Mowens's Diary

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I can't speak for your boss but for my part you're welcome to write novels here :) apart from that: congratulations! Hope you'll have a lovely day, all the best for the upcoming year.
 
I'm a little bit annoyed. I've been using "Record", the MyFitnessPal companion app that syncs your workouts and calories burned. I realized that using the app vs manually entering the information basically doubles the amount of calories it claims I burn. I'm really thinking that manually entered numbers are much more accurate as when Record enters them, they seem inflated, especially when held against what my friends are claiming they are burning.

I think I've been giving myself way too much credit for my exercises than I should, which might explain my frustration over not seeing any loss. I dunno, I guess I just feel duped into thinking I was doing better. But better to find out now than way down the road, right? :banghead:
 
I just started using My Fitness Pal and found the same thing with the exercise. Yes, better to find out sooner rather than later.
 
I have always manually entered my exercise into MFP Mowens but find it safer if I don't eat back all my calories expended by exercise. I was using it as an excuse to eat more at one stage & was not losing anything. You'll work all this out. You are doing well :) Thanks for your support in my diary xo
 
While I didn't necessarily eat back my calories, I would allow myself a looser budget for the day based on what I'd gained from exercise. But given that in reality I only had about half of what I thought I had, I was definitely overeating on the days I exercised. Funny to think I was eating healthier on the days I was lazy and didn't work out. :p
 
cate said:
I have always manually entered my exercise into MFP Mowens but find it safer if I don't eat back all my calories expended by exercise. I was using it as an excuse to eat more at one stage & was not losing anything. You'll work all this out. You are doing well :) Thanks for your support in my diary xo
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That's good advice Cate. Guilty here of eating back my exercise calories. Think I'll start by only eating 1/2 of them back.

Mowens1984 said:
Funny to think I was eating healthier on the days I was lazy and didn't work out. :p
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Interesting, but I have done that too.
 
It was, thank you. Ripe old age of 32. :) Didn't get to celebrate today, just work. Hopefully I can do something with my family this week.
 
I'm feeling good about the cool weather we're finally experiencing here. Yesterday and today were the first days of summer that felt more like fall (or autumn if you're feeling fancy). It's a nice, cloudy 74F (23C) today and it's been the perfect weather for taking walks on my break at work. Unfortunately, we only get 2 fifteen minute breaks a day, so the most I can walk is 30 minutes plus whatever time I have left after lunch.

I've finally managed to get to the point where that's a feasible thing for me to accomplish and I feel as though I could walk longer. My ankle no longer consistently gives me any trouble, just my calf muscles getting really tight after about 15 minutes. I imagine this too will get a bit easier with time.

I had some birthday cake last night. Well, an Oreo ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. It's going to be hard to fight the urge to eat more of it because I really don't want to -- I may have to give some of it away or just let my wife eat the thing. :p

I'm feeling an urge to jump on the exercise band trend if only to make tracking a bit more streamlined for myself. What is the one everyone uses, FitBit? But it's difficult to justify spending $80+ on a piece of plastic that tells me I'm walking enough. Definitely a luxury thing. Maybe one of these days...
 
Hi Mowen,

Happy birthday (+1 day)! :)

About calculating how much you burn, I basically use this formula:

1 kilometer of walking or running = 90-100 calories (depending on weight)
1 kilometer of cycling = 30-40 calories (depending on speed/weight)

This formula is valid for the 85-100 kg range. When I weight lower than that I will have to adjust the numbers. I got these numbers by comparing different online calories (such as this one), they usually produce something in this range.

Haha, exercising seems to do the opposite to making me hungry. I tend to overeat on the days that I don't exercise! ;)
What helps me tough is drinking a lot of water after exercising. Only after that am I allowed to eat. It also helps that I don't have any unhealthy snacks in my home, such as chips. If I would have them, then I am sure that I would eat them, especially after exercise. Strangely enough, I don't really miss them.

Good luck, you've made great progress! You've almost made it past the 250 lbs mark! ;)

Kind regards,

Tri
 
I don't have an exercise band. I should probably use that, I am working in Geo-IT and I love mapping things :p. I do have a way to track my routes now: whenever I run a new route, or if I am going to, I usually measure the path on Google Earth. I run a lot in the park, and I know that a round is about 2.5-3 kilometers (depending on what route I follow), so I just count how many laps I do (usually between 2 and 4), and I add another kilometer for running to the park and back.

12 years ago, shortly after I started running, I used to track my running rounds using my Nokia mobile (using an app called "Sports Tracker"). I loved to do it.

Haha I couldn't resist and found a GPS watch on Marktplaats (the dutch equivalent to ebay). I bid 26 euro's for it, and it's in my city so I may be able to get it this evening. It's a Garmin Forerunner 110.

