Believe me, when I weighed 367 pounds 18 months ago I wanted a quick way to get rid of all that fat. I had done it before. That is why I quickly rejected the notion and set out to lose 25 pounds, then 50 pounds, then 50 more, AND KEEP IT OFF. So, a few days ago when I saw the title of a Men's Fitness blog, Joel Marion and Xtreme Fat Loss Diet, I just had to see what it would say. It seemed out of character for a magazine that I like to read. If you know anything at all about weight loss you know that losing weight is simple - create a caloric deficit. Burn more calories than you eat. If you do it fast you put your health at risk. Why? As the author points out, "a drastic reduction in calories causes your body to revolt and fight back. It starts to shut down your metabolism and start holding on to body fat as a way to protect you from starvation." If you have ever lost weight before only to put it back on - which I have done before - then you know that you can lose weight quickly and put it back on just as quickly.
Losing weight quickly is the wrong goal. Change your goal to getting your weight down to a healthy range. Do it with a change of lifestyle. One pound of fat is about 3100 calories. To lose the pound don't just eat 3500 calories less; exercise. See my rules that start with
1. Eat right
2. Exercise
A drastic reduction in the amount you eat won't get the job done. It took me 50 days to lose my first 30 pounds. It took 72 days to lose the next 30 pounds. I did not go on a crash diet. I started by making two changes - eat a little less each day and exercise more. Trust me - it works, and I have kept it off.
In my first 50 days I tried to eat around 2000 calories a day and to add some exercise that would burn about 100 calories. During that first 50 days I read everything I could about getting fit and realized that I needed to know my BMR - base metabolic rate. You use energy no matter what you are doing, even sleeping, and it's important to know how fast you burn energy just staying at your current weight. When I was 367 pounds my body needed 2,890 calories just to maintain; that was my BMR then. Today I weigh about 208 pounds, so my BMR is now a little over 1900 calories.
You need to know your BMR so that you can set a realistic goal. I want to lose 9 more pounds. That means I need to create a deficit of about 31,500 calories. If I lose a half pound a week for the next 5 weeks it will be because I create a net difference of about 900 calories each day. Or I can set my timeline for 10 weeks with a daily difference of 450 calories (which is my current goal). Eat right. Exercise. Do both. If you don't know your BMR, then go use this quick calculator, or use the one I use over at MyFitnessPal.Com.
If you have some secrets to how you lost weight, please leave a comment. If you are getting frustrated, leave a question. Let's do this together.
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