Burning off CNY Weights

Chinese New Year has come and gone and I have found myself two kgs heavier right after the festival.

I have a shoot in two weeks so I'm setting a goal to lose off these two kgs in 14 days.

Now I'm not an exercise buff but I don't mind walking. I disgress going to the gym, or any sort of sports because frankly, I don't really have that sort of stamina to last long. Strangely enough, due to my travelling habit, I have adopted a skill in walking.

And I don't just mean a walk in a park. I mean I can walk for hours non stop in a day and I can still find myself going on. I once walked an average of 5 hours a day for 10 days in Beijing.

Or even once hike-walk across a tiny peninsula on the Isle of Skye (in Scotland) in search for some lost village, one way journey took me five kms across the green hills and land, and another five km back. And I had been walking all over the island that morning.


So I decided to dedicate two weeks starting from today to walk. As my form of exercise. On a treadmill. Thank god for that. No sun for me thanks. I don't mind the sweat, I just hate having darker skin.

Now here's the calculation.


One kg of fat = 7700 calories (holy!)
(One pound is 3500 calories)

So to shed off that much, I can't just cut off on my daily intake of calories (which would be 1800 calories since I'm a girl) by 500/1000 everyday because then my body would take the carbs I consume and transform it into fat to burn.

And I can't just cut down on carb while cutting back on calories either, and focus on protein. Because then my body would transform protein into carbs in my liver (called Gluconeogenesis) and the process will just repeat itself.

And technically, due to the complexity of our metobolism, it would take more (than 7700) calories to burn off one kg of fat.


Generally, I should cut back on 500 calories a day and exercise at the same time (aka walk).
So by calculation, that would mean I should limit my consumption to 1200 calories a day.

But because I've been binging so much during CNY. It's actually healthy to detox for the first three days of the two weeks; because then it allows the body to burn your bodyfat first before realising it's calories deficient.

I'm talking about fruits, fresh juice, lots of water and no heavy solid food yet. Limiting myself to only 500 calories, this would help me cut back a further 700 a day on the first three days.


As for walking,

1 hr normal walking = 150 calories

But I'm doing a slight brisk walk at 4km/hr so 45 mins walking would take 155. (estimate, base on personal treadmill walk)

Hence, 1 hr 30 mins walk = 310 calories.
That would be 6km of walk every day.


First three days: (1200 + 310) x 3 = 4530

Following days: (500 + 310) x 11 = 8910

Total: 4530 + 8910 = 13440 calories.


Fat lost in two weeks: 13440/7700 = 1.745

That's a whooping 1.75 kilo of fat!

In two weeks and simply by walking. Not limiting much your intake as long as you stick to a 1200 cal daily benchmark.


Considering the possibility of water retention and undiscarded stools in my body, I'd say two kgs in two weeks should be a healthy and very possible achievement.

Wish me luck! (on my determination)

You should try it too.