As we come into the final week of the 21-day challenge I want to congratulate you for your efforts to stay on or to keep getting back on the horse.

The assignment was a simple increase in daily activity by at least 30 minutes per day for 21 days: the number of days it takes one to make or break a new habit. Today we are going to get a little technical as next week I want to look more deeply into our nutrition. In order to discuss nutrition and make changes there, we must walk before we crawl.

Some surfers believe the best way to learn is on a long board, the old-fashioned way first, and then get into what all the kids surf. I like to think of nutrition like managing money as the parallels make for easier understanding.

As an example, in order to discuss money, we have to understand a couple of fundamentals: arithmetic and the value of a dollar. If one cannot add, he cannot learn better ways to manage his money.

More importantly, if he doesn’t have a relative understanding for the general value of a dollar, then he will not understand that being sold a candy-bar for $1-million is a bit steep.

Generally speaking, in this professional’s humble experience, to the extent which one will predictably manage the details of his calorie intake is directly proportional to the extent at which he currently manages his money. Personally I am a little loose with both. I once trained a day trader

who, after learning about calories, managed his nutrition like a portfolio. “Suum cuique pulchrum,” or, “hey man it worked for him”.

Don’t worry, it will all make sense soon.

The question with Calories most often debated is generally centered on “whether or not there is value in counting calories?” While I will not weigh in a definite yes or no on this, I have found that in every case, some cursory understanding of what calories are, how they work, and what their general value is to us gives most people an advantage on making better food choices and getting to their goals more quickly.

In a country like Costa Rica, finding this information can be challenging so we will wrap with some worldwide sources of information as well.

To start it helps better understanding for the measure of energy commonly known in fitness circles as “a calorie,” especially with how it relates to our personal food choices.

The calorie is sometimes represented as a “Kcal,” as is the case with most food sold in Costa Rica. Don’t let this throw you as they are one and the same. Now before we get too far ahead of ourselves here, because I know the emails will follow. Today we are going to operate on a very simple and level playing field of generalities to get a baseline understanding.

I know that a calorie is only a calorie in a lab, and that there is mounting research from credible sources to suggest that the behavior of calories can vary somewhat from food-source to food-source, I know. This is true of money as well.

Putting my money into a savings account is not the same as putting it into bonds, stocks or other investments, but all of these examples are generally and likely more wise than putting it into the food disposal. [insert political joke here]

Let’s get nerdy for a second.

Calories are a measure of energy or heat, and in fitness circles, often represented by “Kcal.” This means simply, Kilogram-calorie. When us common folks talk about calories, we are not really talking about true calories, we mean the Kcal. The Kcal is actually a measure of 1000 calories, or one thousand units of calorie heat.

If nutrition labels used true calorie measurements we would need much bigger boxes to print all those huge numbers on. Can you imagine finding that a serving of your favorite cereal is 240,000 calories! Yes, I have replaced my California King with an elliptical and now sleep vertically… ahem.

Some broad generalizations of values to get a sense of these calories (Kcals).

• The average adult body will burn about 1000 calories in a 24-hour period at total rest. This accounts for the energy to expand the lungs, pump the blood, divide and replace cells, and other basic body activity.
• Most adults will burn between 2000-3500 calories per day by just living their lives.
• A pound of fat is a storehouse for calories: about 3500 per pound of fat. Yes there is research to state it varies. We aren’t going there.

So how many calories do we burn during a workout? Although it’s impossible to give an exact number for how many calories one burns when working out, too many factors such as time and intensity, let’s come to an understanding that the number displayed on the treadmill is not accurate in any way. It is fair to say it is a gross exaggeration.

I generally spend about 60 minutes per day working out, cardio and resistance training, and have measured my calorie burn (with 95% accuracy using a Bodymedia (™) device) during that hour to be about 300-400 on really good days. The net value of exercise we will come to find is more than just burning calories, in fact in my humble opinion, calorie burning is the least benefit of working out albeit definitely on the list.

This begs the question, how do we use this information to get in better shape?

Hypothetically, if I am 10 pounds over my desired scale weight, and I assume that it’s 10 pounds of body fat I wish to lose, then are we saying I must find a way to shed 35,000 (3500 x 10) calories of extra energy to get to my goal? How can I do that if I am only eating 3000 calories per day? I need to be negative 3500 at the end of the day to lose a pound.

First, let’s not assume we will lose one pound per day. Go with one-two pounds per week.

Okay fine… but then how?

There are two ways this can be done:

I could workout for 4 hours a day. At 400 calories burned per hour, which is 1600 per day, I will get to my goal in about 3 weeks. Then I will check into my chiropractor’s spare bedroom because I will certainly need round-the-clock adjustments from all the pounding on my joints.

The other option is cut my food intake back, calorie-wise: 1000 per day. This will put me in a net deficit of 7000 calories per week and will have me to my goal in about five weeks, six weeks if I stumble a little. Not bad, but boy am I hungry.

The better option is a combo move that gives me all the benefits of working out (stronger heart, lungs, muscles) combined with proper eating for all those benefits: improved body composition, reduced health risks, improved confidence, better sex-life. All of this is wrapped up in faster results without killing my body in the process.

Whew! I thought we agreed on one thing at a time, Damon? I did and we are. We are building steam here… hang on!

We are not making major dietary changes yet, just learning, but learning more may cause changes. As we round the next 7 days of increased activity, I want us to start looking more at our food choices. Not the food itself, but the calorie information. If the food you are eating is coming via someone else’s hands, such as a spouse or restaurant, then this will be a little more tricky. If you are the sole decision maker with purchasing and preparing food then this will be a lot easier.

The assignment this week is to simply take time everyday, even if it is only one moment to look at one thing, and learn about the foods you are eating. Most people tend to eat many of the same things. Because of this we don’t need to become nutrition experts for much more than a handful of food choices. If rice is always on the table, then rice should be something you learn about.

There are two places to find the calorie values for food: the label of the food item, and my personal favorite, www.calorieking.com. Calorie King even has an iPhone app and I use it all the time.

So, from a strictly mathematical standpoint, getting back to our money-management example, we should be able to work with these basic numbers to come up with a plan to lose, at the very least, weight (preferably body fat) in order to get the doctor off our backs, right?

In my experience, in many cases and generally speaking, yes.

Suggested reading (with a lot of pictures): There is a great book out there called “Eat This, Not That” which gives some really interesting examples of food choice options which may at first appear to be inferior to the choices we typically make, and then explains why they are in fact superior. It is a worthwhile read and I recommend it to anybody wanting a more ground level approach to understand better food choices.

Written by VIP Member Damon Mitchell who spent over 10 years in the fitness industry before he moved to Costa Rica in search of a better work/life balance. Currently he lives in Playa Azul near Tarcoles with his wife Cristina and their dog Kai.

Daily, Damon runs on the beach in Playa Azul and keeps fit by doing calisthenics, using a TRX suspension trainer, stability ball and just about anything he can to create new and fun exercises.

You can email Damon here if there is anything specific about staying fit and healthy in Costa Rica you would like him to cover in his next article.

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.