MegaDeuce's Weight Loss Journal

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*Actually* the update for today:

Jan 7th, 2020​
Weight: 240 lbs / 109 kg​
Goal: 1100 g / 6oz / 15 mins walking / 1 fruit or non-starchy vegetable serving​
​
Food: 1135 g​
Drink: 6 oz milk​
15 mins walking​
1 apple, with lunch​
​
Calories: 1999​

Went with my plan of eating a good-sized lunch and it worked! Held me over until dinner. A little hungry as I sit here typing this, but wasn't hungry during the day :)

Note that the drink isn't included in the "food" total, but is included in the calorie totals I'm listing.

And you guys are right, it is a nice feeling getting a fruit or veggie in every day... feels "wholesome"!
 
MegaDeuce said:
And you guys are right, it is a nice feeling getting a fruit or veggie in every day... feels "wholesome"!
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I know that feeling, I went for many years without much fruit and almost no veggies. Discovering how good they can be and how good they make me feel was amazing. Glad its working for you too.
 
Weight / Goal for today:

Jan 8th, 2020​
Weight: 240 lbs / 109 kg​
Goal: 1100 g / 6oz / 15 mins walking / 1 fruit or non-starchy vegetable serving​
​
Again, scale read 239.8 lbs! Hopefully if I stay on track I can leave the 240s for good soon...
 
Thanks, Rob!

Update for today:

Jan 8th, 2020​
Weight: 240 lbs / 109 kg​
Goal: 1100 g / 6oz / 15 mins walking / 1 fruit or non-starchy vegetable serving​
​
Food: 1037 g​
Drink: 6 oz milk​
10+ mins walking​
Fruit: a few orange slices​
​
Calories: 2403​
​
A 400 calorie difference from yesterday, but a 100 g drop in the amount of food. Very interesting... a quick BMR calculation suggests this is a deficit of 260 calories, and it would take me 13 days to lose the next pound at this rate(!)

I think I need to be a little more serious about getting some real cardio in. 10-15 minutes of walking won't cut it.
 
Update for today:

Jan 10th, 2020​
Weight: 240 lbs / 109 kg​
Goal: 1100 g / 6oz / 15 mins walking / 1 fruit or non-starchy vegetable serving​

Sorry about the lack of updates yesterday...

Amy to answer your question it's not that I don't have time, but it is busy and the day seems to slip away. Before I know it it's 8 or 9 pm and I realize I haven't done any sort of walking.
 
Maybe having a set walking time could help with that? Right after dinner, just before bed, early morning... Whatever works for you. Habit makes things easier and easier over time.
 
Jan 10th, 2020​
Weight: 240 lbs / 109 kg​
Goal: 1100 g / 6oz / 15 mins walking / 1 fruit or non-starchy vegetable serving​
​
Food: 1151 g​
Drink: 6 oz milk​
5 mins walking​
No fruits or veggies​
​
Calories: 2142​
 
Weight, goal for today (a bit late in the day)
​
Jan 11, 2020​
Weight: 240 lbs / 109 kg​
Goal: 1100 g / 6 oz / 20 mins walking​

Thinking about switching to a calorie-based approach!
 
MegaDeuce said:
Thinking about switching to a calorie-based approach!
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I think that's a good idea. I have been adding extra walks whenever I can & they sure add up, over a day. Parking a bit further away, detouring when I go to do anything, even walking around our snooker table a couple of times when I go to the other end of the house. Just being more conscious of everything I do & eat seems to make a difference.
 
Cate said:
I think that's a good idea. I have been adding extra walks whenever I can & they sure add up, over a day.
Click to expand...

Actually getting a step counter on my phone and getting a step goal going might not be a bad idea...


Jan 11, 2020​
Weight: 240 lbs / 109 kg​
Goal: 1100 g / 6 oz / 20 mins walking​
​
Food: 1062 g​
Drink: 6 oz milk​
No walking...​
​
Calories: 1704​
​
Tomorrow I think I'll set a calorie goal on top of my food weight goal... sort of a "whatever comes first" deal. The tricky thing would be figuring out how many calories to aim for...
 
OK I'm making the plunge and switching to calorie counting! I used My Fitness Pal to recommend a level of 1820 per day, which sounds pretty reasonable to me. Most of the process will be the same, still sticking to weighing foods and recording them in the notebook... BUT there are two additional columns for "density factor" and "calories".

The "density factor" is the system I mentioned earlier. It's a whole number between 0 and 60 that represents the calorie density of a specific food. The idea was to have a value that would be easy to memorize (e.g. the factor for 2% milk is 3, the factor for white bread is 15). I chose 60 because it provides enough accuracy while still being pretty easy to reason about. The factor is defined as "calories per gram, multiplied by 6.6667".

Example: ​
Factor for Lettuce = (0.15 calories per gram) x 6.6667 = 1​
Factor for baked chicken = (1.65 calories per gram) x 6.6667 = 11​
Factor for peanut butter = (5.75 calories per gram) x 6.6667 = 38​
Factor for pure fat = (9 calories per gram) x 6.6667 = 60​

Since you're unlikely to find a food with a lower calorie density than lettuce and there *is* no food with a higher calorie density than pure fat, the 0-60 scale works pretty nicely here! (Because the "factor" is always rounded to a whole number, it's not 100% accurate. However I've compared it to the actual calorie calculations and the total calories for a day was only about 1-3% off. )

To calculate the calories for a food, I use the formula "grams multiplied by factor divided by 6.6667"

Example from today:​
Calories from cereal = (81 grams) x (factor of 25) / 6.6667 = 303 cals​
Calories from milk = (363 grams) x (factor of 3) / 6.6667 = 163 cals​
Calories from scrambled eggs = (121 grams) x (factor of 10) / 6.6667 = 181 cals​

So anyways, here's my goal for today:

Jan 12, 2020​
Weight: 240 lbs / 109 kg​
Goal: 1820 cals / 20 mins walking​

I think it was pretty clear the "food weight" thing had some issues! Excited to see how effective actual calorie counting can be :)
 
aiminglow said:
:D That sounds a lot like not having much time to me! Are walks at night possible? In the cool of the evening, stars just coming out, roaming in the gloaming... :)
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Night walks are very possible! It's currently 58 degrees here, which is pretty weird for January...
 
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