Eat More, Exercise Less - Wait What?

You read that right - Eat more, exercise less. That's the advice my "Learning Golf Through Games" instructor advised our class. He's a certified dietician with a Ph.D. and everything. So of course, I thought I should blog about this...wouldn't that be the ideal world when all I had to do was just eat, eat, eat and NEVER exercise???

Well - turns out he meant it a little different, but still the overall message goes against ordinary thinking. The average American does not eat enough calories in a day which makes your body go into starvation mode and it stores everything it can as fat. So if you eat 1200 calories to go on a crash diet, you're actually just going to gain weight! The problem is people don't understand their BMR in relation to their workout regimen and daily activity. BMR stands for basal metabolic rate and is calculated for men is 1.0 kcal X 24 hours X wt in kg (1 kg = 2.2 lbs) and for women it's .9 kcal X 24 hours X wt in kg. 

Your BMR is how many calories you need to stay alive if you don't do ANYTHING (like you're awake but just laying down for 24 hours straight never moving). So let's say your BMR is 1227 (for a woman who weighs 125 lbs) then to just stay ALIVE you must eat 1227 calories (it's plus/minus 100). But still...that means you didn't walk, think, exercise, lift anything, shower, get dressed, anything....aka you need to eat more calories - even more than 2,000 calories (I'll pause for the gasp). 

The problem is people don't eat the RIGHT calories. Which goes back to grade school and the Food Guide Pyramid. You must eat fruits/vegetables, meats, calcium, etc. not junk. And you HAVE to eat breakfast to jump start your metabolism. Try eating small meals throughout the day to get more calories but in a healthy way!

And don't think that you should just exercise like a fiend. That goes to the second half - people need to exercise less. Now, that's slightly an exaggeration my professor said. The problem is people only focus on working out to get their activity in. So instead of being active ALL DAY and walking instead of driving, taking the stairs not the elevator, etc we only focus on a 45 minute workout to think because we did that we'll lose weight. 

Ultimately losing weight - and just staying healthy for that matter - is a LIFESTYLE. You must make the right choices all day, every day. I hope this blog changes your mindset on healthy lifestyles - don't count your calories, don't just focus on one intense work out a day. Instead, make sure you eat small meals frequently of HEALTHY food (you know, strawberries, peppers, eggs, bananas, whole grains) and being active whenever you can. 

Just some food for thought :) I'd love to hear any comments!!