A longwinded entry, read only if you have the time, haha….

I wrote this entry to set some myths straight, not to offend nor embarrass some people.

Some of you might know yang The Other Half and I have been going on this weight loss journey since the start of this year and so far it’s been good (not smooth sailing all the time) and we’ve reached our goals for a while now. I reached my goals wayyyy earlier than him since I didn’t have that much to lose. We are now in the ‘maintenance’ phase of the journey where we are trying to stick to the current weight, no more weight loss and definitely hopefully no more weight gain.

And sesiapa yang nak tau how we did it, boleh lah baca the previous entries where I wrote in details how we did it our way. Godek2 lah my old archives sendiri ye, I tak kuasa nak cari the links, hehehe.

Basically we believe in calories in (consumed) Vs calories out (burned).

1. If your calories consumed is higher than calories burned, than you will gain weight aka jadi gemuk.

2. If your calories consumed is lower than calories burned, than you will lose weight aka makin kurus.

3. If your calories consumed is equal with calories burned, than your weight will be maintained.

Now, the main question is, macam mana kita nak tau berapa banyak calories yang kita kena consumed setiap hari and berapa banyak calories yang badan kita burned setiap hari?

Well, there is no one magic number, setiap individu berlainan.

We first have to find out what our basal metabolic rate (BMR) or the easier one, resting metabolic rate (RMR) is before we can find out how much calories we need to consume everyday.

The BMR refers to the amount of energy your body needs to maintain itself. Basically, badan kita ni will use up energy even while we are sleeping. It’s the energy used by all the organs in our body to maintain its functions.

Metabolism pulak refers to the chemical processes that go on continuously inside the body to allow life and normal functioning.

So, the BMR calculator you can find on the net will measure how much energy your body uses if you stay in bed all day long.

And kita boleh calculate our Basal Metabolic Rate depending on our age, our weight, our height and our level of activities daily.

Let’s just give me for example:

My age =40 y.o.(masih mengaku 40 sebab I still have a few more days before I turn 41 tau! hikhikhik…).

My weight = 45 kg

My height = 150cm (I know I know.. I am short…..)

So, my body will burn about 1200 calories ( if I were to stay in bed all day long, not doing anything at all.)..

But if I were to get out and about, jadi chaffeur, jadi tukang masak, jadi cleaner, jadi gardener and so on, the amount of energy my body uses will increase.

And the only way you can get energy is by consuming it in the form of solids or liquids.

So, kalau you stay in bed the whole day tak makan and cuma minum air kosong aje (which is 0 calorie) for a few days, you will definitely lose some weight.

That’s why people who are in a coma at the hospital still need food in the form of IV feeding. Kalau tak bagi all these nutritions, they’ll lstart losing first fat then muscles.

If you tengok The Other Half 6 months ago, his BMI was in the obese range.

Now, 6 months later, his BMI is in the healthy range.

Before we embarked on this weight loss journey, we surfed the net to find out how many calories we need to burn to lose the weight safely and how many calories we can eat daily.

And kat mana2 reliable journals yang we all baca, semua cakap yang you have to work hard to burn the calories yang you dah simpan bertahun2 dalam badan dalam bentuk lemak tu.

Takde jalan mudah nak buang that lemak!

You can ask my hubby betapa susah nya dia berexercise hari2 untuk buang the lemak.

1 jam dia kayuh basikal vigorously, dia cuma burn 750 calories/hour sekarang ni. Dulu masa dia gemuk, he burned more calories sebab he had more fat to convert to energy.

The thinner you become, the less calories you burn doing the same exercise. The fitter you become, the more you have to work at it to burn the same amount of energy.

It’s a cruel world isn’t it for thin people, hehehe.

Yang buat I gerammmmm sangat2 sekarang ni kan, ada lah satu corset tu yang claimed boleh burn 900 calories in ONE HOUR tanpa perlu buat apa2!

(you should see the amount of sweat dripping off The Other Half’s body after one hour doing the elliptical and burning 900 cals!)

If that were true and if you were to wear it 8 jam seperti yang diaorang suruh, konon2nya sape yang pakai tu boleh burn 7200 calories in 1 day lah ye.

Do you know how you would look like if badan you were to burn that much energy in 1 day after 1 week?

Memang lain sangat lah from when you start, hehehe.

Cubalah baca any reliable scientific journals, they will tell you that burning that many calories is impossible without losing your weight so quickly at the same time!

Kalau you baca kat mana2 sites yang reliable, to lose 1kg of weight, you need to burn 7000calories (approx).

Mana tak nya, kalau your BMR is around 1200 calories/day and kalau you lead a slightly active lifestyle, you basically need around 1500 calories/day just to stay alive.

Kalau betul lah seperti apa yang orang yang jual corset ni claim…

You boleh makan 6 Big Mac Value Meals (Big Mac, medium fries and medium coke) setiap hari day in day out and still boleh lose weight jadi sekeping macam Keira Knightley!

Big Mac Value Meal tu total calories dia 1009 calories. Kalau you makan 6 Big Mac value meals, baru 6054 calories.

And your body needs 1200 calories just to stay alive, so bila body kita tak dapat energy anymore from food intake, dia akan start burning the fat storage in our body.

So, kalau ikut ‘logic’ diaorang, maknanya kalau pakai corset ni bolehlah lose 1kg/day kan.

So, kalau betul claim dia, you definitely should be able to lose 7kg dalam masa 1 minggu kan and makan seperti biasa.

So, how come this corset yang claimed to burn 7200 calories/8 hours tak boleh jadikan the wearer lose at least 5kg in the first week when they sepatutnya lose 7kg/week.

Takkan lah you all melantak hari2 sampai 10, 000 calories/day kot, tu sebab tak turun2 gak berat at least 5kg/week walau pun pakai that corset ….

itu dah kira macam makan 4 Big Mac value meals a day + 3 large strawberry shakes + 2 servings of their pancakes with maple syrup and butter +4 apple pies + 2 oreos McFlurrys + 4 large hot fudge sundaes, definitely akan termuntah kalau makan banyak macam tu.

Look at my hubby:

Hubby I dulu masa awal2 nak lose weight, he lost 2kg in 1 week by doing hard exercise. He burned around 1000-2000 calories/day exercising and only consuming around 1800 calories/day (which was below his BMR- I know, naughty him for doing that). So his body started using up all the lemak in his body to keep up and stay ‘alive’.

He still ate good food (yang I masak and adjusted to make it less fat and less carbs) at breakfast, lunch and dinner without fail, and still had his treats of ice cream (low fat) or chips (portion control) and still lost the weight.

Dia cuma burned 1000 cals(minimum) aje in a day and yet he still lost 2kg/week awal2 dulu.

And memang terbukti he lad lost that weight by only burning 1000cals/day. You can look at his old photos and now photos kalau tak percaya.

Tu yang buat we all sikit geram tu, their over the top claim when we know how hard it is to lose the excess baggage on our bodies ni!

So, please lah, next time kalau nak buat claim gah macam tu, make it believable, realistic and backed up by reliable scientific journals!