Now I just learnt something. Have been on Spark People for over a year and this information somehow stayed hidden from me.

***To burn a pound of body fat one needs to create 3500 calories deficit.***

Why nobody told me before??? LOL

That means that if a person needs to eat 2000 calories to maintain his/her weight, in a week they consume 14000 calories. If they want to lose a pound they need to consume 10500 in a week or 1500 a day.

OR

They can eat their 2000 but have to burn 3500 through exercise, which means burning 500 calories a day, which is a hideous amount of exercise. ( for me that would mean running 8km every single day of the week!!!)

OR

They can adjust their diet and eat say 1600 a day (that creates a deficit of 2800) so that leaves them with 700 calories to burn through excercise - like three sessions a week burning about 230-240 each ( Like a Jillian workout for me).

This is actually something new!

I wish it was all so easy though, here the individual levels of activity, resting metabolic rate and different body types come into play.

And some of them ( like mine!) actually slow down metabolism with reduced calories to avoid fat loss. It is the topic of my next blog post.

The moral of the story: I am going to outsmart you, tricksy metabolism. You can hold on to your fat as much as you like. I am going to work so hard to build the muscules under the 'padding' that eventually you will have to let go of your 'stores'.

I am going for a LOOONG walk. You can forget about storing ANYTHING this week. This week I am burning 3500 calories ( mostly through walking!) because last week I did and MWA HA HA 2 pounds off! It is wednesday and I have not excercised today yet, but already burnt a 1000 this week. Walking is my secret weapon. Brace yourself now.

SPARKS WILL FLY!!!!!!!!!!!!