Daily Calorie Calculation.

Following my previous post, I've had lots of requests about my diet plan. Not to worry my friends, Dela is here to save the day!

There are lots of ways on losing weight without the supplement. There are Atkins, Yo-Yo, Low Carbs-High Protein, No carbs, and so on. So what type of program did I used? None. I practice balance diet and healthy life style. Seriously.

Nah, just joking. Who the hell practice perfect lifestyle?

But yes, part of it is called Healthy lifestyle and balance diet. What's that?

First of all, y'all need to know how DCR works. DCR is a daily calorie requirement according to your age, physical activities, weight and gender. Generally, man need more calories than us woman. No kidding.

This is the equation taken straight out of the KevinZahri eBooks. I hope he doesn't sue me cause I'll be charging you then. But since I care deeply for my friends and family, here it is. Please use it responsibly.

First of all, there's BMR and DCR. BMR is Basal Metabolic Rate, and DCR as explained above. Please don't ask me what is basal whatsoever. I'm not a rocket scientist nor a qualified trainer. Go ask your science teacher if you're curious. Cause curiosity is dangerous creature, do you know they killed a cat now?

Got it? No? Guess so. Here's my calculation based on my actual height, weight and age.

Age : 23
Weight : 68 Kg
Height : 164 cm

BMR = 655 + ( 9.6 x 68 ) + ( 1.8 x 164 ) - ( 4.7 x 23 )
        = 655 + 652.8 + 295.2 - 108.1
        = 1494.9

So lets say Ali is a  man of age 35, weighing at 78 kg, and height of 178cm here's his calculation .

BMR = 66 + ( 13.7 x 78 ) + ( 5 x 178 ) - ( 6.8 x 35 )
       = 66 + 1068.6 + 890 - 238
       = 1786.6

and if Maya is a woman of the same age, height and weight, the calculation is different than Ali

BMR = 655 + ( 9.6 x 78 ) + ( 1.8 x 178 ) - ( 4.7 x 32 )
        = 655 + 748.8 + 320.4 - 150.4
        = 1573.8

See how Maya's and Ali's BMR are different. Because they're different gender. Poor Maya, for woman as tall as her, her BMR barely reach 1600. Remember what I said about how your age also affects your metabolism? No? Well maybe because I haven't mention it yet. Haha. Got you! ( duh? )

Our metabolism slows down as we aged. Maya's BMR might be different than when she was 22, so even if she ate the same stuff for the last ten years, she will still be overweight, over time.

But.......

We don't sit around all day right? For most of us, our job require lots of walking and sweating ( ewww ). There's an athlete of course, and qualified trainer at the gym. The BMR might be the same for some of us, but the DCR are never the same. Our DCR are measured from our physical activities.

I trust you and personally think we reach a mutual understanding that you know how to calculate your own BMR and thus now I'm providing you with the next calculation. I know, I know, such a nuisance right? Remember when you asked your teacher how mathematics affects our life? Well, this is it.


Hahaha! On your face buddy!


Sorry.


Okay back at DCR. Multiply your BMR with your physical activities level.

So remember my BMR is 1494.9 right? My activity level is on Level 2, then I have to multiply my BMR with 1.375.

DCR = 1494.9 x 1.375
       = 2055. 48

There's a big different between level 1 and Level 2 physical activities. Make sure you don't overestimate yourself and multiply yours by level 5. Cause if you were on Level 5, you won't be here in the first place.

Shame on you. You did however multiply yourself to level 3.

Just multiply on Level 1 shall we? You'll be fooling no one.

If I multiplied myself on level 1, I'd be falling into DCR of 1793.88. There's like 261.6 kcal different there, worthy of two Telur Mata Kerbau with soy sauce.

So if you want to lose the weight, your calorie intake must be lower than your DCR. As simple as that. For example if you want to lose 4 kg per months, you must lose around 1100 kcal per day. That's a lot of calories to lose!

Remember in my previous post I emphasize something? 7700 kcal equals to 1 kg. So if you want to lose 1kg per week, so you must cut down 1100 kcal of intake of foods every day, no exception.

Now 1100 kcal worth a lot of foods. Mee Bandung contains 550 kcal per bowl and Soto Ayam is 510 kcal per bowl. But before you go around scolding everyone for forcing you to eat Mee Bandung at night. Here's one thing I need to remind you.

