sympha01 Member

sheltol is right -- 200 was a typo on my part. But I stand by my statement that 170 would be on the high side for an untrained 40 yo. That represents 95% of theoretical max (using the 220 minus age calculation). That level is extremely high and typically only recommended for people who are very fit and well-conditioned,…

I've got my sodium under control now, but do be aware that not everyone really needs to get their sodium down real low. You might want to ask your doctor for her advice about it at your next checkup, especially if you've never been diagnosed as hypertensive. If so, make sure you frame your question "Since I DON'T have high…

170 seems kind of high for your age, as your theoretical estimated maximal heart rate would be 180 (200 minus age is the simplest formula, though there are better formula more appropriate for people our age). For someone who is new to exercise, exercising steady-state at 50%-60% of your max is probably a pretty good place…

I add egg whites to leftover oatmeal and "fry" it in a nonstick skillet to make a sort of simple pancake.

Chocolate chirp cookies. Boom.

Everyone's different, but I'd be more conservative than assuming the Fitbit understates walking. It understates EVERYTHING ELSE, but not walking, I think. Because this year's goal for me is to increase my training intensity, I recently upgraded to a VivoSmart with a chest-strap HRM. I did a 5 mile walk about 3.25 mph and…

It depends not only on the type of exercise you plan to do, but what your goals are. If your goals boil down to trying to be less sedentary, then a simple activity tracker will do. The cheaper the better, unless you plan to spend a lot of time in a browser pouring over your data every day. If your goals are to get more out…

As long as you keep your hands off the bars, you needn't log it. If you do put your hands on something to steady you though, your fitbit won't get a good reading. And for any non-step based workout (circuit training, biking, swimming, etc.), you would definitely log it, because I found that Fitibit was crap at detecting…

I like to play hookey and go to a matinee when the movie theater is almost completely empty, and I can't tell you the number of times a single person has come into the damn near empty theater and sat down right next to me. I really think some people just can't handle being by themselves. Either it just freaks them out to…

Exercise in the morning. If feeling unmotivated is holding you back in the evenings, make an appointment with yourself before the day begins when you don't have excuses like "I'm tired," "It's been a long day" etc. DO EET FIRST. It still sucks, but I find it helps me be honest with myself. Also, especially at first, I made…

I was under the impression that when you get a Polar watch type device, the chest strap that comes with it is just a Polar H7 anyway. So the accuracy is the same. The feature set is different: no device on your wrist to display HR or give training guidance. But a smartphone will do the trick if your workout allows you to…

FitnessBlender.com is awesome. They have tons of free workouts and you can use their website to filter by difficulty level, type of workout, upper/lower/total body, and type of equipment needed (including "no equipment"). My equipment at home is just a yoga mat, a few dumbbell pairs (10-40lbs), and a couple of kettlebells…

I live really close to a decent small supermarket, so I visit it several times a week. I count on the short walks back and forth to top off my active minutes many days LOL. I eat a ton of produce, but on the whole I only buy what I'm going to eat in the next 3 days.

When it's working, it's pretty much immediate. But when it's down, well…

Not all food comes in packages.

No problem with the dongle sync, or with the device syncing to the Fitbit website. It's just the MFP link that's unreliable. This happens A LOT all year long, so get used to it. Typically what happens is that the problem rolls through various groups of users, and usually not everyone at once. But it's THE WORST from this…

"Journey."

I've been using a Fitbit (Force) for a year and this is actually normal for me. I have MFP set to "sedentary" because I want to see every drop of exercise come in as my Fitbit adjustment LOL. But I start every day in the hole and have to burn about 200 calories worth of actual moderate exercise on the Fitbit just to get…

Yep, exactly the same here. I've also checked the "official" METS compendia and I see the Fitbit burn rate for most step-based activity is nearly twice that. I was just saying to a friend the other day that it seems like since Fitbit is still essentially just a pedometer, OF COURSE it's designed to give you more positive…

Just to be clear, you do understand that there is no consumer device in existence that "senses" your actual calorie burn, right? All these devices sense ... other body stuff. Like movement or heart rate or skin temperature or body composition or hydration or electrical impulses on the skin etc. And those data points go…

The deal is not so much that the Charge HR is available at "select retailers" as Fitbit has done a "soft launch" with a very small shipment going to various dealers. When dealers run out, they run out until the hard launch sometime next quarter. For what that's worth. Given so many questions I have about the accuracy of…

What I'm hearing is that some people are experiencing up 30% variance from a trusted device they've compared to. That's not 2 or 2 bpm. Some people are getting a 2-3 bpm variance, and I agree that is more than acceptable. But I don't like the risk, for me. I also agree that Garmin has been getting a bad reputation lately…

Ah. Well. The thing that concerns me is that the wrist-mounted HR devices have a reputation for inaccuracy. A few people got early release models of Fitbit's Charge HR and I'm not hearing great things about the accuracy of the HR monitor. But I'm at a stage in my fitness progression where my interest in an HR monitor is…

I love my Fitbit, but honestly, unless you are really motivated by numbers and an activity tracker will make you move a lot more, do not get one to help with weight loss. If you're the kind of person who is having trouble sticking to your deficit and is possibly looking for an activity tracker to tell you to eat more, it…

In addition to the things others have mentioned (e.g., yogurt, apples), I like to use it in Asian peanut sauces. Really kicks the peanut flavor up a lot w/o adding tons of calories, and as a bonus tends to thicken the sauce up. I've also added it to baked goods on occasion to tighten up batters that are too loose when I…

The Jawbone (and the Garmin) interface with MFP. The Basis Peak does not. I am also in the market for a new tracker in a few weeks and the Jawbone 3 and the Garmin Vivosmart (not the Vivofit) are on my short list, along with Fitbit's Charge HR when it comes out. May I ask why you've ruled the Garmin out?

Most days I eat a quick oatcake for breakfast. Very filling, calories vary between 350 on the low end to 550 on the high end, depending on what I put in it, but it's usually easy to keep it in the low 400s. The base is oatmeal porridge made with 40g oats and 6 oz milk that I pre-make several portions of at the beginning of…

I think your original question was about other people's experience trying to adhere long-term to a diet at the calorie level you are eating at. I have been losing weight for 18 months. I could not have stuck with it this long if I were eating 1500 calories per day. Nope. I have been eating between 1850 and 1950 per day,…

Meh, I used to think I wasn't getting nearly enough potassium either, thanks to MFP. But I learned how to tell the difference between bad database entries (user-generated) and good database entries (moderated). Lo and behold, it turns out I get >4500 mg / day on the regular, and get 6000 mg days a couple of times each…

You won't get an activity tracker with a heart rate monitor for $100 or less. The going rate for that function in an activity tracker is $150-$200. You can get a heart rate monitor that does ONLY that (no all-day activity tracking) for <$100 easily. Also if you want the heart rate monitor function, you won't get something…