After only 3 weeks, I've dropped an entire pound!!! Woo Hoo!!

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  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
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    After moving 1 ton of wood into my cellar (I'll be moving 2 more tons over the next couple of days) I'm over 1100 calories in the hole for today. I don't normally add activity because the net calories are so low. This is based on the closest activity I could find in this site's anemic list of activity. I couldn't even find general 'lifting'. My question is: How does the calculator handle negative calories??
    I honestly admit I don't add this kind of exercise. I let my FitBit count my steps and add things like set exercise. To me, this is more like lifestyle stuff that goes under your generic "activity" setting. If you regularly haul wood, you aren't "sedentary," if that makes sense. If you're always logging lifestyle activities and then "eating back" those calories, I wonder if that's why you're not losing.

    Did you start weighing your food?
  • purelyprimitives
    purelyprimitives Posts: 58 Member
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    WBB55 wrote: »
    After moving 1 ton of wood into my cellar (I'll be moving 2 more tons over the next couple of days) I'm over 1100 calories in the hole for today. I don't normally add activity because the net calories are so low. This is based on the closest activity I could find in this site's anemic list of activity. I couldn't even find general 'lifting'. My question is: How does the calculator handle negative calories??
    I honestly admit I don't add this kind of exercise. I let my FitBit count my steps and add things like set exercise. To me, this is more like lifestyle stuff that goes under your generic "activity" setting. If you regularly haul wood, you aren't "sedentary," if that makes sense. If you're always logging lifestyle activities and then "eating back" those calories, I wonder if that's why you're not losing.

    Did you start weighing your food?

    I don't 'eat back' the calories and I rarely log any lifestyle activity since the numbers would be so low (like today), it made little sense. What I eat is what I log and in all honesty, I am fairly active so the 'real' daily caloric intake should actually be much higher than it is.

    Regarding weighing the food, in most cases I use measuring cups to size the portions or use the portion information from the package. Sometimes weighing can be difficult. For instance, for supper tonight my wife is making a zucchini - chicken baked casserole with fresh string beans on the side from our garden. If I weigh the portion that I eat, how much is zucchini and how much is chicken.. :) Once everything is mixed up there is no real way to determine the exact calorie content so all I can do is estimate.
  • hrtchoco
    hrtchoco Posts: 156 Member
    edited August 2015
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    WBB55 wrote: »
    After moving 1 ton of wood into my cellar (I'll be moving 2 more tons over the next couple of days) I'm over 1100 calories in the hole for today. I don't normally add activity because the net calories are so low. This is based on the closest activity I could find in this site's anemic list of activity. I couldn't even find general 'lifting'. My question is: How does the calculator handle negative calories??
    I honestly admit I don't add this kind of exercise. I let my FitBit count my steps and add things like set exercise. To me, this is more like lifestyle stuff that goes under your generic "activity" setting. If you regularly haul wood, you aren't "sedentary," if that makes sense. If you're always logging lifestyle activities and then "eating back" those calories, I wonder if that's why you're not losing.

    Did you start weighing your food?

    I don't 'eat back' the calories and I rarely log any lifestyle activity since the numbers would be so low (like today), it made little sense. What I eat is what I log and in all honesty, I am fairly active so the 'real' daily caloric intake should actually be much higher than it is.

    Regarding weighing the food, in most cases I use measuring cups to size the portions or use the portion information from the package. Sometimes weighing can be difficult. For instance, for supper tonight my wife is making a zucchini - chicken baked casserole with fresh string beans on the side from our garden. If I weigh the portion that I eat, how much is zucchini and how much is chicken.. :) Once everything is mixed up there is no real way to determine the exact calorie content so all I can do is estimate.

    I am counting calories/cooking for my husband. What I would do is before I cook anything, I would weight all the raw ingreients and write them in my recipe builder. After I finish, I would weight the finished product and divide them up. You are going to be surprised how hard it is to make a filling, yummy, and low calorie dinner. A bit of bread crumbs here, a little butter there, and you end up with 2x as much calories as expected.
  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
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    ...in most cases I use measuring cups...

