Numbers and Stuff
As a self-proclaimed hater of calorie counting, I have to admit I’m kind of enjoying this new challenge. That’s how I see it, as a challenge. To see all the numbers, not just the Weight Watcher ProPoints, has been kind of fun in a twisted diet-mentality kind of way. Because, let’s face it. All of us who are using some sort of “help” to purposely lose weight are in diet-mentality mode. Not to say that it can not be for the greater good, our overall health and long-term results, but it’s still diet-mentality. Most of us will always have to focus on this to maintain a healthy weight for the rest of our lives, right? Or does that sound negative?
Anyway. I mentioned things weren’t going well in the area of weight-maintenance after I quit WW and after my vacation. Switching up to My Fitness Pal has really been good for me. Mentally especially. I give you the numbers:
Net Calorie Consumption since starting MFP:
Calories Burned since starting MFP:
My BMI, close to healthy, can’t complain too much:
After about 2 weeks I weighed in and lost 700g or about 2 lbs. Weight on W/I day was 82.3KG. This morning I checked because I was also curious about body fat percentage and water percentage:
Weight 82.0 KG
Body Fat: 34.3%
Water: 48%
To be perfectly honest, I really don’t know how accurate my scale is and what it all means. I’m assuming that my water percentage is fine and the fat percentage doesn’t sound too bad, but maybe “healthy” is around 25%? If anyone out there is still reading and you know, maybe you can let me know :)
So. Yeah. It’s not so bad. In some ways I’m feeling a lot better about myself and I also feel like however I do this it’s going to be ok. I miss the support on twitter, but I did this to myself I suppose. I switched back to my original twitter profile and got rid of lowfatpie (not totally deleted but it’s going) and though I re-followed most people I seem to have lost the connections. Not all of course, because I’m very grateful that I still talk to several people regularly and to be perfectly honest, what more could I ask for, right? But let say the people I was talking to more regularly last year are not the same as now. I know I also was very negative about a lot of things – weight watchers and my own lack of success – but I also wonder how it is all right to dump someone when they actually need support the most? Well. They don’t really know me so how could I have any expectations like that?
More stuff – lots of cycling going on here, a bit of running and I even went to the gym last week! I have a race in just two weeks from today as well. I still haven’t fully gotten the running mojo back, but I’m not giving up. If there is one thing I’ve been consistent about, it’s not giving up!!
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Hello! It’s great to see that My Fitness Pal is working for you and I think your profile above looks very good – you are clearly eating healthy food and doing lots of activity. Why the switch to cycling? You were doing a lot of running previously.
Not sure about your % fat and water and whether they are good or not. My PT did try to explain it to me once but I can’t remember what he told me. I’m sure you could google an answer though.
You certainly are consistent :) and there is a lot to be said for that!
I haven’t seen any posts from you on Twitter on your old profile so I assumed you were just using the other one. Even then you haven’t been posting a lot lately? I find myself going through phases with Twitter. It’s been useful lately for me because I had some new UK WW followers which was obviously relevant for me. Still – I get a bit over the whole follow-unfollow and peeps getting offended at what I consider to be perfectly legitimate objections to methods etc. but I do talk to some nice people on there.
Look forward to your next update!
not really a switch to cycling, more like the weather is good, why not do it? The Half really killed my knees too, so cycling has been a good way to keep active without feeling all the stress on my knees. I have been really down about running since the Half and it’s still a little bit of a struggle to get out there. My next race in two weeks will be a good indicator of whether I’m out of the woods yet or not. I guess I need mentally to enjoy a race again and finish it without feeling like I’m going to die and puking my guts up afterwards, you know?
posting to twitter – yeah it depends. I’ve been really busy lately but I do post regularly on my commute. IF I’m not watching the Sopranos :) and I’m not posting links to my blog because I don’t really want my colleagues reading it (if they find it, fine, they know me, just you know, like distant colleagues, etc). And actually I shouldn’t complain too much. I am always behind on others’ blogs. I try to read, I try to comment, but I don’t always have time. Like I said I can’t really have expectations. It’s just weird to suddenly have no contact with certain people anymore.
The only thing I’m thinking is that… your calories burned isn’t taking into account your BMR. That’s one thing I’ve noticed since getting my BodyMediaFIT is that I’m actually burning more calories than I think – those calories you’re burning are ON TOP OF what you naturally burn each and every day, so don’t get disheartened by it! :D
(As in: on a day when I don’t do anything, I can burn anything between 2,300ish and 2,800ish calories, just by sitting on my arse, climbing the stairs, and doing laundry and filling the dishwasher. That kind of thing. On day when I’m Spinning, it’s up in the high 3,000s, low 4,000s.)
