11
Personally I would look at the leading causes of death in (my case) the United States:
Heart disease: 596,577
Cancer: 576,691
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 142,943
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 128,932
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 126,438
Alzheimer's disease: 84,974
Diabetes: 73,831
Influenza and Pneumonia: 53,826
Nephritis, nephrotic ...
8
Because they're all based off vaguely defined math formulas which were created by various scientists that used questionable methodologies in an attempt to make a generic consensus on what people need to eat.
They are best guesses based on a user's age, weight, height, activity level, and sometimes bodyfat percentage. However, everyone's caloric need is ...
7
There really is no "limit" to how many calories that a person can absorb in a day. Using them, however, is where other factors come into play, that are very much dependent on the person. For example, during his heaviest training days, Michael Phelps is reported to be consuming between 10-12,000 calories a day. However, if you don't exercise to meet that ...
7
Unfortunately it is as simple as eating less calories than you burn on paper, but greatly more complicated when you delve into the energy balance equation. Anyone that claims any metabolic or energy system in the body is simple is grossly misinformed.
The element of complexity lays in several factors - a few of which are explored here, but mostly it is in ...
6
In a very real sense, you may be reading more into these numbers than is there. First and foremost, our bodies are designed to be efficient at maintaining its operation. That includes the amount of body fat you have, how much energy it expends, etc. Your body has adapted to the approximately 2000 Calories you are consuming. At your activity level, height ...
5
The frequency of your intake of food doesn't matter. It's a myth suggestions that your metabolism is heightened and keeps your body "burning calories".
Actually the levels rise depending on the quantity you eat. Making the sum all the same in the end of the day.
With that said, eating your total daily calorie intake in one meal in the morning probably won'...
4
Eating well under your recommended levels can also be a reason for not losing weight.
The body needs a certain amount of calories to simply carry out its daily activities such as breathing, digesting, and keeping up with your physical activities. Every person has an amount of calories required each day to maintain their current weight. People who gain ...
4
BMI isn't something you use to calculate your personal fitness, it is a statistical measurement and highly inaccurate for personal use.
There are a lot of diets that 'speed diet' your weight down and don't care about muscle loss, what counts is the result on your scale to make them look efficient.
Safe rates of weight loss are mostly determined by your fat ...
4
It's a tough answer, and it's based around your endocrine system. Your body releases insulin to direct fat cells to increase their storage.
If you do not have an endocrine disorder (such as diabetes), your body will become more insulin sensitive as your body fat drops, therefore you will readily store more fat. The more insulin resistant you are, the less ...
4
If you suppress your calories enough you can enter a "starvation mode", although there are a couple of points I'd make:
From the research, it takes a long time to see long lasting impacts from seriously reduced calories (let's say 1/2 of your maintenance needs). The mid-century Minnesota study ran for about a year. The results from that study are rather ...
4
Honestly a lot of this is down to the individual (e.g. You)
General recommendations tend to lean towards a protein intake of around 0.8 - 1g per lbs of body weight, so if we say you weight 178lbs, then that's a daily protein intake of about 142 - 178g, push that towards the higher end if you're doing heavy weight lifting.
For carbs and fat, I'd start off ...
4
There's a lot of "right" macro values. If anything it's a testament to the flexibility of the human body and what it can handle nutritionally. I'm going to base this discussion around the assumption that you're starting a proper strength training program which is proven to be very effective for fat loss, including compared to aerobic exercise.
I'd start ...
4
I'm a personal trainer who has had a lot of clients use these apps, though not as much these days, so I could be a little out of date.
By far, the issue I, or my clients, ran into is all hell would break loose the moment they would enter their activity level.
The first issue is people way, way overestimate how active they are. For most using these apps, ...
3
First let us start with the goal. Fifteen pounds in three weeks is five pounds per week. One pound is about 3500 calories. Therefore you would need a net deficit of 17,500 per week.
That is not insignificant.
I am all in on setting strong goals, but it reaches a point where it may be too aggressive without proper supervision. If like many reasonably ...
3
Without more detailed information (specifically height and weight), it is impossible to give you a personalized recommendation. If you update your question with these details I can come back and give you a more in-depth and relevant answer.
There are three very important guidelines to keep in mind regarding weight loss.
To achieve weight loss, you need to ...
3
If you take a look at A Biometric Study of Human Basal Metabolism, where Harris and Benedict introduced their formula, you will see one important sentence:
These equations have been tabulated for values of weight from 25.0 to 124.9kgm. [sic], for stature from 151cm to 200cm., and for age from 21 to 70 years, so that the most probable basal metabolism of ...
3
It means the equation isn't perfect, but just an estimation. You happen to have found one case where it fails quite a bit. Of course, it doesn't help that you didn't describe an actual human being (the shortest verified person is 54.6cm, that is 21.5 inches). I don't feel like doing the path, but I'm sure the formula provide reasonable estimations for ...
3
First and foremost, I'd like to remind you that fat and weight are not synonymous, but they are related. It is possible to gain weight and lose fat, but it is also difficult.
I'm missing critical detail about your trainer, such as who he has trained and the effect he has had on those clients. If your trainer is a reputable person who is specifying your ...
3
Food packaging is based on averages it is more or less right sometimes you'll get more calories, sometimes less.
Most of your calories are spent on maintaining your body's functions. (About 3/4 in fact)
You would have to be doing some incredibly hard exercise to lose weight through exercise alone.
The most likely thing is your not tracking your calories ...
3
You're forgetting something VERY important here. As an example, consider this, if someone starts to workout their arms using 20lbs dumbbells (with no previous experience), they will eventually get stronger and the 20lbs will be easier than they were before right? So, now what if that person kept lifting 20lbs even after they got stronger? Do you think they'...
2
If you aren't severally over weight, the rule of thumb is that you should not be running more than a 3500cal/week deficit.
As for day-to-day, I don't think it matters too much, so long your weekly deficit is in the above range. In fact, not being able to fast for 24 hours without problems (getting drowsy, hypoglycemic, ...) is a symptom of inadequate diet. ...
2
I find My Fitness Pal to have everything I need, possibly too many features for some, but most of them can just be ignored quite easily. With an extensive database of foods and the ability to scan packaging bar codes and recall recently logged foods, its pretty quick and easy to use.
It also has a calculator for recommended calorie intake based on weight, ...
2
First and foremost, I am not a dietician, so add 0.2 kcal for a grain of salt.
That being said, there's at least tow different kinds of hungry in my experience: one is the feeling of a physically pretty empty stomach, the other is a low level in the energy supply (blood sugar).
The former will decrease if you eat more (by volume, salad, water, and those ...
2
You are confusing the formulae a bit. The 1.2 is from the Harris Benedict equation IIRC, which already takes into account your activity level. If you are mostly sedentary, then you will multiply by 1.2, to get a daily need of 2640 calories.
At 5'10" and 240, unless you are a seriously competitive bodybuilder, you are probably in the obese to morbidly obese ...
2
The Real Bill touched on some very important points, but I felt the need to add some clarification and supplementary information that simply wouldn't fit in a comment.
Measuring success
You will want to track your body fat as it is the most effective means to measure your fat loss. I use the Navy method which works best for me. With it you only need to ...
2
Your diet needs significantly more protein. Despite what you may think, it won't make you gain body fat. Quite the opposite actually. When body-builders/fitness models are cutting their body fat they tend to increase their protein and fat intake.
For breakfast you should eat regular eggs along with egg whites. It will help with absorption and digestion ...
2
You won't be able to perfectly measure the number of calories you consume every day. Your best bet is use a website, such as MyFitnessPal to get a rough estimate.
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