Male Weight Loss Now

To lose weight you simply need to eat less calories daily. This video shows you exactly how many calories your body needs and how to calculate the number of calories for weight loss. This video is for male and female alike and gives a precise number of food calories that you need to starting burning belly fat and love handles today.

I just wish that someone had told me how I could lose weight by eating snacks. It is a fact that  if you don’t know what you’re going to eat, you will overeat. It isn’t really a mystery why you’re overweight, is it? Another fact – food creates people. Unless you are made of gravel or ball bearings, you cannot live without food, you will not grow and will die. On the other hand, if you eat, your healthy well prosper. And taking this just a little bit further, the more food, the bigger the male you will become. Weight loss happens when you systematically eat on plan a known amount of food. Period.

What I have found is that when I plan my snacks, there are two important things that are solved that are essential to lose weight. Without these two things you will go astray and end up a little rounder than you like.  In order for a snack to help you lose weight, it must have or be:

1. Known calorie count - when you know what are going to eat, you know exactly how many calories you will ingest. When you command your daily calorie total, your body will begin to take over the controls and will lose weight on your behalf. Be read to count,weigh or measure to pack only a predetermined number of calories with you .

2. Planned snack time – as strange as it might seem, you do need to eat to lose weight. If you don’t eat regularly, your metabolism takes a siesta.  Although your metabolism never really stops (unless you’re dead), it does get lazy when you do not give it fuel. Also when you go hungry all day, you are going to binge and think that it is OK. It isn’t OK. You should eat every 3 to 4 hours to keep your motor running.

Here are ten snacks that I have used that I would suggest you consider:

1. Sliced Vegetables - carrots, zucchini, cucumbers, or anything else. In the early days of losing weight, I would carry a resealable bags of baby carrots with me. Maybe not your first choice for a snack, but you cannot beat vegetables for nutritional value. It surprised me how quickly I got accustomed to eating carrots. The one aspect about is that I can eat more vegetables without worrying about calories, so that I get satisfied by “filling up.”

2. Fruit - apples, oranges, pears, grapes or whatever you like. The advantage of fruit is that there is nothing you need to do to prepare it. You just grab it and take it with you…ok, well you will need to put grapes in a bag of some kind otherwise they will roll around on the car floor.

3. Yogurt - either guys love or hate yogurt. I love it, because I like sweets and yogurt is a good proxy for something sweet that I shouldn’t be eating. There’s a lot of good stuff going on in yogurt. The best thing about yogurt, is there isn’t any preparation required. All you need is a spoon. Or better yet, just shake it and drink it!

4. Raisins – being nothing but dried grapes, I could have included them in the list under fruit above. But, there is one aspect of raisins that I believe deserves special mention. Raisins are really easy to carry around and can go places (like in your pocket) that most other food cannot. They’re nearly indestructible but make sure you count them in advance so that you know how many calories you’re getting. It would be very easy to eat fists of these things with the heel of your hand.

5. Snack Bars – these can range from granola bars (on the lower end of the calorie scale) to energy bars on the high end. Snack bars rank the easiest of snack foods because they are manufactured specifically for the on-the-go eater. This is the first choice of many of my clients for snacks.

6. Hard Boiled Egg - the great thing about a hard boiled egg, is that it is about the nearest thing to being as satisfying as meat. A hard boiled egg is easy to transport, you do not need to worry about breaking it, because you will break it. Carry a little package of salt, if you so desire.

7. Rice Crackers – usually you can find these in the “healthy eating” section of the grocery store. These crackers are sold in a bag and come in plain, cheese, caramel corn flavors and probably more. The brand I buy has about 70 calories for 9 cheese flavored crackers. The good and bad news is that these crackers really taste good. You MUST (I repeat must) separate yourself from the bag, otherwise you will eat the whole thing. Ask me how I know!

8. Nuts – almonds, peanuts, cashews are good choices, but make sure that you know how many calories are in these guys before you take them with you. Remember to count how many you pack. Don’t go hog wild with a big bag.

9. Trail Mix – although intended as a high energy snack for high country people, trail mix is a healthy alternative to binge eating. Although trail mix tends to be very high in calories, all you need to do is read the label, measure it out and put it in a baggie.

10. Pretzels – without the beer.

So, there you have it, 10 snacks. These should give you plenty of reason to make sure that you do not skip meals. Take these snacks with you. You need to realize that these snacks will work for you to lose weight, if you make a habit of eating on cue. Whichever snack you choose, make sure that you have it available for where you are going for the day. Put them in your briefcase, lunch box, or in a bag in the car seat next to you. Better yet, buy snacks that you can keep in the car and do not even have to remember to take with you. Please do not skip meals. You’ll get fat.

