A zero sum game -- with caveats (or frosting)

Weight loss is a zero sum game.  No matter what diet is the new cool craze, regardless of whether you're eating grapefruit or beignets, at the end of the day the only thing that matters when it comes to gaining or loosing weight is if you expended more or less energy than you consumed.  That's the ONLY bottom line.


I know this because some years ago I experienced it.  After gaining considerable weight over the course of three pregnancies and a sit-down job, I was rolling around with a net gain of 8 dress sizes and more extra pounds than my then eight-year-old son weighed when wearing his winter snowsuit and boots.  Something had to be done.  It took two and a half years to loose it all, but, for ten years now, I've kept it off.  My weight fluctuates a bit; I gain a few pounds over the less active winter months, but I take them off over the summer, and can say with pride that I have this dieting game figured out.


For those of you lucky souls who have never paid much attention to the intricacies of loosing weight in a country with plenty of inspiration to overeat, a calorie is really just a unit of energy measurement.  The way that any food's calorie content is determined is by putting the morsel of the food into a little oven, burning it, and measuring the energy output.  That's what your body does to food.  In the laboratory the energy is measured in terms of heat.  In your body the energy is metabolized as ATP energy, a different way of burning, but the same in terms of energy output.  One calorie as a unit of measurement in a scientific sense, btw, is really 1/1000th of the calories listed on packaging ingredient lists.  That's why I refer to the calories expended during my runs as kcal.


If it's as simple as amount of energy IN must not exceed the amount of energy OUT, then why are 30%+ of the adults in this country overweight?  Why are there hundreds of diets, thousands of diet books, and tens of thousands of diet products?  Why is it so hard for intelligent adults to expend more energy than they consume?  Many factors contribute to our ability to keep this equation in equilibrium. Simply put, food tastes good and is fun to eat.  If we could eat as much as we want without any negative repercussions we could have infinite fun.  As important as quantity is quality.  Our bodies require more than just energy, ie, more than calories.  We also need a variety of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that our cells can not manufacture on their own.  Hence, if we eat too much, too little, or the wrong stuff, we just don't function as well as we should.  We slow down, don't feel like exercising, we get sluggish, and that zero sum game goes way out of balance.  


I had an issue with my zero sum game during today's run.  As well as it went yesterday, it went poorly today.  Hmmm.  I am sometimes inspired when with my dear sister to experiment with new and exciting taste treats.  The latest is a delicious combo of cookie dough ice cream topped with whipped chocolate frosting.  Now, I'm fully aware that this combination might sound a bit out of the norm for more traditional dessert connoisseurs, but I guarantee that if you're looking for a sugary good time, this is truly FUN. Or at least it was until I had to get my daily run in.  Suffice it to say that I didn't break any speed records today, and the amount of kcal in definitely exceeded the amount of kcal out.  

Check out another blogger's description of starting up her exercise regimen :)

Até amanhã... 
7/26/11 - 2.0 miles | 25 mins | 4.8 mph | 213 kcal