Friday, January 25, 2013

Looking for the positive spin

Two pounds.

In the past four weeks I've created a 15,685 calorie deficit, by eating 7786 fewer calories than my target goal and accumulating 7899 exercise calories. If you divide 15,685 by 3500 (the number of calories you need to burn to lose a pound), I should have lost 4.48 pounds. My scale only weighs whole numbers; I would have been happy with four.

I got two.

My calculations are probably wrong, since I was in art class when I should have been in math. LoseIt! tells me I should have lost a pound a week eating 1598 calories a day, with no deficit. So maybe with my additional effort I should have lost eight pounds? All I know is …

I got two.

Two's better than zero, right? I could still reach my weight-loss goal before New Year's Eve. Barely. And the greater goal was the one where I stuck to the plan and exercised regularly, right? I did that. But I gotta tell you, at the end of the day, even though I felt good about following through and DWISIWD*, I've been waiting for the prize on the 25th of the month. You know, the big one, the four or the six or the eight, even.

I got two.

Because I actually recorded a loss, LoseIt! has reduced the daily target by a miniscule amount. Thirteen calories, no biggie. I feel like I need to change something between now and February 25 in order to see a greater loss make a difference. You know, shake things up a bit. Russ and Jeff would say I need to eat more. You can imagine how uncomfortable I am with that idea. But what if I didn't create the calorie deficit? What if I ate all the calories I was supposed to eat, every day? Would that give me a better result? Because I gotta tell you, four sounds better than …

two.

*Do What I Said I Would Do

8 comments:

Mindy said...

Well good for you on the two! But I completely understand why it SHOULD be more! Darn scales..they're evil I tell you!

You're doing great! And I know it is scary to eat more but sometimes that does make a difference.

Unknown said...

What if you ate all the calories you were supposed to every day and got the same results, but felt less deprived? What if you felt like you could happily stick with it? What if you felt so good that you wanted to be more active?

I'm also, more and more, thinking that I want to eat right and exercise because it's good for me.

Debbi said...

I haven't felt at all deprived, and I've really enjoyed moving more, and on a regular basis. I like knowing I'm accomplishing my daily goals. I feel kind of blindsided this morning, and will definitely be working on lowering my expectations!

Anonymous said...

If you're exercising, you should try measuring your waist, hips, arms, and legs every week. I found that when I started working out, I lost several inches but didn't lose much weight because I was gaining muscle. Maybe the same thing is happening to you?

Unknown said...

Don't despair...there is that muscle weighs more than fat bit so it stands to reason that you are getting smaller but denser (that's a good thing even if it doesn't sound like it!). I know you don't want to focus on it all but pick a place, waist, hips, bust...just something and measure it carefully and compare that too. I don't care what the number is as long as I'm a bit smaller :>)

Unknown said...

Wow...great minds at exactly the same time Heather!

Vickie said...

Darlin' it took me two years to loose my first 60 pounds. And that was with steady, dedicated effort.

The expectation of X pounds by X date has gotten a lot of people in trouble.

If you are tracking so that you know what you are doing and then can tweak a bit as time goes on, and you are paying attention to your daily habits, and moving in the right direction, then it might just be how your process goes.

I personally would not try tweaking much of anything yet. You are just getting started. If your calories are high enough to be healthy, and your ratios are in line and you are are doing moderate exercise regularly and getting your water and sleep, then I would give it some time to see what happens.

Anonymous said...

Two is great, keep yout head up. We all have good weeks and bad weeks sometimes with out changing a thing. The trick is to stay positive and keep focused. You'll reach your goals, don't be hard on yourself!

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