Eating out and weight loss are not mutually exclusive. You can eat what you want and still burn belly fat. The biggest perennial failure in losing weight is when you follow hard and fast rules. Because when the male follows hard and fast rules, and then falls off the wagon, he goes into a tail spin. He thinks he will never lose weight because he fucked up. Not true!

You will need to learn to be smart though. I am not trying to tell you that you can go out and eat whatever the hell you want, though. That will not work for you, because if it did, you would not be here reading this piece. Right? In this snippet of wisdom, I am going to give you some ideas about how to be smart about eating, so that you can be, look and feel great.

OK, so what is the big issue here? Let me characterize it for you. The question is: how can I lose weight when I eat out when the restaurant I eat at does not publish nutritional information (specifically calories)? That is the problem. You may abhor watching your calorie intake, but if you want to burn belly fat, love handles and the dreaded “chin meat,” you are going to have to pay attention to what you put in the tank.  Here are some suggestions for you when deciding to eat out:

1. Ask For Calorie Totals – I do this when I go to restaurants. I ask the waitress, manager or owner for the calorie totals for the food that I am eating. If I am regular at that restaurant, you can be sure that they are going to do their best to accommodate. Let these people know what you want. Most of the time, I find that people really want to do their best for you. When you ask them to do something that is of great importance to you, they will often try to find out how to do help you. If you ask, you may well get it. If not, well, you gave it your best shot.

2. Be Selective – decide to eat only at places where you can find the calorie totals for what you will eat. I ate at Panera yesterday with my son, and like clockwork, they had nutritional information and could tell me that my bowl of cream chicken soup with rice was 320 calories and the piece of baguette was 150 calories.

3. The Restaurant “Worst Case” Scenario - this is the case where you are either in a restaurant, bar or someone’s house and they are serving something and you will never be given nutritional information. This is the case when you will need to get even more smart. Here is what I do:

• Use menu to find out the major ingredients – write them down or use your iPhone or other device to record these ingredients
• Look at the food – and estimate what ingredient uses up the most “real estate” of the dish. For instance, if it is a pasta dish, estimate about how much pasta is in there. Write it down Then look at the next most important ingredient, estimate it and write it down. Rinse and repeat…
• If you are with someone – ask them to help you try to figure this out with you, if you feel comfortable. If you are on a date, this might not work, but then again, who knows.
• When you get home – assess calorie amounts to the lists that you made. Health Canada has a great reference resource to find out a vast amount of nutritional information  for some common foods - click here to get your very own copy – Thanks Canada!

Also make sure that you include drinks in your calorie totals. Losing weight does not need be painful, but it does need to get done. As I always say, “you don’t need to like it, but you need to do it.” Lose weight now to save your life, to improve your health and to look God-awful handsome.

Well-intentioned or not, skipping breakfast actually packs on the pounds. Maybe you are just  too busy to eat in the morning or think that you will lose weight if you don’t eat breakfast. It doesn’t matter. Statistics show that if you do not eat breakfast, you are highly likely to get fat (or fatter). If you think you are cutting calories, or dieting by not eating breakfast, think again.

The better news, is that if you eat anything for breakfast, your body will automatically favor fat burn – all day long.

Here are some facts about this:

1. Upon Awakening – when you wake up, you will have already gone without eating for 6 to 8 hours. If you do not eat for another 6 to 8 hours, you will have gone without food for 12 to 16 hours. Your metabolism will have slowed considerably. Slower metabolism, slows your fat burn rate.  Therefore, you are not burning the fat reserves in your body. Most likely, you are not only NOT  losing fat, but gaining belly fat, love handles and chin meat (you know…..the jowls), because of the eating your are doing during the pig-out sessions throughout the uncontrolled eating portion of your day.

2. Statistics Show – research done by the National Weight Control Registry has shown that members that have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off (although the average weight lost per member is 66 pounds), 78% of them eat breakfast everyday. WebMD states that eating early in the day jumps starts the metabolism and keeps you from going into “starvation eating,” which is very uncontrollable.

Here’s What To Do:

Just eat something for breakfast. Something healthy, is preferable but  start by just eating anything – breakfast bar, half of a bagel or tortilla smeared with peanut butter.  What you want from a good breakfast is carbohydrates, fiber and protein.

