Lose Weight Program > Basal Metabolism and the Metabolism Table

Now, a genuinely obese person may have to consume 4,250 calories a day, or even more, to maintain himself or herself in a state of obesity. It takes calories to maintain obesity as well as to acquire it.



Suppose that an obese woman needs 4,250 calories a day to keep her weight (excessive though it is) unchanged. She will lose weight, although with discouraging slowness, if her diet consistently provides only 4,000 calories a day. To be sure, it won't be very long before a balance is struck - she will cease to lose weight long before she has trimmed down to her ideal figure, which might require a mere 2,000 calories for maintenance.

But, for such a person, for a brief time, 4,000 calories can actually be a reducing diet-although clearly it would be a fattening diet for the average woman. The practical, heartening point is this: a woman or man whose obese maintenance level is 4,250 calories a day can expect to lose weight faster on a reducing diet than the person who is just a little overweight. Suppose such a person goes on a 1,000-calorie reducing dietif his or her maintenance of obesity has been at a 4,250-calorie level, there's going to be a daily reduction of 3,250 calories, which represents between three fourths of a pound and one pound of solid fat!

Extra calories to be added to your basal figure may vary anywhere from 800 a day on up, according to the nature of your occupation and activities. Thus it is possible to simplify this metabolism business by allowing you to find yourself in the following table:

If you are up and around the house but take little or no exercise, except for such mild activities as answering the doorbell, reading, holding up a telephone receiver, and the like, your daily energy needs are about...	2,000 calories
If you have a white-collar job, do light housework, expend energy on the level of a seamstress, waitress, bookkeeper, clerk, or tailor, your daily energy needs are about...	2,500 calories
If you do light physical work such as gardening, shoemaking, light laundering, house cleaning, cooking, and get a moderate amount of light exercise, your daily needs are about...	3,000 calories
If you do moderately hard work, such as painting, cabinetmaking, metalworking, hard laundering, etc., your daily energy needs are about...	3,500 calories
If you do hard labor such as bricklaying, sawing wood, digging ditches, and the like, your daily energy needs are about...	4,500 calories or more

You will find that you fit reasonably well into one of these categories, and it is better than an even-money bet that it is not the last one. Heavy labor is one case where continuous hard exercise keeps down weight. Doctors' offices are never crowded with lumberjacks asking for reducing diets.


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