So you don't have to spend 80+ dollars on it, that is if you don't want the newest gadget. I remember that there was nothing wrong with using my old nokia to track, so this watch is probably fine too.

Great that walking is getting easier! :) I once weighed 235 lbs, and I remember that running was really hard then. When I started losing weight, I decided that I would not start by running, this would only frustrate me, and probably even injure me, because I was already having a lot of pain in my joints. So I started walking, and this got easier and easier as I walked more and lost more weight. The joint pain also stopped after a short time, when I was around 215-220 lbs. I fell in love with walking, it was not only good for my body, but also very good for my mind. It helped me calm down in a time that was very stressful. Now, years later, I still love to walk.

Good luck again! Keep me posted! :)
 
Have you tested to see how much of a difference intensity makes when walking? When I walk, since I have very limited time, I try to walk fast, almost a "power walk" in order to get my time's worth. I'm just wondering if this makes much of a difference, especially since I'm currently above the weight you listed -- 113kg if my math is right.

I ran the numbers I did for my last walk on the site you linked, and with the time I input and my current weight, it says I should have burned 191 calories, almost double what your formula says. But that also says run and I'm still just technically walking quickly.

And lucky for me, chips and cookies and things like that never really appealed to me. So that type of food was easy to give up. I'm not a big snacker and I tend to just eat large meals. It's limiting my meat and cheese intake that's my biggest hurdle; well, that and learning that snacking doesn't have to be a bad thing. You would think for my weight that I'd be eating all of the time but that's really not the case. If anything, I don't eat often enough -- it's just portion size that's my problem.
 
Speed does not make a significant difference to the amount of calories that you burn when you are running or walking. The reason for this is that you don't deal with a lot of air resistance at those speeds. This is the reason that it's better to calculate your calories per kilometer (or per any other unit of distance) than per unit of time.

Speed does matter when you are cycling, because air resistance plays a bigger role there. This is the reason that I have a relatively bigger range here.

My formula is valid for me, at my current weight. You can figure out which numbers are valid for you by entering "1" kilometer (or mile) in the calculator and seeing what it says. When you vary the speed, you'll notice that it doesn't make a difference to the calories.

I know what you mean with the portion size being a problem. When I was a student, I often skipped breakfast and sometimes even lunch, so my first meal would be in the (early) evening. I was known for how much I could eat, many people found it impressive ;). Well... I knew the explanation of it. I still managed to gain weight, while eating only one meal (although I did not do this every day).
 
I see what you mean. Playing with the numbers, the only factor they change is like 1 calorie per pound of weight lost at each mile. Pace only changes the "per hour" but if I'm only walking 1-2 miles at a time, this really doesn't come into play.

I had no idea it made so little difference. I suppose I'll focus more on duration instead of intensity at this point until I am able to run. It feels like I'm making excuses not to run, but I really am holding out hope that another 20-30lbs from now, running will come much easier as the strain on my joints decreases.

I really appreciate you taking the time to help explain a lot of this to me, Tri. There's so much bad information on the internet when it comes to fitness and I'm trying my hardest to find the "good" advice out there.
 
Don´t start running too early Mowens; you really don´t want to overload your knees/ankles/back right now. At least wait until you can walk briskly for an hour or so, then start running very slowly for short distances. Walking faster may not make you burn more cals/km but it does allow you to walk further in the same time so it does make you burn more in the end. Awesome work so far!
 
I'm certainly in no rush to get started running. I know I've got a lot of weight to lose before it will be something sustainable. I'm walking about 45 minutes a day right now, but broken up in two to three 15-20 minute sessions. I guess I just want someone standing over me telling me when I'm ready, because I have no idea how close I am. Maybe time will give me the answer.
 
You will feel it when you are ready. Kind of a cheesy answer, but for me it was true. I noticed that I could walk more and more, and faster and faster, and eventually I started including some short runs in between my walks, and after that I started running with a some breaks in between, until I completely phased the walking out. I guess it was my need for speed that got me from walking to running.
 
No problem, you seem like a nice person and you inspire and support me as well! So, it's reciprocal! ;)

I am also still learning about health. I learn a lot from people on forums such as this one, and I also learn from googling things, reading scientific papers (occasionally) and from some people I follow on YouTube. I agree that it is hard to find truth in the health field... there are so many theories and scams to confuse you. I use the following 3 principles to find the truth: 1) does this idea make logical sense? Is there a scientific explanation for this? 2) what are many experienced people are saying? (not that this means that it is necessarily true, but I take principles that many people more seriously) 3) does this work for me. Something can make sense and be very popular, but if it does not work for me, either because it does not produce results or because I just makes me miserable, it is useless.
 
I love that walking is getting easier & easier for you Mowens. Walking is one of the best exercises & a great way of building your overall fitness. It's best not to rush into even attempting a run as an injury right now would set you back. You are doing well :)
 
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