Ok. I dont know if any of you guys heard of this but its primarily for the people having a hard time understanding how to lose fat and not muscle or just how to lose weight in general. This is the most known and effective way of losing weight that one can do and it goes like this.

The Rule of 500: (NOTE* for athletes and body builders, or anybody with a high activity level, read the 3rd post down for how this rule works for you)
-For the average person their bmr (basal metabolic rate) is about 2000 calories a day. (this is how many calories it takes to maintain the weight you are at now)
-The Rule of 500 works like this:
>Take 250 calories out of diet and burn 250 calories (minimumly) working out.
>Thus you have burned 500 calories for the day
>There are 3,500 calories in a lb of fat
>7 days a week x 500 calories = 3,500 calories burned
>Thus you have lost 1 lb of fat in 1 week.
>This is the safest and easiest way to lose weight.

I dont want people to get offended by this or think that i am calling them stupid or ignorant but i just want some of the new people to working out to realize how simple losing weight can be. A lot of times people have trouble losing weight or their body wont respond to exercise and they think they are doomed. I just want people to check this out (hopefully i dont insult anyones intelligence) and see that losing that fat doesnt have to be a hard thing to do.

I am a junior in college studying exercise science and im also experienced in all types of exercise and when i cant break a plateu for cutting i still go back to this rule. This rule is also crucial in keeping lean body mass on while cutting.

hopefully this gets stickied

oh and to everyone here that is losing weight and looking great, EXCELLENT JOB. As an exercise science major i love seing the gains and loss' (in fat) that you people are making. You are all an inspiration and all have done a great job. :claplow:

ps. the US Governments most important natural resource isnt oil, its a healthy person...keep that in mind.

-For the average person their bmr (basal metabolic rate) is about 2000 calories a day. (this is how many calories it takes to maintain the weight you are at now)


Shouldn't you be taking into account some activity factor here? The rest of the post never mentions an activity factor.

When you start explaining this concept with acivity factors and percentages, it loses the simplicity. This is for people who are new to this type of concept. You can change it to meet your own goals but this is the most basic way of explaining it!

Good Job! :tucool:

well yes i mean of course athletes or people body building will need more calories. You just need to figure out your bmr in conjunction with your activity level + body mass.

This is easy to do online. Just go to google and type in "how to find BMR" and impliment the rule to your caloric needs. Sorry for leaving that out.

Also the intention of my post was for people new to exercise who want to lose weight. Sorry for leaving that out. Ill edit my original post.


PS. Thanks Naytch

Pythose, if you want your threads to gain ground on these forums, and maybe get stickied, there are a few things you should consider.

First of all, you are taking something extremely complex, the human body, and try to make it simple. I can summarize your post in one sentence:

Eat 500 kcals less than you burn each day and you will lose a pound of fat a week, which is a healthy rate.

There are a lot of points that you leave out that are crucial in order to sustain a healthy diet, which is something you need in order to keep lean mass and burn fat. That was a big point in your first point as I see it. A person eating pure fat, for example, would eventually die, even though he might get the right amount of calories. If you don't give the whole picture, you are sending people off in the wrong direction.

You are also telling people to do all the research and work for themselves. If you want to write something that will stick to the forums, something that is going to be appreciated amongst the masses here, you need more substance. If I may take Marcus sticky post (http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=1222) as an example, he has structured his information in a clear, understandable way. He has got links, he has got formulas, he has got pretty much everything. This is the kind of information that people new to nutrition need. It is easy to read, and to comprehend, and still there are huge amounts of information. Information people are free to choose from. He give us the basics, and the opportunity to go into it in greater depth.

Also, your post does have factual errors. The first one that comes to mind is that the BMR is not, as you claim, the amount of energy needed to remain at the weight you are now, it is the amount of energy the body needs if it is at rest. The second is that you are saying that using an average is healthy and safe for fat loss. Men and women don't use the same amounts of energy, tall and short people don't use the same amount of energy, etc. Something like that could be really hurtful to someone who's quite far from the average you state. Thirdly, the most effective (and easiest) way of losing fat isn't dieting either, it's lipo suction. Much quicker, and much easier on your lean mass.

