Okay. Finally. It feels like a breakthrough of some kind to have this finally “click” in my head.

I’m going to walk you through how I figured this out, and then maybe you can do the same.

1. Calculate my Basic Metabolic Rate (BMR):

• 655 + (4.3 x weight in lbs.) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)

This is how many calories, at my current weight, that it takes for me to be alive. The base calculation, the bare minimum caloric intake to stay alive at my current weight if I do absolutely nothing but sit and flip the remote. The BMR will decrease as a person loses weight, because it takes less energy for organs to function if a person carries less weight.

My BMR: 1613.40

2. Find out how many calories I burn each day, doing what I do. I design, I paint, I take care of my kids. Most of my work is sedentary, like light office work.

• I looked here: Calorie-count.com and found “light office work” (Activity: Sitting - Light Office Work
  General (Chemistry Lab Work, Light Use Of Hand Tools, Watch Repair or Micro-assembly, Light Assembly/repair), Sitting, Reading, Driving At Work)

• Theres a “calculator” here for a more general number.

Using the calculator, my total burn categorized under “light activity” is 2216. This means that I burn about 603 calories per day working at home.

My Additional Calorie Burn per day: 603

3. Figure out additional calorie burn from exercise. I swim laps for 30 minutes, or treadmill for 3 miles. One or the other, but never both, since I only have an hour to devote to exercise a day. Both average 300 calories burned.

• Get exercise calorie burn here.

My Additional Calorie Burn from exercise each day: 300

4. Total my average calories expended per day:

• 1613.40 + 603 + 300 = 2516.40

This is how many calories I burn a day. I can tell you right now that I was accustomed to eating between 2500 and 3000 calories a day, so that explains the slow and steady gain over the last 9 months. So, with a few more calculations, I can figure out what I want to do with this information.

5. Figure out what would happen on a 1500 calorie diet:

• 2516.40 Calorie Burn Per Day

• -1500.00 Calories In

• 1016.40 Calories Burned & Not replaced

Using this figure, I can determine approximately how long it will take to lose a pound, as long as the calories I eat are fat burning, I am expending energy with exercise, and I am flushing my system with 80+ ounces of water a day. I obviously can’t expect to lose anything if my intake is 1500 calories worth of saturated fats.

• 3500 Calores in a pound of fat

• ÷ 1016 (positive energy burn)

• 4 days to burn 3500 calories, or one pound of fat.

Based on a 1500 calorie diet, according to CalorieKing.com’s Diet Diary program, my calories should be broken down into these components in order to actually expend fat:

• 41.7 g. Fat
  112.5 g. Protein
  169 g. Carbs
  25 g. Fiber

There you have it, my “A-HA” moment. I’m not a nutritionist or dietician by any means, but this makes sense to me.

My success this week has been based on jump-starting my metabolism and getting used to eating small meals frequently. It’s been a major success after 4 days, and I’ll post that menu under recipes for anyone who wants to really seriously alter your taste buds, hunger pains and cravings. It doesn’t even get easier until the 4th day, and it’s recommended for just 6 days.