The Stats

Filed in: Burn Calorie Burn | Challenges | Overview

September 01, 2006 by Renee @ 08:54 AM

The one thing doing phase 1 of south beach and working out like a demon taught me was, "Shit, you mean I'm not going to lose weight by just saying I want to lose weight?!?!?"

Why this challenge? I've always felt a disconnect between what it takes to lose weight and actually losing weight. There is so much misinformation out there, I thought if I could break weight loss down to the simplest essence, burn calories, a collective fog will lift and things we do or don't do will make sense.

For instance, you go down to 1500 calories of daily eats, opt out of exercising and 7 days later only lost ½ a lb. Well, if you BMR says you need to eat 1800 calories to stay you same weight, and you've essentially cut 300, 300x7=2100 not quite a full lb burned.

Now you can slap yourself on the head and say, Ahhh, ok, I can either eat less, or can dust off the jump rope and try to burn some more calories.

Not sexy, not glamorous, but this is weight loss.

Remember I said this is bare bones, there are tons of other factors that you may actually lose more, but for the sake of the challenge and dealing with a varied group, I'm going to keep it really simple: burn 250 – 500 calories every day.

Does that make sense?

I'm thinking by making burning calories a conscious and deliberate effort, you are taking a direct approach in your weight loss efforts. If counting calories ain't your thing, see how long it'll take you to burn 500 calories via exercise, do that and bam, your done.

Or, if you already do NutriSystem, Weight Watchers, South Beach Diet, or any other preset eating program, eat on program for the entire day, and log in that you got your calories burned.

Get creative, make a game out of it. Anything that keeps you engaged and motivated, will also make you successful. You may not burn 250 calories today, but maybe tomorrow you'll burn 500. You know it takes 3500 calories burned to lose a 1lb, you have 7 days to make it happen, mix and match how you'll burn it and even if you fall short a lb lost, remember this is guestimating, your true loss may show up the following weigh in.

In this challenge it doesn't matter how much you currently weigh, or even how much you want to lose, each week the goal is to lose at least 1lb, some may lose more, some may lose less, but that's the group goal. You can fantasize about losing 5lbs the first week and I'll throw a bit of cold water on you to say, ok, 5x3500=17,500 calories burned…go for it…

Makes that 3500 seem a lot more doable don't it

By the end of next week, the Pick Your Poison post will go up, where after a week of letting this challenge marinate in your head, you pick how you plan to burn your calories and what day is your official weigh in day. The following week, the daily check ins will begin and the weekly weigh in will start the week after.

Depending on how many people participate, if it's under 10, I can handle being head cheerleader, but if it's more, I'll set up a round robin way of support, where each person will either buddy up with another loser, or each commenter will cheer on the person who commented before them. I'll know more when I see how many are gonna play.

As for the next 16 weeks, the posting will look something like this:
Daily check in, weekly weigh in, calorie burning tips, success tips, recipes, food reviews, walking/running routine. And two topics just for fun, a weekly advice column, where I post questions I tend to get asked, and put it out for the group to answer, think of it as group Ann Landers and of course, any books or DVDs or fitness related swag I come across, I'll do a monthly give away.

Today is September 1st, let's get a 4 month head start on January 1st and resolve to lose some weight!

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