With this in mind, all I have left to say about that is that you may want to check in on what sticky posts already exist on the forums. To me, your post would have been better suited as a post in the sticky I already mentioned. I suggest you go read through it, and do searchs on topics you want to address later on.



One thing I'd like to say too, is that when you are trying desperately to say to people that you are not intending to offend people or insult their intelligence, before anybody has even spoken about it, in a way you are doing just that. It could be percieved as you thinking "I know I'm better than anybody else, but I need them to think that I don't feel that way". You probably aren't thinking that, but that's what it can look like.

I think u have pent up anger...but anyways contrary to what you think i really doubt that people think they can eat pure fat all the time and burn 500 calories a day and lose weight. I have seen some of your posts and it seems like you just want to boss people around. Im not here to have my posts become legendary or to gain a bunch of posts to prove my self worth and i think the majority of the people on here benifit from any advice. I completely disagree with you are saying that if I say im not insulting anybody or i dont mean to that people will take it that way anyways. I would rather let people know that i come in peace and im not hear to negatively criticize people like you seem to have done with me.

the bottom line. People know how to eat healthy and they know that if they eat healthy every day plus impliment the rule of 500 they will have no problem losing weight. You seem to have the idea in your head that everyone is completely blind to anythign dealing with nutrition.

And yes, your bmr is the rate at which you are at rest WHICH IN TURN determines how many calories your body needs to maintain ur weight if you are not active.

Im sorry but i think you got the wrong idea that i want everyone to know of my presence, i could care less. I would rather just put this out there for people new to exercising

the point of the rule of 500's is that it is easy and simple and makes the whole process of losing weight easy and understandable. It seems that you want people to think its more complicated than that but when you break it down its common sense and people arent as dense as you seem to think. People can figure out what to eat + they are members of an online exercise and nutrition forum. You have to give these people some credit

I think u have pent up anger...but anyways contrary to what you think i really doubt that people think they can eat pure fat all the time and burn 500 calories a day and lose weight. I have seen some of your posts and it seems like you just want to boss people around.

I have never noticed such behavior from Knubb.

And for the record, I agree with what Knubb had to say 100%.


Your "Rule of 500" is WAY too general IMO. If you look at the progress people on this forum are making and HOW they made it, you'll see that very few actually do NO activity. In this community, we are not just "dieters", we are people who have created a healthy lifestyle in both nutrition AND exercise. You'll notice that a good portion of the members here eat well over 2000 calories to LOSE fat and others eat around 1500 or so (mostly females). It is not as cut and dry as you make it sound and I think on a forum like this where people are eager to really learn about nutrition and fitness, a more in-depth discussion is far more beneficial.

That said, it's nice of you to offer your knowledge, but just be careful of how you present it. By reading the intro to your first post, I thought you had groundbreaking information for me that was going to change the way I looked at dieting.

Every one of you guys is missing the idea. ITS SUPPOSED TO BE SIMPLE AND GENERAL. In the thread title it says "easiest way to lose fat" Key word "easy". Naytch is the only one who understands the point behind it. I know that all of you want complex answers and all this mumbo jumbo but for people that are going to be getting on an exercise plan that are thinking things may be difficult all they have to do is check out this thread and follow the rule of 500.

And if the biggest beef you have with this is the bmr thing like i said, all u have to do is look on google or better yet im sure Knubb has posted how to find your bmr in another post before.

You guys need to just lay back and realize that its just a simple way for people to understand how to precisely lose a lb of fat per week.

I can get into the structural and functional aspect of skeletal muscke and cardiac muscle and the technicalities of how weight loss and muscle gain occur but people arent going to benifit from people splurging out gobledygoop that they will forget in 5 minutes. This is just a basic guidline to give people motivation that its as easy as pie to lose weight.

