Fit Communications

Here’s an old post, resurrected because I need it and my fitness buddy needs it.

I know I sound like a broken record when I rave on about Tom Venuto’s e-book book Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. But at the moment I’m especially gung-ho about Tom because I’m liking the zig-zag calorie rotation he describes in chapter 6 of the book. For one thing, it makes the whole calorie-counting thing more interesting and tolerable.

Here’s how it goes:

First you figure out your basal metabolic rate–how many calories you need just to sustain life. If you know your lean body mass (LBM), the Katch-McArdle formula is best and works for both men and women:

BMR - 370 + (21.6 x lean mass in kilograms)

Hint: divide your LBM in pounds by 2.2 to get kilograms.

If you don’t know your LBM, use the Harris-Benedict formula, based on body weight:

Men: BMR - 66 + (13.7 x body weight in kg) + (5 x height in centimeters) - (6.8 x age in years)

Women: BMR - 655 + (9.6 x body weight in kg) + (1.8 x height in centimeters) - (4.7 x age in years)

Once you’ve got an estimate of your baseline calories, below which you should never go when counting calories, multiply the number by an activity factor:

Sedentary: use 1.2
Lightly active: use 1.375
Moderately active: use 1.55
Very active: use 1.725
Extremely active: use 1.9

So, given my LBM of 109 pounds (49.5 kg), my BMR, using the Katch-McArdle formula is 1,440 calories.

I use the activity factor 1.55. Multiplying it by 1,440, I get 2,232 calories per day.

I suspect I probably burn a few more than that, but I’m being conservative.

Okay, so what’s the zig-zag rotation all about? The idea is to spend three days on a moderately reduced-calorie diet (15 to 20 percent below maintenance), then one day at maintenance level.

Why zig-zag? To prevent the body from reducing metabolic rate in response to reduced intake. By eating at maintenance level a couple of days a week, so Tom says, you help prevent the body from thinking you’re starving. The other plus, of course, is that not every day is a restricted day. Nice.

The key reason to zig-zag is that it works. In 30-plus years of caring about this sort of thing, the ZZ is the fastest, most-effective, most muscle-preserving method of fat loss I’ve ever seen.

And I’ve seen it work wonders for people I know as well. Usually women who tell me, “Well, I’m eating right, but nothing is happening.” Sad but true: if nothing is happening, you need to change the equation. Alter the food plan. Increase the activity. Try the ZZ.

The February issue of More magazine includes a two-part article written by two friends who have entirely different approaches to food and body weight. One woman is a size 12 who enjoys food and says that once she made peace with her (not really very large) body, she got a lot more sane about food. She talks about her irritation with her friend who wears a size 6 and follows a very regimented food plan.

The regimented friend also has her say, explaining that she used to be overweight and has been able to lose weight and keep it off by participating in a 12-step program. Her program requires her to weigh or measure everything she eats, and she follows very specific, indeed, rigid rules. She never deviates from her food plan–which means never eating dessert or drinking wine, for instance.

Although the article was interesting, I was somewhat bothered that it seemed to suggest that rigid rules (and zero indulgences) are required in order to maintain weight loss. The successes of the people who belong to the National Weight Control Registry suggest otherwise.

In a nutshell, NWCR members are people who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for at least a year. (Once I get to the one-year anniversary of my weight loss, I plan to sign up.) From what I read, these successful "losers" stay on track through exercise, portion control, and healthy food choices. Portion control and exercise in particular help give people the flexibility to have dessert now and then–unlike the size 6 woman in More. It’s great that she’s maintained her loss, and it may be that rigid control is the ticket for her. I just don’t think that works–or is necessary–for most of us.