my dietician view on exercise cals. agree or disagree?

Did you ever ask yourself where the 2lbs/week guideline came from in the first place?

Post from one of my favorite blogs
http://johnbarban.com/weight-loss-fallacies-2lbs-per-week-and-1200-calories-per-day/

Weight Loss Fallacies: 2lbs per week and 1200 calories per day


I received an email the other day that sums up how popular diet/fitness misinformation can leave people frustrated, upset, angry and eventually to flat out give up on the idea of getting in shape.

So the email went something like this:

“I just read your book and it says my RMR is approx 1250 calories. I want to lose 2lbs per week because that is supposed to be a realistic weight loss goal…but to do that you say you have to create a 1000 calorie deficit each day, that means I can only eat 250 calories per day…but I also heard that you should never eat below 1200 calories per day…so how is this possible?!”


What is a realistic weight loss goal?
Of course I’m paraphrasing and this is not the exact words, but this is a very typical email I get every week.

There are a few different flaws and fallacies in this statement…did you notice them? If not, I’ll show you.

Fallacy #1. There is no scientific proof that 2lbs per week of weight loss is a safe or realistic goal that all adults humans can or should expect to achieve. This is a claim based on FTC advertising standards. You only hear this number because marketers aren’t allowed to say any more by law. If they could the number would likely be 10lbs per week. That doesn’t make it any more or less correct, because neither number is based on scientific evidence.

A 6’5 260lbs man can easily expect to lose up to even 4lbs per week, however a 5’1 woman is hardly in the same position. Instead of setting a weight loss goal based on poundage (ie: 1lbs, 2lbs, 3lbs per week) you should be looking at it as a percentage of your bodyweight.

A 6’0 tall man who weights 220lbs with a RMR of approximately 2000 cals/day could easily create a 1000 calorie deficit each day by cutting his calories to 1500/day and burning an additional 500 calories in a good hard workout (mix of weights and cardio).

1500 is still plenty of calories to feel relatively satisfied while still creating a fair sized deficit to facilitate a significant weekly weight loss.

Also 2lbs of weight loss represents less than 1% of his total bodyweight.

Now change the person to a 5’1 woman with an RMR of 1250 calories. She would have to eat around 750 calories per day as well as burning off an additional 500 in the gym. This is starting to sound more like torture than a reasonable diet plan.

The fallacy is that 2lbs is a good target for all body sizes…it is not. Smaller people have smaller metabolisms and shouldn’t expect to lose as much total weight as a bigger person. It would be more realistic for her to shoot for 1lbs of weight loss which would only require a 500 calorie daily deficit…this could be achieved with a much more reasonably daily calorie intake around 1000 calories with a 250 calorie burn from a workout. Doesn’t that sound much more realistic?!

Fallacy #2: 1200 calories is the minimum you should eat in a day

I don’t know where this number comes from and I will be spending some time in the near future looking it up. However based on the RDI and RDA for nutrients the actual lower limit for calories (when you add up the individual recommendations for protein, carbs and fats) comes out to around 800 calories per day for women and 900 for men. So even according to the RDA you can easily eat well below 1200 and get your daily requirements of protein carbs and fats.

These two false assumptions are leading many people down a path of frustration and weight loss failure.

Setting realistic weight loss goals is the first step to success.

Letting go of your fear of eating less food is the second step.

Once you realize it’s ok to eat a bit less food then you will start to see things really change.

John

Did the dietitian do a BMR test on you? My dietitian did one on me and my metabolic rate was lower than average. =( With 2 hours of exercise (running and some strength training) factored in every week, she told me that I can eat 1400-1500 calories per day and lose 1-2 pounds per week. Any calories burned from additional, purposeful exercise I can eat. Her philosophy, though, is not number-based, but is more of listening to your body. She says that if I'm really hungry one day then I can go over on my calories, but not to make that a regular thing. The goal is to help me fall into healthy patterns of exercising regularly and eating moderate meals everyday.

I am worried about loose skin. I lost 46lbs now all together, but keep sticking along the way, and trying to nail the exact things I should be doing once and for all!

I have lost roughly 70-75 pounds in a little over 2 years. That pace has not resulted in any visible loose skin. Take that for what you will. I certainly don't claim to know anything about what will and/or won't affect that.

i'm inclined to agree with your dieticians. Think of your body as refrigerator, storing food. Excessively overweight people have all their shelves stuffed, and can live for a long time without going to the grocery store (eating more). Skinnier people have less in the fridge, and thus have to go to the grocery store more often.

The thing about the advice here is that it's going to be heavily influenced by the advice giver's personal experiences and their body type. A certified dietician should have training on how to deal with all body types.

Things are different when you're REALLY big - like when you have 75 lbs or more to lose. The ten-pounds-over crowd is struggling and fighting and finessing to lose that last bit, but we big folks almost can't help but to lose, and quickly. Starting at 290 lbs, I lost 3-4 per week all through August even though I was set at a 2 lb/wk deficit and I was eating back my exercise. There's no reason to think you wouldn't do that, too.

Listen to the professional.
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Great points! Thanks! Zara

I'm sorry but not logging cleaning as exercise is a bit harsh. I say log it if you built up a sweat and spent a considerable amount of time doing it then why the hell not!! It takes me hours to do a major clean of my entire house once a week. By the time I'm finished I'm sweating, my heart rate has risen and I feel like I've had a good workout why should I not log that as exercise? Especially considering that I need the extra calories that day because after doing all that work I'm freaking starving.