My RMR is 2851, what's yours? + OT: Joke of the week
After 3 years and about 100 lbs lost, today I re-took a Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) test and I was pleasantly surprised to see that while I am much lighter than back then, I still burn the same amount of calories, which is due to my being 25% less the man that I was back in 2005 and the fact that I have increased my physical activity considerably since the weight really started to come off, post WLS. 
As a numbers type of person, I like knowing how much energy I consume, and by extension, how much I can expect to lose based on my caloric intake / output. Of course, as everyone should know, the key to weight loss is to take in less energy than what you burn on a daily basis. To your RMR, which is the number of calories one burns essentially doing nothing, you add the calories burned doing daily activities and you subtract the calories you eat (my post last week can help you out here), which gives you the number of calories you are in deficit (i.e. losing weight) or in surplus (i.e. gaining weight). Of course, as I have mentioned before, 3500 calories equals 1 pound of fat, so if everything is calculated properly, you can have a pretty good idea on how much weight you can expect to lose!
For those of you in the Ottawa area who are interested in finding out what their RMR is, I did my test at the Bariatric Medical Institute.
As for my joke of the week, it deals, most appropriately, with weight loss:
There was a man who was told he had to lose 75 lbs. He had tried dieting, and like many of us, failed miserably. One day he saw an ad for a weight loss program that promised a 10 lb weight loss in 3 days, or 20 lbs in 5 days or the supreme program, which promised a weight loss of 50 lbs in a week.
The man signed up for the 3 day program and the next day a gorgeous woman wearing nothing but sneakers and a sign saying "if you catch me, you can have me". So the woman took off and after several miles running the man caught the woman. This was repeated the following 2 days, with the same results, and when the man weighed himself, sure enough he had lost 10 lbs!
Being so impressed with the 3 day program, the man signed up for the 5 day program. The next day an even more gorgeous woman wearing nothing but sneakers and a sign saying "if you catch me I am yours". Once again the chase was on and the results were the same as in the 3 day program, and at the end, sure enough, the man had lost 20 lbs!
Of course, the man who still had another 40 lbs to lose and was elated with the first two weight loss programs, signed up for the week long one. The next day a very muscular man wearing nothing but sneakers and a sign saying "if I catch you, you are mine" showed up ...
As a numbers type of person, I like knowing how much energy I consume, and by extension, how much I can expect to lose based on my caloric intake / output. Of course, as everyone should know, the key to weight loss is to take in less energy than what you burn on a daily basis. To your RMR, which is the number of calories one burns essentially doing nothing, you add the calories burned doing daily activities and you subtract the calories you eat (my post last week can help you out here), which gives you the number of calories you are in deficit (i.e. losing weight) or in surplus (i.e. gaining weight). Of course, as I have mentioned before, 3500 calories equals 1 pound of fat, so if everything is calculated properly, you can have a pretty good idea on how much weight you can expect to lose!
For those of you in the Ottawa area who are interested in finding out what their RMR is, I did my test at the Bariatric Medical Institute.
As for my joke of the week, it deals, most appropriately, with weight loss:
There was a man who was told he had to lose 75 lbs. He had tried dieting, and like many of us, failed miserably. One day he saw an ad for a weight loss program that promised a 10 lb weight loss in 3 days, or 20 lbs in 5 days or the supreme program, which promised a weight loss of 50 lbs in a week.
The man signed up for the 3 day program and the next day a gorgeous woman wearing nothing but sneakers and a sign saying "if you catch me, you can have me". So the woman took off and after several miles running the man caught the woman
. This was repeated the following 2 days, with the same results, and when the man weighed himself, sure enough he had lost 10 lbs!Being so impressed with the 3 day program, the man signed up for the 5 day program. The next day an even more gorgeous woman wearing nothing but sneakers and a sign saying "if you catch me I am yours"
. Once again the chase was on and the results were the same as in the 3 day program, and at the end, sure enough, the man had lost 20 lbs!Of course, the man who still had another 40 lbs to lose and was elated with the first two weight loss programs, signed up for the week long one. The next day a very muscular man wearing nothing but sneakers and a sign saying "if I catch you, you are mine" showed up ...
The web RMR calculators take a standard person and apply the data you enter to give you a result.
With the test I took, I was hooked up to a machine which measured my CO2 discharge and other elements of my breathing, and it used this data, as well as age, weight and height, to come to my RMR.
I did a similar test 3 years ago, and I was able to notice the improvements with my overall metabolism, thanks to exercise and weight loss. I used to have a slow metabolism (15% less than normal), now it is slightly above normal.
With the test I took, I was hooked up to a machine which measured my CO2 discharge and other elements of my breathing, and it used this data, as well as age, weight and height, to come to my RMR.
I did a similar test 3 years ago, and I was able to notice the improvements with my overall metabolism, thanks to exercise and weight loss. I used to have a slow metabolism (15% less than normal), now it is slightly above normal.
Mine said 1834...but I don't take too much stock in caloric intake...it really is meaningless for DSers. I malabsorb 80 percent of the fat I eat, somewhere around 50 percent of the protein....I regularly eat 4000-6000 calories plus a day to maintain.
Scott
FYI those charts are also skewed for RNyers...you guys have some malabsorbtion too.
Scott
FYI those charts are also skewed for RNyers...you guys have some malabsorbtion too.
This only means I have to be less careful and I will still lose weight
Unfortunately, my mind is wired to respond well to numbers, and even if my RNY has a certain level of malabsorption, as I do not know what this is, I will assume it is zero and be pleasantly surprised when I lose more weight than expected
All this said, I am eating less than 1500 calories / day, but still maintain about a 3 lbs / week weight loss over the last 3 months - And I am exercising like crazy! So there must be more to the equation than meets the eye ...
Thanks for your reply!
Unfortunately, my mind is wired to respond well to numbers, and even if my RNY has a certain level of malabsorption, as I do not know what this is, I will assume it is zero and be pleasantly surprised when I lose more weight than expected
All this said, I am eating less than 1500 calories / day, but still maintain about a 3 lbs / week weight loss over the last 3 months - And I am exercising like crazy! So there must be more to the equation than meets the eye ...
Thanks for your reply!
yeah it's crazy.....at the point I'm out, I don't have to lose weight, i'm at a very good weight and want to maintain. So to do that I have to do DS math:
number of caloriesfrom fat x .2= x
number of calories from protein x .5 = x
number of calories from carbs = x (even though everyone malabsorbs some carbs, simple carbs are absorbed swiftly in the mouth)
So for me it's about not thinking about what not to eat, but to remember to eat often and enough so I don't lose weight. so when I see a cookie ...I can eat the cookie...lol.
Scott
number of caloriesfrom fat x .2= x
number of calories from protein x .5 = x
number of calories from carbs = x (even though everyone malabsorbs some carbs, simple carbs are absorbed swiftly in the mouth)
So for me it's about not thinking about what not to eat, but to remember to eat often and enough so I don't lose weight. so when I see a cookie ...I can eat the cookie...lol.
Scott
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