Search Australia updated to easily provide Calorie content of food.

A common search we're carrying out at the moment is the energy content of different food. Yes, we're dieting, so it does help if you can work out quickly the energy content of different food. For example, how many kilojoules are there in an apple?

Interestingly Google provides this information. The information returned is in Calories, but multiplying by four (actual conversion is to multiple by 4.2) is fairly easy and gives an approximation of the energy in kilojoules. (Note the use of the upper case in Calories. I've explained this below.)

I decided to make it even easier for myself and those using Search Australia. If you now enter the letter 'c' followed by a space and then the food item, you'll get the Calories for the food. There is a selection option which enables you to vary the size of the food item.

So now if you want to know the energy content of an apple, just enter 'c apple' in Search Australia and there's your answer.


Kelvin Eldridge
Online Connections
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PS. When referring to energy content in kilojoules is easy. However, the terms calorie and Calorie are frequently interchanged and can cause some confusion. Calorie with a capital is 1000 calories. If the number you're expecting to see is out by a factor of a thousand then this is the reason. The energy content of food is often shown in Calories and kilojoules. If you see the energy content shown as calories, chances are it is an error and the word calories should have been capitalised. When we write about the energy content of food is it OK to use the word calorie, but do keep in mind when we are using the measurement of the amount of energy in a food item, we are usually referring to the Calorie value in capital 'c', because it is a more convenient smaller number. That is 1 Calorie equals 1000 calories. 1 Calories equals 4.2 kilojoules. 1 calorie equals 4.2 joules. 1 Calorie is also known as a kilocalorie.

Before and after photo shots. How they make those people look good almost instantly.

I thought I'd share the following two stories I read in the media. I've always seen those before and after shots and said 'yeah, right'. You know those things you say when you see such pictures. Not the same person. Definitely didn't use the product, etc., etc. But I really didn't expect that a few simple techniques could be used to make a person look so much worse and then so much better in a matter of minutes. It does of course make sense because a good photographer can take many pictures with many being average and a few gems worth framing.

The first article shows three people who simply change their appearance with no exercise, dieting, using photoshop, or fake tan. The results are impressive.

The truth about those 'before' and 'after' photos... Read More

The second is a personal trainer who shares how she set up a before and after photo shot.

Personal trainer exposes the 'hidden truths' behind before and after photos... Read More

There is absolutely no maths involved in these apparent staggering changes shown in the before and after shots. One could however say there are some very 'calculating' people out there who would like to have you believe things which simply aren't true;-)

Over time we all pick up a few photo tips to help us look better. The illusion created here really starts with a person with a good physique and then creates an illusion using a poor body pose, clothing and camera angle. If only it was so easy to go the opposite way for the rest of us.

What is interesting is that both articles promote that real transformation takes time. There really aren't quick fixes and once you understand the maths behind weight loss it is very easy to see why. Once you understand the maths behind weight loss you'll also no longer be susceptible to those promoting illusionary quick transformations simply to make a quick buck on the back of hard working but gullible people, which is a bit sad really.

Kelvin Eldridge

It takes less energy to convert fat you eat to stored fat than it does to convert other food.

I recently had a discussion with a friend who had watched a show on either the ABC or SBS. The documentary I was told, said it takes more energy to convert fat than sugar, so sugar is more of a problem than fat.

From what I've read this is not the case. The body is able to more easily convert fat to stored fat than sugar. From what I've read it takes around a tenth of the energy to convert fat to stored fat then sugar and other foods. Thus to me more energy is used from the food you eat that isn't fat and thus there is less energy that can be stored as fat.

According to the article for each 100 calories of fat it takes just 2.5 calories of energy to convert fat you eat to stored fat. Whereas it takes 23 calories of energy to convert glucose floating around in your bloodstream to stored fat. Sugar is converted to glucose as are carbohydrates. Thus the body uses around a tenth of the energy to store consumed fat to stored fat than it does glucose from sugar and other foods.

I can't say the ABC or SBS documentary was necessarily wrong because often what we hear we can interpret incorrectly. But I would suggest no matter whether you hear information from a commercial station or public station that you consider researching the information for confirmation. I hear so much misinformation the only way to know if the information is correct is to do your own independent research. I tend to trust .gov and .edu sites more than commercial domains, but I've also seen information on edu sites which could be much better. Simply gather information from a range of sites until you feel there is a consistent message. I saw one site which was reportedly by a doctor which was contrary to every other site I had read. When I then checked what the site was about I could see the site because of their agenda appeared to be deliberately promoting information to support their point of view, which wasn't backed by any other sites or research. Those sites become obvious sites you can dismiss. Many commercial sites have little desire other than to sell you something mixing half truths with good information only to promote their product.

