Well, I weighed myself today, although tomorrow is my actual weigh-in day, and I have lost a total of 25 pounds. Its gone away, far far away! I couldn't be more thrilled. This swimming thing certainly seems to be paying off big time! Just for the math geeks: I have lost 7.94% of my original body weight. So, I am slowly creeping toward being a B student in weight loss!!
I have been swimming four days in a row now and each time have swum a little longer. I ended up doing about 2 hours and fifteen minutes today. Burned approximately 1800 calories. I have decided to take the lowest estimate of calorie burn I could find out there on the web. Although, I am tempted to get a heart rate monitor and see exactly how many calories I do burn. I am not sure if there is one designed specifically for swimming but if there is I will find it.
So just to give an idea of what I have been doing to lose this weight.
1) You have to know your basal metabolic rate or BMR. This is essentially how many calories you would burn just to stay alive if you were lying in bed all day. Mine is currently 2530 based on my height and weight.
2) Secondly, you have to set a calorie consumption limit for yourself that is below your BMR. Mine is currently 1580 calories. Now, it is important to make healthy choices in regards to what you eat. Low fat and low sugar is excellent. There are also many people who proselytize the low sodium diet as king. I am not sure about this since I drink plenty of water, go over my suggested limit alot and am still dropping the LB's.
3) This brings me to my next point. Water, you have to drink water everyday. Eight 8 oz. glasses at least. More if you exercise.
4) I guess I have to say that exercise is truly the key here. You don't even have to do a whole lot of exercise to make it work. 30 minutes a day 5 days a week should cut it. The more you exercise the more it works.
5) Now here is where the magic happens. If I have a BMR of 2530 and I eat 1580 calories then I have burned a total of 950 calories doing nothing. Then if I exercise I burn even more. So today I burned 1820 calories swimming which leaves me at a calorie deficit of 2770 burned today.
Three important notes: You cannot let your body starve. If you do not eat enough calories then your body will go into what they call starvation mode. This means everything you eat that your body doesn't use to stay alive will try to turn into fat. The reason is because it thinks it is starving and doesn't know when you will get to eat again so it stores energy as fat. You have to eat to lose weight. Secondly, none of the numbers here are exact. You and I could be the same height and weight and still might have different BMR's. Also, metabolism is different for everyone. Calorie burn is different depending on the person as well. So all of these numbers are only estimates. However, it is better to have some numbers to work with than not at all. Finally, never eat below 1200 calories a day as this will automatically send you into starvation mode. It just isn't healthy and frankly its stupid.
Oh yeah and one more thing, I am not an expert on weight loss. This is just what has worked for me and I figured I would share.
Remember that tomorrow is a new day and a new beginning. Take it one day at a time and don't give up on whatever your goal may be.
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http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/sarahbear1981
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