Update on the Weight
I owe you all an update on my weight loss quest. It’s working! I have lost about an inch from my gut! So I’m down to 34 inches from 35. I’m not sure how much weight I have lost because until last Monday I didn’t have a scale. I never really had the need to buy one when I had my previous job because I could use the big one in the shipping department or the one in the gym when I wanted to know my weight. When I was unemployed, buying a scale wasn’t real high on my list of priorities. I saw one at Target last week and it was only $6, so now I have one. I have to say that I most likely weighed less than I thought I did when I started my weight loss program, because I doubt that I’ve lost 12 pounds since October 24th. In any case, I will be happy if I can drop about 10 more pounds.
I used this calculator to determine how many calories I should consume in a day. I want to lose 10 pounds by January 1st, so the calculator indicated that I should be consuming about 1700 calories a day to lose 1 pound per week. I have been tracking everything that I eat every day. I have been using this site to calculate calories for things that aren’t labeled, like fruits and vegetables. The site is very extensive – so far I’ve been able to find anything I’ve been looking for. It also has an extensive list of fast food items. At this point I think I am getting used to this level of consumption. On some days I feel satisfied even before I get to that level of calories. When I get to the point where I want to maintain my weight, I think it may even be kind of difficult to eat the 2200 or so calories per day that I will need! Fruits and vegetables are so low in calories compared to their volume.
I suppose I am trying to limit my carbs to some extent, but I’m not cutting them out completely. A lot of the limiting happens automatically when you see how many calories refined carbohydrates have. It’s important to consume some carbs to maintain good nutrition. Oatmeal is my new cereal of choice. I’m not completely banning anything from my diet. If I want to hit the candy jar at work, it goes into the calorie spreadsheet. But the amount of calories contained in sugary stuff does limit how much I eat, and I don’t crave it as much as I used to. I’m also trying to keep a good nutritional balance, which doesn’t leave a lot of room for empty calories.
I used to be very skeptical of the effectiveness of counting calories because I tried to lose weight by limiting calorie intake one other time and it didn’t seem to work at all. However, that was in the days before the Internet and good information on the calorie counts in some foods was very hard to come by. It was also much harder then to find information on how many calories I should be consuming to lose weight. I can now see that the amount of calories I was trying to limit myself to back then was too high for me to lose weight.
The other change that I have made is to increase how often I exercise, although not by a great deal. I used to use the Nordictrack 3 times a week for a half hour, which came out to about 230-240 calories per session. Now I’m using it every other day and shooting for 300 calories per session. I’ve stepped up the intensity a little bit too. It’s taking me about 35-37 minutes to hit 300 calories.
My pants fit better already, which is great. It’s satisfying to see this finally work, when I’ve been unsuccessful in previous attempts. Thanksgiving and Christmas will be a challenge. My mom tends to keep lots of high calorie stuff around the house, not to mention that there will be trips to In N Out Burger. There’s also usually lots of beer in the fridge. If I can stick to my plan despite those hurdles, I should be able to stick to it no matter what.
I used this calculator to determine how many calories I should consume in a day. I want to lose 10 pounds by January 1st, so the calculator indicated that I should be consuming about 1700 calories a day to lose 1 pound per week. I have been tracking everything that I eat every day. I have been using this site to calculate calories for things that aren’t labeled, like fruits and vegetables. The site is very extensive – so far I’ve been able to find anything I’ve been looking for. It also has an extensive list of fast food items. At this point I think I am getting used to this level of consumption. On some days I feel satisfied even before I get to that level of calories. When I get to the point where I want to maintain my weight, I think it may even be kind of difficult to eat the 2200 or so calories per day that I will need! Fruits and vegetables are so low in calories compared to their volume.
I suppose I am trying to limit my carbs to some extent, but I’m not cutting them out completely. A lot of the limiting happens automatically when you see how many calories refined carbohydrates have. It’s important to consume some carbs to maintain good nutrition. Oatmeal is my new cereal of choice. I’m not completely banning anything from my diet. If I want to hit the candy jar at work, it goes into the calorie spreadsheet. But the amount of calories contained in sugary stuff does limit how much I eat, and I don’t crave it as much as I used to. I’m also trying to keep a good nutritional balance, which doesn’t leave a lot of room for empty calories.
I used to be very skeptical of the effectiveness of counting calories because I tried to lose weight by limiting calorie intake one other time and it didn’t seem to work at all. However, that was in the days before the Internet and good information on the calorie counts in some foods was very hard to come by. It was also much harder then to find information on how many calories I should be consuming to lose weight. I can now see that the amount of calories I was trying to limit myself to back then was too high for me to lose weight.
The other change that I have made is to increase how often I exercise, although not by a great deal. I used to use the Nordictrack 3 times a week for a half hour, which came out to about 230-240 calories per session. Now I’m using it every other day and shooting for 300 calories per session. I’ve stepped up the intensity a little bit too. It’s taking me about 35-37 minutes to hit 300 calories.
My pants fit better already, which is great. It’s satisfying to see this finally work, when I’ve been unsuccessful in previous attempts. Thanksgiving and Christmas will be a challenge. My mom tends to keep lots of high calorie stuff around the house, not to mention that there will be trips to In N Out Burger. There’s also usually lots of beer in the fridge. If I can stick to my plan despite those hurdles, I should be able to stick to it no matter what.
posted by JC at 7:47 PM
3 Comments:
Congrats on the weight loss. It is a really hard thing to accomplish! Even if you get off track with the holidays, now that you have the tools you will be able to do it no matter what!
Thanks for the links to the sites for calculating calories needed per day and calories in food. I bookmarked them both. Now to get motivated to actually use them! :-P
It's fabulous that it's working for you and that you feel good!
sigh, all that exercise talk reminds me that i haven't moved in AGES (chasing buses and living on the 4th floor don't count).
i'm impressed how self-disciplined you are!
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