And as far as Knubb being negative i just saw that in another post when somebody was asking for advice on how to gain muscle knubb came in and told him that he wasnt going to be "babysat" through anything and that he should find everything on his own yet he criticizes me for not giving enough information which in turn would have me babysitting the masses on such a simple concept as the rule of 500. If you have a problem with how simple the whole thing is or cant accept it then thats reall your own problem.

ps karatekicker, your basal metabolic rate is 1768 calories a day (+/- 10 cal) using the stats in your signature.

that is, bmr is measure in how many calories you need in a day, not too complicated

ITS SUPPOSED TO BE SIMPLE AND GENERAL.

I understand that, but the point is, it's NOT that simple and general since everybody's build and lifestyle is different. If it were so easy, more than 50% (or whatever the # is) of Americans wouldn't be overweight. If you really want to offer the "simplest" way to lose fat, I would have just said "Cut out all sugared drinks, avoid fried foods and eat all junk food in moderation". If the average American would do that, he/she would see fat come fairly quickly without having to extend their knowledge on Nutrition at all.

ps karatekicker, your basal metabolic rate is 1768 calories a day (+/- 10 cal) using the stats in your signature.

that is, bmr is measure in how many calories you need in a day, not too complicated

Yes, I know what my BMR is according to the formulas. However, you need to account for the fact that I've been very active all my life, lift 4 times per week, take daily karate classes and do cardio several days a week.

Although I am quite happy where I am, if I lost a couple pounds of fat I wouldn't mind. Should I eat 1750 cals a day and burn off 250 more? Hell no, I need to eat well over 2000 calories a day on average or I just can't function.

I think u have pent up anger...but anyways contrary to what you think i really doubt that people think they can eat pure fat all the time and burn 500 calories a day and lose weight. I have seen some of your posts and it seems like you just want to boss people around. Im not here to have my posts become legendary or to gain a bunch of posts to prove my self worth and i think the majority of the people on here benifit from any advice. I completely disagree with you are saying that if I say im not insulting anybody or i dont mean to that people will take it that way anyways. I would rather let people know that i come in peace and im not hear to negatively criticize people like you seem to have done with me.

the bottom line. People know how to eat healthy and they know that if they eat healthy every day plus impliment the rule of 500 they will have no problem losing weight. You seem to have the idea in your head that everyone is completely blind to anythign dealing with nutrition.

And yes, your bmr is the rate at which you are at rest WHICH IN TURN determines how many calories your body needs to maintain ur weight if you are not active.

Im sorry but i think you got the wrong idea that i want everyone to know of my presence, i could care less. I would rather just put this out there for people new to exercising

the point of the rule of 500's is that it is easy and simple and makes the whole process of losing weight easy and understandable. It seems that you want people to think its more complicated than that but when you break it down its common sense and people arent as dense as you seem to think. People can figure out what to eat + they are members of an online exercise and nutrition forum. You have to give these people some credit
Feel free to give me examples of my posts that are simply bossing people around. I would be happy to give you explanations to my actions.

Some people might take it as an insult. I don't say all, I don't say many, but some might.

Did I write that I believe that there are people who think they can survive on just fat? No. I used an example of how one could use your post in order to kill themselves, if they don't have the proper knowledge from beforehand. And they wouldn't, since you started this thread to those who are new to exercising and nutrition, did you not?

I never said you were here to become legendary, but "hopefully this gets stickied" is a quote from your original post. That led me to believe that you wanted it to become a sticky post. Please forgive me for giving you advice on how to make your posts become stickies.

Your bottom line has flaws. If people already know how to eat healthy, there is no need for this forum at all, is there? And if one knew how to eat healthy, one wouldn't need a rule, since eating healthy will produce a healthy body with a fair amount of BF. Eating healthy doesn't imply eating the right things, it implies eating the right things in the right quantities.