    Ah, you're simply eating more calories than you think. Easily something you think can't be more than 500 calories is, in fact, 800. I don't know if you can help your wife cook, and show her how to weigh as you go, or if weighing simply is something you'll never be able to do. No one here can force you to weigh ingredients. Tons of successful weight loss has been done without it.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    This might seem like a weird one to add in, but make sure your scale is 1) electronic & 2) not in need of fresh batteries. Every time my scale's battery level gets low, it tends to not show my losses (or tells me my bf% is at 95 like it did this morning).
    ^^ is this true??? never heard that a low battery could distort a scale reading before!

    @RunRutheeRun it's definitely true. Same with kitchen scales, when I start getting weird or inconsistent readouts I know it's time to change the batteries.

  • purelyprimitives
    purelyprimitives Posts: 58 Member
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    hrtchoco wrote: »
    I am counting calories/cooking for my husband. What I would do is before I cook anything, I would weight all the raw ingreients and write them in my recipe builder. After I finish, I would weight the finished product and divide them up. You are going to be surprised how hard it is to make a filling, yummy, and low calorie dinner. A bit of bread crumbs here, a little butter there, and you end up with 2x as much calories as expected.

    I hear ya. If you check my food log, 7.5 ozs turned out to be a whopping 833 calories. But I just took the default for the casserole...could have been more or less.

    Another question: Is the raw calorie content the same as the cooked?

  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    You did not, I repeat emphatically did NOT burn over 1000 calories moving boxes for 90 minutes

    You need to half that at least
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    Use the recipe builder / ask wife to and measure out food portions

    Throw away your cups they are useless

    Weigh everything

  • purelyprimitives
    purelyprimitives Posts: 58 Member
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    rabbitjb wrote: »
    You did not, I repeat emphatically did NOT burn over 1000 calories moving boxes for 90 minutes

    You need to half that at least

    This was taken from this site's activity list which was the closest thing I could find to the actual activity. I would challenge your statement because what I actually did was lift 40 pounds of preprocessed wood blocks and carried them down 10 stairs and walked 40 feet to stack them in my cellar, walked back 40 feet and climbed the 10 stairs. I repeated this 52 times! There are probably much better 'work' calculators that would show that I more than likely exceeded 1000 calories.
  • SimoneBee12
    SimoneBee12 Posts: 268 Member
    edited August 2015
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    rabbitjb wrote: »
    You did not, I repeat emphatically did NOT burn over 1000 calories moving boxes for 90 minutes

    You need to half that at least

    This was taken from this site's activity list which was the closest thing I could find to the actual activity. I would challenge your statement because what I actually did was lift 40 pounds of preprocessed wood blocks and carried them down 10 stairs and walked 40 feet to stack them in my cellar, walked back 40 feet and climbed the 10 stairs. I repeated this 52 times! There are probably much better 'work' calculators that would show that I more than likely exceeded 1000 calories.

    What Rabbit was saying was that it's too high of a burn, not that you didn't work hard. I'm 60lbs over weight and I would have to constantly run for 90 minutes to burn less than 1000 calories. Even if your heart rate was elevated, I really doubt you burnt 1000 in 90 minutes.

    And consider how successful Rabbit has been I would definitely believe her.
  • _The_Lone_Wolf_
    _The_Lone_Wolf_ Posts: 160 Member
    edited August 2015
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    lol i know the feeling, ive been working my *kitten* off for 3 weeks, eating and drinking healthy and i lost 4,4lbs, 62lbs to go, those 3 weeks already felt like eternity :#
  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
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    rabbitjb wrote: »
    You did not, I repeat emphatically did NOT burn over 1000 calories moving boxes for 90 minutes

    You need to half that at least

    This was taken from this site's activity list which was the closest thing I could find to the actual activity. I would challenge your statement because what I actually did was lift 40 pounds of preprocessed wood blocks and carried them down 10 stairs and walked 40 feet to stack them in my cellar, walked back 40 feet and climbed the 10 stairs. I repeated this 52 times! There are probably much better 'work' calculators that would show that I more than likely exceeded 1000 calories.
    How long did this take you? If it took less than 2 hours, you probably didn't burn 1000 calories.

