calories – That's Just Me

900 Days of Logging at MyFitnessPal

Today I am celebrating my 900th straight day of logging into MyFitnessPal.com. Next month, it’ll be 3 years since I started on my healthy journey! What a wonderful experience this has been!

It all started with a quote on a Facebook friend’s wall on July 20th, 2009:

God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know it’s me.

After various unsuccessful attempts to “get healthier”, I saw her post, and for some reason, it clicked! I knew this time would be different, I knew this time I was going to stick to it no matter what!

I started tracking my calories on fitday.com, but a few days later, I found that Myfitnesspal.com was better, so I copied all my food info from fitday. Ever since then, I’ve been logging in and tracking my food, even before MFP kept track of the total log-in days. I don’t think I missed more than one or two days of tracking, even while on vacation.

I wasn’t always perfect in the foods I chose, but I logged them anyway, and now looking back, it’s awesome to have a record of my food diary, and how I’ve evolved through the years.

In fact, here is a screen shot of food diary on July 21st (click for larger version):

During the last 3 years, I have lost (and maintained) 65+/- pounds. I’ve never felt healthier! I’m going to be 50 this year, and I didn’t feel this good, with so much energy at 30!

Life is good! Happy 900th day, next stop 1000!

136 – Low, probably TOO Low

I weighed in this morning at 136 pounds. Yeah, that’s a bit too low I think. I’m happy with 137, 138.

I think it’s time to increase the calories back up to 1700 or 1800. I’ve been doing okay keeping to around 1650, give or take a few calories.

I’m just happy to be back on track! Went to the doctor’s for my annual physical yesterday, blood pressure is 120/77, and I’m on my way to have my fasting blood test this morning. I’m looking forward to seeing my numbers, especially my vit D, as I’ve been taking 5K four times per week.

Life is good!

UPDATE: raised calories to 1750, a little less than the 1800, which was what I was previously eating while in maintenance.

UPDATE September 27, 2011: I’m up to 137 pounds. I like this weight!

Pondering Toast vs Bread Calories

A few weeks ago, I was wondering if my toast had less calories than bread. I googled, and duh, of course the calories are the same, they are just calculated differently.

For instance, before toasting, my serving of bread was 2.5 oz, after it’s turned to toast, the weight was reduced to 1.6 oz – no, the calories didn’t disappear, but moisture inside the bread did, taking away a good chunk of its weight.

That is a whole ounce difference, which could lead to overeating if you’re not careful to weigh your bread BEFORE toasting it. If you have to weigh bread after toasting, then you would need to calculate the calories as toast NOT bread.

I love toast, it makes day-old bread taste amazing – just make sure not to burn it!

toasted bread

Eating Most of My Calories

Most days, I try to stay 150 – 250 under my total daily calories. Just to give myself some wiggle room, since I am at a higher calorie count, due to lower weight loss goal.

But this morning I found a new podcast to listen to on healthy weight loss, called Fat 2 Fit Radio and they suggest a much higher calorie consumption – my “lightly active” calorie intake should be 1964. That’s a lot higher than what I am eating now. I don’t know if I will go as high as their BMR Calculator chart suggests, but I will try to eat all of the calories that MyFitnessPal suggests, if I can – all 1680 of them!

It’s worth a try for a few weeks to see if I can kick start weight loss again. Since I have been working out more regularly now, my body might be more efficient, I hope. Well, we’ll see.

Anyway, the Fat 2 Fit Radio podcast looks like it’s going to be very helpful. They have a ton of shows to listen to, so it’ll give me something new to inspire me on the way to work! In looking at their topics, there are so many really interesting ones. I don’t know if I should start at the beginning, or maybe start with the show from a year ago.