UnFAIR, life!

You know what's totally unfair?

A pound of fat is 3500 calories for everyone.

Yup. It's completely unfair.

Why?

If you've ever watched The Biggest Loser, you'll see the people on the show lose 5-10 lbs each week. Those are HUGE numbers, and it means they've burned 35,000 extra calories that week to lose those 10 lbs. The problem is, if you've watched that show enough, you start to think those kinds of numbers are normal. And they're NOT.

And it's totally not fair to the rest of us.

Most people will lose a decent amount of weight on the first week or two of a new diet and exercise program, and that's usually because that first week or two is when they're doing the program with the most gusto, adhering to the program faithfully, and the metabolism hasn't completely adapted yet. That, and most people are tall enough, and large enough, that their baseline daily calorie burn is fairly high.

The unfair fact of life is that larger people burn more calories than smaller people.

I hear you say "Wha?" What are you smoking, Lee? (Just so we're clear, no smoking, kids. It's bad for ya.)

Let me give you an example. A friend of mine from high school recently posted on his Facebook that he'd burned 2100 calories in 2 hours. I was impressed, so I asked him what he did. Well, he'd done some weights, some intervals, and some bodyweight exercises. Nothing too unusual. And that kind of calorie burn for someone his size isn't all that unusual either--he's 6'4" and a shade under 250 lbs.

For me, at 5' 3.75" (yes, those three-quarters of an inch are important, darn it!) and my current weight, if I did the exact same exercises with the exact same intensity, I'd be extraordinarily lucky to burn half the number of calories, and it's much more likely that I'd burn a quarter to a third of that number of calories and feel like that's *totally* awesome.

It's so unfair. Because I'm small, I'd have to work out at the same intensity for four times longer to burn the same number of calories. And 1 lb of fat is STILL 3500 calories, both for him and for me. In ONE day, he's burned the equivalent of of my eating a 500 calorie deficit and working my butt off for more than FOUR DAYS. In one day, he burned off more than half a lb!

I could just scream with the injustice of it all!

So if you have a larger frame or you're taller or have a lot of weight to lose, then you'd better be feeling lucky, punk. You burn more calories doing the same stuff I do, and you can lose weight that much easier.

This is why life is unfair. And one of the reasons why it's so hard to lose those last 10-20 lbs.

And it's also why you should celebrate every single pound of your successful fat loss.

It's so incredibly frustrating for me to work my butt off week after week paying the usual supercareful attention to what I eat (both because of the food allergies and because I'm trying to lose fat), and working out for two hours almost every day while putting my full effort into my workouts, and weigh myself only to find that I've lost one measly lb that I can reasonably assume was water weight.

You can do it. Diet and exercise. It's a way of life. It's hard work. It's worth it. Keep going, even when you're frustrated. Because after a while, those tiny 1 lb differences add up to big changes. And the need for new, smaller clothes (which is another gripe for another day).

Guest Corner!

Last week I had the most amazing discovery. I was reading an interview with Jason Ferrugia that Craig Ballantyne had put up (I'm a fan of Turbulence Training, yeah), and Jason was mentioning some vegan things he recommended. What caught my eye wasn't that he was talking about vegan food (since it seems like just about every fitness expert guy I've heard of has gone through a vegan/vegetarian phase), but rather that all his vegan recommendations were soy-free as well. Soy is usually the main protein replacement for people who don't eat dairy or eggs, so it was unusual to see someone who wasn't allergic actually go vegan and soy free.

SO! The amazing discovery? Jason mentioned a cheese substitute called Daiya. Now, usually cheese substitutes have casein in them (despite their claims of being dairy-free, the liars), and those that don't almost always have soy.

But not Daiya. It has no corn, no soy, no casein, no milk, no egg.

I know! I was shocked too! And then once I recovered I made a gluten/wheat-free egg-free milk/dairy-free soy-free corn-free pizza. And it was GOOD. (But more on that later.)

So today's guest post is from my sister-in-law, Liz Dubon Orwig. She's vegetarian. She's done vegan for a while, and she's totally down with the whole allergy thing, since she also is struggling with avoiding food allergens. She has a huge head start on the wonder that is Daiya, since she found it a while ago, and she doesn't mind rubbing it in just a teeny bit. :)

She's been experimenting with Daiya for a while, and has some good recipes to share. Like these vegan nachos. Mmmmm.

So read all about it on her blog! It'll make you hungry! It'll make you cheesy!

And most of her recipes can be adapted for non-vegan-friendly allergies (like wheat allergy or gluten intolerance), as well. For example, there are a lot of rice breads in grocery stores that can be used to make grilled Daiya sandwiches. And I actually found brown rice tortillas today in a local grocery store (yes, they actually exist), so quesadillas are totally do-able.

So enjoy our ode to the happiness that is Daiya. Just remember, though, that Daiya is definitely NOT nutritionally equivalent to real cheese, and is more of a fat source than anything else. So if you're on a weight loss diet, make sure to take the calories, fat, and carb content into consideration, and enjoy responsibly!