The Business of your Body Weight

Most people have some level of business experience or education (even if it started and ended with High School Economics class).  The most basic thing learned about business is supply and demand: if your supply is greater than demand you have a surplus and if your demand is greater than your supply you have a shortage.  When your are left with a surplus of product you must store the product until in can be used and when you have a shortage of product you must get it from somewhere else to fulfill the demand.  Examples:  Sally owns a shoe store, Sally has 10 pairs of a certain shoe in stock and 12 people want to purchase this shoe so Sally must get more of this shoe from somewhere else.  Mandy has a purse store and has 15 of a certain purse in stock and only 10 people want to buy this purse, Many must store her 5 leftover purses until they are needed.

Your body functions in much the same way as a business.  When calories supplied to your body are greater than the calories demanded by your body guess what happens?  Your body stores those calories until they are needed later and your body store these extra calories as fat!  Similarly, if your supply of calories is less than your demand for calories then your body will burn them from your stored body fat.  (Your body can also pull these calories from Muscle, which is why a balanced diet is so crucial.  I will address this more in detail in a later post).

Everyone has a different "demand" of daily caloric intake.  Many factors contribute to how many calories you burn per day such as how active you are during the day (do you walk around a lot at your job or do you sit at a desk all day)and age as well your level of exercise.  Use a calorie calculator to estimate the number of calories your body needs per day: Calorie Counter

3500.  This is the number of calories in a pound.  For every surplus of 3500 calories in your body, you will gain 1 pound.  For every shortage of 3500 calories in your body, you will lose a pound.  Lets look at an example:

Janet's base caloric needs for a day are 2000.  Janet eats 1800 calories a day and spends 30 minutes on a cardio machine everyday and burns 300 calories.  Janet has a shortage of 500 calories.  Janet should expect to lose a pound every 7 days with this routine.

“To insure good health: Eat lightly, breathe deeply, live moderately, cultivate cheerfulness, and maintain an interest in life.”

 -William Londen

Yours in Fitness,