Losing Weightdocx
Losing Weightdocx
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  1. Losing Weight (Body Fat) -Fromthe Perspective of an Engineer(WARNING: This contains some maths)by: Tanner JonesThis process involves a few relatively easy steps, that won’t take much of your time.The strategy behind this involves being smart about what your body needs, and being smart about what it takes to lose weight.You don’t need to eat healthy and you don’t need to exercise to lose weight.All it takes to lose weight is counting your calorie intakeand not going past your daily goal eachday.If you do that, then you can pretty much eat anything you want... just not necessarily as much as you want. It is key to keep in mind that you should eat things in moderation.Now, while I said you don’t need to eat healthy, and that is true, you will end up finding yourself really hungry if you continue to eat junk food. This is because most junk food is really high in calories, and you can expend your entire day of calories in just one meal if you are not careful. That’s where exercising comes in.You want pizza today? That’s totally fine if you don’t mind doing some casual walking afterwards to burn off all the calories you have probably gone past your daily goal.You should also keep in mind that there are more calories per gram of fat (9/gram) than there are in a gram of protein (4/gram) or carbohydrates (4/gram). This means that eating protein or carbohydrates will be more filling than eating fatty foods. Fat, Protein, and Carbohydrates are known as Macronutrients, more info about them can be found here: http://www.mckinley.illinois.edu/handouts/macronutrients.htmIf you choose to go with a really low Carb diet, you might find yourself feeling less energetic, that’s because energy first comes from carbs, but if you choose to do this, your body will become more reliant on burning fats for energy, which can help you lose fat faster. Introduction to the Steps(A Brief Explanation):What you want to do is determine what the minimum and maximum amount of calories are that you should allow yourself each day. Your minimum (or rather your dieting goal 6 days of the week), will be approximately 80% of your TDEE. Your maximum, will be 100% of your TDEE, which you will use as your “cheat” day each week.(If you go lower than 80% of your TDEE, then you will be hurting yourself, because going lower than that causes your muscles to lose their strength, and you don’t want that.)Your TDEEis equivalent to how many calories you use each day. If Calories In = Calories Out, then you will maintain the weight you are at. If In < Out, you will lose weight, and if In > Out, you will gain weight.In order to obtainthe best possible TDEEvalue, youwill want to know what our Body Fat Percentage is, so youwill want to calculate it first.Protein:In order for proper growth and health, as well as to avoid muscle loss, it is important to have protein in your diet. Your body will use up to Your Weight (in lbs) x 0.82 (grams per pound) = # of desired grams of protein you should intake each day. When you diet, it may be hard to reach that goal every day, but at least try to eat a minimum of 0.50 x Your Weight. Remember, we want to lose fat, not muscle.
  2. Step 1: Calculate how much body fat you have.• This can be done multiple ways. • The easiest way to determine your body fat percentage is to use the U.S. Navy BF% Calculator, which only requires you to have a measuring tape handy, the internet, and about 15 minutes of your time.• Here is the calculator: http://www.healthstatus.com/.../body-fat-percentage-calculator• While this is the easiest and cheapest method, the accuracy of it is not perfect. It can be off by as much as ±3%. But it will at least give you an idea of where you are.• If you would prefer a more accurate professional reading,I would suggestthewater displacementmethod.• More details about body fat, how to measure it, and what the different methods for measurement are can be found at the following link: http://www.nerdfitness.com/.../2012/07/02/body-fat-percentage/Step 2: Calculate your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expendature)• For this, knowing your height, age, sex, and activity level in necessary.• For best results, knowing your body fat %age is required.• A great TDEE calculator can be found here: • http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/• A TDEE calculator helps you to approximate how many calories you normally burn in a day. This number is extremely useful if you are interested in losing some fat.Step 3: Measure your intake without changing your typical diet.• Without worrying about cutting out any foods yet, it is nice to first see which foods hurt you more than they help you.• For this step, make sure you have the following:• 1 Measuring Cup (or set): For liquids and chopped up food.• 1 Tbsp measuring device: for salad dressings and toppings• at least a $5 food scale that you can get from Walmart: For meats and non-uniformly shaped foods.• Additionally, you can OPTIONALLY use a tool (phone app) to help you track what you eat throughout the day. I strongly recommend My Fitness Pal (MFP for short) because it has an online database that makes filling in things very quick.• The point of all of this is to see how much you are going over your TDEE each day, and to highlight what might be the cause. While you don't have to completely remove the cause, making an effort to moderate how much of you eat is a great idea.• Please keep in mind that for the best results, it is better to try and be as specific as possible when writing down the amounts of food that you are consuming. Don't just write down "Caesar Salad", instead, measure how much lettuce you are using, how much parmesan, and how much dressing you are using... plus whatever else you might add to it. This is very important for home-made meals. For fast food (from popular chains) you are likely to be able to find information on what you are ordering online fairly easily, but if you go out to eat at a nice restaurant, sometimes it is better to take a picture of your food in order to try and dissect it later when you are not at the table.
