The 1 Week Diet Download FREE Brian Flatt [PDF] | Page 49

while keeping everything working properly. It does not take your physical activity into account,
and neither will we while on this diet.
These BMR calories that are needed and used by your body every single day of your life can
come from the food you eat, from your own body fat, or through a combination of the two.
Obviously, we want our body to use fat for its energy needs because that’s what makes us thinner.
Getting a 100% accurate BMR requires a trip to the lab, being hooked up to some crazy-looking
gizmos, and running a gas analysis on your body. Luckily for us, science has come up with a
formula to calculate our BMR based on sex, age, height and weight. It’s not going to be 100%
exact, but it will give us a rough estimate that how can we work effectively to shed those extra
pounds.
Most people are told that in order to lose weight, they just need to burn more calories than they
consume. While this sounds the-friendly-opinion, it is faulty because it fails to take our BMR into
account. And that’s why simplistic solutions like ‘eat less and exercise more’ almost always end up
in frustration and diet failure.
Here’s what I mean…
My BMR is approximately 1900, meaning my body is going to burn at least 1900 calories every day
to keep me alive and functioning properly. Now, if I regularly consume more than 1900 calories
each day, the weight is going to creep up on me (it is generally accepted that 3500 calories = one
pound of fat).
So, let’s suppose, I don’t know what BMR is and why it’s important. My total calorie consumption
is 2500 calories. As my BMR is suggesting that my body will burn 1900 calories per day, I’m
still taking extra 600 calories. So, I’ll gain weight pretty steadily. Because that weight has crept
up on me, I decide to go on a diet. On the opinions from the doctors and fitness geeks, I start
implementing the strategy of eating less. I cut down 500 calories a day from my diet. I’m still
consuming 100 more calories than my BMR. Due to this change, I’m not only losing the weight, in
fact, I can also gain the weight (a bit), but, more slowly than I was before.
Now, because I’m not losing weight, I decide to ‘exercise more’ and I start hitting the gym three
days per week. During those exercise sessions, I’m burning about 300 calories per workout (that’s
about average). Since I am now eating 100 calories over my BMR, this regular exercise (300
calories) now puts me 200 calories below my BMR (per exercise day) … and now I’m finally losing
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