I have been wearing a Fitbit monitor for about a month now off of Steve Maxwell’s recommendation. As one of the leading innovators in the field, Steve really thinks outside the box. Although he is 60 years old, he is in phenomenal shape, and one of the reasons for this is due to the emphasis he places on moving every day.
It sounds simple, but Steve aims for taking 10,000 steps per day and climbing 20 flights of stairs per day on top of his daily workout.
With that in mind, I made it my goal to take at least 10,000 steps per day, and I either exceed that number or come pretty close to it every single day. Last week, this translated to me "burning" 22,000 calories and walking nearly 22 miles. Now, if I use my old trick of multiplying my bodyweight times 10 to get my basal metabolic rate (rather than the much fancier Harris-Benedict equation), I get a result that's roughly 2,300 calories per day—and this is just to maintain my normal functioning. With the number of steps, miles, and calories recorded in my computer system, I exceed this BMR by roughly 700 calories per day, which would put me at a fat loss of a pound and a half per week.
Now, keep in mind that this is the result of only walking throughout the day. If I were to take into account lifting, conditioning, basketball, etc., the number far exceeds the one and a half pounds. Also, it is important to note that I am on a Mountain Dog nutrition plan (John is my Coach, so my nutrition is on point), and I normally don’t eat more than 3,000 calories per day—with key attention being given to the peri-workout period.
The reason I tell you all of this information is that we need to start reconsidering the calorie balance equation. It comes down to more than just that, as you can see from the numbers above. I am sure some gurus are going to come smashing down on me and touting their research, but the first law of thermodynamics that states that energy can neither be destroyed nor created, rather it just changes form, doesn’t work when we are talking about calories and body composition. I cannot pinpoint the exact thing that is missing, but an email my youngest brother sent me sheds some light on the topic. This is something that I have long agreed with: “I am the leanest I have been in a long time and am the thickest I have ever been in my back and arms. I am happy, loving life, and the training is great…” He pays attention to what he eats, but he is a world traveler (poker player) and lives that type of lifestyle. The key in what he said is that he is loving life, and I have always believed that when your mind and spirit are in line, you can change your body composition to a much greater degree.
This is something that I have also noticed when I would get ready for bodybuilding shows and when I have prepped guys for bodybuilding shows. Many times, I would be cruising along until the point at which the journey of the contest preparation became my sole mission. My mind expected the changes to happen, and then they would happen at a much faster rate. This has usually occurred around six to seven weeks before the competition.
The body is an amazingly adaptable creation and relies on efficiency. I did an interview with the Bullet Proof Executive, Dave Asprey, a few weeks ago, and he was telling me how he once set out to prove the calorie equation wrong. He was a wiry 165 pounds and consumed 4,000 calories per day for three months. According to the calorie equation that so many people tout, he should have gained over 50 pounds of fat. Instead, he gained three pounds of muscle, nothing else.
Take what you will from this, but I do know that there is more to the story, and it’s time to re-examine how we view diets and food. As humans, we like to be able to measure and quantify everything, but we can’t do that in this case. I think it will be a long time before the rest of the nutrition and fitness community reach this point, but try some experiments on yourself and track your own results... yours are the only ones that really matter.