{"id":532,"date":"2012-07-23T11:27:47","date_gmt":"2012-07-23T15:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lemasney.com\/?p=532"},"modified":"2025-11-14T22:39:05","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T03:39:05","slug":"a-friend-asked-me-for-help-losing-weight-this-is-my-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/2012\/07\/23\/a-friend-asked-me-for-help-losing-weight-this-is-my-response\/","title":{"rendered":"A friend asked me for help losing weight, this is my response."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

A bowl of noodles by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #Inkscape #food #illustration<\/p><\/div>\n

A very good friend who reached out for help losing weight asked me where to start. I asked her if she had read my recent post on my nutritional methods<\/a>, and she said she had not. I asked her to start there.<\/p>\n

In the mean time, I asked her some questions about her body, and she was brave enough to share the answers. With the answers, I was able to give her a plan. The plan looks like this:<\/p>\n

She is 31, 5’2″, sedentary, and 192 pounds, which means that:<\/p>\n

Her BMI is 35. BMI of 30 and above indicates a higher frequency\u00a0of heart disease and other ailments, and is commonly called obesity. I am obese as well, and it means that we should both weigh less than we do for health<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Her Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) is 1614 calories and her Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is 1631 calories. This means that if she were in a coma, her body would still burn over 1600 calories.<\/p>\n

Her Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is 1957 calories. This means that this is what she burns in an average day, with all of her walking, driving, and living.<\/p>\n

A reasonable deficit to lose weight, about a pound a week, is 500 calories per day below TDEE, so 1957-500 = 1457 calories. If she eats only 1457 calories a day, she will lose about a pound a week. With exercise, it will be more, but exercise is not necessary, just recommended.<\/p>\n

So, using the analogy of money I refer to in my post above, she is walking around with $1450 in calories to spend each day.<\/p>\n

Here are some common fast food items that will use most of this allowance. <\/p>\n

The 7-layer Taco Bell burrito she ate the other day is about a third of her daily calories. is worth about $500 in calories.<\/p>\n

Alternatively, she can get a lot more for her money<\/em> by eating vegetables and fruits. Most servings of a cup are less than 100 calories each. She could either eat one large fast food sandwich, 3 burritos, \u00a0or 14 cups of vegetables in a day, and no matter which of these she chooses, she would be under her calorie goal, though there are great mental and energy benefits to the latter.\u00a0http:\/\/www.healthalternatives2000.com\/fruit-nutrition-chart.html<\/p>\n

The key is to know how many calories she is eating, and how many she should\u00a0eat. If she stays below her goal, she will lose. It’s that simple.<\/p>\n

If you’d like me to help you with your nutritional profile, contact me at lemasney@gmail.com<\/a>. I’d love to help you get healthy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A very good friend who reached out for help losing weight asked me where to start. I asked her if she had read my recent post on my nutritional methods, and she said she had not. I asked her to start there. In the mean time, I asked her some questions about her body, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3653,17],"tags":[311,411,3870,905],"class_list":{"0":"post-532","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-insights","8":"category-photography","9":"tag-food","10":"tag-inkscape","11":"tag-john-lemasney","12":"tag-weight-loss","13":"czr-hentry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/20100609dailynoodle.png?fit=499%2C498&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3h6y2-8A","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1331,"url":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/2010\/06\/27\/188-of-365-is-about-appearances-in-inkscape-angels\/","url_meta":{"origin":532,"position":0},"title":"188 of 365 is about appearances in #Inkscape #angels","author":"lemsy","date":"2010-06-27","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently got a request from repeat requester and friend Shannon who asked about a sketch thusly: Challenge:Punked out angel wings, with the caption \"I only LOOK like an angel\" Inspiration: A white, fluffy fru-fru dog who's well-deserved nickname is Punk (owned by a good and mutual friend of ours\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "portfolio"","block_context":{"text":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/category\/portfolio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Looks like an angel","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/20100627likeanangel.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/20100627likeanangel.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/20100627likeanangel.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5794,"url":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/2010\/11\/06\/314-of-365-is-a-fork-inkscape-drawing-food\/","url_meta":{"origin":532,"position":1},"title":"Fork by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #Inkscape #drawing #food #cc","author":"lemsy","date":"2010-11-06","format":false,"excerpt":"We buried mom today. 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While I'm not sure how recognizability happens with those restrictions, I decided to try to do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "portfolio"","block_context":{"text":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/category\/portfolio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A chicken made of text by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #Inkscape #design #typography","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/20100922chicken.png?fit=809%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/20100922chicken.png?fit=809%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/20100922chicken.png?fit=809%2C500&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/20100922chicken.png?fit=809%2C500&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5943,"url":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/2011\/04\/07\/107-of-365-is-or-sarah-inkscape\/","url_meta":{"origin":532,"position":4},"title":"97 of 365 is for Sarah #Inkscape","author":"lemsy","date":"2011-04-07","format":false,"excerpt":"A long time supporter of this project and very close friend, Sarah, asked me what I might do to visually bring together the names of people in a particular program and its acronym. 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