There's is no WAY someone can cut up their calorie intakes up to 1100 a day. That is insane!

First of all, one must not eat less than half of their DCR in a day. Which mean if I want to lose 1 kg a week, I shouldn't cut my calories intake up to 1100, because they're more than half of my DCR. Secondly, one should not eat less than 1200 kcal a day. Why? It's a minimum calories our body needs in a day. If you failed the above, you will go into starvation mode. And when you go into starvation mode, you might as well make no different than with the people that drank Herbal ( ehemm ) drink or a diet supplement.

The end results? If you go into starvation mode, your metabolism and insulin levels drops. Yes you can lose weight. But once you started eating like normal again or when you stop your diet, you will GAIN back the weight you lose before, and even worse, more than what you lose before. And now you know why the supplement drink for diet isn't all that good for you.

Oooohhh, we're getting serious. I love this. I love being serious.

But seriously. Don't take this lightly.

So how can we lose our targeted weight than?

By exercise.

If you don't want to exercise, no worries. But your transition into getting slimmer will be slower ( OMG it rhymes! ). This is a choice. You can exclude exercise into your program.

In my previous post, I did mention that I ate 1400 kcal a day. That was when my DCR is 2200 kcal a day. So in total I lost about 800 kcal. To top it up, I exercised. I did low impact aerobic twice a day, one hour each session. Low impact aerobic burned around 365 kcal an hour, so figuratively speaking, I burned around 730 kcal everyday. And in addition to my calories intake ( 800 kcal ), I cut at least 1400 kcal in a day.

So,

1400 kcal x 7 days = 9800 kcal
9800 kcal = 1.2 kg

So I was able to lose 1.2 kg in a week alone. I lost 6.5 kg during my first month.

I know what you guys are thinking... "If I drink that diet shake, I might as well lose 8 kg in a month without exercise, so why should I do this instead?".

I did mention in the above one of my many babbling, how diet shake can affects your future self. You'd be wasting your money on nothing only to gain back the weight you lose?? Do you really wants that?

The transition might be slower than any type of diet program you see out there, but why the rush? If you start now, you might be able to have that dream Kebaya you've seen on TV that is out of your price range, fit on your body next Eidulfitri. It is more than what it worth.

Alright. Get back to business. Other than foods, drink also contribute a lot into your calorie intake. Imagine just a cup of tea in the morning contain 30-45 kcal depending on how many sugar in there. I'm pretty sure a cup of tea wouldn't be enough right? On average, most people consume about 15 teaspoon of sugar a day ( 1 tsp contain 25 kcal ). Tea and Coffee without sugar  contain only 1-2 kcal. Woww!! A shocker right! What's more? Drinking coffee can increase your metabolisms. I can't drink coffee without sugar so I drink Green Tea instead. They have fair amount of caffeine compare to coffee, cancer fighting property, bla bla bla. Since I'm taking care of my foods, might as well took care of my body right???

If possible, try to drink plenty of plain water. At least 2 liters a day. Plain water can flush out toxins and recover the water retention tendency in your body. Water retention alone can take up to 2-3 kgs, and you can lose 3 kg in first week alone from the water itself. The advantage that most of the diet shake manufacturer used. They claimed that their products can make you lose up to 3 kgs in first week ? Pffft, bullshit. Whatever.

I will be posting the list of foods I ate during the first month of my transformation, if I can steal some time at work ( sshhhh!!). I have a lot to say including diet myth ( tested by me! ), how Fiber & Protein play an important roles in my diet and so on. Until next time!!! Bye!

ATM : A journey to Awesomeness!!

For the records, I've lost 22kgs ( 48 pound ) and I know lots of people have been asking for my secrets. I have no secrets people! I will always tell you how I lose weight. But people will mostly go into some sort of denial. They all be saying things like " Liar! you must have drink something." or "Oh really????."( in a cynical kind of way ). I posted a detox drink on my facebook long time ago as some sort of cleanse because I ate like a pig during Eid Celebration. And some people CHOSE to believe that, this drink actually help me to lose weight. They don't. They only help you lose the water weight like 2kgs and the rest is up to you. And then I went on saying things like calories and fats and exercise and suddenly people lost interest of what I am saying. Seriously?

