Why My Dad Is Loving My ‘Mathematical Eating’ Approach To Weight Loss – (He Lost 11lbs In 3 Weeks)

Finally got my DEXA scan tomorrow! Been meaning to book it for ages to get an accurate bodyfat percentage reading for a while (the DEXA scan), but my goal this year is to get back down to 10-12% bodyfat after piling on the lbs in December and early January when family came over.

Just like with any goal, you need to decide how you will measure it on an ongoing basis. For me this year, it’s the DEXA scan as the official measurement. I do have callipers at home to give me an idea, but the DEXA is the official with tomorrow’s scan being the benchmark or starting point if you like.

I have been eating and training for a couple weeks now though and took off some fat compared to the start of Jan, but this is still the official starting point.

I’ll report the results tomorrow but in this post I’ll share how I’m going about burning fat and getting down to 10-12%. This is the same method I got my Dad on at the start of the year that he now LOVES and is experiencing great success with and I’ll share my killer spreadsheet tracker with you at the end of this post.

It’s all in the math but the running total is where the magic happens (and the part most don’t tell you)

This needs saying first:

“If you say something along the lines of “Oh I can’t be bothered with all that, I just want to lose weight“, then you don’t want it badly enough. Be honest, you know that’s true and you might as well stop reading now and go enjoy yourself and stop worrying about it. To the rest of you who really do want to make a change… read on.”

It’s probably best if I start with an example (these numbers are made up and apply to nobody in particular – just showing you the math):

• Current weight = 250lbs
• Current bodyfat percentage = 30%
  • This means about 75lbs of that 250lbs bodyweight is pure fat
• Target = 15% bodyfat
  • This means lose 38lbs of pure fat weight (let’s round it up to 40lbs for simplicity)

• 3,500 calories = 1lb of fat
• To lose 40lbs of pure fat means you need to create a calorie deficit of 140,000
  • 40 * 3500 = 140,000
• If every day, you eat 500 calories less than what is required to maintain your current state, over the course of 7 days you will have lost 1lb of fat
  • So in 40 weeks you will have hit your goal!
    • 140,000 / 3500 per week = 40 weeks
  • If you run a 700 calorie deficit you will hit your goal in 28 weeks
    • 140000 / 700 calories = 200 days. 7 days in a week so 200 / 7 = 28 weeks

How do you know if you are 500 calories under your maintenance amount? You need to know your metabolic rate. If you don’t want a DEXA scan or any other scan for that matter, you can use an online calculator to get an idea, such as this one.

This tells you how many calories your body needs to maintain itself if all you did was lie in bed all day. So all you do is take 500-700 off that number and you have your -500 to -700 calorie deficit.

So if your maintenance calorie need (known as basal metabolic rate) is 2000 and you eat 1500 then you have achieved a 500 deficit for that day. Do that 7 days in a row and you are -3500 for the week or 1lb of pure fat! Woohoo!

Two VERY important things to know before you start

• Your tracking is VERY important.
  • If you are careless with this it won’t work as you need to be accurate. Check the weight or serving size and make sure the numbers logged match the packet.
• Protein
  • You need to eat enough protein otherwise you could lose muscle and if you lose muscle, your metabolism will slow down (meaning your maintenance calories will drop). Weight training will further help with this while helping to build and shape your muscles.
  • I personally aim for 40% of my calories coming from protein and the MyFitnessPal enables you to set this so you don’t have to do any more math!  😛
• The daily calorie deficit you are aiming for needs to be NET calories
  • So if your maintenance calories are 2000 meaning your daily deficit is 1500 (NET), then if you go to the gym and burn 500 calories and walk 200 calories off (as per your Pacer app) then you can eat 2700 calories and still have a deficit of 500 for the day.
    • Yep… screw the fitness benefits, exercise allows you to eat more! *joke – kind of*

What we are using to keep track

Food and exercise = MyFitnessPal all the way. It tries to be clever though in doing some weird projected calories based on your activity so I just turned it off and use Pacer to track my steps and add it in to MyFitnessPal so I know it is accurate.

Running total (this is CRUCIAL) = my sheet. I store it in Google Sheets not Excel so I can access it from anywhere, even my mobile.

>>GET THE MATHEMATICAL GOOGLE TRACKER SHEET HERE<<<

Let’s be realistic for a second

If you are like most of us, you will not smash a nice, calorie deficit of 500-700 per day, every day for the target weeks.

Most of us like to get that takeaway at weekend and crack that bottle of wine and you know what… totally fine! Yep, you don’t need to go without. Just make sure your numbers stack up and you get your running total back on track for the week.

Here’s how I do it.

I allow myself to go ‘over’ by 1500 calories at weekend. So that’s a surplus of 1500 calories over and above my maintenance or basal metabolic rate. This is usually on a Saturday but it can be spread over the weekend sometimes.

I try to plan it early so I can try and earn some more calories in the day to lesson the damage (or enable me to eat more!). This means I might go for a long early walk or do some extra cardio.

Then on Monday I tend to increase the deficit that day and go for about -1200 to undo the weekend before going back to normal on Tuesday.

Works for me and now it works for my old man too. He’s LOVING the flexibility it gives him while easily being able to track progress at any given time just by looking at the numbers.

Now I’m sharing it in the hope it changes your life too.

P.S I know all you fitness pros have known about this for ages but the average person doesn’t and this is who the post is clearly aimed at so please bear this in mind.