    So, I want to tell you, honestly, it seems like you're resistant to the advice people here are giving. I don't mean to offend you, truly. But here's how you sound to me:

    "I'm doing EVERYTHING right, but I'm not losing help! ... Well no, I don't weigh... no, in fact I use generic entries... no, I'm over-estimating my daily activities... But surely my data is accurate because I'm guessing really well. It's too hard to be accurate."

    You don't have to change what you're doing -- no one will force you -- but you aren't losing doing what you're doing. So maybe take a look at the thread again, and EVEN IF WE ARE WRONG ABOUT EVERY SINGLE SUGGESTION WE'VE MADE, maybe accept that what you THINK you're doing right, isn't really working for you. And then come back with open ears instead of excuses and help us work WITH you to find something that WILL work for you and your lifestyle.
  • mkakids
    mkakids Posts: 1,913 Member
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    I'm 190# and 5'6" to burn 1000 calories I have to run, nonstop, for 8-9 miles (roughly 90-110 minutes). This is based on doing exactly that while wearing a heart rate monitor to estimate calorie burn.

    Exercise and being active do not burn NEARLY as many calories as people tend to think. Running one mile only burns, on average, 125 calories....and running a mile (or more!) is hard! A typical doughnut is between 250-300 calories. You would have to run 2-2.5 miles to burn off the calories from ONE doughnut.

    Yes, it was hard work to haul all that wood....but it wasn't a 1000+ calorie burn.
  • purelyprimitives
    purelyprimitives Posts: 58 Member
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    rabbitjb wrote: »
    You did not, I repeat emphatically did NOT burn over 1000 calories moving boxes for 90 minutes

    You need to half that at least

    This was taken from this site's activity list which was the closest thing I could find to the actual activity. I would challenge your statement because what I actually did was lift 40 pounds of preprocessed wood blocks and carried them down 10 stairs and walked 40 feet to stack them in my cellar, walked back 40 feet and climbed the 10 stairs. I repeated this 52 times! There are probably much better 'work' calculators that would show that I more than likely exceeded 1000 calories.

    What Rabbit was saying was that it's too high of a burn, not that you didn't work hard. I'm 60lbs over weight and I would have to constantly run for 90 minutes to burn less than 1000 calories. Even if your heart rate was elevated, I really doubt you burnt 1000 in 90 minutes.

    And consider how successful Rabbit has been I would definitely believe her.

    I didn't make this number up you know. This came from this site's activity calculator. Unless you are arguing that the calculator is totally meaningless? If this calculator is meaningless, what does that say about the site?
  • _The_Lone_Wolf_
    _The_Lone_Wolf_ Posts: 160 Member
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    The calculator is not accurate and says nothing about the site cuz its impossible to give you the right stats per person. Wear a hrm and you know for sure ;)
  • mkakids
    mkakids Posts: 1,913 Member
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    Oh, and lifting weights can be found in the data base as Strength training, but calories estimates from strength training are very inaccurate because your heart rate is not elevated to the same level for the duration of the lifting session (you take breaks in between sets, etc..). The results will be a VERY rough estimate.
  • SimoneBee12
    SimoneBee12 Posts: 268 Member
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    rabbitjb wrote: »
    You did not, I repeat emphatically did NOT burn over 1000 calories moving boxes for 90 minutes

    You need to half that at least

    This was taken from this site's activity list which was the closest thing I could find to the actual activity. I would challenge your statement because what I actually did was lift 40 pounds of preprocessed wood blocks and carried them down 10 stairs and walked 40 feet to stack them in my cellar, walked back 40 feet and climbed the 10 stairs. I repeated this 52 times! There are probably much better 'work' calculators that would show that I more than likely exceeded 1000 calories.

    What Rabbit was saying was that it's too high of a burn, not that you didn't work hard. I'm 60lbs over weight and I would have to constantly run for 90 minutes to burn less than 1000 calories. Even if your heart rate was elevated, I really doubt you burnt 1000 in 90 minutes.

    And consider how successful Rabbit has been I would definitely believe her.

    I didn't make this number up you know. This came from this site's activity calculator. Unless you are arguing that the calculator is totally meaningless? If this calculator is meaningless, what does that say about the site?