From what I've learnt the main thing to consider is the energy content of the food it you wish to lose weight. Fat is more energy dense then non fat foods but this will be taken into account with the energy content of the food.

Knowing the body can convert fat nearly ten times more easily into stored fat than other foods is interesting. To put this into context consider what proportion of your daily intake is fat as compare to non-fat food. According to this article from the Heart Foundation , it is recommended that energy from the daily energy requirement be limited to around 20 to 35% and around 7% from saturated and trans fat. That means you shouldn't aim to eliminate fat, but to keep the fat intake at a reasonable level and of the fats known to be better for you.

This blog is about the maths behind weight loss and I don't claim any medical or nutritional focus. In essence, the higher your fat consumption the less energy the body uses to convert the excess fat to stored fat. If your body is receiving sufficient energy the excess fat you consume could potentially be stored as body fat more easily.

Now as I was writing this article a thought occurred to me. Perhaps there is some merit in what my friend was saying. Until now I've only read about the energy required to convert consumed fat or other foods into stored fat. But that is only half the story. If you eat fat and it is stored, to use the energy in that fat, it needs to be converted to glucose by the liver at a later time when needed and that would require energy. How much energy this requires I've not ascertained.

In keeping with Weight Loss Maths strategy you should focus your efforts where you get the greatest return for your efforts. One article I read indicates the energy required in converting excess energy to fat only amounts to around 5 per cent of your daily intake. To put that in context about the same as a chocolate biscuit. Whilst the complex processes in the body are interesting, when it comes to weight loss it is important to keep your focus on efforts which give you the best weight loss return. Not having a single biscuit a day is much easier than trying to work out the complex relationships in the chemical reactions occurring in the body.

A low energy diet will result in your losing weight. Reducing the energy which comes from undesirable fats could assist, but the difference won't be that great.

All we can however do easily is to ensure we keep our fat intake at the appropriate level and also consume the appropriate level of saturated and trans fat.

Kelvin Eldridge

 

I had a really big weekend where I partied, ate lots of food and had a few drinks. What should I do?

Be happy you enjoyed yourself. Life is too short to be too worried about breaking your diet. Just get back onto the diet and you'll find the effect of the excess food and drink won't hang around for very long.

What I found is if you do break your diet by having a night out, your weight does increase. I put some of this down to increased liquid, waste food in the intestines and some weight gain due to excess energy intake being converted to fat.

Liquid will pass through your body fairly quickly, but keep in mind waste in your intestines can take two to three days to pass through. All you then need to be concerned about is the energy converted to fat and chances are it wasn't really that much after all. In fact if you party on the Saturday and get back onto the diet, then by around Wednesday of the following week you'd generally find you're close to the weight you were before that great weekend.

There is a small chance you may still end up weighing less at the end of the week, but I wouldn't be concerned if you didn't.

The way I think about it is if I splurge, then the dieting for the week will counter the effect of the splurge. In effect it takes about a week after a splurge to get back to where you were.

That in itself is a good lesson. If you think about it, splurging once a week really means that week is written off in terms of losing weight but you still had to diet for the rest of the week. Not a great outcome really.

So where possible try not to splurge and you'll find the weight continues to come off. If you do splurge, just consider dieting for the week balances the splurge.

The difficult times tend to be Christmas and Easter where we can continue to eat treats over an extended period of time. It is very easy over the Christmas period to put on quite a few kilograms and it takes quite a lot of hard work to get that weight off. Watch those periods where those less nutritious food (OK, junk food) are available in plenty for an extended period of time.

Don't beat yourself over having a good time. Life is for living and you can't stop living just because you're dieting, but do try to keep those moments of excess to a minimum.

Recently it was my birthday and we went out as a family for a lovely meal and show. Followed with another day with relatives and other activities and I'd put on nearly a kilogram. Having also lost focus on dieting I tended to nibble a little more than desired. (OK, more like a binge on M&M's.) However, I largely kept to the diet and by the end of the week I was back to close to the weight I'd achieved the week before. When you fall off the horse don't worry. The horse will still be there. Just get back on when you're ready.

Kelvin Eldridge 

Why losing weight through exercise alone may never work for you.

When most of us think about losing weight we first think about making ourselves more active. We've put on weight and as our weight continues to climb we think the way to lose weight is to exercise. Visit a gym for a new membership and chances are the first thing they'll try to sell you on is losing that excess weight.

Forget it. It's a sales pitch which many people fall for.

Go to the gym to get fit, tone up and feel good, but when it comes to weight loss, it could be a very poor investment.

In the earlier post on why it appears males can lose weight easier than females, I mentioned the average weight of a male is 85.9 kg and a female is 71.1 kg. It is important to keep in mind when exercising, more often than not it involves moving our body. Try shifting a heavier object than a lifter object and you'll notice it takes more effort. The true is the same for our body. A heavier body uses more energy for the same exercise than a smaller body.

