Why is exercise important

Eating less is not enough. Sad but true.

We want to focus on health gained more than weight lost. When we exercise we improve:
1. Sleep - The body needs to rest after physical activity.
2. Nutritional Health - Burning more calories means you can eat more and insure you are getting all the nutrition you need
3. Body Composition - Even at the same weight you have more lean muscle and less fat. That means even while sitting you are burning more calories
4. Bone Density - Lower risk of Osteoporosis
5. Immune System - People who exercise frequently have a higher resistance to colds and the flu.
6. Lowers the risk if Diabetes, Cancer, and cardiovascular disease - blood pressure and cholesterol are lowered resulting in a lower risk of heart attacks and strokes.

There are three types of exercises that are good to engage in to develop physical fitness

Flexibility Training - Stretching, yoga - perform 2-3 days per week.5 minutes Improves flexibility, allows the joints to move freely and reduces the risk of injury. I use to have back issues, I now stretch in the morning for 5-10 minutes. My back has been much better ever since.

Cardiorespitory- walking, jogging, bicycling, preform 3-5 days for 20-60 minutes per day. Cardio burns fat but it takes 20 minutes for your body to start efficiently burning fat.

Resistance training- weight lifting Pilates, push ups, sit ups. 2-3 times a week, 8-12 different exercises. Builds muscle and lean tissue. The more lean tissue you have the more calories you burn even when resting. It also helps build the lean tissue lost during

Don't overdo exercise. If you don't feel well, stop. And see a doctor if you are having major problems exercising. You have to find something you enjoy doing. Start small, I encourage stretching because it may help overcome physical issues with other exercises. I have been stretching for many years, I did yoga for a while on a Wii fit and it seemed to help also.
For Cardio, I started out riding an stationary bike.  I play my PlayStation  which makes the time go by quickly.  We have also started walking around the neighbor hood on weeknights and hiking on weekends.  We started walking 1.5 miles, now we walk 4.3 miles 4-5 days a week and hike 6 miles 1-2 times on the weekend. For resistance training I have a Total Gym the I train on 2-3 times per week.

The key is fond something you will want to continue because it is fun. If it feels like work,you probably won't continue.

Next Post: "How to Burn More Fat"

Mac and Cheese

This is a lighter recipe Mac and cheese, most recipes can approach 600 calories, this one comes in at 230 calories depending on the portion size. That tends to be a trap. When something is low calorie we think it is ok to eat more. But we have just made it high calorie by increasing the portion size.

8 oz elbow macaroni
1 can 2% evaporated milk
1/2 cup and 1/4 cup of 1% milk (2% is fine)
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp corn starch
8 oz of Sargento 2% cheddar cheese (grated)- Sargento is what I use, I have heard Cabot 50% Cheddar is very good but I have not found it yet.

In a 3 qt saucepan boil 2.5 qts and 2 tsp of salt, add macaroni
Boil for 5 minutes. I always take one out with a spoon at 4 minutes and bite into it to see if its done.
While the noodles are boiling put 1/2 cup of 1% milk, evaporated milk, garlic powder, dry mustard and cayenne in a small bowl or measuring cup and whisk together. Heat the mixture on a microwave for 1 minute
Add the other 1/4 cup of milk and the 2 tsp of carn starch into another small bowl
After 5 minutes of cooking, drain the pasta and leave it in the colander
Add the heated milk/garlic powder/mustard mixture to the now empty pan and bring to a boil. Stir frequently to prevent the milk from burning.
Reduce heat to a simmer and add milk/cornstarch mixture and whisk together.
Add the pasta back in and stir
Take off the heat and add the cheese
Let stand for 2-3 minutes

163 g of this is 230 calories which is about 6 servings per recipe.