    If you had read some of the previous posts you would notice people mention that the exercise database on here is unreliable and often time it overestimates calories burnt twofold. I would be surprised if you burnt more than 300 calories NET during that 90 minutes.
  • _The_Lone_Wolf_
    _The_Lone_Wolf_ Posts: 160 Member
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    well i doubt its under 300 after 90 min, i burn around 400-600 in 45-60min and that is with a hrm adjusted to my stats.
  • purelyprimitives
    purelyprimitives Posts: 58 Member
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    WBB55 wrote: »
    rabbitjb wrote: »
    You did not, I repeat emphatically did NOT burn over 1000 calories moving boxes for 90 minutes

    You need to half that at least

    This was taken from this site's activity list which was the closest thing I could find to the actual activity. I would challenge your statement because what I actually did was lift 40 pounds of preprocessed wood blocks and carried them down 10 stairs and walked 40 feet to stack them in my cellar, walked back 40 feet and climbed the 10 stairs. I repeated this 52 times! There are probably much better 'work' calculators that would show that I more than likely exceeded 1000 calories.
    How long did this take you? If it took less than 2 hours, you probably didn't burn 1000 calories.

    So, I want to tell you, honestly, it seems like you're resistant to the advice people here are giving. I don't mean to offend you, truly. But here's how you sound to me:

    "I'm doing EVERYTHING right, but I'm not losing help! ... Well no, I don't weigh... no, in fact I use generic entries... no, I'm over-estimating my daily activities... But surely my data is accurate because I'm guessing really well. It's too hard to be accurate."

    You don't have to change what you're doing -- no one will force you -- but you aren't losing doing what you're doing. So maybe take a look at the thread again, and EVEN IF WE ARE WRONG ABOUT EVERY SINGLE SUGGESTION WE'VE MADE, maybe accept that what you THINK you're doing right, isn't really working for you. And then come back with open ears instead of excuses and help us work WITH you to find something that WILL work for you and your lifestyle.

    No offense taken (well, maybe a little). But to be honest, what I've learned from the responses so far is that the activity calculator is meaningless, the 'verified' caloric content of food list shouldn't be trusted and because of this, I'm being accused of whining? Not feeling the love here.... :)
  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
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    WBB55 wrote: »
    rabbitjb wrote: »
    You did not, I repeat emphatically did NOT burn over 1000 calories moving boxes for 90 minutes

    You need to half that at least

    This was taken from this site's activity list which was the closest thing I could find to the actual activity. I would challenge your statement because what I actually did was lift 40 pounds of preprocessed wood blocks and carried them down 10 stairs and walked 40 feet to stack them in my cellar, walked back 40 feet and climbed the 10 stairs. I repeated this 52 times! There are probably much better 'work' calculators that would show that I more than likely exceeded 1000 calories.
    How long did this take you? If it took less than 2 hours, you probably didn't burn 1000 calories.

    So, I want to tell you, honestly, it seems like you're resistant to the advice people here are giving. I don't mean to offend you, truly. But here's how you sound to me:

    "I'm doing EVERYTHING right, but I'm not losing help! ... Well no, I don't weigh... no, in fact I use generic entries... no, I'm over-estimating my daily activities... But surely my data is accurate because I'm guessing really well. It's too hard to be accurate."

    You don't have to change what you're doing -- no one will force you -- but you aren't losing doing what you're doing. So maybe take a look at the thread again, and EVEN IF WE ARE WRONG ABOUT EVERY SINGLE SUGGESTION WE'VE MADE, maybe accept that what you THINK you're doing right, isn't really working for you. And then come back with open ears instead of excuses and help us work WITH you to find something that WILL work for you and your lifestyle.

    No offense taken (well, maybe a little). But to be honest, what I've learned from the responses so far is that the activity calculator is meaningless, the 'verified' caloric content of food list shouldn't be trusted and because of this, I'm being accused of whining? Not feeling the love here.... :)

    To be fair, your original post said "calorie counting doesn't work for me" and what we're telling you is you're not being accurate. It would work better for you if you could increase your accuracy. And then you reject all the advice we try to give.

    Here's some threads with good advice, if it helps.
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1175494-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/912920-in-place-of-a-road-map-3-2013
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide