NK - September 2013 Version

Whoa! Big bounce. Are you feeling okay or is anything physical going on? Are you sleeping well?

Weigh-in this morning... 178.8 for point two down

:jumpjoy:Awesome!!

Probably it is the combination of that and the recent inflammation from the inner ear thing plus the other stress stuff Cheryl.

Darin want to listen to that video when work don't get in the way! Dr Phinney has a formula about what you weigh/ideal weight and how many calories you are burning for both is that the guideline for how many calories you should be eating to lose the weight. Fat secret calculates that also.the same? TY for letting me pik your brain!

Cheryl my lovely! Don't be upset.....you have done so well and you're so tiny.You haven't been  feeling too good lately so your body is sorting itself out.  You'll probably have a huge whoosh soon
victlady....thank you for your kind words!  Not so long ago.....I'd be wandering around the kitchen looking for something "nice" to eat.....didn't matter if I was hungry or not. But now....I'm really trying hard to make myself eat . But you are right...I feel so much better, and that's the most important thing! I've done a bit better today (so proud of myself)
Haven't had time to measure myself properly......but my jeans and trousers have suddenly become too long  I feel strong and I know I can do this.....and it's all thanks to you my dear friends.....for being there x

Todays numbers

Cals        1449                                        B.   BPC  (2)
fat          129.5g                                      L.   cheeseburger/tomato salad
carbs      18.4g                                        D.  Cheese/ almonds
prot        60.8g

The answer is .... it depends.

And remember, the context is a person that cannot simply 'watch what they eat' and drop that extra ten pounds they gained over the holidays.

If you are coming into the dieting world fresh having never controlled your calories before, the start point, I think, is what Phinney describes. But it is just a guestimate at a starting point. You have to record and observe and adjust down or up to fit your body.

If you are already eating at a calorie restriction then you should slowly bump up your calories to establish your maintenance level so you can make an informed decision about a calorie deficit. This requires some careful attention to detail and a time commitment because you generally need to go slowly - say, 50 to 100 calories up and hold that for a week or two. Continuing until you see a steady but small weight gain and then back off in the same manner till you see a steady weight over time.

Alternatively, if you are already at a restriction but not losing or losing very slowly, just bump up a little at a time until you start losing at a more acceptable rate. But optimally it'd be good to keep slowly bumping until you know for sure you are at your daily expenditure.

If you are eating at a drastic deficit already and have been for a while then you have a bit of a conundrum. Adding calories is going to add weight no matter what in almost all cases. If your relative deficit is too much and you haven't been eating well or those things plus a lot of steady state exercise you have probably lost a significant amount of LBM that will start being replaced when you up your calories *and* you will probably gain some body fat back until your metabolism adjusts to the new calories. Very low calorie eating slows the metabolism in almost all cases.

Conversely, keeping your calories as high as possible makes your metabolism work at the higher level. That is why the ideal is to start high and work down slowly rather than the (sadly typical) reverse. And sensibly reducing calories is the last thing you do not the first thing you do. Get macros and activity right before trying to substantively address caloric deficit. Too much activity is not going to help with weight loss and in most cases it will interfere with weight loss. Particularly steady state activity like cardio. Weight loss is 99% diet and not really related to exercise unless the exercise actually results in muscle mass increases with commiserate other-LBM increases (bone and tendon increases caused by muscle mass increases).

In most cases, I do not think it is good to count calories burned by an exercise program. Probably you are going to grossly over estimate the number. Steady state stuff causes metabolic adaptation which means that initially the caloric burn might be as estimated but then your body adjusts and you are no longer going to be burning x number of calories for a given regimen. That being the case, a more meaningful approach to this issue is to be flexible about your calorie intake and adjust up or down based on results. Lots of cardio probably means an unsustainable down tick in intake (unsustainable because you'll be hungry as heck from all that cardio). Up tick if your doing something very reasonable or strength training and had arbitrarily set your deficit based on your best guess (as everyone must do).

There are some exceptions. cpresson (Chapel) for example. She has a very aggressive activity regimen and guessing at caloric expenditure can be a valid data point to consider when trying to determine a good relative caloric deficit. But otherwise, if you feel you need to meticulously account for exercise related caloric expenditure you are almost certainly doing too much exercise and either overeating or under-eating.

I've seen some Fat Secret food logs that indicate a negative net calories for the day, often for several days out of the week. Either those people are getting skinnier by the minute or the calorie expenditure (and perhaps intake) is way off the mark. I'm guessing the former since exercise calorie guides have no clue about a given individual's metabolism and subsequent adaptation.

Also, to make a complicated issue more complicated, you need to stay aware of what is going on both with your body, particularly for the ladies, including injuries, illness, thyroid issues, adrenal issues, etc, *and* your environment because lack of sleep and outside stressors can have a big impact on weight loss.

Shortcut: Make an educated guess and work from there but try to find the maximum you can eat and still lose weight and eat at that level. Be flexible and experiment with raising calories every so often to see if your metabolism responds by increasing expenditure

Log for today
Calories 1424

fat: 116.58g
|
protein: 64.38g
|
carbs: 21.87g

Breakfast: flax wrap and 1 egg, 1 TBsp olive oil
Lunch: hamburger, lettuce, pickles, mustard, gelatin and cool whip
Dinner: cheeseburger, lettuce, pickles, mustard, gelatin and cool whip

:jumpjoy:Hooray for the new low!!!
:dance:You deserve a great job! Hope you love it and so glad you held out for a great low stress job. I am so tickled for you!

Numbers and log for today.

Calories: 2,224

Fat: 172
Pro: 147
Car: 21

69/28/4

Breakfast: Iced coffee & HWC, CO on the side.
Lunch: Pork chops, cabbage, jalapeno, broth [jalapeno, bouillon, butter].
Dinner: None.
Snack: Pork skins.

Good morning everyone!  No changes in weight......but feeling good!!!!  Blessings x

It is strange but since going LC, lunch while working seems a whole lot less complicated to me. Part of it is because actually eating lunch is optional now whereas before if I tried to skip lunch at the very least I'd be distracted by hunger till I ate something and usually I'd get a banging headache. I mean, wow, if I needed to I could get by without eating or just having some shelf stable jerky and cheese or even just something fatty to drink like maybe having some CO handy to spike some coffee with. Seems like when I was not LC lunch was a much bigger hassle.

   Yeah Cheryl!