There are three things you need to keep in mind before you started your diet. Reason, motivation and discipline. You need to have a reason why you want to lose weight, and and from that reason comes the motivation. And when you lost all those motivation, only discipline can keep you going. What I see in most people is they have reason, but they can't find the motivation to keep them going. Since all those three factors are related, there's no way you can lose weight. You have reason, but lose the motivation, and no one's nagging you about the discipline, boom! There goes your dream blouse. 

I want to reveal one of the big secret only I know. It was actually one motivation I keep and they kept coming each time I feel like losing it. It's all started in a dream. And when I started to lose the motivation, another dreams coming and so on. Since I don't have..err...ehemm "boyfriend" , I need this motivation to be attractive and slim and thus achieve my goal. I know what you guys are thinking. If a man love you enough, he won't mind if you're fat as long as you're healthy and beauty from the inside. REALLY people? From which universe you live in? Blerghh!! You make me want to puke already. 

Now don't get me wrong. I know there are men out there love (ehemmm) "CURVY" woman, but let us be realistic here. Do you feel attractive? I don't feel attractive when I'm fat. I felt downgraded. Each time I went out somewhere, I hated myself for trying out clothes and they showed only fat. I hated my stomach and corset. I hated how my face looks in a picture. I hated all of it. But I don't do anything about it. My only thought was " If I were rich, I will try that slimming boutique like on TV". HAHAHA. If I were rich. Which could be the next ten years I guess? I might already looks like a balloon by then. 

And then this dream came in. I was married to this guy ( He's an actor obviously, people close to me will immediately know who he is ). Now, now people before you called me pervert, my dream only involve marriage okkaayy? Not the pervert stuff eww who do you think I am? So I woke up with a hope, and I started thinking " If I look likes this, not just him, any man wouldn't want to be with me " and there, my incredible journey to being AWESOME began. Oh did I say AWESOME ?, I mean beautiful pfffft what's wrong with your eyes?

At first I planned my diet like all people would have. Things that I can and cannot eat plastered on my fridge. And damn girl, they look scary as hell ( this is an expression, don't freak out please, I never been in Hell of course ). No carbs, not oil, no sugar I might just died in a week. Fortunately I am blessed with Internet Connection and I stumble upon the words "calories". Okkayyy, what the hell is "Calories?". All right on my defintion , calories are what consist of your food. Everything you eat has calories. Calories aren't fat or vitamin. Calories is how you can see whether the food you eat might make you fat or not. Food as a whole is a calories. Drink included. Insect included ( no judging there, I know some of you need extra "Protein" ). The only thing that is calories-less ( is there such word? ) is plain water. Which is why plain water is good for you. Because they don't make you fat. Nope. Light Coke has calories. Don't be fooled. Don't be stupid. 

Average woman ( age 20-29 ) needs around 1800 kcal a day. This applied to people that works in an office with no apparent reason to move from your desk and act like a robot. Which explain me mostly. But your calories requirement increase along with your weight, and yes, fat people need to eat more to live because they'd be burning more calories than average people. If you're an active people, you also need a lot more calories.

We burned calories mostly from breathing and blood circulation. By sleeping alone you burn 2200 kcal for 24 hours! Now who sleep 24 hours a day? A comatose patient of course. And then there's walking, watching TV, eating ( ironically!), houseworks bla bla bla. Everything you did in a day, burned calories. Even people in death bed burned calories, which is why they need to eat. 

Now that you understand calories, here how calories related to how we can get fat. I explain that we burned calories from pretty much everything we did right? But we also get that calories from almost everything we eat. Keep this in mind. 7700 Kcal equals to 1KG. Let say you eat 2000 kcal a day, and your daily calories requirement is 1800 kcal. There're extra 200 kcal right ? That extra calories will be kept in your body. So imagine if you exceed 200 kcal everyday, you will gain approximately 1KG in just over a month! But you might as well eat like a pig and have an extra calories of 500 a day and you will gain like 2KG in just one month. So, eat away!!

