Hey There Fitness People!!

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Shabumbler
Shabumbler Posts: 3
in Introduce Yourself
Completely new to MFP, been logging for all of maybe 3 days now. I was originally inspired by a friend who had been posting her updates to facebook. Seeing that she had lost a tremendous amount of weight I decided to sign up as a way to give me the motivation I need to get in shape. I wish I could say "back in shape" but honestly I have never been very fit. I used to weigh around 185, which is likely around 10 lbs more than is healthy. I currently weigh 224 lbs and I am in desperate need of change.

Just being able to have a handy, easy to use calorie tracker combined with the exercise diary has been a tremendous help even over just the last 3 days. I do, however, have some questions for you all out there. My metabolism is obviously terribly out of whack thanks to my eating habits over the last 5 years or more. I work at a place where I am typically not afforded time during lunch to have a meal. When I am able to eat its usually in the late hours of the afternoon, somewhere around 2pm. I then usually eat again at 6pm, then maybe a snack 1-2 hours before bed.

I'm aware the lack of breakfast, eating that soon before sleeping, and the infrequent intervals at which I eat are probably the majority of my weight problems. I've spent the last 3 days attempting to log healthier options at my meals but also keeping some of my bad habits intact to see how many calories I would have ingested on a given day prior to my decision to lose some weight. Even with some of the bad habits intact, im finding it hard to meet the daily suggested caloric intake that myfitnesspal suggests.

Take yesterday as an example: no breakfast, decent sized lunch @ 895 calories. Felt full. Finished work @4:45. Played golf (carrying clubs) for 2.5 hrs. Burned 1100 calories. Supper @ 7:45pm: 890 calories. Again, felt full.

Now granted I did eat a bit lighter than usual and 895 calories might be a bit small but I honestly cannot see how im supposed to eat not only 3-400 calories more to meet my daily recommended intake without exercise but also eat another 1100 calories to offset a round of golf. Am I really supposed to be eating this much or what is going on?


Anyway, with that out of the way, its great to be on the road to a better and healthier lifestyle!

Replies

  • kathleennf
    kathleennf Posts: 606 Member
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    Can't help wondering if playing a round of golf REALLY burns that many calories. Seems like a lot to me. Did you check that somewhere else? I mean if that number is off that would explain everything.
  • Kelly_Wilson1990
    Kelly_Wilson1990 Posts: 3,245 Member
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    Welcome!!
  • Avalonis
    Avalonis Posts: 1,540 Member
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    Hey there, and welcome.

    Keep in mind: Exercise calories burned AND intake calories are both estimations, so I wouldn't worry about eating ALL of them back.

    I usually eat about half back.

    Also, You need to eat pretty regular. It's important because it keeps your body from hoarding calories to keep you going longer. It'll use them to give you energy right away, instead of trying to save them for so long,

    One last thing: Doing an exercise for an hour is kind of deceiving. Lets say you burn 600 calories in an hour. HOWEVER, just sleeping you would have burned like 2-300, so you need to make sure you don't eat back ALL your calories.
  • Avalonis
    Avalonis Posts: 1,540 Member
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    Can't help wondering if playing a round of golf REALLY burns that many calories. Seems like a lot to me. Did you check that somewhere else? I mean if that number is off that would explain everything.

    THat number is accurate. My Bodymedia fit gives close to that.
  • Shabumbler
    Shabumbler Posts: 3
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    Hey all, Its me again! Im going to try and keep this post updated pretty regular, maybe a moderator could move it into the Motivation section or something because I would like it to be kind of a journal for me rather than just a post. I originally joined this site on 6/23 and did my first weigh in @224 lbs. After a day or two of keeping track of the calories I took in, I was tired of searching for foods, putting in each little ingredient, etc. In a self destructive fit I decided I "didn't need any stinkin' website/calorie log to eat less. I can do this on my own."

    Needless to say I could not, in fact, do this on my own. My weight has stayed at 224 lbs until about 3.5 weeks ago. I realized finally that not thinking about how much energy I put into my body throughout the day would invariably lead to consuming more than my body needed. I decided to suck it up and download the mobile application so that I could keep better track of my intake on the go.