You might be surprised to hear that carbohydrates are important. Carbohydrates are sort of the kick-start of the metabolic system in the morning. Carbohydrates gets the fat burning machinery running hot. But you want to eat the carbohydrates that include fiber. Why? Because: 1) fiber fills you up and makes you satisfied and 2) excellent for the exhaust system. Protein is necessary because it essentially, “sticks to your ribs,” and acts like “time release” calories in your system.  These calories do not get burned as fast a carbohydrate calories.

Here is the breakfast I eat on most weekdays.

• 1-1/2 Cups Bran Flakes
• 1 Cup 2% Milk
• 2 Tablespoon Flax seed
• 2 Tablespoon Wheat Germ

Why do I eat the flax seed and wheat germ? I have experienced higher cholosterol levels and flax seed has been shown to lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol (the bad kind). Wheat germ is the reproductive part (oooh, sexy) of the wheat plant. When you get refined wheat products (bread, cereal, etc), these naughty bits are taken out (who knows why?).  Wheat germ has a lot of vitamin E, zinc, and loaded with fiber. Oh, and I drink 2 – 12 ounce glasses of water before I eat anything.

Here are a few simple breakfast meal ideas that you can eat quickly.

Other Good Breakfast Choices:

Oatmeal – skip the sugar and put fruit on it instead

Hard boiled egg

Yogurt

Stay away from fruit juices and stick to whole fruit because fruit juice sometimes does not contain the fiber you need.

So, Here’s a crazy thought…..eat and lose weight.

In the last 32 years, I’ve worked hard to lose weight, only to learn early this year that weight loss isn’t really about exercise at all. Seriously, I’ve jogged literally thousand of miles and sweated on gleaming exercise equipment on 5 separate continents. I thought all of this time, that exercise was the disposal system for my calorie extravagances. The answer is, I was wrong. The male belief that we need to “burn off” excess calories to drop the belly fat, is absolutely wrong.

Sure, you’re going to burn some calories and some fat while you exercise. No doubt about it. But weight loss (specifically, fat loss) is going to happen for the most part when you aren’t exercising. Your body’s going to do it on its own without your direct involvement.

Yesterday the New York Times published an article that confirms what I know is the real truth about weight loss. A quote from this article states it all, “In general, exercise by itself is pretty useless for weight loss.” There are a lot of reasons for this. Among them are:

1. You may end up consuming more calories when your exercise. If you feel (either psychologically, physiologically or otherwise)  you need to eat more or drink energy or protein drinks because of your new exercise regime, you are adding weight
2. Your body wants to maintain its current situation. Its hormones and processes will adjust themselves to keep things as they are. Specifically your appetite may be adjusted by hormones in your system, to keep your appetite at its current level.
3. Only moderate exercise is needed by the body.

But strength training is a great way to keep weight off once you do lose weight. Your metabolism rate (number of calories your body burns per day) is effected by your lean body mass. Lean body mass is your body weight minus all the fat. The higher your lean body mass, the more likely you will burn more calories simply by doing nothing. So, you always want to do exercises that build your muscle mass. Muscle mass is like a big flywheel that burns calories on your behalf. But just remember, do not expect an immediate calorie burn from strength training. This simply is not going to happen.

Unless your body has less fuel than it needs, your body will maintain “business as usual.” Plain and simple – You need to put your body in a calorie deficit. You need to consume less calories than your body needs every day. It must be a habit.

All these years, the reason I stayed in pretty good shape was because of the eating habits that I adopted many years ago – balance and moderation. It was not about exercise at all. Luckily I know now that the answer is really about eating less calories than I need per day.

Weight loss is eating less food than you need. It is that simple. Don’t make it complicated. You may think you need to work out hard at the gymn, lifting more weights, doing more crunches, and more pain and more sweat. That is the male mindset. We think that doing more work is the only way to lose weight. This is the fat loss formula.

You and I are are not wired to naturally think that eating the right amounts will really amount to losing weight. It really is not our fault.  I am not saying that you should not exercise. I am saying that exercise is in a supporting role in losing belly fat. Eating right is the main act.

Don’t Like Laws?

I am living proof that this works. If you eat less than your body needs, you have to lose weight. It is a LAW. It is the only LAW about weight loss. Ask me how I know……

Nearly one month ago, I got serious about losing the gut. I lost more than 10 pounds after changing what I eat.  I had been lifting weights and running my whole life. I always stayed very fit.  Here is a short story that proves my point.

About two years ago, all of a sudden, I gained 25 pounds. I thought at the time that I had been given defective advice from a chiropractor. I decided to try out a chiropractor to get adjusted and keep my posture in check. Nothing serious.