Let's say you get onto that walking machine and walk at the rate of 7 km/h for a hour. Using the Energy Exercise Calculator we can see the average male will use 1691 kJ and the average female 1400 kJ.

If exercising three times a week the average male would take 6.5 weeks to lose one kilogram of weight from fat loss and the average female would take 7.8 weeks . Yes. That's right, one to two months of exercising to lose just one kilogram of fat.

Often people who are putting on weight and only exercise without dieting. may find the excess food they are eating is more than the energy they're burning off through exercise. All they may end up doing is to slow down the rate their body is increasing in weight. They may never actually lose weight from dieting.

If when exercising you're drinking an energy drink. or rewarding yourself afterwards with a treat, then chances are much of the energy you've burned off through exercise is simply being replenished. Pretty tough hey.

Just keep in mind a snack of a muffin and coffee has more energy than an hour's exercising. It is much easier to so no to the muffin and coffee, than it is to exercise for an hour.

I recently saw on TV that when exercising, people need energy otherwise they may not feel well. An appropriate snack or light meal before the exercise can provide some of the energy required and enable the person to exercise for longer. Thus you can see there is probably a need to top up before exercising to get the most out of exercising.

The second thought to keep in mind, is we live and eat seven days a weeks but we only tend to exercise two or three times a week. Add up the energy for the exercise sessions for the week and divide by seven to obtain average exercise energy per day. For a male this would be 724 kJ and for the female 640 kJ. All it takes to negate the exercise in terms of weight loss is a coffee and a biscuit each day. Not much at all.

Where exercise can assist in weight loss is when you combine exercise with dieting. Get your diet in order first and then any weight loss benefit from exercising adds to the benefit you receive from dieting. Exercise only and don't get your diet into order and you may see little or no benefit.

Weight loss maths can make the picture clearer for you.

Use the BMI/BMR calculator to determine your daily dieting energy intake. Work out the difference between what you'd normally need for your body and the dieting energy intake. Then add the energy consumed from exercise and you'll work out the energy reduced and consumed from dieting and exercise.

For example. The average male dieting has reduced their intake by 3533 kJ plus 640 kJ (three exercise sessions a week averaged over seven days) which gives 4173 kJ per day. Dividing 4173 into 33000 kJ (the amount of energy in 1 kg of fat) and we can estimate the average male can lose a kilogram in just over a week.

What is also important to notice is the effect of the dieting compared to exercising. Dieting has over four times the effect of exercise. This is why when considering dieting and exercise, 80% of weight loss is through diet and 20% is through exercise.

In business people always reference the 80/20 rule. You get 80% of your revenue from 20% of your efforts. The same is true for losing weight. It is best to focus your efforts where you'll get the biggest return.

Kelvin Eldridge 

How does Lite n' East compare to Weight Loss Maths?

I continue to review weight loss programs with regards to the maths behind the program. I decided to shout a person two weeks on the Lite n' Easy program.

First Lite n' Easy is a packaged approach to losing weight. You choose the calorie intake you want for your diet and then the food is packaged to enable you to consume the required number of calories or kilojoules. Lite n' Easy is thus simply dieting at the appropriate level of energy intake with the convenience of having the food packaged for you.

There really is not much more to Lite n' Easy. But there is a catch. If you don't investigate the maths behind the program and check out what is right for you, you could easily end up with not meeting your objectives. Dieting is about reducing your energy intake. If you don't reduce your energy intake enough, the results won't be there and you won't lose weight fast enough.

The second issue with Lite n' Easy is it is expensive. The program cost for a single person is around the same as you'd pay to feed a family. That's pretty expensive.

The advantages however is that everything is largely done for you. You receive packages of food and all you have to do is stick to the food you're provided, and as long as you've chosen the appropriate energy intake, you will lose weight. The Lite n' Easy diet also provides a good variety of food which can keep dieting interesting.

The problem however is if you don't take the opportunity to think about the food you're receiving, then at some point you'll come unstuck. You'll either have to continue on Lite n' Easy, regularly return to the program, or most likely put on weight when you finish the program.

Lite n' Easy reduces your energy intake and if you discontinue the program then you are the person who needs to reduce your energy intake to continue to lose weight. Also, once people stop dieting they often return to their previous food intake level and as a result put the weight straight back on.

Overall Lite n' Easy does work. It is expensive contrary to what the marketing would have you believe, but it won't educate you, which means you could end depending on the program to keep your weight off and that isn't a good long term dieting strategy.

