Today is Day 2 of tracking my food choices, calories, nutrition, and exercise on My Fitness Pal. I made some data entry errors yesterday, so while I thought I had ended the day 3 calories UNDER my goal of 1200, I had actually consumed 300 calories OVER my limit. Yeah. That's right. Apparently I entered several of my food selections onto different days by accident. I never claimed to be an expert at this.
Today I tried to do a better job. Although not quite perfect yet, I'm trying to come a little closer each day to recording exactly what I consume. Every morsel. What this meant was that after lunch, I was already over 900 calories for the day. And I still had dinner and a snack to add to the mix. At least I hoped I was getting a snack!
Then I added in my exercise for the day. It wasn't much, in terms of calories expended, but I did teach one class, which included about 30 minutes of Zumba-style dance aerobics. That was good for 249 calories. (There was no Pilates or yoga in the system, so I gave myself zero calories burned for those activities. Not sure if they aren't in there because they burn so few calories???) Plus I calculated in our two walks in the park with the dog, at a moderate pace of about 3 miles per hour. So I ended up with a total of 482 calories burned. My Fitness Pal, who was now beginning to seem more like a real friend, allowed me to EAT these extra calories I burned. YAY! Which meant that after my dinner, I still had 182 calories remaining for an evening snack. Thank God. Because I am quite addicted to my pistachios on the couch with my TV shows.
When all is said and done, the ugly truth seems to be that I need A LOT less calories than I'd like to believe. And if this little free app can convince me of this fact, then I think it might be possible for me to lose some weight. I'll keep you updated on my progress. Who knows? I might even get back on the scale...but only if I'm absolutely positive that the number I see will not devastate my fragile psyche. Don't hold your breath.
Today I tried to do a better job. Although not quite perfect yet, I'm trying to come a little closer each day to recording exactly what I consume. Every morsel. What this meant was that after lunch, I was already over 900 calories for the day. And I still had dinner and a snack to add to the mix. At least I hoped I was getting a snack!
Then I added in my exercise for the day. It wasn't much, in terms of calories expended, but I did teach one class, which included about 30 minutes of Zumba-style dance aerobics. That was good for 249 calories. (There was no Pilates or yoga in the system, so I gave myself zero calories burned for those activities. Not sure if they aren't in there because they burn so few calories???) Plus I calculated in our two walks in the park with the dog, at a moderate pace of about 3 miles per hour. So I ended up with a total of 482 calories burned. My Fitness Pal, who was now beginning to seem more like a real friend, allowed me to EAT these extra calories I burned. YAY! Which meant that after my dinner, I still had 182 calories remaining for an evening snack. Thank God. Because I am quite addicted to my pistachios on the couch with my TV shows.
When all is said and done, the ugly truth seems to be that I need A LOT less calories than I'd like to believe. And if this little free app can convince me of this fact, then I think it might be possible for me to lose some weight. I'll keep you updated on my progress. Who knows? I might even get back on the scale...but only if I'm absolutely positive that the number I see will not devastate my fragile psyche. Don't hold your breath.
I feel your pain! I use SparkPeople to track my calories. I used to track exercise as well, but now I use my FitBit for that and just try to walk around as much as I can (that's pretty much the only exercise I can do because of my back injury). It's amazing how little food you can eat when you start calculating how many calories are in it AND are trying to cut back on calories in order to lose weight! I try to use my NutriBullet at least once a day, to make sure that the calories I take in are mostly packed with nutrients and minerals. Not much room for "empty" calories, huh?
ReplyDeleteDefinitely NO room for any empty calories! I was already eating pretty much Paleo (80% or so) with zero added sugar, so my diet was already very clean. But I was eating too much of that good food to lose any weight.
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