Friday, February 19, 2010

What is BMR? Liz Fitness Nutrition Program

What the heck is BMR?

BMR stands for basal metabolic rate and it represents the number of calories your body burns at rest. This is the amount of calories per day your body burns, regardless of exercise, to maintain normal body functions. It changes with age, weight, height, gender, diet and exercise habits. This calculation is accurate for everyone but the very muscular and the very overweight. It does not take into consideration your lean body mass (muscle to fat ratio). The Liz Fitness Nutrition Program does take this into consideration. :)

BMR Calculator:

Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )

So the calculation for a 40 year old woman who is 5’5” and weighs 140 lbs would be:

BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x 140 ) + (4.7 x 65 ) – ( 4.7 x 40 ) =

BMR = 655 + 609 + 305.5 – 188 = 1381.50

BMR= 1381.50 (calories burn at rest)

Men: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) - ( 6.8 x age in year )

So the calculation for a 40 year old man, who is 6 foot and weighs 200 lbs would be:

BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x 200) + ( 12.7 x 72 ) - ( 6.8 x 40 )

BMR = 66 + 1246 + 914.4 – 272 =

BMR = 1954.4 (calories you burn at rest)

Use the Harris Benedict Formula to determine you daily caloric needs. Multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity factor, as follows:

  1. Sedentary (little or no exercise) BMR x 1.2
  2. Lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : BMR x 1.375
  3. Moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : BMR x 1.55
  4. Very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : = BMR x 1.725
  5. Extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) = BMR x 1.9

To lose 1 lb of fat you will need a 3500 calorie deficit. So if you want to lose 2 lbs per week, you will need to reduce your daily calories by 1000 per day. This can be done with a proper nutrition program paired with an exercise routine.

Liz Fitness Nutrition for the workout maniac

Here is another scenario that I see:

You are the workout Maniac. You train hard, 5 to 7 days a week, eat very healthy, but still can’t seem to lose that extra 10-20 pounds. You don’t understand it. Your non-workout friends tell you that you’re crazy, but you know you could look better.

With my nutrition program, we will look at your current diet and see where you are going wrong. It is all about nutrient timing. I will calculate your BMR (basal metabolic rate) to see how many calories you should be taking in, and then design a nutrition program that will give you the calories you need to maintain your hard earned muscle, lose the extra fat, and be ripped by summer.

Liz Fitness Nutrition for the daytime dieter/nighttime binger

You decide you are going to start a healthy eating plan, on Monday. The whole weekend you ‘let yourself go’, knowing that you are going to ‘start on Monday’. Monday comes, you do really well for the first part of the day, but you have a horrible headache and you are really sluggish. You stick it out, snacking on your carrot sticks and celery. By the time you get home, you are famished. Even though you know you should make a salad, you decide to have a little bite of your kids mac and cheese. The bite turns into a big bowl. Since you blew it already, you decide to have dessert too. You feel guilty, and decide to start again in the morning. You do great the next day, eating very few calories, are famished by the time you get home, and the same thing happens.

In this scenario, you are starving your body during the day, which slows your metabolism. Then at night, you gorge because you are so hungry, and your body is not using those calories, so you STORE them!! Right on your bootie or your belly. And until you kick this bad habit, you will continue to slow down your metabolism and store the extra calories as fat.

Contact me today to get you started on a your own personal training regimen and proper nutrition program to lose fat, gain muscle, and not starve to death! LizFitness@gmail.com.


Nutrition For the Time Starved!

Are you starved for time? You don’t have the time to make healthy meals, so you just get whatever is quickest for you and your family?

Here is a scenario I hear from the time starved:

You decide you are going to start a healthy eating plan. You do really well for the entire week, and you’re feeling pretty good. The weekend comes, things get hectic, and you don’t have the time to making something healthy, so you get pizza for the family and enjoy several slices. Sunday night is Chinese food. By Monday, your energy is gone, and you begin the same old pattern of work, easy fast food for the family, relaxing on the couch (because you are too tired to do anything else), then bed.

This scenario is a viscous cycle. In short, when you’ve been eating crap, your body has to process it all and filter it. This makes you tired and groggy. Then you don’t have the energy to make healthy meals. So you eat some more, fast, easy crap. Then you sit on the couch and the crap food turns into fat deposits that your body stores for later (on your hips, thighs, and belly). Then you feel like crap, because you’re fat. So you decide to start a diet again. The cycle continues.

This cycle is wreaking havoc on your metabolism. Taking control and learning new habit’s will take just 21 days. With my 4 week diet plan, you will get 16 meals that you can make in advance for your family to enjoy. Yes, you can still have Pizza on the weekend! The Liz Fitness Nutrition healthy eating -program will help you take control of your food so that you will have energy and not feel like a slug at the end of the day.

Nutrition for the Fad-dieter!

Losing weight is tough. Here is one of the scenarios I hear all of the time:

You try a new diet for two weeks, and it works! You lose the weight you want to lose! You're feeling pretty good about yourself, and you let yourself slip a little at the weekend BBQ. It continues through the week, and a couple of weeks from now, your right back to where you started and your jeans are making your butt look big again.

You see other people at the weekend BBQ who seem to be pigging out, but they look great. You wonder why you can’t do that. You think maybe they are just blessed with a high metabolism.

That’s probably not the case. The truth is they have figured out how to turn on their metabolism, so that the occasional weekend pig-out session won't harm them. They don’t do fad diets. In fact, they probably eat all the time.

It’s simple, really. I can help you get started. It takes 21 days to make or break a habit. Let me help you can begin good habits, drop the bad ones, and turn on your metabolism. And soon, you can be one of those annoying ‘lucky ones’ with the fast metabolism.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Quote of the month

Quote of the Month:
"The key to pursuing excellence is to embrace an organic, long term learning process, and not live in a shell of static, safe mediocrity. Usually, growth comes at the expense of previous comfort or safety."
Josh Waitzkin, from his book, "The Art of Learning"