Initially the person I shouted was going to use a higher level daily energy intake. What I then did was use the BMR/BMI calculator to determine what their daily energy intake level should be and how much weight they could expect to lose when using Lite n' Easy.

The maths really is very simple. Work out what your daily energy intake should be. Then take each of the 1800, 1500 and 1200 Calorie plan levels, convert to kilojoules, then subtract the plan level from your daily energy intake. Divide this number into 33,000 and you'll get the number of days it will take to lose one kilogram. Pick a program too high and you'll hardly notice the difference in your weight.

For example. It is said the average person (whatever that may be) requires 8,700 kJ per day. The 1800, 1500, and 1200 Calories a day need to be multiplied by 4.2 to convert from Calories to kilojoules. This gives us 7560, 6300 and 5040 respectively. Thus for each level the reduction in kilojoules for an average person would be 1140, 2400 and 3660 respectively.

This means if an average person was on the Lite n' Easy diet at the 1800, 1500, 1200 Calorie level, they could expect to take around 29, 14 and 9 days respectively to lose one kilogram of weight. Most people wouldn't consider one kilogram to be much weight, so you don't want to take nearly a month to lose your first kilogram, otherwise you'll lose interest very quickly.

Keep in mind the first week, if you stick to any diet, will always give you a better than expected outcome. One reason I suspect is you've reduced the amount of food in your digestive track as well as the initial weight loss. The second week will be more in line with what you would expect to lose.

With the Lite n' Easy program make sure you do the maths before you start and that way you'll have a better understanding and appreciation of what you'll achieve. Whilst people may find it hard to accept, if they are losing half a kilogram a week they are doing well.

Kelvin Eldridge

Links to nutritional guides for major take-away food businesses.

You can still eat take-away food whilst dieting, but you do have to make the effort to find out how many kilojoules are contained in the various menu items. This article provides links to the information provided by the major take-away food companies.

McDonald's
KFC
Hungry Jacks
Red Rooster
Pizza Hut
Dominos
Subway
Sumo salad (No quick summary. Check each food item.)
Sushi Sushi (No quick summary. Check each food item.)
Noodlebox (Unfortunately you'll need to weigh your meal.)
Taco Bill
Salsas

Keep in mind when eating food from the fast-food places, that if you have some meals including drinks and extras, you could easily consume you entire day's normal intake in a single meal. Some choices such as eating beef instead of chicken can make a very big difference. This doesn't mean only eating chicken instead of beef, just to watch the energy intake that results from your choices and aim to have balance in your food intake.

Kelvin Eldridge
 

Can I eat junk food from take-away food places whilst dieting?

Whilst dieting I continued to eat food from McDonald's, KFC, Red Rooster, Hungry Jacks and other places. However I made a significant change. I checked the kilojoules of the food I was eating and there were some very important surprises.

Everyone talks about McDonald's hamburgers but almost no one talks about the chips. Check out the kilojoule content of chips. You actually find the energy content is great than a cheese burger and the large chips is greater than a chicken burger.

All you need to do whilst dieting is make sure you're energy intake is below your daily dieting energy intake and you can still eat "junk food".

Obviously the more energy you consume from less nutritional food the less you'll have a balanced diet. An ice cream cone may be tasty, but it is really your best choice. Dieting is about choices, but it doesn't have to be about completely eliminating food just because others say so.

There were however a few lessons I'd like to share about food from fast food businesses.

First keep in mind the business is there to make money. High fat and sugar content makes for a tasty meal and will keep you coming back. This is just as true for cafes  and restaurants. No one ever picks on the local cafe serving up a coffee and slice of cheesecake, but rest assured cheesecake is very high in kilojoules. A coffee and cheesecake could easily be equivalent to eating another meal for the day.

Businesses are there to make money, not look after your interests. Only you can look after your interests so cherry pick through the menus finding the food which meets your dieting needs. I found some very good food, but the menus do change which can make it harder. Grilled chicken is obviously better than deep fried battered chicken.

First lesson.

Don't upsize.

Businesses make money by getting you to upsize and it is hard to resist. I get a free upsize sticker for my card and I can tell you it is almost impossible not to get a freebie each time, but ultimately it will make dieting harder. Get the small size and a diet drink.

Second lesion.

Check the energy for chicken versus beef. You'll find lean chicken meat is much lower in energy than the beef which often contains more fat content. Grilled chicken is even better.

Third lesson.

Much to some people's surprise, whilst the wraps you'd think would be lower in energy than a bun, in fact wraps are higher in kilojoules than buns. Who would have guessed.

I have to admit when dieting many of the items on the menus for take-away food places aren't really suitable, but there are items that are. Check the nutritional guides and you'll find items which meet your requirements and still enable you to eat out and enjoy a take-away meal with others.

Kelvin Eldridge 

Why it appears men can lose weight easier than women.