Also, I use a Cuisinart kitchen scale to weigh out my portions
Here is a picture of it. I bought it at Bed Bath and Beyond for around $20-$30

Quick and Easy Chicken Breast Recipe

For dinner, when I want to make something quick, easy and healthy

My quick easy chicken breast recipe –
• 1 Chicken Breast
• Salt and pepper
• Garlic Powder
• 1 tsp veg oil (most if it stays in the pan the chicken may pick up 10-20 calories worth)

Pat the Chicken dry on both sides with paper towels. Sprinkle salt, pepper and garlic powder (liberally) on the both sides and let it sit for 15-30 minutes. It is important to allow some time for the salt and garlic to permeate the chicken.
Heat the oil in a skillet at medium heat. Until it is shimmering, (2-3 minutes)
Place chicken in the pan for 5-6 minutes on each side. If it starts to burn, turn the heat down and turn it more frequently until the internal temperature is 150°. Salmonella dies at 137° so you should be safe. Chicken breast above 160° is dry and nasty. I typically make 4 chicken breasts in a 12" skillet using 2 tsp of oil.

 This also works as a multipurpose recipe. Grill it on the Barbecue, and 1-2 minutes before it is done, brush BBQ sauce on it. You could also use this for a lean pork chop instead of chicken. I also sprinkle it lightly with Chipotle Chile powder and Cumin to make grilled chicken tacos. It’s so simple there are multiple substitutions that can be done depending on your mood.

Nothing spectacular but it’s a start. I do have other recipes that are more complex but they will need to be shared on other posts. Patty will be sharing an egg breakfast sandwich recipe soon.
If you use MyFitnessPal or Calorie Count, you can input your recipes and it will tell you the calories.

How much should I eat?

Let’s set a goal of 1500 calories per day. The question then becomes, how much food is 1500 calories?  It adds up pretty fast so keeping your food intake below 1500 calories requires good choices.

Let’s look at what we might perceive as a typical day
   • Breakfast – Bagel with cream cheese and orange juice
   • Lunch – Turkey sandwich with chips, soda
   •  Snack – Bag of cookies from the vending machine
   • Dinner – Boneless skinless chicken breast, rice, green beans with butter. 2 bread rolls with butter,            
        Arnold Palmer to drink

Looks healthy, now let’s break down the calories.
   • Bagel –                                                   350
   • Cream cheese (spread thin, not heaped on) - 115
   • Orange Juice (1 cup) –                                110 (Breakfast = 575)
   • 2 slices of bread –                                    150
   • Turkey –                                                 100
   • Mayonaise -                                             90
   • Soda –                                                   150
   • Chips –                                                   150  (Lunch = 640)
   •   Cookies -                                              200
   • Chicken Breast (Average size 5 oz piece)– 230
   • Rice (1 cup)-                                            205
   • Green Beans with butter – 140
   • Bread with butter –                                   300
   • Arnold Palmer -                                       100  (Dinner = 975)

These calories assume you’re controlling portion size, but how often do we pile on the cream cheese on a bagel or the butter on a slice of bread? Or go to Starbucks or microwave some popcorn. It all counts toward our daily calorie intake? The grand total of this day would be about 2400 calories. From the last post, if you are a female burning 2100 calories per day you will gain 1 pound of fat in 10 days eating these things every day. When we go out to eat and get a soda we can consume anywhere from 1000 calories to 5000 calories in one meal.   When I went out to eat I would get a soda with several refills, appetizer, full meal and maybe dessert of I was hungry. It not hard to see where all the calories I ate went. Now I am constantly eating but I am eating small healthy snacks. I typically eat between 1700 and 2000 calories in a day and I enjoy what I eat. My typical day looks like this

Breakfast –
   • Fiber one 80 cereal (I eat 1½ servings)          120
   • ¾ cup 1% milk                                           75
   • Blueberries (½ cup) 42
   • 2 cups Trop50 Orange Juice 100
 (It has Calcium and lots of potassium so I drink an extra cup)
The total is 337 calories. Cut the cereal to one serving, the milk to ½ cup and the OJ to one cup and you’re are at 222
Morning snack –
   • Banana                                                  105
   • Mixed Nuts (35g) 205
If you are trying to stay below 1500, don’t eat the nuts, or eat very few. People say to only  eat a handful. Only if you have very small hands. I can hold 400-500 calories worth in my hand easily.
Lunch –
   • 3 oz turkey 75
   • Oro wheat sandwich thin, 100
   • Lettuce tomato                                        10
   • light Mayo (2 tsp) 30
   • Snack bag of carrots                                  46
Total for lunch is 261
Afternoon snack –
   • Apple –                                                  100
   • Celery-                                                   30
Total snacks = 440 or 235 (no nuts)
Dinner-
I would eat the same dinner above but cut the chicken down to 3 oz, a little more than ½ a breast.  No butter on the green beans, no bread, and water to drink
Dinner  = 391

