The big weigh in...

Today the competition began with the starting weight weigh in. I cringed when I saw the number on the scale. Oh the horror! At 10am I was 4lbs heavier than I was when I weighed myself at 8:30 that morning. The additional 4 lbs was probably due to drinking water, eating breakfast before the weigh-in and the weight from the shoes and clothes that I was wearing. I'm not going to let those 4lbs get me down. It's just motivation to work out hard!

So besides the Group Competition, I am in two side bets with my boyfriend and a co-worker with $100 on the line in each additional bet. I don't want to lose $125!

My plan is to lose at least 15% of my body weight over the next 12 weeks. I believe there is no trick to weight loss. It's just a few simple math problems.

1lbs = 3500 calories

2lbs = 7000 calories

7000/7 = 1000 calories per day

So if I can create a calorie deficit of 1000 calories a day then I will lose 2lbs a week. Most experts will tell you that the best way to create a calorie deficit is to eat less and exercise more. My plan is to eat 500 calories less and burn 500 calories with exercise per day on average (Average because I probably will not work out on Sundays and days where I go to the gym I'll burn closer to 600 calories, which will make up for not working out on Sunday).

To create a calorie deficit you first need to know how many calories you need to maintain your current weight. There are many calculators online that will do that. I found that for women if you multiply your weight by 11 that yields the amount of calories you consume in 1 day (assuming no exercise).

So a 130lb woman consumes about 1430 calories a day. If she wanted to lose 2lbs a week she

would do a combination of exercising and eating less: 1430 - 1000 = 430 net calories for the day.

In addition to creating a calorie deficit I plan to eat small meals throughout the day to keep my metabolism up.