Lose 14 in two weeks!
Here we are again, it’s Tuesday, and I just saw yet another advertisement for some miracle weight loss program that will help you shed 14lbs in two weeks. Ironically, I saw it on my very own site. Yes, I know it makes me a bit of a hypocrite to complain about the ads on 60 in 3. Believe me, I’ve tried contacting Google and ask about a way to exclude some ads. I’ve also considered removing the ads altogether, but this blog does cost a bit to operate. So until I find a way to filter the ads that show up on my site, allow me to educate you about the reality of weight loss.
The Myth
All these programs tell you that they can make you lose multiple lbs in a period of just a few days. The usually claim a loss rate of 5 to 10lbs a week, sometimes more. They don’t really tell you how they’re going to do this but it almost always involves some sort of exercise routine, a diet and a “special” component. The “special” component could be a pill, a treatment, a new way to eat or a new way to exercise. Somehow, these diets always expect you to believe that they’ve discovered the “special” way your body works that no one else has, and through this discovery they can make you shed weight real fast! My response is, total and utter crap!
The Truth
Let’s examine reality for a second. Fat is what you’re looking to lose. You’re not looking to lose muscle, bones or any other valuable organ. No, you want to shed unneeded fat. Well, a lb of fat contains around 3500 calories worth of energy. So in order to remove 1lb of fat, you need to spend 3500 more calories than you consume. If you want to remove 5lbs you will need to get rid of 17,500 calories. With me so far?
Now, the average man needs about 2000 to 2400 calories just to stay alive and the average woman needs about 1800 to 2200. These aren’t calories you use up in exercise, these are calories used to do necessary things like keep your heart beating and your brain thinking. So the average man uses up 14,000 to 16,800 a week while the average woman uses between 12,600 and 15,400 calories a week. Do you see a problem here?
Starvation Diet
Assuming the average man starved himself of all food, he would still lose less than 5lbs. That is, assuming the average man stops eating altogether and somehow still manages to keep his metabolism going, which is pretty unrealistic, he would still only use up 16,800 calories. That’s 4.8 lbs. It’s even worse when you consider the fact that starving yourself like this will only cause your body to spend less calories. Which means you’ll lose even less. In fact, you probably shouldn’t go too far below your average daily calorie needs. You don’t want your body to start shutting down vital things like your kidneys.
Insane Exercise
Ahh, you say, but what about exercise? Can’t we lose lbs that way? Absolutely I say, and again, let’s do some math. At a decent rate of speed on the treadmill, I can lose about 750 calories an hour. So if I wanted to lose those 17,500 calories of fat, I would need to run for 23.3 hours. That’s 3.32 hours a day. Are you going to run for 3.32 hours a day? Can you even run that long every single day? I know I can’t.
Combo Strategy
Well, what about a combination of diet and exercise? Well, let’s take a look. Suppose I cut 1000 calories off my daily diet. This is already bad since I’m now below my basic daily requirements for bodily functions, but let’s just assume that. So now I only need to lose 10,500 more calories to hit my goal of 5lbs in a week. Hey, that’s only 2 hours of running a day! No wait, that’s still impossible.
More Truth
By the way, all the numbers I mentioned above are best case scenarios. For smaller men and most women, who don’t spend as many calories a day on basic activities and who don’t burn as much while working out, your results are going to be even worse. The scenarios above also fail to consider that your body slows down when starved causing you to spend less calories. They also fail to consider that you need some extra calories when you workout a lot to repair the damage.
Sorry, but the truth is that miracle diets never work. You’re much better off going for a more realistic goal of 1 to 2lbs per week. Even that’s hard enough. losing 2lbs in a week means spending 7000 more calories than you ate. In other words, you need to add 10 hours or running, subtract 3.5days worth of food or some kind of combination of the above just to reach that. Believe me, that’s not easy, but it is doable.
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