  3. Tracking Your Calories:While there are many ways to do this, there is one thing I recommend above everything else, and it was instrumental in helping me lose weight. It is an app called MyFitnessPal(MFP for short) and it is available for FREE (no micro-transactions or anything) for both Android and iOS. On top of that, there is also a web-based version that you can use on your computer. MFP is a calorie tracker that allows you to search a massive database of nutrition information for many different foods. Sometimes the app may not have nutritional information for a particular restaurant, but for situations like that, what I do is try to think of what other place I’ve been to that has something at least somewhat similar, and I use it instead. For home cooked meals, I find myself frequently adding the meals into MFP by ingredient, rather than by the entire meal, especially when it’s a special recipe you got from mom.MFP also has a barcode scanner and it is compatible with a few step counters (such as some Fitbit models) on the market.Step 4: Implement a strategy for yourself and try new foods.• First, you want to multiply your TDEEvalue by 0.80.--• This will give you a value near the bottom end of how many calories you should eat daily to lose weight safely and healthily.--• My TDEE is ≈2100, so I need ≈2100 calories/day to maintain weight and I can eat as low as ≈1650 calories/day in order to lose weight without having too much muscle-loss as a result.• With your 80% TDEE value, you don't have to hit that mark every day, just be sure to aim for it, going too low is bad, but also try not to go too high either.• Take yourselfa cheat day, but remember to eat things in moderation. Don't waste your effort throughout the week by eating 6000 calories, instead you should just simply try to aim to not go above your standard TDEE value.• To avoid muscle loss, take your weight (in lbs) and multiply by 0.82 g/lb.--• The resulting number is how many grams of protein you should aim for each day. Fish is probably the healthiest source of protein you can go with, but if you are allergic to fish, chicken is your best choice.• From here,all you have to do is just find food that works for you. Step 5: Seriously, keep track of what you eat. • Would you rather look at yourself in the mirror and think to yourself that you are overweight, or would you rather count your calories, which only takes about 5 minutes out of your day?• You can try and eat as healthy as possible, but it is all meaningless if you don't know how many calories you are eating.• Cashews seem healthy, right? 1-oz is 170 calories. A few handfulls later, and you just consumed 1000 calories having a light snack. Don't just watch what you eat, measure it too. It works.Trust me, I'm an engineer.
  4. Water: The most essential thing in your daily dietThe best way to explain why you need water is with an analogy...Cars are filled will many different fluids that allow them to drive you where you need to go.While you might think Gasoline might be the most important fluid that your car needs, oil is actually the most important. Oil lubricates all the parts within an engine, allowing the engine to run smoothly, which prevents those parts from grinding on one another which would cause them to deteriorate, it also prevents corrosion of those parts, and it helps keep the engine clean by moving dirt and other particles around so that they reach the oil filter before they cause harm to the engine.In other words, if you are finding pieces of metal coming out of your exhaust, chances are that you are a terrible person who forgot to add oil to their car, and as a result your car’s internal organs are being hemorrhaged out of its asshole.Oil to cars is like water to a human body. Your body needs water to function, it needs water for its immune system, it needs it to lubricate your joints so that they don’t wear away.But sayingthat water is like oil to a car is not giving water enough credit. Water isn’t just the oil of a car, it is also the antifreeze, transmission, brake, power steering, and wiper fluid.There is one fluid that cannot be compared to water though, and that is gasoline.Gasoline is fuel for a car, it gives it energy in order for it to move great distances.For a human body, the equivalent of gasoline is food, which is our fuel.You wouldn’t put syrup, or Coke, or vinegar, or gasoline, or orange juice into your engine in place of oil.Why would you? Your engine, if it doesn’t explode in a few minutes, will proceed to become damaged beyond repair as you continued to run it without oil.So why give your body any fluid other than water?If you are reading this article, it probably isn’t hard to guess why, and the best thing you can do for yourself is cut out soda, juice, and alcoholic beverages. With coffee, you have 2 options: Black or water. If you can’t drink coffee black, then you should just pass it up for water.Part of why you feel sluggish and tired all the time is because you aren’t giving your body enough of its most valuable resource.Most individuals don’t understand the importance of water and they are chronically dehydrated.While most people associate their throat being dry as a sign that they are thirsty, thirst is actually a lot more complicated. Thirst pains and hunger pains both come from the same location in your body. Unless you drink lots of water daily, it is impossible to differentiate the two from one another. This in turn leads people to thinking they are hungry, so they end up eating more as a result.One of the best things you can do is to try and hydrate yourself with at least 1 cup of water at the start and end of your day, and just beforeeach meal.Water can be filling, so if you make an effort to drink some water before each meal, you’ll find yourself less hungry, so you’ll end up eating less, which helps you with your goals....and of course, you should try to drink water during your meals as well.I found myself giving up on juice when I was dieting hard, because if I just drank water, it let me eat more food, which was what I wanted. Less sugary drinks = More food = Awesome!!!
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