I was told by my chiro-professional that I should use the fitness ball to do sit-ups or crunches (whatever you like to call them). Over a period of weeks, my belly grew. I thought that my belly grew because I had put on too much “muscle.”

The fact was that my eating had gotten out of hand. I was dating a woman that is till the most sleek and svelte figure of any woman I had ever dated. She seemed to eat without concern for her shape. I thought, well, if that is good enough for her, that is good enough for me.

We ended up eating huge late night snacks (wine, cheese, bread, cookies) when we got home. I never had to think about eating right. This period of time coincided exactly with the time that I had started doing the new fitness ball exercises. So I naturally blamed the exercise, rather than the food.

So about one month ago, I got really tired of the gut. I kept my workout routine that I have been doing for years. But instead of following my instinct of cranking up the workout routine, I decided to count up everything that I ate. I was stunned to see all of the calories that I was eating in one day.

Suddenly I decided to start cutting out stuff that really was not even that enjoyable (extra pieces of cheese, a beer here and there, etc.). Pretty soon after a week or two, I had shaved my eating program down to fighting size. The fact is that I do need to watch what I eat. This last month, I changed my weekday diet to the following:

Breakfast

1-1/2 Cups Bran Flakes

1/2 Cup Milk

2 Glass Water

Coffee w/ 2% milk

Lunch

Carrots – one fistful

2 Oranges

Dinner

Spinach Salad with eggs, green onions, blue cheese dressing

1 Orange

2 Glass Water

Why does this menu succeed in helping get rid of the belly fat? It does one thing and one thing only (sounding like Brad Pitt from “Inglorious Basterds”) – it puts my body in a calorie deficit.  What’s so good about that? My body will start cutting into fat reserves if it needs more energy. The body uses fat and I lose my gut. Compare this program to what I was eating a month ago.

The above menu consists of 1,414 calories and that is less calories than I will burn in one day. That means, the body starts using the stored fat if it needs more.  So, I let my body lose its own fat, rather than me trying to sweat it off at the gym.

So, long story short…….on February 8, 2010,  I weighed 220 pounds. Yesterday my weight was 209 pounds. Need I say more? Note to self:  following LAWS gets results.

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Over the last week, I have had my eyes opened as to how much I really eat. It’s not that I eat huge meals or overindulge in sweets, alcohol or fast food (at least not regularly – meaning not weekly). I have a couple of personal male weight loss stories from earlier points in my life, but this time, it is a little bit different. This time, it is a matter of my age asking me to eat less food.   The first two articles in this series were exactly what I learned from just simply listing what I ate this week- as best I can remember. This article is about looking at the numbers a little closer.

Since this whole weight gain thing has really gotten my attention, I decided to pay a lot of attention to each specific thing I eat. I mean down to the smallest detail  – pat of butter, a splash of half & half in my coffee, and whether I had one or two beers last night.

Remember, at this point, we are not talking about changing anything. We are just watching what I eat. Don’t change anything about yourselves yet!  That comes later. I know you’ll want to make changes based on what you read here. But try to resist the temptation. I HAVE made some changes. I can make changes, because I already have my weight management program in play. You don’t,  So don’t start it yet. Not today at least.  I have good reasons for telling you this. Keep reading.

I have seen a couple pounds come off, in a few days. In addition to giving you the real truth about how this works for me, I am also going to give you the layout of the chart I use to add up my calories. Sound too simple? It is.

OK, so here goes…..

Let me make one confession. I have never counted calories in my whole life. I never had to. Although I had a couple spells where I got chubby – in college (from eating too much dorm food) and after my 3 sons were born, I still never counted calories! I thought that that was very middle- aged-woman-ish.  Ooops, OK there I said it.  So this whole thing I am doing this week, is something I thought I would never have to resort too.  Today, I am OK with it.  I realize now that this is going to be a simple math game….I just need to eat less calories than I use.

Here is an excerpt from the last 5 days including my meal from this evening.  Alright, so it’s Saturday evening and I’m counting calories, so what.

