Great idea Monika! Tracking for a month would be great too!

I was looking at the stats I've been recording to figure out whether to take last weeks or the week before, etc as week 1. The last few weeks have not been normal weeks for me, between DD's HS graduation 3 weeks ago, her party 2 weeks ago, then pushing hard to reach the 100 lbs milestone last week. If I go with last week's stats, the calorie deficit will be higher than normal. Maybe I should just start with this week... I'll look at it tonight and decide which week is the most "normal".

ugh- i totally forgot to weigh myself yesturday. doh! i'll have to start next week...

I will be starting today. Still have some reading to do about fitday but will write everything down till I figure it out.

Begin weight - 229

I had started tracking calories a little over a week ago so here are the numbers from last week:

total carbs: 229, daily average 33
total calories: 9930, daily average 1419
total burned calories: 16100, daily average 2300
deficit: 6170, daily average 881

start weight on the 12th 158 lbs
end weight on the 19th 155.8 lbs
difference of 2.2 lbs

Marie

Ok, since I've been logging steadily since June 2, I just randomly picked 7 days (Friday - Thursday) that were before my DD's graduation party. I had some foods at the party that I know weren't logged accurately.

My week 1:
June 4th weight 237.2
June 11th weight 234.8
average net carbs: 55
average calories: 1650
average calories burned: 3161
average deficit: 1511
weight loss: 2.2 lbs

For week 2, I'm going to aim for a daily deficit of 1700. This will be a stretch for me to hit. I did manage to hit a high deficit of 1772 the night before hitting the 100 lb mark since I was very motivated. I'm also trying to remember that every pound lost should feel like a major milestone.

Edited to add:
I'm starting week 2 on Tuesday, 6/22.

Some folks have raised eyebrows at my deficit goal of 1700 per day. It is pretty high... I posted this in my journal today and thought I'd post it here too.

One thing to clear up about my calorie deficit. My 1700 may not be exactly the same as other folks 1700. What I mean by that is that I don't know how accurate my calories eaten and calories burned really are. The key with doing this is not whether mine is the same as someone else's, but rather that I consistently log my food intake and exercise the same way in fitday every time....even if it's not the same as someone else's fitday logging.

According to fitday PC, my BMR for yesterday was 1735. With the extra activities, I burned a total of 3344. Now, did I really burn that much? Who knows, but like I said, it really doesn't matter as long as I'm consistent with how I log everything on a day to day basis. According to my logging I had a deficit of 1995 yesterday. I only ate 1349 in calories, so that wasn't really enough. I went a little overboard because I'm not used to watching calories quite so diligently. I'm sure that over time, that will level out a little better. With a BMR in the 1700s, I really don't want to go much below that in calorie intake...maybe in the 1500-1700 range routinely.

Hope this helps those of you who are trying this experiment!

I'm glad to see that you are being consious of the need to maintain a caloric floor - that is really important.

Hang in there!

May I ask, Dianne, what kind of activities are you doing to get your theoretical calories burned up to 3344?

Hi Monika, I'm using Fitday PC's Typical Daily Activity Level, which for me comes to a total of 2666 for weekdays and 2735 for weekends. That includes sleep, light seated activity, light standing activity, light to moderate activity...etc. You tell it how many hours you do these things and then it calculates the calories burned based on your height/weight.

When I add a specific activity, like doing the WAP work, it takes that into account and adjusts accordingly. So for yesterday it was background activities 2556, logged activities 485 and digestion 304; with a total burned of 3344.

Yesterday I did the WAP tape and also went swimming in the evening. Today (so far) I went for a 20 minute walk this morning. But I haven't yet done a workout tonight. I will probably do my weight lifting and then the WAP video again.

Have you been able to figure out some things to do? Marching in place seems like something easy to do at the last minute...boring, but it would work.

I don't know how much faith I have in that "background activities number" - especially when it doesn't include digestion.

Hi Dianne ~

Thanks for sharing how you get your numbers. I'm curious because I started experimenting with other formulas after I learned that FitDay's BMR calculations are based on weight (whether or not they factor in height, I don't know). Before adding lifestyle or activities, I get 1804 there.

There's another method based on Body Surface Area, in addition to weight and gender, it takes into account height and age. I have an estimate of 1987 there.

Another method is from Katch & McArdle; it takes into account lean body mass. It's formula calculates my BMR at 1600.

That's the one I use, since I prefer to err on the side of caution. If I multiply it times 1.5 (to take into account daily background activity), I end up with 2400 calories.

I'm having a heck of a time burning 600 more calories a day to make it to 3000. For me, it's typically the 3 mile WAP, 40 minutes on the bike, 10 minute rebounding and 2 hours of 'focused housework'. I'm committed to trying to burn as much as possible; these days I'm marching in place while doing the dishes!

It’s easy to lose myself in the math. I’d like it all to work like balancing a checkbook ... I want to be like Lynda or Dean - one of those folks who lose in a very predictable 'Calories In vs. Calories Out' kind of way. That doesn't seem to be my pattern so far, but this gives me a chance to really see if that's true.

But in the long run, just like you said, it really doesn't matter as long as I'm consistent with how I log everything on a day to day basis.

I should invest in the breath test rather than work my brain trying to make a logical situation out of a bunch of guestimates!

fitday PC has digestion as well as your background activities which are desided by what you tell it your normal activity level is (there is like 6 options i think) anyways mine is simular to Dianne's it breaks down somthing like this (i will use yesterday's since i have only been up a few hours today!)

digestion 24h 278 cal
background activity 15h 35m 1681 cal
-things i entered in-
Light office work 8h 908 cal
weight lifting (free weights) 30m 189 cal

Total Calories Burned: 3056
BMR: ...................... 1817
Background Activities: 1681
Logged Activities: ..... 1098
Digestion: ................. 278

so as long as i am doing all my loging via fitday pc even if its off a bit i will have a basic idea of what i am doing in the long run
just like when I test my bf% it might not be right buy it shows my downward trend!

Yes and no. If you are using those calculations to base your caloric intake targetting a certain calorie deficit, then just being consistent doesn't work. If it says I burned 3500 calories and I consume 3000 in response to achieve a 500 calorie deficit, then I've got problems if I actually only burned 2500.

If you are willing to adjust things to find a calorie deficit, according to these numbers, that produces the results you want then that's workable - but don't let yourself start thinking that the calories deficit you come up with means anything in terms of calories. The other downside is that finding the right deficit figure this way will probably take months.

Don't forget that, to lose weight, most resources say you want target an intake of no less than 80% of BMR. So that takes you down to about 1900. There's certainly slop in the numbers - but going all the way down to 1500 may be pushing it.

Thanks for the advice, wbahn. Why do I want to avoid going under 80% of the BMR? A slowed metabolism? Weight loss too speedy to burn mostly fat? Considering plenty o' doctors wanted me to do a VLCD of 800 calories, I assumed I was in pretty safe territory at 1500 as long as I ate sufficient protein and worked out.

You are obviously very knowledgable about all this stuff ... how do you handle your own weight loss calculations?