Yes, I DID start with 1 and 3

Let's continue.

Now, based on the information from my last post you should have a pretty good idea of how to hit those nutrition goals. SO, let's say that I am 165 pounds, 5'3", male, age 42, and I maintain a lightly strenuous level of activity (completely fictional person I just made up), my BMR will be 1380 and my DCN will be 1898. Obviously, if we are burning 1380 but consuming 1898 we are creating positive caloric intake (more in than out). That's not good. So...

We use the info we just came up with to calculate this number while keeping a couple of other variables in mind:

6. What should I know about caloric intake?

Variable number 1: SUPER IMPORTANT 1200 calories is the absolute bottom daily intake for any adolescent to adult human being. I call this the DANGER ZONE because consistently consuming below this number will put you into what we refer to as DISORDERED. That's anorexic to you kids at home. Anorexia is a very serious behavioral disorder and can be life threatening. Furthermore, it will also interfere with metabolic function and hinder your weight loss as well as cause your body to consume muscle as energy thereby further hindering weight loss as muscle is used to burn fat. There are easier ways to weight loss than starvation.

Variable number 2: Calories are broken into 3 groups: Protein, Fat, Carbohydrate (we will go over these in greater detail later). Nature's prescription for these particular groups are as follows: 15% Protein, <25% Fat, 60% Carbohydrate. Your daily intake should reflect this.

Variable number 3: You MUST offset some of these calories with exercise. This will actually make your life a WHOLE lot easier as well as boost your energy levels, flexibility and will make the entire process a lot faster. Faster is good.

So, in our equation, we have to burn 518 calories a day just to get even although being even is not a whole lot better. What's the best answer here?

2. How many calories SHOULD I consume?
5. How can I calculate my caloric intake?

My recommendation would be at or around 1500 to 1600. Mind you, that's, at the very most, a difference of just over 300 calories. However, at 300 calories out plus 1380 BMR we're looking at 1680 out total. Now we have a difference of 218 positive calories. Everyone, let's go back to variable number 3. Let's do some cardio and get rid of 300 more calories which will get us a total of 82 for the day. This is square 1. Small though that number is, it is still negative and that's what we want (that just sounds weird and not at all right). If we can finish the day like this all the time we will be off to a stellar start. Then we can turn it up and REALLY see some results. If we go the extra mile and burn another hundred calories we can shoot for losing a pound a month (182 calories X 21 days = 3822 calories (over a pound)).

Sound easy? In theory, everything is easy. This, well, this is tough. But we have to make the start somewhere. This is straight up personal training 101 and this is what I live for.

More later...

I also threw in a super cute (only one available) calorie calculator so you don't have to google all the food you eat to get nutrition info. Enjoy.