It is often said that men can lose weight easier than women. If we look at the maths behind losing weight this myth will be partly, if not completely dispelled.

Let's first get some data we can use for the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The following is a quote from the ABS site.

In 2011-12, the average Australian man (18 years and over) was 175.6 cm tall and weighed 85.9 kg. The average Australian woman was 161.8 cm tall and weighed 71.1 kg.First however the myth. If we took a male of the same weight and height as a female and then put them on a diet and exercise, you probably wouldn't find much difference. The difference is because men and typically bigger than women. Think of men and women being weights. It takes more effort/energy to move a bigger weight than a smaller weight. Thus a bigger male when compared to a smaller female will use more energy for the same amount of exercise and thus through exercise a male would lose weight in theory more easily.

When it comes to losing weight I use the general rule that 80% of losing weight is dieting and 20% is exercise. Why might this be you might ask.

Let's say we want to go for a walk for an hour. Use the Energy Exercise Calculator and enter your weight, 60 minutes and then select walking as the exercise . I'll use the male weight of 85.9 kg from the ABS. For our average male a 60 minute walk will use 987 kJ.

Now let's look at how much the average male will reduce their consumption if they decided to exercise. Again using the 85.9 kg male who is 175.6 cm. In 2011 the average Australian was 37 years old, so we'll use that as the age in this example and enter the information into the BMI/BMR calculator. An average male dieting would reduce their intake by 3,533 kJ. Thus by dieting an average male would reduce their intake by 3.58 times the energy they'd use compared to exercising by walking for an hour. Hence in rough terms if a person decides to diet and exercise for an hour a day, the diet will achieve around 80% of their reduced energy consumption and the exercise will consume around 20% of the energy, both of which will assist a person wishing to lose weight.

The main point here is to notice that around 80% of the energy is from dieting. When it comes to dieting if you use the BMI/BMR calculator you'll notice the large male will reduce their intake by more than a smaller female. Over time this means the male will lose more weight than a female. However if we look at the percentage weight loss of the male versus the female you'll find there isn't much difference.

So whilst males (typically being large) will lose more weight, as a percentage of their total body weight you'll find males and females losing weight at roughly the same rate.

Using the average Australian male and female figures the following is what we see.

Male dieting: 3,533 kJ
Female dieting: 2,7570 kJ

Over 30 days the male would reduce their intake by (3,533*30) 105,990 kJ which would be equivalent to around 3.21 kg. The female would reduce their intake by (2,750*30)  82,500 kJ which be equivalent to around 2.5 kg.

For the male at 85.9 kg this would be a weight loss of 3.7% and for the female at 71.1 kg this would be a weight loss of 3.5%.

Overall the difference of 0.2% (or around 200 grams) for a month of dieting I'd consider insignificant.

Males do have a slight advantage simply due to their large body size, but since dieting is more effective than exercise in reducing weight, the advantage of males losing weight over females is largely a non issue.

When comparing male to female weight loss compare the percentage weight loss rather than the weight in kilograms. Even though the female will lose less in kilograms, in terms of percentage weight loss the difference is not considerable.

How much energy in a kilogram of fat?

This site is called Weight Loss Maths and the reason is once you know the maths surrounding dieting and losing weight the mystery disappears and the rest is magic.

It took me a while to find out how much energy is stored in a kilogram of fat and yet the irony is the diet book we've had for years had the information. I just didn't see it.  When you're not looking for something it is amazing how you can miss something so easily.

I use a figure of 33,000 kilojoules in a kilogram of fat. I've rounded the figure up to make it easier to perform simple calculations. OK. You'll probably still need to use a calculator but it is still pretty simple.

So let's revisit my earlier BMI/BMR figure for when I started dieting. How long do you think it should take for me to lose one kilogram of weight. This is really rough maths because there is a lot on inaccuracy in Weight Loss Maths, but at least we've got figures we can work with to give us a guide.

Question.

How long do you think sleeping beauty could sleep for before she literally faded away to nothing?

Answer.

It doesn't matter because it isn't real and was just a fairy tale.

But the point is if you simply slept and ate nothing your body uses energy and would lose weight if it received no sustenance.

Why this is useful information is because it shows you why it takes longer to lose weight than you would expect.

At 110.6 kg my body required 8,987 kJ of energy to maintain the weight at rest. With normal activity the body required 10,785 kJ.

If I ate nothing for a week, which is pretty hard to do, and did my normal activities, then each day my body would use around 11,000 kJ. In a week I'd have used around 77,000. Since there is 33,000 kJ in a kg of fat, if all the energy came from fat I'd lose an amazingly small amount of just 2.33 kg.

One week of starving just to lose a little over 2 kg. I think that is an amazing figure. I think most people would think it would be much more. I certainly would have.

