Everything you need to know to lose weight.

Here's what you need to know to lose weight.

1. Your body uses energy for all of its chemical reactions. The chemical reactions are what we refer to when we talk about your body's metabolism. That includes muscle contractions (from walking to your heart beating), hormone creation, repairing cells, creating new blood cells, growing hair, digesting food, etc.
2. If you eat more calories that your body needs, your body stores most of the extra energy in fat cells.
3. If you eat less calories than your body needs, your body takes the extra energy from fat cells to make up the difference.
4. A pound of fat contains 3,500 calories. So when you accumulate an excess of 3,500 calories, whether in a weeks time, a month or a year, you will have added 1 of fat to your body.
5. When you create a 3,500 calorie deficiency from your diet to your body's need, you will have "burned" 1 pound of fat.
6. If you eat exactly as many calories as you "burn", you will reach and equilibrium and neither gain nor lose weight.

So losing weight becomes as simple as burning more calories than you eat. To know how many you eat is easy to find out, though it will be some work to find the info and add it up.

What's your motivation?

I'm going to assume that if you are reading this blog you either are over weight and want to slim down, or that you are sedentary and want to get fit. Either way, you are going to have to change your life to change your life. According to some old scientist, and object at rest tends to stay at rest. Unfortunately for you, that means more time on the couch watching King of Queens reruns. And that lifestyle is what got you where you are today. So what's it gonna take for you to change? If and object at rest wants to stay at rest, it's not gonna be easy at first to get moving. The great news is that an object in motion tends to stay in motion. That means that once you get yourself into a habit of an active lifestyle, it will feel wrong not to be on the go. I was playing probably 15 hours of XBox each week and watching 7 or 8 hours of tv each week. Now, I don't have time for any of that. I don't play XBox at all, and watch about 1 hour of tv each week. I actually told my daughter last week that I get bored watching tv...and I meant it! After several months of exercising 1-2 hours a day, I just don't get any enjoyment from sitting in front of the brain rotting device in my living room anymore.

But since you are (I assume) living a sedentary life now, what will give you the mojo to get moving and stay moving until it becomes a part of your life? Hopefully, you can find many reasons. They are what you will have to remember to keep you going. Because unlike what they tell you on the infomercials, it WON"T BE EASY! You've got to really want to or it's not gonna happen. I believe the easiest way to do this is to do it like you life depends on it. Don't give yourself any outs. Don't make any excuses in advance. Don't plan for failure. I can remember being afraid to update friends and family how much weight I was losing in the first few months, because I didn't want to become just another one of those people who say, "I lost 15 pounds this spring, but I've put most of it back on." I laugh inside when people tell me stuff like that. What, I'm supposed to be impressed that you were strong enough to lose weight for a few weeks, only to become weak and put it all back on?

You've got to have your own reasons, but just let me tell you what a difference being active, losing weight, and eating healthy has changed my life.

1. I used to wear XL shirts, now I wear mediums.
2. When I used to shop for clothes I looked for what hid my fat. Now I shop for what makes me look cool and young.
3. I used to wear size 38 waist pants, now I wear size 30.
4. My blood pressure used to be ~ 120/80. Now it is 110/60.
5. My resting pulse used to be ~ 65, now it is 42.
6. I used to wear a shirt at the beach or the pool, now I proudly go topless.
7. My total cholesterol was 214, now it is 151.
8. My LDL (the bad stuff) used to be 140, now it is 92.
9. I used to spend $30 a month on cholesterol medicine. Now I spend that money on clothes.
10. I used to have a fatty liver and high liver enzymes because of extra body fat and high cholesterol. Now, my liver is healthy and my enzyme count is normal for the first time in 5 years.
11. More than one of my daughter's friends have told her that I look like a teenager.
12. My wife thinks I'm hot again. (The feeling is mutual. She's lost 35 pounds herself.)
13. I can jump on the trampoline with my kids for more than 2 minutes at a time now.
14. I have more confidence.
15. I sleep much, much better. I used to take Tylenol PM to help me sleep when I worked daylights. I don't need it anymore.

So find a dozen or so things that will motivate you in your own life. You're gonna need them when everyone else is eating Thanksgiving dinner and all you are eating is turkey breast and deviled eggs with all the cream scooped out (that's how I spent my Thanksgiving last year). Or when you are tired from work but know that you have to make yourself work out for an hour, no excuses.

Getting slim and fit will be fun, but it will not be easy. So find your mojo. And if all else fails, remember my mantra...Be Tough...Like Huff.

League City Fatboy

Come and listen to a story about a man named Ed.
Ate so much had no problem stayin' fed.
Then one day he was munchin' on some food
And said, "Enough of this. Loose some weight dude."

Fat that is. Nasty lard. Adipose.

Well the first thing you know ol' Ed's in the gym,
Kinfolk said Ed you're gonna be slim
Said Beach Body Heaven is the place you ought to be
So he loaded up his gym bag and went to the YMC...

A that is. Exercise bikes. Weight machines.