Progress Check

All in all, I'd have to say that I've gotten off to a pretty decent start as far as this nutrition/calorie monitoring thing started.

Here's where I'm at so far:

Target daily calories - 1500
Fat intake recommended limit - 47g

Tues 1/22/08
1506 cal consumed
6 cal over goal
45.5g fat
1.5g fat under

Wed 1/23/08
1439 cal consumed
61 cal under goal
45.5g fat
1.5g fat under

Thurs 1/24/08
1866 cal consumed
366 cal over goal
55g fat
8g fat over

Fri 1/25/08
1577 cal consumed
77 cal over goal
65.5g fat
18.5g fat over

Sat 1/26/08
1991 cal consumed
491 cal over goal
85g fat
38g fat over

Despite being so over yesterday (Sat), I'm still rather proud of myself considering that it was girl's night as Jessica's place. She of course HAD to have a yummy spread with caprese snacks (Roma tomato with a blob of one of those marinated mozzarella balls and a spritz of balsamic viniagrette), homemade guacamole with tortilla chips, hummus with pita chips, pesto pasta with chicken, artichoke hearts, great & sundried tomatoes. Oh, and of course a variety of wine and mixed drinks, including key lime martinis (I didn't have any because of the cream) and caramel appletinis (I had two). So all things considered, I did pretty well. I figure the fact that I still stayed 9 calories under what I should consume to maintain my weight is something to be pleased about. Yay me! :)

Now starts the first whole week of monitoring. I hope I can keep this up and don't lose interest and drop it. That seems to be my problem with these things. I get bored and stop doing what I was doing and that's how I fall off the wagon...

Oh, another stat to add, in the last week I seem to have dropped 5 lbs. Actually I think it's more like 3 or 4 and I was just really bloated the initial day I weighed myself and/or weighed at the wrong time - not sure. I am currently trying to get in the habit of hopping on the scale everyday before showering so that I can enter my weight in the Live Healthy America daily journal (and keep tabs on myself). Hope I can keep up with all of this! ;)

Numbers - Oh, My Head Hurts

I've now done some online research (and factored in Dom's two cents) and have come up with the following:

According to the Mayo Clinic website, I need to consume 2000 calories daily to maintain my current weight. To maintain a weight of 140/135, I would need to consume 1850 calories daily.

According to caloriesperhour.com, a healthy calorie deficit for weight loss would be 300 to 400 at my current weight. By their numbers a deficit of 400 will take 9 months to lose 31 lbs, 6 months to lose 20 - a bit slow. But, a deficit of only 100 more calories supposedly will bring me to 30 lbs in 7 months and 20 lbs. in 5, at 1500 calories daily a little better. But now that isn't even factoring in weekend workouts and an increased walking schedule, or increased calorie burn. I'm not sure how accurate averaging is, but I figured if I average my previous typical weekend workouts, daily home exercises and walking (figuring walking 5 days per week for 1 hour) I supposedly will burn approx. 500 calories a day... ?? I'm thinking then that I should be able to drop close to 1000 calories daily (or at least 800 or so anyway) between cutting back on food and exercising, which would definitely keep me out of the extreme calorie deficit Dom mentioned. I have also read before that extremely low caloric intake will affect other bodily systems that are not reqired for survival, like the reproductive system, which we definitely don't want.

I hope I'm figuring correctly, or even close to correctly. I just hate working all these numbers! Too much math! Argh!

Anyway, I think my plan is to a) get back to my previous weekend gym workouts b) be sure to get 5 1hr walks in per week c) force myself to count calories and keep it at 1500 - and see how it goes.

Oh, but what about the fat and fiber...? Mmmm... Do I just say screw that and shoot for just the calories? Maybe to start out anyway, to keep things less confusing. This calorie monitoring will be trying enough for me. I usually last a few days or even a week before just dumping it altogether. I'll have to try to find a way to make it fun - or like a competition with myself. ...something.