BonnieHosk85 wrote: »

January 6
Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? Yes, 20 minutes on recumbent bike and chased the dog in the dog park for 45 minutes
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? Yes
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? Yes

I hope you posted this on the January 6 thread? If you don't already know .... click on the blue Ultimate Accountability Challenge January 2019! heading above for a display of all the threads in this group. Scroll down to the list of daily dates. Maybe star the next three to add them to your "bookmarks" so you can navigate there faster.

Maybe 3 days after "the date" unstar the earliest and star the next "ahead of time" date.

“What doesn’t challenge us doesn’t change us” - Chaitanya Charan (?)

I want to challenge myself a lot more physically by switching up my exercise choices and intensity, but I need some sport-nutrition guidance before I will feel comfortable doing so.

What’s holding me back is almost the opposite from what many on MFP are looking for … a list of suggested high (but quality) calorie / low bulk foods that I can add to my over-all daily intake arsenal while eating back a higher number of exercise calories.

There is nothing physical in terms of stamina, endurance or injury to hold me back. However, I am also 60 yrs old, short (5’3”), work at a sedentary desk job, have reached practically-normal-BMI-zone for my height, and am currently only assigned 1250 net calories per day for a target 0.5 lb per week rate of loss.

If it makes any difference, a US Navy formula calculation site that works from measurements puts my BF% at ~36% (not exactly surprising given the typical “now-senior female who defined exercise as = cardio all her life” bias and the fact that I have never even known how to find out a ball-park BF% measure before). That’s the main driver behind my wanting to re-vamp my exercise intensity and activity choices.

I find the quantities I already eat are perfectly satisfying for my current activity level, while consistently respecting my nutritional breakdown display in my Food Diary. FYI, I took 20 months to shed 40 pounds, and have been committed to the “find a healthy, maintainable lifestyle” mindset right from the start.

My current MFP settings leave VERY little room to maneuver between exercise calories not eaten back to re-raise my Net Calories for the day vs regularly hitting an unhealthy Net Calorie level of 1100 (or significantly less). This (as mentioned at the start) is the factor behind the mental resistance holding me back.

My major macro % split (overall carb vs fat vs protein) is currently left at the MFP default breakdown. I have no specific medical-related proportions that I am advised to adhere to.

I also have no specific objection to perhaps changing the macro percentages, but would like to be confident that the re-balance is following sound sport-nutrition practice.

My family was never “sporty”, so this is not the kind of information I might have learned young … nor do I have family / friends / acquaintances I could ask that are into either regular strength training or race-competition training. So I haven’t a clue of where to even begin to look for this information, or how to judge if it is “actually sound” vs “popular press misrepresented” information.

I had a lung function test today (after a bout of pneumonia floored me for a month) and my breathing is obstructed on my ‘out’ breath so no rigorous exercise for another 6 weeks until my re-test. They don’t know if the obstruction is inflammation left over from the infection or if the obstruction led to the infection so are allowing time for any inflammation to settle before the retest. Looks like it will be walking as my exercise for the rest of this month at least.

@jenconv Hope you get feeling better soon!

hiking is great, and also pre-explore water aerobics as resistance training. Probably demo videos on Youtube just like anything else ... (watching and following along in the pool NOT generally recommended LOL)

@jan110144 Thank you! That is a great starting question.

I am not good at "eyeballing" portion sizes, so I think I will forever be using my digital food scale. However, I want to get healthy, and correct portions are important to be able to hit my daily calorie goal. I think I will start using that question too, as I start learning healthy lifestyle habits. Tracking calories, correct portions, and exercise are all needed and sustainable I think. No more thinking those items are just what is needed for my "diet", but they are for maintaining once I reach my healthy ideal goal weight. I need to drill into my head, no more "diet" but a healthy lifestyle (and a healthy way of life).

KCJen wrote: »

I am trying to track miles on my treadmill. I created a "treadmill" exercise and I can enter minutes and calories burned. Is there a way to add miles to this section as well? Any suggestions on how to track my miles?

No, myfitnesspal won't do that for you. You can log them separately on another service like Garmin Connect, Fitbit or Strava, or anything similar...I think Endomondo and Map my run too although I don't know them.

So a strange day for me calories wise..... I have been doing intermittent fasting and my calorie intake has been dropping as I learn more about the “Right “ food to eat on keto and today I was only able to eat 750 calories.... I need to get that up tomorrow. Good luck to everyone

Discipline = Freedom

I just picked up a digital scale last night - registers 1 gm => 11 kg and you can "zero the scale". I LIKE that feature!