Keep in mind these are just rough figures. You body will lose weight from not just fat if you didn't eat. You would lose weight from muscles and organs as well and that isn't a good outcome.

It is good to keep in mind the energy in a kilogram of fat because it is a very handy guide. If you reduce your energy intake by a certain amount each day and divide that energy amount into 33,000, you can work out how many days it will take you to lose a kilogram of fat.

Let's look at my figures for me at 110.6.

The difference between what my body needs each day for normal activity (10,785 kJ) and the energy intake when dieting (6,741) is 4,044 kJ. If I diet for a week I could expect to lose around 0.85 kilograms. The way you work this out is 7 days times 4,044 kJ is 28,308 kJ of energy the body didn't consume as a result of dieting. Then we divide 28,308 kJ for dieting by 33,000 kJ in one kilogram of fat, which gives us 0.85 kg.

Remember that is for me. I'm a talk guy and quite heavy. But if you were a female with a smaller frame at say 70 kg, 165 cm, 35 years old, when you're dieting the energy intake you didn't consume is around 2,597 kJ. So over a week your weight loss would only be 7 days times, 2,597 kJ which is 19,313, or around 0.58 kg.

This is why it appears that it is harder for women to lose weight than men. But the reality is it is just as easy. If you look at the percentage weight loss you'll see there isn't much difference. Using these figures the women would lose 0.83% and I'd lose 0.77%. So whilst my weight loss looks larger in kilograms, in actual fact my percentage weight loss would be less. So much for the old adage that it's easier for men to lose weight than women.

The main point here is if you stick to the diet then losing around half a kilogram a week is a good outcome. If you have 20 kg to lose then unfortunately it will take time. About 40 weeks of time. The good thing is this can be sped up by adding exercise to your weight loss program.

In my weight loss journey I deliberately did not add any additional exercise to my program. My goal was to see if you could lose weight through diet alone and the outcome was that you could.

I see dieting and exercise as two separate activities, but it is important to also realise these shouldn't be treated totally separately. When you first start dieting I was advised by my doctor the body initially loses some weight from muscles. To avoid/minimise this loss you can increase protein intake and exercise. I have no figures as to what level of increase is required, or how long the initial period of weight loss is from muscles. But a balanced diet and exercise program doesn't hurt.

Kelvin Eldridge




 

Day 1: Let the dieting begin

You've reach day one. Stripped off and weighed yourself. Good for you.

Now as you progress during the day record what you eat and the energy content of the food. Use the Today's Diet calculator to assist you or just use pen and paper.

My approach is to just measure today and at the start of each day start again. What you did yesterday doesn't matter. What is done is done. Each new day is a new beginning.

The only figure I record is the weight once a week. For me that gives me an idea of how things have changed over time.

In fact day 1, day 2 are really now just all the same. Stick to your daily dieting energy intake and you will see results.

Kelvin Eldridge

 

All great journeys start with a beginning and a destination. Weigh yourself at the beginning

A lot of people don't like to weigh themselves at the start of dieting. They'll just start dieting and know they've lost weight by how they feel. When I see people doing this my feeling is they don't want to register just how heavy they are and don't want to set themselves up to fail. I tried losing weight a number of times and failing isn't a good feeling.

The way I think is get over it. If you fail you fail. So what. You're no worse of than you were before. But the only way to watch how you are progressing is to measure things.

So get on the scales and measure yourself.

Pick a day you'd like to measure yourself each week.

I make it first thing on a Monday but some people may wish to make it a Friday. The day doesn't really matter, just make sure you do it once a week.

In the first week I actually find it pretty exciting to weigh each day. You'll lose weight almost immediately and whilst I don't consider most of this weight loss to be real weight loss, it does help encourage you to continue in that first week. The first week can be the hardest because temptation is always around the corner. Seeing the weight dropping in the first week helps to put off temptation.

I have a notebook we've used over the years to record my weight. One line per entry each week whilst I've been dieting. Yes the numbers have gone up and down over the years, but at least I know when I reach a weight I'm not happy with, I can bring the weight back down again.

You need

A notepad or diary.
A set of bathroom scales which measure preferably in 100 gram intervals, but 200 grams is OK too.

Now how to I put this politely.

When you weigh yourself do it after you've visited the toilet. A full bladder could contain a few hundred millilitres of liquid and remember every millilitre weighs around 1 gram. So the equivalent of a glass of urine would weight around 200 grams or more. You might not think it is much, but weigh yourself one day with and empty bladder and then weigh yourself the next day with a full bladder and you may think you've put on weight when you've actually lost weight. Simply try to be consistent. Weight first thing in the morning with the same clothes (or no clothes), on the same day each week, with an empty bladder if possible.

