Day 2. Introduction and Questions.

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Chris_Pierce
Chris_Pierce Posts: 267 Member
in Introduce Yourself
Well I suppose that I should introduce myself first. I'm Chris. Father of 2, husband to one. I'm 27 years old, I recently "retired" to stay home with my kids.
Healthy living is not a new concept to me. I eat very healthy, "clean" you might say, but too much volume/calories recently. I buy organic local and non-gmo as much as possible. I do eat out, but we try to find places that agree with our eating philosophy.
I tried a "primal" diet for a while (like paleo but with beer and peanut butter) and felt good, but I wasn't building muscle like I wanted, anyway I fell off the wagon, and I gained 20 pounds pretty quickly when I went back to eating a lot of sandwiches and not doing any cardio.

I really enjoy exercising. Currently I've got a foot injury so I'm limited to non-impact type stuff. I'm really enjoying riding my stationary bike.

I do have a question about the food/exercise diary. It's only day two of logging for me. But Day 1 was sort of strange for me. I worked out like usual, and ate like usual. But then I had nearly 1000 extra calories for the day. I ended up drinking beer and eating ice cream to make up the difference. But it seems crazy to me that I can be losing 2 pounds a week and eating 2 servings of ice cream every day.
If I understand correctly, my net calorie goal is the number that I am trying to hit. Am I doing this correctly? Or am I having trouble just because I burn a lot of calories when I exercise?

Also, can some one give me a working definition of "sedentary?" I consider myself sedentary now, but maybe my view is skewed from a life of working construction?

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  • MscGray
    MscGray Posts: 304 Member
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    The way I understand is the total number of calories it gives you is the total number you should strive to eat. It automatically figures out the calorie deicit for you based on what you said you wanted to lose per week. at the start of the day its just your "daily" allowance, but as you work out and log exercis that calorie total goes up. I hope that answers your question :)
  • MscGray
    MscGray Posts: 304 Member
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    And yes....I think if you burn a ton of calories that is where that large amount of extra calories is coming from...they want you to eat back most of what you burned because they already did the math to establish your calorie deficit to lose at the healthy appropriate weight.
    I would say that sedentary is spending the majority of the day sitting down....think secretary, office job, etc where you really aren't up and moving the majority of the day.
  • knystress
    knystress Posts: 8 Member
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    Hi there!
    I'm new to it too, so I've been reading all the links people have posted about "getting started." Yes, they really do want you to eat back all those calories, but probably not in ice cream and beer (though that sounds like the best diet ever). There's a bunch of science-y mumbo jumbo here: (thanks to the person who posted them in my introduction post)

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1235566-so-you-re-new-here
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide

    Very helpful.

    Hi and good luck!
  • Chris_Pierce
    Chris_Pierce Posts: 267 Member
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    Yeah, I'm not going to give up beer :) I can do without sweets though. I only ate the ice cream because I had to fill up some calories.
    If you check out my diary you can see that I hit all my goals for the day more or less, and thats counting the beer and ice cream. Thanks for the links. I will check those out this evening.

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