AbnormalYak Member

Some people get really huffy about whether to call it running or jogging. It helped me as beginner to think of it as jogging, because for me running meant "running flat out". I thought I couldn't run because whenever I tried to run (i.e. run flat out) I quickly got out of breath and my heart was pounding and I couldn't…

Do a runner's knot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niL2opvjpqM

Your maintenance calories are 3224? Sob! Mine are a smidge over half that (short 40's desk job woman). Life's so unfair.

Geek gamer here too. Try Fitocracy.com which gives you points and you can level up for doing exercise. There's achievements and quests and duels - the lot, just like a videogame. Or an app called Epic Quest where you can set your own quests (e.g. to eat 5 portions of fruit and veg, or to log all your meals) and reward…

This isn't something you can fail at. It's not like an exam or a sports event - you don't get one shot and you either succeed or fail. This is more like learning a musical instrument - it's a lifelong process of practice and learning. You can't fail to learn piano, you can only quit trying. So looking at it that way, what…

Manchester, England. I'm a public health researcher specialising in obesity (oh, the irony)

If you're short, female, sedentary, and want to lose more than 1/2lb a week then that's likely to happen. Same for me. I can't grow 6" taller (I've tried) or become a man. So that leaves becoming more active, and settling for a slower weight loss. These are the only ways to have a few more calories to eat each day. Wearing…

Thanks for this. I was going nuts trying to figure out how to do it.

At the end of the day, that's the whole secret to this. Apps and gizmos are fun and can be motivating, but don't try to game the technology, instead game your own body. Eat a bit less, move a bit more than when you started. If you don't lose 1-2lbs a week eat even less/move even more. If you lose more than 1-2lbs a week…

It's not only your step count that determines your TDEE. Look at other variables like stairs climbed. If you walked 9000 steps and every one was up a stair you'd burn a lot more kcals than if you walked 9000 steps on the flat, or down a hill. Also look at the daily active minutes. Again, 9000 steps running at 8min/mile…

Please stop beating yourself up. It only leads to more feelings of helplessness, to the feeling that you can't change yourself and there's no point trying. It leads to feeling bad which leads to eating, the only way you know to cheer yourself up. It actively prevents you from getting out and exercising because you feel…

I don't log it but I'm not against people who do. If logging it motivates you to do more of it, then log, log, log away! I wear a FitBit activity tracker and since I started wearing it I am more likely to walk places rather than drive, to take the stairs than the elevator, to do gardening, cleaning and other things because…

If you answer "yes" to these questions, you may have an eating disorder or exercise compulsion. These are not normal or healthy ways of thinking about food and exercise and your body.

If he lifts and has significant muscle mass then his BMR is higher than than another person of equal weight who is fat and not muscled. I'd be willing to bet that you overestimated his calories significantly and underestimated his TDEE just as much. Your muscly friend can eat more than other people because he burns it in…

I'm a professional obesity researcher at a top UK university and this is correct. Somatotypes are broscience, not real science. People you would categorise as endomorphs are simply fat or muscly people. The fat ones got that way by eating more calories than they expended over a long period of time. A little bit to do with…

Her comments say something about her - her priorities, her attitude, her social skills (or lack of them). They don't say anything about you. Let them fall off you like the nothings they are.

Someone pointed out that men's health and fitness magazines do it too:

It depends on the individual. I've had such a messed up relationship with food in the past that I could stuff myself well beyond the level at which I was physically uncomfortable. I've had such a messed up relationship with food that I would never feel satiated unless I was eating the unhealthy food I was used to, and…

Running 3 days a week is a good way to start - not too much, not too little. As you get fitter you can run more but it's wise to always include 1 or 2 rest days a week (having said that some people have looong "streaks" of running every single day - we're all different, figure out what works for you). The received wisdom…

The problem is, the only way to actually directly measure how much energy you use in physical activity is a complicated and invasive procedure called "doubly-labelled water" which can only be done in a lab. So the researchers do the measuring on test subjects in a lab and then they come up with a rule of thumb like "the…

I've had flavoured instant coffees from Boaters and Littles. They taste good and have no more calories than other instant coffee.

It's OK to eat more, but I'd be veeeery cautious about believing the figures MFP gives for calorie burns for various exercises. I've seem it give some really crazy figures like 800kcal for less than an hour of running. It's just not physically possible to burn anything like that number of calories in that amount of time.…

Great attitude.

The title is wrong. It should be "Actually it is calories in/calories out but it's really difficult to know precisely how many calories are going in/out so your best bet is to move more and eat less which we already knew so this article isn't actually very interesting". But I must admit, yours is snappier.

According to the British Dietetic Association "Tea and coffee (and some soft drinks such as cola) do contain caffeine, which is a mild diuretic (makes you want to urinate) so in large amounts this could result in dehydration. However the style of tea and coffee and the amounts we drink in the UK are unlikely to have a…

I don't understand why I can't count a cup of tea. It's 99.9% water. If I drank a glass of water and then ate a teabag I'd count the water. What's the difference? Why are we tracking water anyway? To make sure we get enough fluid, I suppose. So all fluid should count.

Great blog! I love all the photos of your bread baking, wow, wish my attempts at bread looked like that. Could you do calorie calculations for all your recipes? That would be really helpful to me.

"Healthy" is one of those tricksy words that can mean lots of things. You can eat only the healthiest of healthy foods - smoothies and salads and lean meats and raw vegetables - and still gain weight if you eat too much of them. On the other hand, you can eat nothing but quarter pounders and beer and lose weight if you…

I've had mine for a couple of days and it's very fun and motivating.

It is absolutely necessary to try to be more active but that doesn't have to mean "The Dreaded EXERCISE!!!" Just move more. Walking is fantastic exercise. Watch this 10-minute video that convinced me walking isn't a poor second-best to running: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aUaInS6HIGo And don't…