Calories In vs Calories Out for me (with proof)

___Charlene___

In the fall of 2015, I hurt my hip at work and had to lay off running for about a year until it started feeling better. During that time, my weight climbed from 125ish to about 145ish. On October 27, 2016, I created a MFP account and started to track, log, and slowly increase my running and exercise. I started with 3 miles of running every other day with 30 minutes of other exercise on the other days. Increased my distance and frequency until this summer. I weighed 125 by the end of Feb and was hanging around 118-121 until July 4th. The summer heat got to me and I started running shorter distances and walking more instead of running. On Sept 15th, I was 127lbs (which I think was a bit high because of Mexican the night before for dinner) so I'll call it 125lbs. That means in 2.5 months, I gained about 5-6 pounds or in other words, .5 pounds a week or 250 calories per day. That is about what I figured my exercise output decreased by (3 miles vs 6 or walking for an hour instead of running).

Similarly, when I hurt my hip a few years ago, I gained 20lbs in about one year which is close to .5lbs a week or 250 calories per day- the same difference in output between running and walking for 45 minutes or so a day. I think it's interesting to see in two separate cases how the numbers for me were exact when it comes to losing weight.

I know how to lose these few pounds and I'm not concerned about how to do it. I'm only sharing what I've seen about my body and how really accurate calories in vs calories out is. I hope this will help some of you put faith in the numbers once you can identify an accurate average calorie expenditure for yourself.

-Charlene