But yeah, MyFitnessPal is kind of of awesome, isn’t it? I’m totally preferring its cleanness over SparkPeople.
And YAY for not giving up. :D
Tracy, that’s true! And I was thinking about your BodyMediaFIT but I honestly can’t spend ANY.MORE.MONEY on weight loss stuff right now. I would love to know what I’m really burning. Maybe at some point I’ll look into it again.
I do really like MFP, I only wish I had a little more interaction, but I think at this point I’m never going to have that sort of community feel again. I had it LONG LONG LONG ago but those days are over. If you can’t do this by yourself and few good mates then I suppose you are really in trouble, eh?
Yeah, the BMF was pretty expensive – and you need an American, Canadian, Australian or New Zealand address to set it up – I’m lucky in that I know people who LIVE THERE, so I used my girlfriend’s address (but didn’t tell her that. XD) to set it up.
It’s funny, though, because one of the girls I go to Spin with says she burns 500 calories, and she weighs 10 stone. I weigh 26st and some pounds, so I thought I’d easily burn twice as much, but the BodyMediaFit says I don’t. So it’s good like that. I know I’m not burning as much as I thought I was. Or I’m not putting in as much effort as I thought I was.
And yeah. :) We can totally do this with our blogs and our Twitters and our friends and we’ll be cool.
huh. is that right Tracy? why can’t you join from another country? do you add food there too in your subscription? hmmm. Obvs I have an address in the US, but I wouldn’t be very excited using a US food database.
We’ll be cool? darling, we already ARE cool ;)
While I completely understand the not wanting to partake in the diet mentality, part of me feels like I have to. Not necessarily that everyone has to, just that … well, not being on a diet has to mean trusting your self and your body to make the right choices, and it seems to me that, since we got to be overweight in the first place, we can’t trust our selves or our bodies. So we need something outside ourselves to teach us what to do, at least until we get to the point where we can trust ourselves again. I have a whole post about that very thing brewing, but that’s the jist of it.
So yeah, I like counting calories. I have a bodybugg, and I LOVE it, if only because it makes me push myself just a little bit more than I would otherwise, especially if I can see I’m close to my calorie burn for the day.
I completely agree with you Elisha! and my biggest thing is, I *think* I can trust myself and then weeks later I get on the scale and voila! a gain of 3 Kilos. Obviously I have to do this, perhaps even the rest of my life (or perhaps a version of this, but meaning I’ll never truly be free and all-intuitive) or things can and will go very wrong. Since counting calories (and again, I could do this with points but somehow it was doing my head in) I can see exactly where I am before dinner and what I need to do to make that day a success. I know dinner is my “weak area” since it’s pretty much my favourite meal of the day; generally speaking I have no issues staying in check during the day (though there is the occasional squabble with the candy jar). Knowing I can enjoy my dinner AND know I’m still within my daily goal has been really helpful for me.
You sound very positive and it obviously helps counting calories as the scale is getting down. Your fat% is a bit too high, between 25-30% is good for women but it’s still a lot lower than mine which is over 40%
I have tried fitness pal but am also trying out live strong, I like that too. Haven’t been tracking during the long weekend but will pick it up again tomorrow and do it a week at live strong, see how I like that. The app for fitness pal on my BB is extremely slow and it’s really irritating me. The live strong app is much faster.
Hey Fran, definitely feeling more positive lately :) Thanks for the % numbers; I figured I should be lower but it’s not a bad percentage all things considering (I would have thought you’d be lower than me, at least my perception of you is lower!!!). Livestrong, that used to be caloriesburned.com I think? I’m not having issues with MFP on the BB, but to be honest I pre-log a lot of stuff anyway and then update when I get a chance at work or just at home before i go to bed. In the end we should use whatever works for us individually!
Wonderful stuff here! I can’t thank you enough for sharing Fitness Pal with me. It’s been so helpful to push the little button at the end of the day and have it tell me, “If every day were like today, you would weigh xxx.” It helps me totally get it all now!
it’s nice right?! I’m so surprised I have done it for three whole weeks in a row! the numbers are really making me geek out! I had to check my entries three times today because I was so surprised I still had cals over even AFTER I had a Luna Bar (170cals – but on WW PP 6 points). I’m really glad you are enjoying it!! xx
Hi Renee! I have been MIA for a loooong time but am finally coming back to the healthy blogging world…just can’t stay away I guess! Came to your blog first and I’m happy to see you have remained consistent. I added you on MFP, so hopefully we can help motivate each other. :)