    :love: Awesomesauce, On The Go!! :love:

    Oh man! Whoever designed the Android Application needs a pay raise! The app uses the camera on my cell phone and transforms it into a barcode scanner. With this I am quickly and easily able to find accurate nutritional information for the very products I am consuming! Im mild (extrememly mild) OCD and it would frustrate me to have to search through the entire database of nutrition information just to eventually settle for an entry that was "good enough."

    This new technology has been reliable and entirely unobtrusive in my everyday life. I often am required to eat meals either on the way to work or at work, with dinner being the only exception. This, coupled with scheduled meals as opposed to eating whenever I had time, has allowed me to drop 8 lbs over the course of 3.5 weeks! Im told by my sister, who has a degree in personal training of some sort, that the rather rapid loss of weight can most easily be explained by a loss of water weight due to a decrease in sodium. Regardless of that fact I am still thoroughly excited to see a change.

    :angry: Eating Woes: The Quantity and Me :angry:

    Myfitnesspal has me slated to consume approximately 2200 calories each day in order to lose 1 lb per week, however I find it difficult to meet this goal. With the changes I have made to my diet it seems like the quantity of food needed to reach the same amount of calories is quite large. As an example lets say with bad eating habits I would have a Whopper and small fry for lunch. That totals out to ~754 calories. Compare that to the lunch I had today which was 2xDeli Ham sandwiches (2 slice whole wheat, 1 tbsp mustard, 1.5 tbsp Miracle Whip, 1 leaf of lettuce on each sandwich) and a fistfull (15-20) of fresh grape tomatoes. That totals out to ~470 calories. Thats a pretty huge difference in energy vs. quantity.

    This said, I often fall short of my recommended daily intake, if I attempt to eat 2200 calories I feel full to the point of being uncomfortable. I have instead been trying to reach a daily goal of 1750-1850 calories and find that I feel satisfied but not full. Its enough to keep me going for another 3-4 hours until my next meal. I have been eating scheduled meals 3 times a day @ 300-500cal each and approximately 3-4 hours apart. I try make sure to have dinner by 6pm and consume nothing but water afterward. I used to have a really bad habit of eating @4pm and then being hungry, trying to stave it off, and then caving in around 9-10pm (3 hrs before bed) and eating, usually something bad.

    :flowerforyou: The Sappy/Motivational Stuff :flowerforyou:

    I know its horribly cliche. I used to roll my eyes every time I saw a commercial on late at night starring some Douche McGee, who looks like he hasn't seen the 200+ side of a bathroom scale in his LIFE, start spouting off about how "great and wonderful" he feels and how "much energy I have through the day". It really is true though, I used to have to drag myself out of bed an hour before work in the morning and now I'm regularly awake and doing things at 8 am! Its fantastic!

    If anyone out there is reading this and needs the motivation to start losing weight then I cannot stress enough how easy this is and how uncomplicated it can be. I think the main thing to remember is that losing weight isn't impossible. For most folks who are overweight like me, you DONT NEED weight lost pills, supplements, slim fast, P90X. The thought of eating cheeseburgers and drinking some magic weight loss shake afterward to negate the entire meal is a tempting one, but its a lie. I'm not on any pills, I'm not starving myself, I'm not eating things I find revolting, I'm certainly not on any sort of strict exercise regimen. I eat healthier than I used to, lift the things at work that I always have, and spend 3 hours on the golf course with my buddies twice a week. I spend my evening out with friends, watching movies, or playing World of Warcraft (yeah, big whoop. Wanna fight about it?)

    I have not turned into someone who wakes up at 5am, runs 5 miles before breakfast, eats 5 eggs with the yolks separated for lunch washed down with a protein shake, spends 8 hours at the gym after lunch, etc. While I might look a WHOLE hell of a lot better if I DID do all those things, I simply don't have the will or time in my life to be that extreme. I simply want to lose the excess body fat I have and feel better about myself on a daily basis. So far, its working. Will I have struggles? Yes. Will the weight loss slow down, or maybe reverse a bit at some point? Likely so. As long as I am able to keep up healthy eating habits however, I believe I will continue to see a positive trend in my quality of life.

    Thanks for listening to my ramblings!
    Good luck,
    Shabumbler

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