Total calories =1491 or if you eat a smaller breakfast and don’t eat nuts, 1109. You have enough left over for one of those 100 calorie desserts.  Or a bowl or fiber one 80 Chocolate cereal, it’s a pretty good dessert when you are hungry.  These are things I like, you need to find things you like, but be smart.  Moderation and variety are good guidelines when it comes to food.

Three other guidelines:
1. Think about what you are eating – do I need it? Is it just empty calories?
2. Think about how much you are eating – Is it more than I really need?
3. Plan ahead – If you are planning to have a big dinner or go out to eat, eat less earlier. There is a danger here. If you starve yourself before a big meal you will probably gorge yourself at dinner. Don’t starve    yourself! Stick to small, healthy, low-cal snacks and drink water before your meal. You won’t feel like you need to eat as much. I always consider my whole day when making meal or snack choices. If I am going out to lunch or I know dinner will be heavier I will cut back on snacks.  The key is to know what I am eating and how much I can eat and plan ahead to make it all work

The other thing you need to know is: You will be hungry. These are small portions and your stomach and body will need to adjust. After 30 days it becomes a habit. You still feel hungry, but you get used to it.

This last weekend we went to multiple parties (graduation season).  I had planned ahead to enjoy the great dessert I knew would be available.  The weird part was that I was looking forward to getting back to my routine of eating healthy. My weight did spike up but it’s already back to my lowest level since I started all this.  The weight was mostly water due to all the salt I ate.

I lost all this weight (51 lbs as of this writing) because I started eating better and paying attention to how much I ate. Now I can have extra dessert or get something sweet on occasion and go right back to my routine. I enjoy the food I eat and feel really good.  I can keep this up the rest of my life because I enjoy it.

Next time I want to talk about: “Why is Exercise so Important?”

How Fast should I lose weight

Depending on age, height, gender and weight you burn so many calories a day just by living. It’s called your Base Metabolism Rate or BMR. You burn more if you exercise and are active. The link below will calculate you BMR and there is also a link to the Harris Benedict equation to figure out your total calorie need

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

You can also use the apps I mentioned before

http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/account/index.php

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/

A pound of fat has 3500 calories. That means in order to lose 1lb of fat you have to burn 3500 more calories than you eat.  A typical female will burn 1800-2000 calories per day assuming moderate activity. Let’s assume 1800 to make this example easy. If she eats 1300 calories per day she will have a 500 calorie per day deficit. After 7 days they will have lost 1 pound of fat.

It is unrealistic to expect to lose more than 0.5 to 2.0 lbs per week.  It is also not healthy to lose weight so quickly. I mentioned before when we lose weight 75% is fat and 25% is lean tissue. The faster we lose the weight, the more lean tissue we will lose, The less lean tissue we have the fewer calories we will burn.  So where does that fat go when we burn it off? It does not leave through excretion (sorry if that is too graphic but we are all adults here). If it is not lost through number one or two, where does the fat go?

We get energy (calories) from 3 sources: Carbohydrates, Protein and Fat. (We get some from alcohol as well, but that’s not exactly a good source of other nutrition so let’s skip it).  Carbs and fats are made of mostly carbon and hydrogen with some oxygen.  Protein is also carbon, hydrogen and oxygen but it also has nitrogen.  Your cells burn carbons and hydrogen and make carbon dioxide and water. The water we pee out and we breathe out the carbon dioxide. So most of the fat we lose we breathe out. Crazy but true. When you exercise your breathing increases because you need more oxygen and you need to exhale more carbon dioxide. You are breathing out the fat you burn.

As I look back on my weight loss, I may have lost weight too quickly. I lost 3 pounds per week for 3 months. However I was eating very healthy and exercising vigorously and I felt good so I am not too worried about it. With the exercise I had a daily calorie deficit of about 1500 calories per day so my weight loss was in line with my food and exercise. The bad news is guys lose faster than girls and I am 6’2” which means I naturally burn more calories. Not fair, but it is what it is.

