Professor Von Drake Explains

Hallo und Willkommen. Meine Güte ist es ein langer Zeitpunkt da unser letzter Besuch gewesen. Es ist so wundervoll, Sie wieder zu sehen. Warum betrachten Sie mich so lustig? Oh mein vergaß ich, dass ich auf Deutsch sprach. Erlauben Sie mir, auf englisch zu wiederholen.

Hello and welcome. My goodness it has been such a long time since our last visit. It is so wonderful to see you again. Why are you looking at me so funny? Oh my I forgot I was speaking in German. Allow me to repeat in English.

I’ve just returned from a wundervoll octoberfest celebration. And now with the mass consumption of liquid bread behind me it’s time to get back into the class room and teach you kids a few things. Things such as how you should not drink your calories. Believe me I’ll be paying for it for some time to come. Oh boy will I ever, but where was I? Oh yes calories.


Your body requires energy to keep it running. This energy is defined in calories. Everyday your body burns calories and the food and drinks we consume replace those calories. It goes without saying that some things we consume are healthier than others but for the purpose of today’s lecture we are looking at a calorie simply as that, a calorie.


How your body burns off calories affects your weight. A person who burns and consumes the same number of calories each day will maintain their existing weight. If your calorie intake is greater than you burn off you will gain weight. If you burn more calories than you ingest then you will lose weight. Pretty simple stuff huh? Well it’s a little trickier than that. If your calories are too low your body’s metabolism will slow down. This can make losing weight very frustrating.


Weight loss requires a few things. The first thing you must know is how many calories does your body burn in a typical day. There is no flat answer to cover everyone. Your calorie burn is determined by age, height, weight, and activity level. Now there are very scientific formulas for figuring all this out but thankfully in today’s age of computing technology we can simply visit a web page such as the one listed here. http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/


Once you go the link above simply input your data and your personalized Basal Metabolic Rate will appear in the green box. Take your BMR number and multiply it by the factor below that best represents your current activity level.


1. If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2


2. If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375


3. If you are moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55


4. If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725


5. If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9


And Vwalla just like that you now have your daily calorie need to maintain your current weight. Subtract 500 from that number to lose 1 pound per week or subtract 1000 to lose 2 pounds per week. As your activity levels and weight change you’ll want revisit this formula and adjust accordingly.


Before we close today’s lesson let’s use our friend Jeff W as an example. Over the past several weeks he has been using these numbers along with the myfitnessparter app for ipod.


At 5’10’’ and age 45 Jeff started at 244lbs with a BMR rating of 2169 that was multiplied against a light activity factor of 1.375 giving him a daily need of 2983 calories to maintain weight. By keeping track of, and balancing, exercise and food consumption he has been successful in eliminating 1000 calories per day for an average daily total of 1983 calories.


This morning Jeff weighed in at 229lbs giving him a new BMR rating of 2076 which when multiplied against a light activity factor of 1.375 gives him a new daily need of 2854 calories to maintain weight. Jeff plans to continue eliminating 1000 calories per day so his new daily target is 1854 calories.


Jeff’s goal weight is 190lbs. At that point his BMR rating will be 1833. Multiply that against a light activity factor of 1.375 and he will have a daily allowance of 2520 calories to maintain weight.

That concludes today's lesson and now here is a brief update from Jeff.

Hey just need to update as it has been awhile since I posted anything relavent to training. Since the end of August I have steadily been losing weight and increasing my mileage. My heaviest this year was 252 and for many months I kept recycling eight pounds of that. In August I discovered a couple different ipod calorie apps which I am always updating. Using an app has been a huge help for me. Since using the app and bumping up my exercise I've gone from 244lb to 229lbs. My goal is to be near or below 210 in January.

On the running front (yes I said running!) I am currently up to jogging continuous 8 milers. I can fell a little fade toward the end of those runs but each one gets a little stronger. Pace on the 8 milers has been averaging in the 11:20s. On Oct 16th is the IMT Half Marathon and I will be running in it. I do have some concerns about how to best approach this. (Being that I'm jumping 5 miles out from where I've trained at) Right now my plan is to use the virtual partner on my Garmin and to stay ahead of a 12:00 pace. I ran this course back in 2009 so it does help that I an familiar with it. In fact this weekend I may go down and jog a portion of it.