calories

I consider myself an casual observer of life and people. If I had to do it over again, I would have become a modern day Margaret Mead, the famous social anthropologist. One of my latest personal studies is how thin people eat to keep themselves thin vs. how heavy people eat to keep themselves, well, heavy.

Heavy people will kid themselves with saying-I don’t eat that much. I have a slow metabolism. It’s my genes. Nope, sorry, I have dis-proven the above excuses. What overweight people should be saying is-I eat too many calories. It really comes down to calories in and calories burned. Simple as that.

Yes, your metabolic rate will slow down as we age so we should compensate by eating less.  Of course eating less means you should eat only low calorie and high in nutritional value foods. As you get older, you do not have the option of wasting calories to unhealthy food, or eating healthy all day and throwing an extra 500 calorie dessert in at the end of the day. The experts say, 3500 calories intake equal a pound.

I knew a man who changed jobs and at his new place of work there was a vending machine (danger!) full of unhealthy snacks. He would go to the snack machine twice a day and buy a sugary cinnamon bun. I figured that each one contained about 400 calories, so that was an extra 800 calories per day. An average man with average physical activity is supposed to consume around 2200 calories a day. He was of normal weight when he started and he put on 40 pounds in a matter of few months. Let’s do the math. 800 Calories X 7 days is  5600 cals extra per week. That means he was gaining an average of 1.5 pound per week. At that rate in 5.5 months he could easily have gained the 40 pounds. It’s that simple.

It could also go the other way. You want to lose 40 pounds by 5.5 months so you reduce your daily caloric intake by 800 calories. Yes, you can also include in the formula-if I consume 400 calories less per day and work off an extra 400 calories, that will also work. But, do you know how hard it is to work off extra calories?  Have you gone to the gym and walked on a tread mill for 30 minutes and when you look at how many calories you just burned, hey, you just walked off a single cookie. You can’t outrun the fork. I think it is better for the masses to put down the fork than to try to become a workout fanatic. Yes, it is great to be a gym regular but who has the time?  I’d rather work around my house or walk around the block than try to fit in a gym schedule. Oh, and I have seen my friends buy lots of home workout equipment and use it for a short period of time before they start hanging clothes on them. Save your money.

How did the guy who gained the 40 pounds by eating cinnamon rolls lose weight? He bought a jetski, the kind that you stand up on and went out on the ocean everyday and hit the waves and overtime he pounded the weight off himself.  And he managed to keep it off, and I thought it was an interesting example how a simple change in a diet can quickly put on weight.

So, I observed and interviewed thin women. They all seem to do the same thing to stay slim: They eat very little. There you have it. The big secret has been revealed. You need about 1200 calories for a woman to survive. That’s all and that is not very much. Here is an example of a 1200 calorie day meal plan.

• BREAKFAST

  • 1 Cup Skim Milk
  • 1 Orange, medium
  • 1 Cup Cheerios Cereal

• MORNING SNACK

  • 1 Cup Cantaloupe Melon

• LUNCH

  •  Beef & Noodle Broth
  • 1 Whole-Wheat Pita Bread, small
  • 1 Cup Skim Milk
  • 1 Fudgsicle, no sugar added

• AFTERNOON SNACK

  • 2 Tablespoons Prepared Hummus
  • 3 Ounces Celery Sticks

• DINNER

  • 1/2 Cup Cooked Brown Rice
  • Green & Yellow Beans with Wild Mushrooms
  • Roasted Cod with Warm Tomato-Olive-Caper Tapenade
  • 1/2 Banana, small

   

Realize how everything is measure out. 3 Ounces of celery sticks. 2 Tablespoons of Hummus. Yes, everything in your mouth counts. Grab a handful of nuts….100 calories. Eat a 1/4 cup of ice cream is 350 calories. It all adds up.

Thin women also plan their meals. They like to pack their lunch so they know what they will be eating. They do not have candy bars hidden in the pantry. They know the calorie count of just about everything they put in their mouths. Thin women know that one Dunkin’ Donut Boston Kreme Donut has 310 calories! They won’t eat it. They also know how to control their hunger. I went to an island picnic with some friends. We the heavier ladies dived into the barbecue of hotdogs and potato salad. We were all starving. But my thin friend said to me and I quote, “I don’t eat that kind of stuff.” Yea, you don’t eat that kind of stuff but wasn’t she as starving as the rest of of?  Thin women would rather stay hungry than eat bad food. They do not succumb to their hunger. That’s somebody who is serious about being thin. I observe and learn.

They also keep sweet things out of the house, special treats are allowed on special occasions, and they stay away from activities that focus on food.

For the most part, they are much healthier than overweight people as far as lab testing goes. They have lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, and fewer health problems.

If you want to see more 1200 calorie diet plans, go to http://www.eatingwell.com/nutrition_health/weight_loss_diet_plans/diet_meal_plans/7_day_diet_meal_plan_to_lose_weight_1200_calories

And go on the Internet and plan ahead. If you want to eat a Steak N’ Shake chocolate covered strawberry milkshake…just know that it will be 1050 calories. Yikes!

Terry Ryan

Terry Ryan is a health blogger for Slimhealthysexy.com and a social media expert.