My wife had a good general and reachable plan to exercise about 200-300 calories per day. That would be added to a BMR of 1800 calories per day to make her metabolism at 2000-2100 calories per day. She ate 1200 calories causing her to lose about 1-2 pounds per week.  If 1200 calories per day is not realistic for you, eat 1500 calories per day and you should lose about 1 pound per week.  How much is 1500 calories per day? I will save that for the next post, “How much food should I eat?”

Losing weight

Losing weight is simple. We make it complicated.*  Our emotions, lack of patience and lack of discipline make it more complex than it needs to be.  There are also differences in each person’s body that can make things complex. But the science is pretty simple. I have previously stated, I lost weight by counting calories.

Thermodynamics
WARNING!!WARNING!!SCIENCE ALERT, SCIENCE ALERT!!!! This Blog is about to get very nerdy and technical.  Proceed at your own risk.  Not really, I will do my best to make this as painless as possible.

What is a calorie? We talk about it all the time, but what is it? In order to discuss this a little further I would like to discuss the topic of thermodynamics.  Thermodynamics is the study of energy. Calories are a measuring unit of energy. In the same way you would measure distance in feet, we measure energy in calories. A single food calorie is the amount of energy it takes to raise the temperature of one liter of water one degree Celsius. The human body requires and burns a lot of calories.  As a warm blooded animal we use a lot of energy just maintaining our body temperature.

The first law of thermodynamics is very simple. Energy cannot be created or destroyed it can only change forms.  One scientific definition of energy is the ability to do work. (there is no simple definition of energy. When you start talking about quantum mechanics is gets real complicated real fast so let’s just go with a simple explanation). Your body does different types of work. It moves muscles, lifts things, walks from point A to point B and maintains your body temperature. Your brain cells and nerves do work even when you are sleeping.  It’s all work and it all uses energy (Calories). The energy your body uses comes from the food you eat.

What’s the point of all this? The energy you eat (calories) does not just magically disappear because of the latest diet drug or herbal supplement. You either burn it off by working it off or it goes into storage (fat). If you eat more calories than you burn your body will store it as fat. If you burn more calories than you eat your body uses that storage.

Eat less, exercise more is the key. Of course things are always more complex. We also need moderation and common sense. From a calorie perspective women should not go below 1200 calories per day and men should not go below 1500. There are several reasons for this.

• There are many essential nutrients we will not be able to get if we eat less than 1200 calories. This could lead to short and long term illnesses.
• There is a risk you will slow down your metabolism
• You will lose too much lean tissue. When you lose a pound of weight, it is generally about 75% fat and 25% lean tissue. (It increases to 50:50 if you deprive your body too much).  Lean tissue is muscle and you don’t want to lose it because more lean tissue means a higher metabolism. It’s a big reason exercise is important. It increases metabolism in the short and long term and it keeps you healthy.  When you lose weight without exercise and then go back to your previous way of eating you will not only gain it all back but also gain more because your lean tissue is less which means the calories you burn will be less.
• Keep it balanced. Eat a good balance of carbs, fats and proteins. Any extreme is bad. Especially no/low carb diets since they seem to be all the rage. Debunking the low carb myths is too long to get into it here. (I will cover it in another Blog post)

The Next post will be how fast should I be losing weight

*Disclaimer – I understand there are medical conditions that can make losing weight complicated. But don’t assume you a have low metabolism because it is difficult to lose weight. It is difficult for everyone to lose weight. If you are not sure, see your doctor.  If you follow my advice and start not feeling well, see your doctor. It is a bad idea to assume anything about your health.

Name Change

After only one week I decided to change the name of the blog. I did not really care for the original name but I could not think of anything else.

I read recently in a nutrition book: “we should not worry so much about losing weight as we should about gaining health.”  It is better to put our emphasis on health gains rather than pounds lost. Losing weight is hard. It takes discipline, self-control and patience. I have started many times down the diet path only to fail. What is different now? I am, or at least my attitude is. And attitude is everything.  When I started, I wanted to lose weight but I also wanted to feel better.  After only one week of eating healthy I did feel better and that kept me going. There were times when I was discouraged because I wanted to lose weight faster. Every day I stayed with it because I liked the way I was starting to feel and I knew it takes time to lose weight.

