65,535 ways to become obese QUICK!
 

The website for Chipotle says you can make "65,535 combinations" of a burrito or a bowl.

The problem is, thier nutrition facts are nowhere to be found on thier website.

Why is this? Well, for starters, they are owned by the McDonalds corporation.
(Insert your own media-spun propaganda here)

Whether that is good or bad, or just darn funny, is typical of what makes the US great.

Now, I'm not saying I don't like Mcdonalds! I loved them as much as the next guy who loved quick food at a super-cheap price. I just choose not to eat there anymore because thier food is not in my scope of what I deem as healthy food.

The average healthy person in the US as defined by http://www.fitness.gov/fitness.html is one who does a minimum of 4+ hours of excersize a week.
(Thats 40+ minutes a day sustained excersize for 6 days straight)
And, eats an average daily total of around 2000 calories, or 14,000 calories per week.

The average beginner athlete, or those on a specific or personal strength training and cardio program (like me) is someone who does moderate strength training for a minimum 20+ minutes a day and sustained medium-high intensity cardio for at least 30-40 minutes day, 6 days a week.
And eats a daily total of around 620-900 calories of SPECIFIC healthy foods and around a 60/40/40 split of Protien, good carbs, and good fats for a weekly total of around 5440 calories.
(Those on a hardcore weight training regiment eat around 1500-2000 calories a day.)

I am in the second category, and I've been tracking my results in my blog here: http://www.ragecg.com/bushido/?page_id=17

One would think that the second category of folks would gain TONS of fat, but in reality, the motabolic rate at which this group burns through calories of the proper type is FAR greater than the first group of people, obviously.

It is correct in that 3500 calories make up one pound of body weight.

Using these facts, and the famous http://www.chipotlefan.com/index.php...ion_calculator Chipotle Calorie Counter, here are the numbers straight up as to why folks who are part of the daily drive-thru culture are generaly more obese, and only getting worse:

Take my buddy for example, he eats at chipotle 4 times a week, and Subway, LeeAnn Chin's, BK or "Micky D's" the rest of the week.
Sadly, this is VERY common world-wide, as I used to do this myself every day for 15 years! :)
My favorite days were when Subway did thier 2 footlongs for 8 bucks, as I'd put both a footlong Meatball and a footlong Seafood away in one sitting!
http://www.chowbaby.com/fastfood/fas...ff_restid=1065
Just the Subway alone is a whopping 2157 calories!

...anyway, the first "average" american I spoke of above, when sticking to thier routine, will only burn an average of around 80-120 calories per workout, and around 180-240 calories a day total for a weekly total of around: 1540 calories.

The second category of people (like me) burn an average of 120-230 calories per workout, and around 300-420 calories a day for a weekly total of 2870+ calories burned.

With these numbers in mind, lets do the math for someone who eats like the "typical" drive-thru fan, like my buddy:

Eating at Chipotle only 3 times a week, one basic stripped-down chicken burrito, and a basic Subway 6" Turkey etc. the rest of the week will total an average of 7066 calories.
And this is JUST lunch, only ONE meal a day, and the average american eats 3 meals a day like this.
So, even if this person ate a SMALL meal for breakfast and dinner accounting for about 150-300 calories each per meal, the grand total brings us to a weekly calorie intake of about: 9866 calories.

Using the max calories burned per day from the above averages:

People in Category #1:
Consume around 9866 calories a week, and only burn off 1470 of those calories totaling to an average weight GAIN of 8396 calories, or 2.4 pounds per week!

People in Category #2:
Consume around 5440 calories a week, and burn off 2870 of those calories totaling to an average weight GAIN of 2570 calories, or a little under 1/4 of a pound per week, which is most often converted to lean muscle instead of fat, thus increasing metabolic rate, thus.... well, you get the idea:)

The folks in Category #2 have another advantage in that the foods we eat are designed and prepared for maximum energy, protien absorbtion, and good carbs and fats resulting in food that is WAY easier to burn off than foods full of trans fats, saturated fat and excess empty calories.

...and NO, it is NOT that hard to eat healthier, and workout like this every day.
Trust me, I used to be known by my friends as the one who ate for the apacolypse!
"...Izzy's gettin his apacolypse meal again. Said my friend Todd."

At first, I thought it would be so hard I would probably die of a heart attack due to the stress my body has not seen in over 15 years, but after doing it for 2 months straight so far, it only gets easier, and actually gets to be fun.

My point to this whole rant is to show the impact one can have by making simple changes to one's daily routine and lifestyle, and how this sort of culture can spiral out of control quickly.

I had to make some MAJOR life changes to get in the grove that I'm in now, and without setting concrete goals, and sticking to them with proper motivation, I'd still be depressed and morbidly obese.

The funny thing is, those folks who say "Well, I gotta buy all this gym equipment for thousands of dollars to do that!" WRONG! I went to Wal-Mart online and got a whole GOLDS GYM setup for only 107 bucks after shipping! Then I bought 2 weight sets for 20 bucks each, and I'm totaly set till I start my advanced weight training in Jan.

Good luck to anyone attempting to change thier life, as it is not an easy thing to do.

