Feeling good about binging.

The only way to lose weight is to eat less and exercise more. It's that simple. If you want to lose weight, you must create a deficit.

It wasn't long ago that food was not consistently plentiful. Like the animals, our systems learned to adapt to feast or famine conditions. Famine conditions caused us to function like a clock in slo-mo. We used less calories, and our systems slowed down, almost like hibernation. In other words, our bodies compensated for the deficit by slowing down and using less energy.

The challenge is to prevent our systems - our basal metabolic rates - from going too slow. This means doing some rather strange things.

Your basal metabolic rate is how many calories your body will use in a 24-hour period, assuming you watched TV all day long. If you add a walk, or clean the house, this will affect your BMR. If you gain weight, your BMR will increase, because it takes energy to support the extra fat, blood vessels, muscle, etc. Sadly, as we lose weight, our BMR decreases (but you probably won't mind.)

Every time you move, you add to your BMR calories. Mow the lawn, have sex, run the New York marathon; they are all added as calorie consumption to your BMR.

Every time you eat something, you add to your caloric intake. You need a minimum number of calories to sustain you, and its usually 4 digits (check with your doctor).

If you train and diet too intensely, your BMR will acually decrease. (This is also true of thyroid disorders, and people who are fasting.)

So what's the answer? A very strange conclusion indeed - every so often, you've got to get out there and seriously eat.

Most weight loss programs keep you on the same number of calories every day. Firstly, this is impossible to achieve. What if you are up for 18 hours? Do you really think Aunt Esther will let you have half a cookie? And what about those days where you forget to eat, or are ill, or just managed things so you ate somewhat less? These things happen every day. This is why you need a FOOD DIARY that tracks what you are eating and the calories consumed. Write it, and check the calories on the net. You can get very good at it, even when there's a 30% possibility that you forgot a few things.

Generally, my equation is as follows

My BMR + my calories expended - less food consumed should equal minus numbers. I am a good girl, and I am on track.

However every so often you have to be  bad. This jolts the system with a surprise influx of calories. One day a week or so, I feel like being naughty; sometimes jjust a little, and sometimes the neighbours are having a BBQ. It's a calculated risk. Literally.

If after 6 days I am showing total minuses of 3500-7000 calories, or 1-2 pounds - I might indulge in a mighty meal. I give up, say, half a pound. However the next day I eat less (helping me get back on track) and I have nore energy.

"Honey, I think your diet is shot."

I am on my 4th plateful. I am going to hell. Or am I? Watch how this sneaky bitch did it.

The plates are 7" (always take the little plates). The meal is calculated, too. I drink only water, and a lot of it. I load up on soup and salads to fill me up, along with seafood. Meats I only pick at. So by the time the high calories - meats and fried things - hit my stomach, I am already 3/4 full on high volume, high protien goodies.

The chocolate fountain at Wasabe is my downfall. I take a few spoonfuls of that sumptuous chocolate sauce, along with a strand or two of blueberry and strawberry sauce, and a couple of small scoops (the size of a ping pong ball) of ice cream. A badgirl dessert for less than two hundred calories. So I do it again!

We do not live in a weight loss program textbook. Every day we live in a real world that is not interested in our progress. Every day we know people who eat 18 peanut butter cups or a tub of ice cream and call it a meal. We know people who turn town social events and then eat a large bag of buttered popcorn.

The real world eats, and the real world eats more every so often.  If  you plan around it, your probability of success in maintaining weight loss is much higher.