I calculated my Daily Calories Requirement (DCR) from kevinzahri.com. Feel free to visit his website anytime and download his e-book. There are every details of calories and nutrition (including protein) in there including examples of calories in food and how to calculate you DCR based on weight, age, activities. Have you ever heard of Pininterest? It's like google but with picture and information. Click on Health and fitness and you'll see lots of ways to lose weight. 

Do you know, one cup of cooked rice ( imagine the size of your fist ) contain 110 kcal! Wow! And you ate 2 plate of rice, 2 pcs of chicken, and 2 tablespoon of that Sambal Belacan this afternoon. They alone contain...behold...wait for it...750 kcal! There you go. And then there's Roti Canai with Curry ( 450 kcal ) for breakfast, Banana Fritters ( 200 kcal/ 5pcs ), and oh! hold on, you're craving Ikea meatball for dinner. So there were like 500 kcal in there ( 10pcs meatballs, with gravy and mash potatoes ) . But they were like 1900 kcal in totals?! Oh you forgetting the facts that drinks have calories too. Mainly from sugar and milk. Teh Tarik have 120 kcal per cups, so I assume you drink like 3 cups a day, so additional 360 kcal in there alone so the totals are like what 2260 kcal? Wait, your DCR is 1800 so you just exceed 460 kcal right? As easy as that.

When I first started my DCR was 2200 at 89Kgs, with one hour of intense exercise everyday and I ate no more than 1400 kcal. Since I lost lots of weight along the way, now my DCR is 1820 at 68kgs, with little amount of exercise ( barely hahahaha ), and I ate 1200 kcal everyday. Please keep in mind that when you don't exercise, you need to lose calories mostly from what you eat. So I need a lower calories intake than when I exercised. Exercise burn additional calories and when you don't exercise, you know, not much calories burn there buddy! 

For most people, 68 kilos seems overweight. But at 164 cm ( 5 feet 4 ) it doesn't really look like overweight to me. I'm still losing some of the weight, but no rush there! My actor isn't going anywhere!Bwahahaha. But I accompanied my remaining  journey by building muscle and those flabby arms is no more!! Which is why 68 kilos sound heavy, but not for people with some muscle on their body. I wear size 10 now ( I used to wear 18 ) which is lot of improvement, and I feel a lot better and awesome!! Wait, did I say awesome? I said beautiful! I still buy smaller size blouse and clothes, and over time little by little, I can fit into those clothes! And what's more amazing? I don't wear most of them anymore because they're getting looser. 

I call this a lifestyle. Not diet program. I haven't eat Roti Canai in 6 months!! They're not healthy for you, you know? So cut the Roti Canai from your life. No Roti Canai please. Roti Canai,Roti Canai. I stopped this lifestyle for one month before, because you know Eid and everything, but I don't gain any weight back ( but not losing any weight, sadly ), which is one major different than those people that you see drinking (ehem) "Healthy Juice and MilkShake", when they stopped, they gain back the weight they lose before. But I regretted it. Those greasy foods and sugary stuff aren't good for you, even if you're not trying to lose weight. And I haven't reach my goal yet ( 60 kilos ).

For the next post, I will talk about what I ate and what I did during this amazing journey. The most beautiful about this is, when I was fat, I lost count on how many people commented on me, being fat. Now, I lost count on how many people realize I, in fact, is in the best shape. 

ATM : Marriage and Life as we know it.

Since I will be attending my relative's wedding this week, I'm gonna have to prepare myself with the question that will follow. You see, my relative that's going to get married this week is the same age as I am. So can you imagine how many of them folks will be asking the same question over and over again?

     Well, I am 23 and I am young. Like when Nicole Kidman married to Tom Cruise at 23, she said " I'm was so young", and then she went on saying like it was the big mistake. I don't want to be like that. I don't want to spend my life wondering if I make the right choice. I don't want to spend the next ten years wondering if I've married the right man.

      If I want to get married, of course I want to marry "the one". Most people might be comfortable with the choice their family make for them, but I'm not. When I get married, the reason wouldn't be to avoid adultery. The reason would be because I want to. Life is complicated enough and I want the right person to venture down that road with me, side by side. Not in front of me, not behind me.