Over the longer term this doesn't matter as much, but in the short term you get positive feedback when you see you are progressing.

Kelvin Eldridge

The basic dieting technique. Weigh your food or read the energy content on the packaging.

The basic dieting technique is really very simple and once you understand it, much quicker than most people think.

When I tell people I weigh my food their eyes immediately gloss over and their response is I couldn't be bothered with that. When I show them what I do they realise it takes moments extra and the light bulb moment clicks.

Breakfast

For me breakfast used to be an overflowing bowl of cereal with milk, two slices of toast with jam and a glass of orange juice. Sounds pretty typical to me.

The problem is when I filled the bowl with Special K and milk I was actually having two breakfasts according to the serving size on the packaging. I'd also have thick toast and a large glass of orange juice thinking it was good for me, whereas I now realise I was consuming mostly sugar.

So here is how I do it now.

I have my scales on my kitchen bench.
I put a bowl on the scales, turn on the scales and the scales read zero.
I pour in around 30g of cereal and note the weight.
I then zero the scale.
I then poor in around 50-80g of milk and note the weight.

Currently I'm eating milo cereal which is 1,640 kilojoules per 100 grams and milk which is 265 kilojoules per 100 grams. You can read the per 100 grams energy value on the packaging.

So I would write down

Milo, 32g, 1640 kj/100g
Milk, 50g, 265 kj/100g

Actually I'd write something more like the following

Milo, 32, 1640
Milk, 50 265

I no longer have toast as a general rule. Sometimes I'll have one slice with jam. The bread I use is $1 Coles bread because two slices are 600 kj (from the packaging) thus one slice is 300 kj. The jam I weighed.

TIP. There are a couple of weighs to work out the weight. For jam you can put the toast on the scale, zero the weight, then put the jam on and return the toast to the scales. The weight is the jam that has been added. Alternately you can put the jam jar on the scales, zero the weight, then put the ham on the bread and put the jar back on the scales. The reading will be a negative value which is how much jam has been used. For a slice of toast I use around 50 g of jam.

For the jam again I just read the energy content on the packaging.

My approach would be to write down the item, weight and energy as I went through the day. When I had a moment I'd calculate the energy for each food and add them all up. I'd do this a couple of times a day so I could see how I was going. If I ate too much during the day I could see I needed to eat a smaller meal at night. Take-away food such as MacDonald's is very high in energy content even for a small cheese burger meal which means if I had that during the day I'd have to have a smaller meal at night. That's OK to me and works well.

I decided recently I'd put on some weight again and want to lose 5 kg. I'm a computer consultant so I can write programs. So instead of writing everything on paper and working out the calculations I'd always wanted a simple program I could have my on iPhone. I wrote the program as a web app which can be run from any computer. I call the program/web page Today's Diet which can be found at http://www.justlocal.com.au/clients/dieting/today.php. I've added this page to my Home Screen on my iPhone and can now enter the information as I go and the calculations are done for me.

Weighing food can be tedious but most of the time you don't have to weigh the food. The packaging tells you how much is in a serving. For biscuits there may be one or two biscuits in a serving, but there is the energy content. So all you need to do with the Today's Diet calculator is enter "biscuit" and the energy. Press calculate and you have the total so far during the day.

Be careful of serving sizes. If you pour out a bowl of Special K you'll find you have 50-60 grams of cereal, whereas a serving size is 30g. So in effect you're eating two serves. Where the size of a food item isn't fixed you should weight it at least the first time. Today's Diet has a notes page where you can record foods you commonly eat and their energy content. This is easier than looking up the energy content of an apple or banana each time.

TIP: A good technique if you're thinking of dieting is to do a dry run for your day's eating without dieting. You'll be very surprised to find out that often you're eat more than your normal daily requirement. You can determine your normal daily energy requirement using the BMI/BMR calculator. Remember if you're eating more than your body needs, some of that excess has to be stored somewhere.

In summary then the basic dieting technique is to record during the day the energy content for the food you eat. You may have to weigh some food but most food you can simply read the energy content off the packaging.

Kelvin Eldridge

Do your pre-dieting preparation working out your BMI and Daily Dieting Energy Intake.

OK. Dieting is actually pretty simple. You are going to reduce your energy intake from the foods and drinks you consume to a level that is what your body needs on a daily basis so your body starts to use the stored fat on your body.

First you need to weigh yourself so you can determine what your daily energy intake on a diet needs to be.

I've made the maths for this very simple by providing the BMI/BMR calculator.

Energy your height in centimetres, weight in kilograms, age and sex into the BMI/BMR calculator and press Submit.

The important number the calculator provides is your Dieting Energy Intake. This is the amount of energy your are allowed to consume each day on your diet.

