Hello everyone.
I have been having increasing sleep apnea problems, lethargy, breathing, Hypertension, and other problems directly resultant from my weight. I am tired of it and have made the commitment to myself to loose 130lb and get back down to where I felt healthy.
I started on 5-5-2012. I have as of yesterday already lost 28lb! I am keeping a spreadsheet with the nutritional information of everything I eat so I can create reports and graph results.
Over the 56 day period I have been tracking my weight and intake I am able to find fairly accurately how many calories my body is using per day at my current weight and activity level. If I know I have lost 28 lb and we go on the assumption that there are 3500 calories in a pound, we can figure that I have lost 98000 calories. I know by my spreadsheet that I have been taking in an average of 1475 calories per day. so if I divide my total number of calories lost by 56 (the number of days tracked) I get 1750 calories per day lost. So If I know how many calories per day I have lost and I know how many calories per day I am taking in I can calculate the amount of calories per day my body is using.
1475+1750=3225 calories per day.
So now that we have established my current caloric needs I can forecast roughly how long it will be before I loose my remaining 100lb. If I maintain my current rate of 1475 calories per day, I have a calorie deficit of 1750 which results in a loss of right at .5lb per day. So It should take about 200 days to loose the 100lb. If my math is right and I stick to my guns I should be down 100lb by 1-10-2013.
I have realized a lot of things actually analyzing my diet.
1. I was not even taking 50% of my daily recommended intake of fiber.
2. My sodium intake was regularly 200%-300% and sometimes even as much as 700% over my daily recommended 2500mg
3. There are a lot of foods out there that you would think are not that bad, but then you look at the nutritional value and get sticker shock
I have made significant changes in my lifestyle as a direct result of all of this.
1. I am eating a LOT more fiber, which makes my body feel all the way around a lot better just by its self
2. I am eating a lot more fruits and vegetables
3. I am eating a lot less meat, and a lot leaner meat
4. The longer I eat less, the more full I feel when I eat the smaller portions. 1 5oz hamburger made with 90/10, 96/4, or bison is pretty filling and very good if cooked properly and enhanced with a big slab of onion and a thick slice of fresh homegrown tomato! It used to be I would literally eat 1 or 1.5 hamburgers that where 20oz of 73/27 greasy ground beef, with a couple slices of cheese and bacon on top.
5. I need to eat breakfast (high fiber cereal with a little splenda and fat free organic milk)
6. I have to plan my meals, go ahead and plug them into my spreadsheet so I know what I am eating for the day this makes me less likely to slip up
7. Every now and then forget about my spreadsheet for 1 day. I have found this to be beneficial for 2 reasons one is mental, it is good to just have something I want and two I seem to hit plateaus and for some reason after a day of eating "less healthy" I strangely drop a pound or two after doing this. Some have advised that my body thinks it is starving and is going into survival mode to conserve calories, by throwing it a glut of calories one day it says "OK, now we have fuel I can go back to status quot".
8. I have to go BACK to my spreadsheet after the one day, don't let it turn into one week.
9. I ONLY buy no sodium added when I buy canned vegtables, I try to buy as much as I can fresh from the local farmers market.
I look forward to getting back down to a weight where just getting up out of a chair is not strenuous. I want to get back out side and go hiking or camping.
The light at the end of the tunnel for me is knowing that I can eat 1475 calories a day and be satisfied as long as I make good choices on what I eat. When I do reach my goal, my maintenance calories will be somewhere in the ballpark of 2400 calories. As long as I eat how I have learned to eat I will feel like I am eating like a king!
I have been having increasing sleep apnea problems, lethargy, breathing, Hypertension, and other problems directly resultant from my weight. I am tired of it and have made the commitment to myself to loose 130lb and get back down to where I felt healthy.
I started on 5-5-2012. I have as of yesterday already lost 28lb! I am keeping a spreadsheet with the nutritional information of everything I eat so I can create reports and graph results.
Over the 56 day period I have been tracking my weight and intake I am able to find fairly accurately how many calories my body is using per day at my current weight and activity level. If I know I have lost 28 lb and we go on the assumption that there are 3500 calories in a pound, we can figure that I have lost 98000 calories. I know by my spreadsheet that I have been taking in an average of 1475 calories per day. so if I divide my total number of calories lost by 56 (the number of days tracked) I get 1750 calories per day lost. So If I know how many calories per day I have lost and I know how many calories per day I am taking in I can calculate the amount of calories per day my body is using.
1475+1750=3225 calories per day.
So now that we have established my current caloric needs I can forecast roughly how long it will be before I loose my remaining 100lb. If I maintain my current rate of 1475 calories per day, I have a calorie deficit of 1750 which results in a loss of right at .5lb per day. So It should take about 200 days to loose the 100lb. If my math is right and I stick to my guns I should be down 100lb by 1-10-2013.
I have realized a lot of things actually analyzing my diet.
1. I was not even taking 50% of my daily recommended intake of fiber.
2. My sodium intake was regularly 200%-300% and sometimes even as much as 700% over my daily recommended 2500mg
3. There are a lot of foods out there that you would think are not that bad, but then you look at the nutritional value and get sticker shock
I have made significant changes in my lifestyle as a direct result of all of this.
1. I am eating a LOT more fiber, which makes my body feel all the way around a lot better just by its self
2. I am eating a lot more fruits and vegetables
3. I am eating a lot less meat, and a lot leaner meat
4. The longer I eat less, the more full I feel when I eat the smaller portions. 1 5oz hamburger made with 90/10, 96/4, or bison is pretty filling and very good if cooked properly and enhanced with a big slab of onion and a thick slice of fresh homegrown tomato! It used to be I would literally eat 1 or 1.5 hamburgers that where 20oz of 73/27 greasy ground beef, with a couple slices of cheese and bacon on top.
5. I need to eat breakfast (high fiber cereal with a little splenda and fat free organic milk)
6. I have to plan my meals, go ahead and plug them into my spreadsheet so I know what I am eating for the day this makes me less likely to slip up
7. Every now and then forget about my spreadsheet for 1 day. I have found this to be beneficial for 2 reasons one is mental, it is good to just have something I want and two I seem to hit plateaus and for some reason after a day of eating "less healthy" I strangely drop a pound or two after doing this. Some have advised that my body thinks it is starving and is going into survival mode to conserve calories, by throwing it a glut of calories one day it says "OK, now we have fuel I can go back to status quot".
8. I have to go BACK to my spreadsheet after the one day, don't let it turn into one week.
9. I ONLY buy no sodium added when I buy canned vegtables, I try to buy as much as I can fresh from the local farmers market.
I look forward to getting back down to a weight where just getting up out of a chair is not strenuous. I want to get back out side and go hiking or camping.
The light at the end of the tunnel for me is knowing that I can eat 1475 calories a day and be satisfied as long as I make good choices on what I eat. When I do reach my goal, my maintenance calories will be somewhere in the ballpark of 2400 calories. As long as I eat how I have learned to eat I will feel like I am eating like a king!