A couple of notes to make before I go further. As I mentioned earlier in this column, I had arthroscopic surgery on my left knee, in the early autumn of 2009,  after a lifetime of jogging. However on Sunday night this week,  I was celebrating my sister’s birthday at her house, and, my brother-in-law and I (acting like knuckleheads), were rocking-out in the living room and I wrenched my knee. So, no exercising for me this week….no walking, at least. This means, that I have spent the last week in a sort of a “sedentary state” (meaning…… bump on a log). That means I am probably only using about 2,000 calories per day.  My observations from this:

1. The fat loss formula says that I am over consuming calories – more than my 2,000 calories usage. On a daily basis, I may add.
2. Notice how “little things” can add a lot of calories:

• • Half and Half – 20 calories per “splash” in my coffee – OUCH! I thought this stuff was calorie-free!
  • 1 Slice of provolone cheese – 200 calories. I used to consume these by the sheet!
  • Clam chowder in a bread bowl (at Panera cafe) is a delicacy. Unfortunately it is 890 freakin’ calories! That is probably enough to run your lawn mower for an hour (just kidding).

Don’t change anything you eat yet. Look at just the few things that I am changing. I have already managed a couple pounds even though I was not very active. You can do it too.

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Let me guess. Weight loss is on your mind all of the time. Because of your weight condition, you are constantly aware that you are probably eating too much or the wrong type of foods, right? It is a never ending reminder.

In the first article in this series I talked about how much you are eating now. In this article, I am going to talk about how many food calories you actually need.

As you might guess, the amount of food that you need is based on both calories and nutritional content. In this article, I am only going to be talking about calorie content. For today, let’s just forget about the idea that you need a well-balanced diet. We all already know that we need to eat the right amounts of all different kinds of foods. Let’s take this one thing at a time. This article is about calories only.

You can also imagine that the number of calories that you need is determined by how active you are. If you do nothing but watch TV and go to work everyday, you are not going to need as many calories as someone that is also running 4 miles and lifting a set of weights everyday.

Below is a table that shows the minimum food intake (quantity of food in calories) for people of each of three particular activity levels. Here is a quick explanation of the three activity levels:

• Sedentary - lifestyle that includes only the light physical activity associated with typical day to day life.
• Moderately active - lifestyle that includes physical activity equivalent to walking about 1.5 to 3 miles per day at 3 to 4 miles per hour, in addition to the light physical activity associated with typical day to day life.
• Active - lifestyle that includes physical activity equivalent to walking more than 3 miles per day at 3 to 4 miles per hour, in addition to the light physical activity associated with typical day to day life.

The numbers in the table are estimated amounts of calories needed to maintain energy balance for various gender and age groups at three different levels of physical activity. By the way, energy balance means using all the calories you ingest in daily activity (or inactivity). The estimates are rounded to the nearest 200 calories and were determined using the Institute of Medicine equation.

Male Calorie Requirements by Activity Level

Age	Sedentary	Moderately Active	Active
4 - 8	1400	1400 - 1800	1,600–2,000
9 - 13	1800	1,800–2,200	2,000–2,600
14 - 18	2200	2,400–2,800	2,800–3,200
19 - 30	2400	2,600–2,800	3,000
31 - 50	2200	2,400–2,600	2,800–3,000
50+	2000	2,200–2,400	2,400–2,800

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2005. 6th Edition, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, January 2005

So you may ask, so what? For many years, I could care less if someone gave me the above information. The difference is that this time, YOU have a weight problem. You need to estimate how much you are eating on a daily basis and find out how it compares with the above.

In the last article of this series, I figured out that on a daily basis, that I ate about 1,866 calories per day. Looking at the table above, a guy my age (53) and level of activity (moderate) I should only be consuming 2,200 calories per day. So, in my daily program, I should be experiencing weight loss because I am using 234 more calories than I eat.

So what is the problem? Well the problem is that I did not include all of the truth of my daily diet. I forgot to include the extra slices of cheese and ham on my sandwich, frito’s, and the occasional sweets.

OK, so let’s say that the real extra stuff I eat on a daily basis are:

Extra Stuff Frank Eats - Weekdays

Food Item	Calories
Extra slice of provolone cheese	200
Extra slide of ham	50
1 Bag of tortilla chips	234
2 Cookies (store bought)	100
Total	584

So, NOW, I have a better idea of what I am REALLY eating. It happens this way. Often times, you do not count all of the things you actually eat. Now my Fat Formula comes out a bit differently. Apparently I am eating 350 more calories than I am using 5 times per week. Now this is getting really interesting.  Don’t you think?

I know you are very serious about losing weight. If so, you need to do the math. Only when you know the facts, YOUR FACTS, can you know what to do next. Remember, at this point, you are not talking about changing anything……. either eating or activity. But you need to figure out how many calories going through your belly every day.

When you get your calorie numbers together, the whole story begins to take real shape. Stick with me, but do not make any changes in your life yet. Come back for article #3 – Calorie Quality.

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