Again, a quote from your initial post: "-For the average person their bmr (basal metabolic rate) is about 2000 calories a day. (this is how many calories it takes to maintain the weight you are at now)". Black on white, you claim that the bmr is the amount of calories needed to remain at the weight one is at, which is wrong. You still haven't written anywhere that it is wrong to eat 250 kcals less than your BMR.

I did not get the idea that you want everybody to know your presence, I got the idea that you wanted this post to become a sticky (see my previous quote from your initial post), and I thought that maybe you wanted other posts you make in the future to become stickies. Again I apologise for my advice.

As I have said before, you cannot make eating healthy simple. I haven't written anywhere that I think people are dense, I would rather say that I have faith in that they are able to comprehend a more complex way of dieting than a one sentence diet. Does that imply that I think they are stupid? No. Does it imply that I believe that noone knows everything, and that someone might miss a crucial point for their wellbeing if not instructed in a more complex way? Yes. Also, you write that it's common sense. If it's common sense, people wouldn't have to use a "rule of 500", right?



If you want, I will spare you from my advice in the future. I have no problems with not helping you. Just do yourself a favour, try to see things from a positive side. There is a lot of difference between "to negatively criticize people", and to give constructive criticism. Try reading my reply to you as if I wrote it to somebody else. I never put you down, I gave you advice. Please, for your own sake, try to understand that.


And as far as Knubb being negative i just saw that in another post when somebody was asking for advice on how to gain muscle knubb came in and told him that he wasnt going to be "babysat" through anything and that he should find everything on his own yet he criticizes me for not giving enough information which in turn would have me babysitting the masses on such a simple concept as the rule of 500. If you have a problem with how simple the whole thing is or cant accept it then thats reall your own problem.
I just read this.

Reason I got angry? The person in question expected to be given a routine, he expected to be told what to eat, what supplements to take, etc. To be expecting people to take their time and put something together for him and him only when the information is two threads away from what he just posted is quite immature in my eyes, especially for someone who has been to this place for such a long time. Still, I gave him one of the best advices I can think of; "Go to www.johnstonefitness.com and join the forum. You can find all the information you need there." Yes, I was quite sarcastic, but believe me, if he took the advice, he would find anything he needed to know. Then he could post asking for details of something. I do get quite angry when I read posts like that, and maybe I shouldn't act on it, but that's who I am.

Giving one piece of advice is not babysitting, outlining someones entire diet and exercise program is.

Also, please understand the difference between these two people:

One person wants to help people (which is admirable, yes), but give next to no information, more than "you can search for it", and still believes his post may be stickied.

Another person wants to be helped, and haven't (obviously) even read the information that he has already been given that is right under his nose, but expect people to do extra work to help him specifically.

And one last time, I was never negative, I was giving you pointers on how to make your posts better.

ps karatekicker, your basal metabolic rate is 1768 calories a day (+/- 10 cal) using the stats in your signature.

that is, bmr is measure in how many calories you need in a day, not too complicated

So you're suggestion is that karatetricker eat 1268 calories a day to lose a pound a week?

Of course not - karatetricker is an active person. Your BMR is the calories you burn existing in a day - as in, what you need to lay in bed with no physical activity, to make sure your heart keeps beating and your brain keep working. If people tried subtracting 500 calories from the BMR without taking their activity into account, they'd be starving themselves.

Simplifying is fine - over-simplifying helps no one.

I think one of the simplist(sp?) ways to lose I've heard..is to eat no more the your palm size worth of protein, carbs each of your 6 meals..fruit might be in there also ?
But thats alot simplier to alot of people then trying to count cals.

I think one of the simplist(sp?) ways to lose I've heard..is to eat no more the your palm size worth of protein, carbs each of your 6 meals..fruit might be in there also ?
But thats alot simplier to alot of people then trying to count cals.

Yes, I believe that is the BFL method and it can work quite well when followed properly.