Weight Loss and Being Broke – Real Life Math Problems That Stump Us!
Weight Loss and Being Broke – Real Life Math Problems That Stump Us!
Math – Who knew! Here I was thinking that I was overweight and cash poor because I didn’t move enough or earn enough – I wasn’t looking at it as a word problem in math. Okay, it may seem a bit oversimplified but remember when we learned about common denominators in grade school? If you missed that class, it’s okay. Hopefully, my ramblings will show you what calories and budgeting have in common.
Like living paycheck to paycheck – needing to lose a few pounds (or, as in my case, a lot of pounds) is a matter of simple math. Calories come from carbs, protein and fats with fats being the most expensive calories at 9 calories per gram. Carbs and proteins are less at 4 calories per gram. You have a budget of sorts…. the total number of calories you need each day to LIVE. It’s like an income. The quality of your income is based on how many calories you take in from any source. You want more carbs and proteins than fat. You want more complex carbs than simple sugars AND you want the protein to be lean. Whether you count calories and food sources or not – remember this: Your body DOES count and sort everything you take in. Take in more than you burn… you gain weight. The more fat and simple sugars grams you take in – the higher your own body’s fat ratio will be. Over time, depositing more calores than you burn = weight gain. It’s a matter of math.
When it comes to money or the lack of money to spend as you want is also a matter of basic math. You work for a wage or run a business and take a draw from the money coming in. Either way – you have only so much money to go around. The question is how much money do you have and how much life is costing you – each day, week, month and year.
Over time, you use credit cards or take out loans and you will find yourself down the road more in debt. The further in debt you are, the less earning power you have because the money you earn gets you less and less. When you are paying on a credit card purchase from two years ago, you can’t afford to buy something NOW. That “thing” is now forgotten but it haunts you. You are paying 19% interest on something that you ate or did that is now just a distant memory yet it keeps taking from you today.
It’s math. Don’t eat more than you can expend on activity and energy or you will gain weight. If you need to lose weight, you need to expend MORE than what you are eating each day. Hint: You need to burn 3,500 calories to lose one pound. Walking will burn around 300 -350 calories per hour based on your weight, the speed of your walk and whether the terrain is flat or has hills to walk up and down on your route. Did you realize how important those word problems and physics (that I didn’t even take!) would impact your weight down the road? I sure didn’t!
Your immediate attention to what you eat and how much you move will have a direct impact on your weight, your waistline and your energy to do what you want. The same goes for money. Maximize your earnings, identify where the money will be spend and spend wisely. Just like calories are stored for future use, some of your money needs to be tucked away and growing for your future too. As I learned from a recent article by Jesse Mecham of YNAB Personal Budget – give every dollar coming in a job to do then make sure each dollar actually does its job. Efficiency. Physical and Financial Efficiency. It’s all math that will either take us to a better physical health and financial mindset OR it will make us sluggish, cranky and broke.
Even if you hate math, work and (yikes!) discipline… just think of what is working for you now and what is NOT working. I’m game. Are you?
Tags: budget, calories, math, money, weight
