burns 2000 calories a day would have to eat 2000 calories + 3500 excess calories (5500 in total) to store 1lb of fat in a day. That’s not easy, but I’m sure you’ll have great fun giving it a good try!

•Burning 500 calories a day = 1lb of fat loss per week.

Let’s take the average sized woman again. If she were to eat 1500 calories a day and burn 2000, her body would burn off 500 calories of fat a day to make up for the shortage. This 500 calories burned a day over 7 days is 3500 calories over a week, resulting in 1lb of fat loss. Alternatively, if she were to eat 2000 a day and add 500 calories of exercise to her day, she would burn 2500 calories a day, and again the body would be forced to burn off 500 calories a day to make up for the shortage, also resulting in 1lb of fat loss per week.

The optimum rate of fat loss is between half a pound to two pounds per week - which means burning off 250 to 1,000 calories per day.

•100 excess calories a day = 10.4lbs fat gain per year.

Unfortunately for the food lovers out there, the same maths works in the opposite direction. If you overeat just 100 calories a day over 365 days, that’s 36,500 calories stored as fat each year. In weight terms, 36,500 calories is just over 10lbs of fat (36,500 / 3500 = 10.4).

This helps to explain how weight gain can easily go unnoticed, especially if you are weighing yourself every day. That 100 extra calories a day, just 1 cookie, means your fat weight will go up by 0.028lbs per day (10.4 / 365 = 0.028). Not even the best quality bathroom scales would notice such tiny changes in weight each day. Even if you weighed yourself monthly, your weight would only go up 0.86lbs (10.4 / 12 = 0.86), which is impossible to notice!

The good news is that you can make the energy balance equation work for you.  If you add just 100 calories of exercise to your day and cut out that daily cookie, you’ll be 10.4lbs lighter every year!

Liam

Personal trainer at The Slim Company - personal trainers in hertfordshire