Weight | Or ideal weight makes life easier

everyday.

Weight is tricky. Nobody has the right to criticize yours, it is your business. But hey, we spent so much time together, we have become so close. I feel like we’re a unit. So … I’ll tackle the weight issue. When commenting on their weight, even a disparaging look is enough, many people feel attacked. Rightfully so. After all, ones current weight is nothing but the result of many small decisions. Yes, I’ll have that cake. Yeah sure, let me try that bagel. Of course I want a medium sized drink. If one gets told, he or she has a wrong fat content, that translates to many bad decisions.

The problem with those bad decisions is that they’re visible. They become, what we Germans call, your problem areas. You can’t really dismiss the criticism, if the problem is that obvious. You can’t even put the blame on others. I’m just chubby because 27 years ago my parents used to feed me too often. Not my fault! Not convincing, right?

This chapter is about losing weight. Why lose weight? Losing weight is the prototype of an easier life. It is the epitome. As this whole thing is about feeling as independent and free as possible, I feel like I need to address this issue. If you have only have to carry 70 kilos through the street instead of 100 kilos, life literally gets easier. Gravity is hard enough, we do not have to unnecessarily pack luggage onto the skeleton.

Let’s take a look at the typical prejudices against fattys: lazy, sluggish, lavish, greedy. It is all negative. I do not assume you have any of these characteristics. I just want to use the dirty trick of a guilty conscience to convince you. Hell, I didn’t write this for you to just move on.

First and foremost, when losing weight you have to be clear, if you really want it. Easy trick: If you could build your body like a character in a video game, what would the result look like? Compare that with (wo)man the mirror. Since you are still reading, I assume that there is a bit of a difference between the two.

Let’s make it short. I want to help you lose weight with a little bit of German street smarts. I’m working with kilos and centimeters, I’m afraid. Don’t be turned off by the numbers, they’re very useful, when you want to lose weight. Don’t worry, the formulas are easy. It’s at most a two-step calculation. Yes, you can use a calculator. I know you are as bad in arithmetic as I am. And yes, your cell phone has one, you do not have to look for the old thing from school.

Normal weight: height in cm – 100

This normal weight, which you calculated there, would be okay for you. Not very good, not bad. The thing about normal, average and all that gray area is, you’re neither of those. You are special! You want more, you want the ideal. The ideal weight stands for an efficient body that is less prone to diseases and therefore means a longer life expectancy. Sounds promising, huh? Let me warn you however, this also means a bit of weight loss.

Ideal weight: normal weight x 0.85 (for men) or normal weight x 0.9 (for women)

So much for equal rights, right, girls?

Currently you are probably a few butter packets above your ideal weight. Imagine that big chunk, that you’re above your ideal weight, as a backpack. You carry it day in and day out for absolutely no reason. That does not have to be. Everything you’ve saved as hip gold is not necessary. We want to get rid of the part that’s too much. Let’s toss it! Finally we’re allowed to be wasteful!

Before you beat yourself up or try to hunt me down, let me assure you that the ideal weight is the bottom of the barrel. We’re all special snowflakes. Long limbs, big head, each body is different, therefore they number can be slightly off. Even that popular justification of thick bones can distort the number. It is even possible that the calculated weight simply does not suit you. The ideal weight is the goal, but you could be victorious before you reach it. Use your eyes and the way you feel to judge whether you should lose more weight. Maybe use that video game character as a reference point. Lose weight until you look as awesome as you are. I absolutely trust your judgment!

We do not want to deal with the dietary myths. They’re a waste of time. The following method worked for me. As average as I am, it will work for you as well. For the sake of simplicity we measure what we eat and our energy, that is, everything that our poor, damaged body does, with calories. Losing weight is about the ratio of consumed to burned calories. If you eat exactly as much as the energy you spend, everything stays the same.

It doesn’t matter when you eat, how you eat not even what you eat. Also, how you use the energy is ultimately irrelevant. It is all about the amount of calories that go in versus the amount that goes out. I’ll let the cat of the bag: We have to count calories. That’s no fun, it is annoying. But we have to be aware how many calories we took in. Otherwise it becomes a lottery to guess how much activity is needed to lose weight.