There was an old saying: “At least you have your health.”  This was meant to encourage people with other problems and remind them of the blessing of good health.  Even when everything around you is great, if you are in poor health, you cannot enjoy the other things.  In some cases we have no control over health. We get the flu or a cold or worse. But good diet and exercise goes a long way in preventing disease, especially the more serious ones. We can tell ourselves we will eat this or not eat that so we will feel better tomorrow.

We make choices every day, every meal, every snack. We also make a choice to sit on our butts or go for a walk.  We need to focus on these choices. Eventually we will feel better and hopefully the weight will come off. Slow is actually better for weight loss.  Statistically a person who loses 10-20 pounds in six months is much more likely to keep it off then someone who loses 120 pounds in 6 months. We can’t always control weight fluctuations but we can control what we eat and how much we exercise. After we make several healthy choices in a row we do start to feel better.

Choices

Tonight was an interesting example of choices and good decisions we can make every day. I count calories so I know how much I should eat. For lunch, I had a low cal sandwich and some fruit. I also had some mixed nuts which I measured to be 34 grams (~200 calories), My wife texts me she has a pastry from 85 degrees and she saved me half.  I made the choice to not eat the nuts I packed in order to eat half a pastry.  I had eaten about 1000 calories by the time dinner hit. 

After a school event we were very hungry and went to Ruby's.  Before we changed our way of thinking, we would have gone to Ruby's and ordered a coke with several refills (~600-900 cal), Super burger and Fries (1200 calories), Given how hungry we were we may have gotten a shake (800 calories). We would have eaten almost 3000 calories in one meal. 

This time, I knew I had 1000 calories to eat. We were very hungry and both wanted french fries (typically a diet no-no but we were ok because we each knew how many calories we could eat and still reach our goal. To go with the fries we split veggie tacos. Our dinner calories breakdown was: 1/2 basket of Fries (300 calories, we did not eat the whole basket) 1 Veggie taco (270 cal). Patty was good but I had another 400-500 cal to eat. I got a bowl of clam chowder. We ate well, we got what we wanted and we were still on target because we planned ahead and made good decisions.

Changing the way I think.

The first thing I needed to do was change my way of thinking.  Initially my goal was to make it to my son’s high school graduation. That meant I had 3 months to be on this diet. After that I would kind of wing it and try to maintain. (I have since realized with this new path I have chosen, I can easily maintain my new weight the rest of my life)  I looked at every aspect of my diet and eliminated anything causing me to consume unnecessary calories.  I followed these rules:

The Don'ts - 

• No more soda or any sugar drinks. (I did not eliminate sugar from my diet, just sugar that had little to no nutrition value. I eat a lot of fruit and drink Orange Juice which some will say is a no-no).  This first one was easy. I would typically drink at least one soda per day. If I went to a restaurant I would drink 3 or 4 depending on the refills.
• No dessert for the first couple of months. I love to cook and I would make a dessert 2-3 times per week. For at least the first couple of months, No dessert. I have since started eating “sensible desserts” and been able to continue my weight loss. (More details on this in a separate post)
•  No snack food. I also would go to the vending machine at work and get Cheetos or potato chips. Or if I ate a sandwich at home I would have chips with it. ( I will have pretzels on occasion now but not at work)
• No extras – Another bad habit I had was eating bread with an already complete meal. I did not cut out all bread, just bread that was on top of everything else I was eating. I would also snack while making dinner, not good.
• No fast food – Enough said ( I have had Chic-Fil-A once in the last three months, I survived)

These were my negative rules for the first 2 weeks during which I lost 10 lbs. With the list of “Dont’s,” I also had some “Do’s”

The Do's -

• Drink lots of water – More on this in a later post as to how much. But water is essential to your body. Nothing replaces it. Tea, coffee, nothing. A good rule of thumb is 1 oz per kg of weight per day (1kg = 2.2 lb)
• Exercise – find what works for you. I have a stationary bike I use and do some resitance training on the Total Gym. I also walk and hike. My wife and used to spend hours in bed watching TV, now we make a point of walking 3-4 times per week and hiking on the weekends.
• Eat less (duh!) – Don’t eat as much as you think you need to eat.
• Be willing to throw food away – Growing up I was told, “clean my plate, there are starving people in China.”  I have no idea how finishing all the food on my plate would help anyone in China but I know now it was making me fat. This is still an area where I struggle, I feel guilty when I throw food away. Don’t feel guilty. Toss it before you can change your mind.
• It’s ok to be hungry when you go to bed. Don’t starve yourself but if you are going to be eating less calories than you use, your body is going want to eat more. It does not like using fat storage.