     Well I'm not saying any young man or woman married at the young age are making a wrong choice. Somewhere along the line, I did encounter some of the old couple that have been together since high school, or married at young age, and it was beautiful relationship. I wouldn't deny the simple thing of whatever they called it as true love. But I haven't been there yet. You see, I've seen some example. Closest example actually. Especially after so many kids. I thought having kids was suppose to bring your family together?

     Why did some family, undeniably happy even if they haven't been gifted with a child, and some family, standing on a thin ice, holding it together before someone could break it, even if they have children on any side more than willing to fix that? I am deeply confuse.I have seen so many faulty in marriage that sometimes I don't believe that a piece of paper and an oath that you keep can promise you a happy life. Maybe that's why Brangelina didn't get married. Because even if they love each other, both of them have been in a failed marriage and they have seen what that piece of paper can do to a relationship.

ATM : When people being nice to you

I grew up as a little girl whose accustomed of being bullied. It seems like every person in this whole world combine their forces to make me as living target. Like who you asked? Most of them are my family, 80% of my friends, 80% of the stranger and etc, etc.

My mother and I lived together in our grandfather's house with my aunt before my uncle move in and my aunt get married and move out. My aunt was worse of the bully. She hits me very often, verbally abused me. She never liked me around, not because she don't like kids, but because she don't like me. My mom said they had a fight, and since my grandparent sided with my mom, so I became a target. My mom and my grandparent will protect me, but there's so little they can do. I just remember one day, my mom run out of patience, and they fight again because of me. In front of their siblings.

My uncle ( never mind which uncle ) was indeed very nice to me when I was four to six years old. And then I started school, he became very verbally abusive. Because I was very afraid ( though he never hit me ), I never really cried in front of him, my mom knows it but there is nothing she can do about it. I don't blame her though. Most of the stuff in our house belong to him, and he was the powerful figure in my house since my grandfather died. It come to a point where he can't even hear me laugh or he'll give me those scary eyes even when my mom was around. I was being bullied? yes. But perhaps he just don't like kids.

These are only two of the major bullies in my life. I was bullied at school and at home. There's my brother, who made me a punching bag, there's this girl in kindergarten, whose me made an outcast, take my lunch money and all.

You can't blame me when I said I have trust issues. All of the people mention above are super nice to me now. My aunt, I believe ( and I want to believe ) were punished by God, her first marriage was a bombed, her second husband is a drug addict, her son was abuse by her second husband and admitted to a hospital for a month. But most of all, she's nice to me now. I guess it showed her that having your child abused was painful to bear. My uncle is the super nicest of all. Not that he was punished or anything, but I never held grunge toward him. I learned later that he actually helped my mom a lots when I was in boarding school, needing money and all.

There were times when I was early teenager, I was a rebel. I was a hot-tempered, I hated everyone, I think everyone has been plotting something behind my back. I hated life, I attempted suicide once ( there you go, my other confession, but in another time okay? ) I was depressed, but I can still keep up my good grade. I have no one to talk to except my counselor, which I visited almost every month. None of my family and friend notice the different, they just thought I was a cranky teenager. I didn't know how in the hell people can be happy all the time.

But in term of trust, I just don't have it. Not to anyone in this whole world. They haven't done anything that can earn them my trust.

Quitting Smoking

It's been a year since I had my last cigarette. It came naturally, simply because I can't find the time to smoke without my mom being suspicious and without the smell linger for hours. I've been on and off with smoking for the last five years and I think this is the longest I can go without even touching a single cigarette. Needless to say, I'm happy with the life I've chosen and this is the best I can do to my body ( despite the fact that I can't stop eating greasy stuff and red meat.)

Now that I've quit smoking, the smoke and the smell that linger after my co-workers on cigarette break on toilet make me dizzying as hell. I can even smell the slightest amount of a prove that someone is smoking. My boss even asked me why I hate people who smoke so much, because each time he tried to lit a cigarette around me, my nose cringe and I instantly brought a tissue to my nose as if trying to covering any smell. Seriously, I don't hate smoking. I just can't stand the smell. Because I used to smoke and the smell brought up any trace of addiction I once have. I afraid I might not be able to control myself. There are times when after I had dinner ( usually dinner I don't know why ), I longed for something . And usually I just chew gum or eat something really sour to cover up my urge to smoke. It's hard at first but as the times goes, the urge just disappear.

Love always,

DH