Counting calories takes time, but it is rather easy. Usually calorie information can be found on packaging. It shouldn’t be hard to find out, how many calories you shovel into your body. Most people eat the same stuff every other day, so calculating your input gets easier every other day.

Now we have to find out, approximately how many calories you burn. Let’s start with the basal metabolic rate of calories. That’s the amount that must be eaten every day. These calories and a few sprinkled on top are enough to keep the body with all its basic functions running. Including your mighty brain! Even if you want to lose weight as fast as possible, please do not fall below this value. We definitely need enough calories (in the form of energy) to make our dreams come true. We want to reach the sky, right? Effort requires energy. To calculate our basal metabolic rate, also know as our absolute minimum calorie requirement, we use yet another simple formula.

• For men it is: body weight in kilograms x 24

• For women it is: body weight in kilograms x 22.6

Yep, that’s it. Not a lot. Unfortunately, your body is a marvel of bio-technology.

One step further.

Even if you’re just chilling on the couch all day, maybe check the fridge every hour, your body burns calories. The sum of your additional efforts (besides just keeping you alive) we will call the performance. It’s the activities you do that are not just functions of the body. Here it gets a little bit more complicated, but I think I did the hard part for you. All you need to do is assess your personal movement factor.

• personal movement factor 0.2: sleeping and lying almost exclusively (old and frail people)

• personal movement factor 0.45: sitting almost exclusively, relaxing ball at home (desk job without active hobbies)

• personal movement factor 0.65: sitting a lot and walking and standing in between (truck drivers, bus drivers, students)

• personal movement factor 0.85: mainly standing and walking (waiter, salesman)

• personal movement factor 1.2: strenuous, physically demanding occupations (miners, construction workers, athletes)

To calculate the performance, use the following formula:

              personal movement factor x basal metabolic rate

Here comes the last formula, I promise.

performance + basal metabolic rate = the amount of calories you burn

The more you do, the more you can eat. You have to adjust your eating whether you’re a couch potato or an energizer bunny on that very day. You have to consider the low personal movement factor on lazy days! Make sure, your input is in between basal metabolic rate and performance + basal metabolic rate. Everyday!

You know the numbers, let’s burn some fat. As mentioned before, the actual weight loss we get through the deficit between eaten calories and calories consumed. For every 7,000 calories that you cut down on, you lose 1 kilo of fat. More motivating is the smaller version: A deficit of a mere 700 calories give you a loss of 100 grams of pure fat. It sounds utopian at first, but I believe in having a healthy deficit every day. After all a deficit comes from any combination of healthier eating and more exercise.

Unnecessary eating is the devil. You can ruin a whole day being as good as a mogwai, if at night the thought of pizza, turns you into a gremlin. Unnecessary eating sprees often occur when you starve. This can be avoided by eating well. Conversely, this means: Away with additives and processed food, fast food, convenience meals, white flour, baked goods, soft drinks.

We want green energy. We want foods that are alive. By that I mean no poor animals that whimper and wriggle, you monster! But products that have not fallen victim to dozens of processing steps. They are as close to their natural state as possible. The more processed, the more companies are involved, the more people want a cut, the lower the quality of the food. I advice produce like vegetables, whole grains, fruits, nuts, eggs.

Those who feed on high-quality produce are full for longer periods. In the end they eat less calories. For positive reassurance repeat three times: Vegetables are delicious! Vegetables are delicious! Vegetables are delicious! Eating healthy is not as difficult as it seems in the first two weeks. I promise, you get a taste for it. It is a change, so it is unusual/hard at first. Keep at it, be stubborn, you can do it. So many other people have lost weight before you.

A few tips to manage to eat less.

• Drink a huge glass of water, if you get cravings. Drink more water in general.

• Make it a habit to stop eating when your satisfied. You don’t need to be stuffed, you only need enough calories for the work you just did or are about to do.

• Use exercise as motivation and a warning. Aha! If I want to eat a chocolate bar, I have to go jogging for an hour to make up for it. Thinking like that made it easier to keep my hands off the sweets.