A joke for you.

A man walks into the doctor and say "I want to lose".
The doctors says "that's easy. You can eat whatever you like."
The man says "that's great . Is it really that easy?"
The doctor says, "yes, and I'll tell you what you like."

The beauty about Weight Loss Maths is you'll soon realise you can eat whatever you like as long as each day you eat within your energy intake. You can have take-away food. In fact I'd have to classify myself as a regular junk foodie. When you start dieting you simply look at the energy content of the meals and make sure you stick to your limit. You'll be surprised when you look at the menu in terms of kilojoules how things change. There are still food items you can eat but they probably won't the same or the same size meals you ate before.

Now you have your daily energy intake limit you need to be aware of how much energy is in each meal you eat. This sounds hard but you'll soon see in general it is very easy. Most food we eat have the kilojoule content listed.

When I first use the Weight Loss Maths approach I'd reached 110.6 kilograms. For me the defining moment was when I walked past windows and saw my reflection. My body shape looked like Alfred Hitchcock and I wasn't a famous movie producer. That belly was just too big.

I actually started to diet but after the first couple of weeks and lots of walking and exercise machines found the weight wasn't coming off. There had to be a better way. I came up with a simple idea. My body needs a certain amount of energy if I were to do nothing but sleep. The energy to sustain itself. What is that energy I thought. It turns out it is called the Basal Metabolic Rate or BMR. So if I ate below that level I felt I could lose weight. It turned out when I took 25% off the BMR this was roughly what the dieting books would tell me is the dieting energy intake. So really I wasn't inventing anything new, just seeing it in a new light.

Most dieting books assume you are average. Average build, average weight. But what is average. So I worked out the maths from the charts provided in the books so anyone could more easily work out what their energy intake should be when they diet. Thus the BMR/BMI calculator was born and I or anyone could determine quickly their daily dieting energy intake.

This worked for me and it worked for my wife.

My daily dieting energy intake for a male weighing 110.6 kg, 182.45 cm and 52 years old was 6,741 kilojoules. I had a starting point.

A good technique at this point is to work out how much energy you'll allow for each meal or parts of the day. Morning/Breakfast, Lunch/Afternoon and Dinner/Night. We eat a bigger dinner at night.

So break that number down into three rough figures as a starting point. If you eat around 1,000-1,500 for breakfast, around the same for lunch, then I'd end up with around 3,000-4,000 kilojoules for dinner. That made meal preparation easier. I'd then change the meal or portion size to keep within those figures.

What I think will happen for most people is they'll work out their daily dieting energy intake, start dieting and then be amazed by the energy content in their meals and quickly adjust their meal size to get to the desire energy intake.

Kelvin Eldridge

Before starting to diet see your doctor and discuss what you are going to do.

I can't emphasise enough the importance of making sure you do what is good for your health. We are all different and only with a professional medical adviser will you be able to know if you are doing what is best for you.

Weight Loss Maths boils down to one thing. You are reducing your energy intake (measured in kilojoules) which is how all diets essentially work. Let the doctor know what you are doing and ask them for their advice.

I also found having a complete set of standard tests was reassuring.

Keep in mind I don't claim to have any special medical or traditional knowledge. I'm only sharing what I did once I worked out the maths behind weight loss. Your body is your responsibility and no one else so make sure you love it enough and make the right decisions for you.

Kelvin Eldridge

Welcome to Weight Loss Maths

I debated over using the site Weight Loss Maths for some time because many people consider maths to be, let's say, boring and I get it. But with some very basic maths which I think everyone can understand successful dieting is made easy and it need not cost a cent.

We are constantly sold to through advertising everyone's great way to lose weight. This exercise program, this diet program. Behind every program is someone trying to make money. To be frank so am I but that is done through advertising on this page so it doesn't cost you anything. That allows me to share what I've learnt on my weight loss journey.

With simple maths I'll show you why going to the gym may not help you lose weight at all. What those fancy and expensive programs are really doing and how it boils down to simple basic numbers.

I will provide you with the tools and knowledge you need to lose weight for free. The same knowledge I use when I want to shed a few kilograms.

All you need to bring along is the true desire that you'd like to lose weight. As long as you remain focused you'll reach your weight loss goal.

The way this site is organised is the first blog posts will share the basic steps and discuss the tools. I'll try to stick to one topic for each post so it is easier to find the topic which interests you. The menu across the top of the blog gives you access to the tools I've developed and I'll discuss each one in a separate post.

You'll find there is advertising on this site. I don't control the ads which appear so certainly check out the ads if they interest you, but also evaluate each advertisers promise with care. All you need to do is to follow the information I provide in the posts and you should be able to lose weight at no cost.

Enjoy,

Kelvin Eldridge