...Ragecg

Hey, funny you mentioning this, rage, as I, too, am attempting such a lifestyle change. I'm waking up much earlier, going to sleep much earlier, etc. Working out and going out walking every morning, doing cardio and strength training... all that jazz.

I ordered a scale a day or 2 ago as I realized that I don't really know how much I weigh, but I have noticed some changes! Pants are looser and I'm feeling better through the day.

It's still early for me (been at it for a couple weeks) and I still am a little slow to get going in the mornings, but I always feel good afterwards!

I've even gotta little motivational celeb of my own. ;)

Good luck to us both, buddy!

No frickin way man! Thats AWESOME!

...now I don't feel so alone:)

Also, btw, if you check out my blog theres a quote from Tom Vinuto about the issue with excersize in the morning vs. evening... ah heck, I'll just post it here:

RAGEBLOG

The gains are about a 20-50 calorie difference to doing am cardio to pm cardio, so it is up to you.

It took me about a month to start doing the Am workout consistently, but after I bought my new, more acurate scale, the results showed.

Keep on goin man!

Its a good thing Kevin didn't see this thread yet, or he'd be calling us SM's own "Hanz and Franz" :) hehe...

heheh, cool. I'll keep the am/pm thing in mind! Oh, I have a blog thing too at my own site if you're interested. In the "Articles" section as I didn't know where else to put it.

Yeah, and to anyone else interested, my own work out equipment is only about $20. It's a set of resistance bands like these - http://www.activasports.com/images/a...ge/niu-016.jpg

Really really works! Eventually, I'll need to graduate to a higher resistance, but for just starting out, it works wonders and can be used for all sorts of different excercises.

Motivational celeb? Who might I ask?

Oh, I just started football a few weeks ago. And man, I have to say, I was out of shape. And probably still very out of shape. We dont really have the stern coaches needed. But on a different note. I am 6'1" 220 lbs and only 14 years old. Dont really know why I said that.

Nice, you remind me of me. I was about that size back then, too. :)

The current celebrity female that I'm kinda infatuated with at the moment is the French singer Alizée.

(Be careful if you search for pictures of her, as there are some fake ones out there, if you know what I mean.)

Sounds like you've done your homework:beer:

Dave

lol, it's not that. It's just that one of the first pictures that google displays when you type her name in is one of the fake ones.

As for the post weightlifting cardio training, I've seen a program combining cardio and weightlifting, I think it was something like 45 minutes of workout 3 times a week or something like that...

I can try and find it again for you guys if you want me to...

Cool, if you check my blog, that is exactly what I do, and have been told to do by my trainer as well.

I do my specific muscle group weight workout for a given day, then I follow all of that with my 45 minutes of cardio.

I do that Mondays, wednesdays, and fridays, and on the off days, I just do the cardio.


At the end of Jan. 06, I'll be at my optimum/goal weight, and it is then that I'll be starting my toning/higher-strength phase.

Good luck!

Just a little update. :)

Over the last 3 months or so, I've lost a total of 42 lbs! Woo hoo! 28 to go to my first goal weight. :)

That's awesome, Mike! Me, I've gone the opposite...just cancelled my gym membership. I weighed 135-140 in my early 20s...decided to clean up my lifestyle a bit...joined a gym and put on like 20lbs of muscle (working out more...eating more)...got married and have gained like 10lbs every year in spite of working out! (They say a wedding ring adds 40lbs....:T ) I'm in the process of trying to move to an area close to a park so I can get back into rollerblading. I think I've actually lost weight since I quit working out. Be careful with getting too into weight lifting...that'll add weight. Concentrate more on cardio. Sounds like you're doing great though....my biggest problem is with my diet as I'm always eating on the go and late at night because I get home late...it sucks. Not to mention, that I'm a bit of a fussy eater. If only I could whack myself on salad.

Thats great Mike!!! way to go.

I really got to get back in shape as well before i went back to school i was kickboxing 3 or 4 times a week and the best shape of my life 6,2 158 lbs at training weight.. No with so much moveing around the last few years i've gotten lazy up around 185=(.

Keep it up Mike you have inspired me to try and get back to working out.. We can keep tabs on each other muhahaha

I know what you mean about eating Pete im a super taster and lot of food actully tastes bad to me so my diet not that great either.

Kurt, I weight about the same...180lbs but I'm at 5'8". I need to be careful because Several of my siblings are obese so I'd rather nip it in the butt now rather than letting it get too out of control. Stress also causes weight gain.

Thanks, guys. :)

What I've been doing that seems to be working out pretty well is I take turns doing cardio and resistance training every day... mon- cardio, tues - resistance, wed - cardio, etc.

I also go walking every morning and try to get some jogging in every day after the above daily thing.

Food-wise, I'm simply doing:

no sugar
more water
less soda/tea
more protein
less calories
less carbs
eating less
eating healthy
eating slower

So far, so good. :) I've gone from a whopping 320 down to 278. 250 is my first goal. Then we'll see where to go from there.

As for eating healthier on-the-go, you can go to most fast food places, but you just have to make smart choices. Like, I'll go to Subway and get a 6" on wheat Italian BMT. Just hold the mayo. Or at Wendy's get a grilled chicken sandwhich with lettuce (no sauce) and a side ceaser salad and a diet coke. That kinda thing. But stay away from Burger King. lol ;)