• Before you eat that junk food that’s looking oh so tasty, pinch yourself in your blubber, in one of your worst problem areas. Now massage your fat for a little while. Isn’t that supposed to go away? If you eat that junk over there, this mess is getting even worse.

You should be able to have a decent deficit by just eating less/and healthier and going by your day.

To make sure, that you will lose weight. Let us put the cherry on top. In Germany we have a saying, that goes something like sport is a murderer. I don’t call myself suicide king for no reason. Let’s kill ourselves. I’m not going to lie to you, exercise sucks at first. It is an uphill battle in the beginning. But man, those upsides are worth suffering for in the first couple of weeks.

Lets take a look at good reasons to add a nice little assassination to your daily routine:

• At the forefront are the additionally burned calories.

• Then there are the muscles that grow and give you a stronger look.

• With more capability comes a bigger confidence.

• Even during your session you get an immediate satisfaction. All those hormones give you a rush like (almost) no other. Endorphin, dopamine and serotonin give the best kind of high. They’re not only a reward for good performance. Your body produces those feelings all by itself. For free! Make your dealer unemployed!

Telling you, to be more active is just kind of ungrateful. Let’s sprinkle in some words of motivation. The key to success is effort. Good things happen to those who make an effort.

Naming an amount of calories you should burn off every day via exercise would make things very complicated. You would need to count again. I prefer a more pragmatic solution. I think you can spare one hour of each day to life a happy, easier life. The time blocks of your daily routine can surely be moved a bit here and pushed a little there. A clever and smart person like yourself always finds a way to make things work. If you do one thing for 30 minutes less and start the following activity 30 minutes later – voila! There is the hour you need.

In that hour dedicated to physical activity you should challenge yourself, but!

• As tomorrow is yet another day, you don’t have to give it your all on each day.

• You don’t have to be gasping for air, but are slightly out of breath.

• You can’t fry an egg on your forehead, but get a nice sweat going.

• A days rest should be enough to recover from the stress and strain you put on your body.

• At the end of the session you are not dead, but proud of your achievement.

I have been giving you so many instructions, I feel like a dictator. At last you get to choose, what you want to do. The freedom of choice regards the kind of sport, not whether you do it at all, sorry. Exercise bike, cycling on the road, dancing, running, walking, walking in high heels, swimming – there is no bad. It’s all right.

No matter what you do, the main challenge remains.

• During an one hour stretch you should be constantly moving, and be out of breath at the end.

Of course, the time spent doesn’t have to be wasted. You do not have to hate the world (or cuss me out) for 60 minutes. Distraction is good to keep your mind busy, but you can also get things done in those long 60 minutes.

• If you go for a walk, you can easily take notes regarding the project you work on. Make a short stop at the next park bench, if an idea was really good. If done right a walk through the park leaves you with a good feeling and a piece of paper full of scribbled ideas.

• If you own a stationary bike or a treadmill you can get a decent amount of housework and chores done. Maybe you can write the shopping list, you have been meaning to. If you’re handy you can even fold the laundry.

• Outside you could educate yourself with a podcast. Get fitter, get smarter.

• How about this: You can finally call your dear, dear mother again. Remember the cup you gave her, claiming she’s the best of all mommies … prove it. You now have almost one hour every day to rediscover your bond with her.

• You can even let your mind wander, and take a break from your highly efficient life.

No matter what you want to do, there is no perfect moment to start. But there is the right one. Today! Now! Immediately! Has a successful diet ever been started tomorrow ? No.

Addendum: If you’re underweight, you probably rolled your eyes at all that nonsense above. Lose weight? What is his deal! In essence the same applies for people who are underweight. You are not as efficient as you could be. The formulas work for you as well. You just have to do it the other way around. In order to gain a healthy amount, and to get for the right weight for your body, I advice a healthy increase of intake. 700 extra calories mean 100 grams. Nuts and seeds are the way to go. The quantity is manageable due to the high calorie density. Just a handful of those inconspicuous energy bombs is enough. Once you’re in the range of the ideal weight, you will hate me just as much as overweight people do. Here comes the sport!