Calories...the secrets they don't tell you

Today I think we are gonna talk about the fuel that makes us run...calories.  We need these little things to make sure we can do what we gotta do to make our little world go round.  Not only do we need them but too few can hurt just as bad as too many.  Before I started this post I did some reading and some wtf-ing.  Here is what I learned according to one website I should only consume 1900 calories a day.  Now when I calculate my BMR just sitting in bed doing nothing I am burning 2019.4 calories.  What....sitting still just breathing and pushing remote buttons I am burning almost 120 more calories that it is recommended I eat.  I see a problem here.  Let's do a mommy day break down of calorie burning according to the fancy calculator from Web Md:

Childcare for 12 hours:  4544 calories burned
Light Cleaning (we all do some kind of housework a day) 1 and a half hours:  473 calories
Cooking and food prep 3 hours (one hour a meal):  760 calories
Watching TV (we get a chance every once and a while) 1 and a half hours:  190 calories
Sleeping (yes we even get to included this) 7 hours: 794 calories

So we BURN in just normal day to day stuff 6761 calories and we haven't even begun to talk about running errands.  But based on these numbers....I am burning 4861 more calories then I am supposed to be in taking.  I am using one of the nifty free websites to track food, water in take, and how much exercise I get in a day...actual exercise.   In a normal day of housework and exercising I can burn 2400 calories.  I take in around 1800-2000 calories a day and I feel good.

But lets go back to the start where people say I am dieting and most people drop to 1500 calories right away.  Here is the problem.....if you drop that low right away you are gonna put your body into shock and find it harder to stay on track.  Why you ask?  Because you are gonna be hungry so hungry in fact that it is gonna take a lot more then will power to stop from raiding the kitchen.  Well wait isn't the point of dieting to cut calories and burn more?  Yes it is but let's think back to the earlier figure of 6761 calories burnt in a day. Your body is used to doing this on a scale of 3000-4000 calories a day.  Dropping that many that fast only leads to not feeling good but feeling sick.  Headaches, muscle aches, and all around just blah.  Not to mention that I know as a fat ass when I don't get to eat I am cranky.  So here is the plan...drop calories slowly.  Week one of the diet....cut from 4000 to 3000.  Just like exercise and slowly working into a regular workout (which is another story we will get to) you have to retrain your body to run on a smaller amount of calories one week at a time.  As the weeks progress your calorie intake shrinks and OMG out of the blue your body can function on a 1500-1900 calorie intake and no one around you suffers.

Moral of the story you don't run your car on a tank of gas that is almost empty....you can't run your body on one either.  Cut back your calories slowly and safely.

Happy Dieting