As I progressed in my diet I started calorie counting. As strange as it seems it made things easier. I knew exactly what I was putting into my body.

These are my guidelines; everyone needs to figure out what works for them and use common sense. If it is so restrictive you can’t follow it, then it won’t work. I also understand there are many factors in choosing the food we eat: convenience, cost, taste, allergies, ethnicity, etc.  It’s really all about making good choices or not allowing yourself to make the bad choice. Every meal, we choose what we will eat and how much we eat. Following these rules and planning meals ahead of time has helped me make good decisions.

In the beginning.

In the Beginning

I have lost 46 pounds in 3 months. My lovely wife has lost 23 pounds in 2.5 months.
I never had considered posting a Blog before but a lot of people have encouraged me to share how I got to where I am. When people see you lose weight they get encouraged to do the same. I generally do not like to talk about myself and Blogs seem to be mostly narcissistic ramblings. But if people read this and are encouraged or it gives them information that helps them then it is worth the effort I put in.  That being said, I will try to post recipes I used and general guidelines I follow to lose my weight.

My Background-
For those that do not know me, I am by trade a chemist. I manage an R&D group for a very large scientific instrument company. I am 47 years old, married, and have two almost grown sons. I am a born again Christian and an elder at a local church. I also am the worship leader at this church. I love science and enjoy talking about science and chemistry. I have also taught nutrition and cooking for high schoolers.  A lot of nutrition is chemistry, so my goal here is to inform and blend the science stuff with personal experience. I am not an expert on nutrition, some things might just be my opinion.

The Start -
On March 3rd, 2013 I decided enough was enough. I was 6’2” 260 lbs.  I had high blood pressure an was on medication.  I snored every night. Generally I did not feel good and had low energy. It was time to make a change. 20 years prior I had lost 30 lbs. by exercising more and eating less.  Since that time, I had gained 60 lbs.  I am not going to go into all my reasoning here because I plan to post some blogs that explain the science behind nutrition and energy more thoroughly in a separate post but I went with what worked before; I would eat less and exercise more.   Initially I stopped my “soda a day” habit and no longer ate dessert. No fast food or processed snack foods and I would limit portion sizes.  I was committed to riding a stationary bike for 1 hour 4-5 times per week. Within 2 weeks I had lost 10 lbs.

Teamwork helps -
Once my wife noticed the changes she decided she needed to get on this bandwagon also. She suggested we go for walks.  As a scientist I like to know all the details and data so I can form theory and develop guidelines and rules that work. I started using the App mapmywalk so I could calculate the distance of our walks. It also tells you the calories you burn. I noticed that you could also log in the food you ate. After a week of using this I switched to Calorie Count. Patty uses myfitnesspal.com.  As soon as I hit my target I will try myfitnesspal and give a detailed analysis of both. I’m sure both are good and Calorie count works for me.   Patty will also be posting on this Blog some of her thought from time to time.

So people ask, “How did you lose your weight?”  I ate less and exercised more. I measured the amount of food I ate and use the App Calorie count to verify I was eating less than what I was burning. Obviously there is more detail and that is the point of this Blog.

In the future I plan to go into more detail and create short posts because none of us have time to read a 10 page post on thermodynamics.  I do plan on posting subjects such as:
• Favorite recipes and calories per serving
• What is a serving size?
• Can I have dessert?
• Thermodynamics (this is not a joke I want to explain as simply as I can the science behind energy, diet, and nutrition)
• Biochemistry
• Vitamins and minerals
• How much weight should I lose?
• Why there is no quick easy way to lose weight.