Body Coefficient™

You Don’t Need a Gym Membership to Lose Weight!

I see it every year… the overweight masses walking into my local gym to inquire about the gym membership to fulfill that New Year’s resolution to lose weight. I don’t know the actual percentage of ‘resolutioners’ that quit but I know its high. The population of most gyms starts to increase a few weeks after the new years and typically drops back down to the pre-resolution population by about March.

Want to lose weight? Save your money! You absolutely do not need a gym membership to lose weight, in fact you don’t need a gym at all! Losing weight takes commitment and control, period. Weight loss begins and ends in the kitchen. Yes, exercise helps but it helps because it burns calories you take in thanks to the kitchen. If you want to be successful you will have to commit to the process and control what you eat.

Some facts…

- 3,500 calories equals a pound of body fat.

- If you cut your diet by 500 calories a day, you will lose a pound a week.

- 500 calories can be cut by reducing intake or increasing exercise, which does not require a gym in fact the best thing you can do is free, get outside and walk!

- If you reduce intake, you will lose weight!

How many calories do you need? Your Resting Metabolic Rate or RMR is the amount of daily energy expended by humans and other animals at rest. You can determine your resting metabolic rate using one of the many calculators available on the web.

Once you have determined your RMR reduce that by 500 calories. Remember RMR is based on body weight so as you lose weight come back to the calculator and check your RMR then adjust your intake accordingly. Unless you have some type of unique/rare health issue, if you follow this process you will lose weight!

It’s true… the labels that we reference to allow us to track our diets are actually allowed to be false! The FDA allows a 20% margin of error on all food labels. This may seem minor, however for people who are watching every calorie, every gram of fat, carbohydrates, and protein; this could actually slow down progress! Here’s a great example of a companies ability to use this 20% margin to their advantage. The bars below recently changed their box… the contents did not change. The last time I bought these bars I know they were listed 150 calories, now with no change whatsoever to their size or macronutrient content they are 120 calories? Quaker even proudly displays the calories per bar on the top left of the box in a huge eye grabbing font and color, a great marketing trick but these bars are actually 148 calories not the 120 that is displayed on the box!

This is 28 calorie difference may seem like nothing but if you unknowingly ate 28 extra calories a day for a year at the end of the year you will gain almost 3 pounds of body fat!

Here’s how to check the numbers and know what you are eating…

Fat = 9 calories per gram
Carbohydrates = 4 calories per gram
Protein = 4 calories per gram

These bars for example contain:

4 Grams of fat for 36 calories
26 grams of carbohydrates for 104 calories
2 grams of protein for 8 calories

36+104+8=148

I checked a few other products from other companies such as Fiber One and Nabisco. The Fiber One 90 calorie bars are actually 95 calories and the 100 calorie Nabisco Snack Packs actually come in at 98 calories.

So… be safe not sorry and double check any packaged foods you buy!

The article I link to below mentions Chipotle. It’s a great place to get a quick healthy meal! I call it “Mexican Subway”. If you don’t know its actually owned by McDonald’s but I think they use it as a way to balance out all the chemical filled badness at their normal restaurants. Now if you are experienced you are thinking how can a burrito that big be healthy? You’re right, its not! That large flour tortilla is 400 calories of sugar! …but they offer the contents of the burrito in their burrito bowl. I call it “Mexican Subway” because as you move down the line you can control everything that goes in the bowl. So my advice beans beans and more beans… stay away from the rice (more sugar), corn (more sugar), cheese, and sour cream, add the chicken, it is high quality hormone free and the best choice on the line after the black beans. Add some lettuce, fajita veggies, tomato salsa, and spicy salsa and you have a great meal. If you need a little more flavor then throw in a scoop of guacamole, it will add 150 calories because of the fat but it’s a healthy fat and will boost your Omega 3s!

So hit the gym hard and follow up with some Chipotle!

If you have an iPhone you can even order ahead of time and avoid the wait when you get to the store…

I have a short list of protein sources:

In order:

Chicken
Turkey
Beef
Egg
Whey
Casein

Each has its purpose – my meal of choice on most occasions is chicken breast because its a great protein source with less calories per ounce than beef. Whey is an outstanding source post workout because its bio-availablity is much higher and it will be in your system quick. I will undoubtedly get much deeper into this topic in future posts!

