Sing My Life With Your Words, Tom Venuto!

There's a lot of nonsense "information" on fitness and fat loss floating around the Internet. I should know, because some of it is written by me :) But there's also some very good stuff, and the author of much of it is Tom Venuto, the Burn The Fat guy.

He had a very good blog post the other day on female fat loss that I think you all should read, especially if you are smaller-framed like me:

http://burnthefatblog.com/archives/2010/03/speed_up_slow_female_fat_loss.php

It's just common sense, but it's still a salutary reminder for those of us who tend to get frustrated when the scale seems not to be moving even though we've been 100 percent compliant with our diet and exercise programs. The sad fact is, whether you weigh 180 lbs or 110, losing a pound of fat means creating a calorie deficit of 3,500. And creating that deficit is a whole heckuva lot easier for the person who weighs 180, because even if he's not terribly active he probably requires 2500 calories a day just to maintain his weight. Cut that by 20 percent and he'll lose a pound a week even without increasing his activity level. The 110-lb person, on the other hand, requires far fewer calories to maintain her weight unless she happens to be, say, an ultra-marathoner-in-training or an aspiring Olympian. Assuming a maintenance level of 1800 calories a day, a 20 percent calorie reduction will result in a weekly deficit of only 2100 calories, equating to a loss of only a little more than half a pound of fat a week. If Ms. 110 wants to speed things along she'll need to move more--but even that can be frustrating because with her smaller frame she's going to burn far fewer calories doing exactly the same workout as her 180 lb friend. (Mr. Tactical Ballerina and I have put this one to the test. But it's all right. I love him anyway. Usually.)

So what's a girl to do? In a word--okay, three words--suck it up. Deal with it. It is what it is, and lamenting the unfairness of it all gets you exactly nowhere. (I'm not saying don't take it out in small passive-aggressive ways on your 180-lb friend, especially if you happen to be married to him. This can be quite enjoyable. Just ask Mr. Tactical Ballerina, who incidentally has the patience of a saint:))

Seriously, you can still attain your fat loss goals even if you're smaller and have a slower metabolism. You just can't expect to shed fat as fast as a bigger person would. The good news is, you probably don't have as much to lose to get to goal. A loss of as little as five pounds may be enough to take you from "acceptable" to "rock star." If you think in terms of percentages of body fat lost you can definitely keep pace with your larger friend. In fact you may even get to goal sooner.

So don't despair. Seriously, don't. Go shoe shopping instead. Buy a nice pair of heels that will make you the perfect height for your weight :) It's much more satisfying.