Viva la difference: Messing with perfection

I've lost 24 pounds since the first of the year, and 12 of them at a very consistent pound-a-week since the middle of May when I took out a new membership at the pool and started swimming several times a week. My progress has all been based on the accountability that comes with posting regularly here at BMGS 2.0 and acting reasonably on the knowledge that I will lose a pound a week if I limit my calories to 2500 a day or fewer and get regular exercise. This is not rocket science.

But I suppose it has made an impression on my pal, and in the past couple of days she has kind of asked me if I would help her do the math so that she could get on track herself and maybe drop a pound or two by the time she celebrates what some might consider a big birthday in late December. Although I am not one to mess with perfection, I have agreed to help.

She is 5'8", and that is all you need to know. Although I have recorded other data in the table that follows, I am a wise man who understands the value of the little Google Docs gizmo that blacks out certain fields. If it worked for Bush and Cheney, it can work for me. Some information is best handled on a need-to-know basis.

As you can see from the table, life is not fair or gender-blind when it comes to the arithmetic of weight loss:


My pal's exercise program involves:

• a) a combination of walking and running for 30 to 60 minutes on the bike trail near our home,
• b) the 8-minutes-a-day workout program with weights, and
• c) situps
• c) some yoga.

Based on her numbers, my take is that, if she does (a) and (b) 4 times a week each and does (c) and (d) once a week, her BMR based on the "moderately active" calculation would be 2087 calories a day, or 14,609 calories a week. That is the rate of calorie intake that would keep her weight at its current level. In order to lose a pound a week, she would have to consume 3,500 calories less than 14,609 each week. In other words, her target rate for daily calorie intake is 1,587 calories.

Now that I am finished with the considerable exercise involved in moving and I am back to swimming with an occasional day of walking and jogging, my exercise program involves:

• a) swimming laps for 60 to 90 minutes without resting;
• b) walking and slow jogging for 20 minutes; and
• c) crunches, pushups, or weights.

Based on my numbers, if I do (a) three times a week and (b) and (c) once a week each, my BMR based on the "moderately active" calculation would be 3227 calories a day, or 22,589 calories a week. That is the rate of calorie intake that would keep my weight at its current level. In order to lose a pound a week, I have to consume 3,500 calories less than 22,589each week. In other words, my target rate for daily calorie intake is 2,727 calories.

It isn't fair that I can lose weight just as quickly as my pal while I consume 1,140 more calories a day, or about 8,000 more calories a week, but, well, viva la difference!

Sources: BMR Calculator, BMR Calculator2, Harris Benedict Equation Calculator.

Afterword: In my 12-step program, this draft post would be called 12th-stepping. But whether I post it will depend, of course, on whether my pal feels her anonymity is protected.

Viva la difference - Originally posted to BMGS 1.0 on 10.13.2007

I think I have mentioned my friend Diane before.

Back on September 21, inspired by Big Man Getting Smaller, she began a diet. Her goal was to get down from 144 to 125 by following the same basic rules that are working here.

1. Take in fewer calories than her daily maintenance amount of calories, which was 1,904 when she started.

2. Get more exercise, or a moderate amount of exercise 4 or 5 days a week.

3. Keep track of what she is eating, and plan ahead.

As of today, she is at 136, which means that she has lost 8 pounds in 22 days!

That is 6% of her body weight in 3 weeks, which is basically the same rate of reduction that BMGS is experiencing.

It is also considerably faster than I suggested to her when she I produced a chart of weekly calories intake, etc., that would get her to her goal of 125 on February 1.

So congratulations, Diane!

But she is frustrated that it isn’t going more quickly.

Part of this, of course, is the impatience that any of us feels when we don’t get fairly constant positive feedback from, in this case, the scale. We’re working hard at something, and we want to see the progress reflected in some kind of meaningful metrics.

Another huge part of it is that Diane, when she started, was a 144-pound woman. BMGS is a man who started out at nearly twice Diane’s size.

Viva la difference, of course, but there are some very specific differences:

1. Even now, after losing 10.6% of my body weight, my daily calorie requirement for maintaining my current weight of 244.5 is 3398 calories. So, if I take in 1,898 calories a day. I will lose 3 pounds a week. 1,898 calories is not an all-day pig-out by any means, but it isn’t bad. It isn’t starving. It allows for the occasional pint, the occasional steak, and even the occasional dessert.

2. On the other hand, if Diane consumes 1,898 calories a day, her weight will never change. Of course, that is not fair. In order to lose 1 pound a week, which is what I suggested she do in order to get to her goal by February 1, Diane has to consume fewer than 1,400 calories a day. It isn’t starvation either, but it doesn’t allow nearly as much wiggle room as 1,898 calories.

3. 1 pound a week is a lot less rewarding than 3 pounds a week. It basically means, if you are getting on the scale every morning, 5 or 6 days a week it isn’t going to register any weight loss. That is harder.

4. In addition to the good news that I get when I step onto the scale, I also get good news when I step onto one of the machines at the gym. Because I am big, I burn more calories when I work out. Twice this week I had workouts where I burned over 1,000 calories in a single session at the gym. It’s a lot easier to burn 1,000 calories if the number you punch in on the elliptical keypad is 245 than 145.

Oops, excuse me. 136.

So, it is natural that this is occasionally frustrating, and more so for a woman. If it weren’t frustrating, it would be easy. If it were easy, you would have already done it!

Keep it up, Diane. The amazing thing to me is that you are able to do it without creating a blog!