This is a great article covering the top 10 sources of protein… at least according to Fox News:

Eating a medium-rare burger or a strip steak marbled to the gills with fat is one of life’s simple pleasures, and not something we plan on giving up.
The trouble is that mass food production and marketing aren’t regulated in a way that’s safe for consumers or the environment. There have been 16 E. coli outbreaks from ground beef in the past three years, including a big one last summer that exposed food giants like Cargill for selling burgers that were basically a mash-up of low-grade scraps treated with chemicals and rarely checked for contamination. The story doesn’t get any prettier with factory farms turning out antibiotic-pumped chicken/pork/dairy, or the tons of fish feces sludge that careless aquaculture lets loose into the oceans.
But enough with the grim news. The market for wholesome animal protein that’s both planet-safe and damn tasty is getting stronger. Labels are improving, small producers are becoming more accessible, and some big companies are catching on. Here are 10 trusted sources of protein you can pick up in many states across the country. read more

I enjoy the “Eat This Not That” series of books and the articles in Men’s Health but I have to wonder why it is that they use pictures that are flattering to the fast food products? In fact it looks like the companies give them the marketing photos… ok this makes it easier to write the book if they are feeding you the material but I really think they should show the products as they actually look when you buy them instead of the way they look in advertisements!

The fast food companies use a lot of tricks to make their food appear larger, fresher, and more appetizing than it actually looks across the counter in one of their stores. Here’s a good video that demonstrates some of those methods…

As usual… Doc Mercola has some great points here! CNN has published a list of the “truth about twelve “health myths”. Among the myths this article busts? “If you cross your eyes, they’ll stay that way.” “Eat the crust of your bread because it’s full of antioxidants,” and, “to get rid of hiccups, have someone startle you.”

Seriously?

There is massive amount of medical misinformation circulating right now, which is causing an epidemic of chronic disease, unprecedented in human history, and their big concern is whether or not if you cross your eyes, they’ll stay that way?

CNN is beyond clueless.

The primary purpose of their article is entertainment, as it has absolutely nothing to do with the top health myths. With articles such as this one, CNN is part of the problem of perpetuating misinformation and leading you astray with nonsense.

read more

“During the past decade, the U.S. Army has faced what it regards as a serious internal threat: young recruits entering in terrible shape. In a radical shift, the Army is overhauling the way it trains, cares for and feeds new soldiers. So, as fad workouts increasingly borrow Army terms like “boot camp,” actual basic training is starting to look a bit like a new-age fitness camp — but with harsh words, severe haircuts and firearms. ‘You’d Be Surprised, The Soldiers That We Get Today’ Just after 5 a.m. at Fort Leonard Wood, deep in the Missouri Ozarks, a breeze drops the wind chill into the teens as hundreds of Army recruits under floodlights drop to their mats for some low-impact cardio. It’s the Army’s largest basic training post, but it’s a far cry from a Hollywood depiction of boot camp. Many of the freezing future soldiers, in gray sweats, caps and gloves, are struggling to do a few pull-ups.”

read more

…even the legal ones!

The typical MD (not mine thank goodness) is running a checklist in their head when they are talking with you – that checklist will inevitably lead to a drug. That is the primary method of treatment these days for just about any ailment. Unfortunately when they are prescribing medicines another factor kicks in, the medicine they prescribe is not always the best available medicine but more likely the one that provided them with the pen they are writing with and the notepad they are taking notes on and maybe even a little extra cash as a commission for using their product. In fact pharmaceutical companies dished out about $282 million dollars to MDs last year alone. Its all legal and I love capitalism but keep this in mind and do a little personal research before you throw those pills down your throat and accept the risk.

Watch this news report…

According to the news report above, payments received by individual doctors ranged from $100 to $300,000 since 2009. 384 doctors received payments greater than $100,000, of which 43 doctors received more than $200,000 each. These numbers represent payments from just seven drug companies!

Why do I say “No” to drugs? In a lot of cases or ‘conditions’ the correct answer is probably to first lose weight (but not even doctors are honest enough with their patients to tell them this and a lot of doctors are overweight themselves), get more sleep, get more sun (Vitamin D), get more stress reducing exercise (so many good things come from exercise), fix your diet (which the average MD has a terrible diet and doesn’t know where to start to help someone – the extent of their nutrition training in medical school is special nutrition programs available in hospitals for conditions such as diabetes), and finally the proper supplementation to real food such as fish oil (or any other Omega 3 supplement) and a good multivitamin. There are other good supplements but if you started with just the fish oil and multivitamin you are on the path to better health. The rest comes from real food!

OK real foods means stay away from processes foods, the ADA published a statistic that 2000 calories of processed foods contains 25 times more sugar and 20 times more fat that 2000 calories of healthy fresh foods. The rule of thumb is to stay out of the middle of the grocery store! All of the healthy fresh foods are along the outside walls of a grocery store.

If you lose weight, eat right, and exercise you will be much healthier naturally and you won’t need that drug to lower your blood pressure, or cholesterol, etc… Now before I get any hate mail, I know there are conditions that cannot be handled naturally, I have family members with those types of conditions, but I will tell you that even in those cases diet and exercise helps them feel better and they will live longer!

Does this make sense? I hope so! If you like my common sense approach to health, nutrition and fitness, I am slowly working on a book now that will put it all together for you with no gimmicks! If you have a good idea for a title send me a message.