6thJune

What’s a girl to do???

Ackkkk!!!  The blogs are off-line!  Some people might take that as a sign that they should get off their butts and clean the house but not yours truly.  I’ll just blog in Word and paste it later.

I’m really confused about calories.  It used to be so simple.  You ate fewer calories and you lost weight.  Then we came out with low-fat, low-sodium, low-carb, then metabolic rates and set-points and it all got so complicated.   The last time I attended a class in nutrition they were saying your body could go into “starvation mode” and slow down your metabolism if you consumed fewer calories.  To counteract this, you were supposed to do more cardio exercise to raise your metabolic rate so you would continue to burn fat.

Now, I’ve got a bunch of people telling me that I’m eating too few calories and headed for a train wreck.  According to an article I just read, you should:

1) Begin with a base of 655 calories. - (655)
2) Multiply weight (in pounds) by 4.3 - (778.3)
3) Multiply height (in inches) by 4.7  - (291.4)
4) Add numbers from numbers 1,2 and 3 - (1724.7)
5) Multiply your age by 4.7 - (263.2)
6) Subtract the total of #5 from the total of #4 (this is your resting metabolic rate) - (1461.5)
7) To determine your daily maintenance calories, multiply your RMR (#6) by one of the following: 1.2 if you don’t exercise
1.3 if you exercise 2 to 3 hours a week
1.4 if you exercise 4 to 6 hours a week (2046.1)
1.6 if you exercise 7 hours or more a week

Your calorie intake should never go below your Resting Metabolic Rate (BMR), and, ideally, should be at least 150 calories above it.” ****”To lose 1/2 to 1 pound a week; subtract 250 to 500 calories a day from the figure you came up with for maintenance calories. Create a daily deficit of 500 calories per day by eating fewer calories, burning off extra calories with physical activity, or by doing both.”

For me, this would mean I would have a Daily Maintenance Rate of 2,046. calories and I should never consume less than 1,800 calories.  My question is: “Says Who???”  Who am I supposed to believe?  All my friends who are saying this aren’t losing any weight.  And what if you want to lose more than ½ to 1 pound per week?  If you’re not supposed to drop below this, does that mean you’re supposed to go grab an extra 200 calories if you work out an extra 30 minutes???  I wish I knew a dietician who had some actual knowledge in this area.

6:00 p.m.
Yay!  The blogs are back up!  Had a busy day but it was “good” busy.  Did a little weeding in the flower beds.  Gave the pool its first real cleaning of the summer.  Jogged in the pool for an hour.  Straightened the house (no heavy duty stuff today)

Here’s another interesting dilemna…How can jogging in the pool burn more calories than plain old jogging?  I looked it up and had a hard time finding very many articles but the one I did find comes from Runner’s World.  One website I looked at estimated 480 Calories for an hour “jogging on land,” and 680 Calories for an hour “deep water jogging.” I, personally, find it hard to believe that pool running would burn more Calories than land running.  Another article said a 150 pound person would burn approximately 600 calories for water jogging for an hour.  It just doesn’t make any sense to me.  I can walk on the treadmill for almost two hours, be drenched in sweat, breathing hard, heart rate way up there and burn 600 calories.  In the pool, the water buoyancy actually lightens your weight and I can run for an hour, be cool and collected, breathing a little bit heavy but not much and they say that burns more?  I know all that about the resistance of the water making you pull through it, yada, yada, but it’s just so much easier that it doesn’t make sense to me.  You’re not working all that hard!

 Oh, by the way, weight is 181.5 today.  My bad!  What can I expect by relaxing the diet a couple days and not exercising? Oh, wait!  I  forgot!  I’m never supposed to go below 1,800 calories anyway! NOT!

10 Comments

jennabelle says 6th June @ 18:52

I am kinda having the same problem I am on a high protein plan and I am eating only 620 calories hang in there, I know what your going threw so hang tough .

jadelabyrinth says 6th June @ 19:00

I don’t know about the calories or the water jogging either! Though I am definitely happy about the water jogging, because it is easier to do. I could never jog even 1/2 a mile on land. Anyways, You may be right about the drinking late being related to the heartburn. I’ve laid off the acidy drinks, but I rarely eat before 7 pm so not much I can do about that.

realcdn says 6th June @ 21:36

I’m still not entirely sure about the calories. It is often suggested that you do not eat below your RMR (1461 you calculated). So if you add the 150 to that let’s say 1600. This is not an adjusted amount for your exercise. If your daily maintenance is 2046 cals then the suggested method to lose a pound per week would be to cut 250 cals, and add 250 cals of exercise. It’s way too complicated, isn’t it?

For exercise calories the best way to truly know how many you’re burning is to invest in a heart rate monitor. My usual form of exercise is walking on a treadmill (incline and speed) that gives me ~300 cals for 30 minutes. I have a hard time matching this in the pool. So I would say that water jogging does not match land jogging.

realcdn says 6th June @ 21:41

Oops - wanted to point out that my RMR comes out to ~1800 calories, and I do about 600 calories worth of exercise 5 days a week. On non-workout days I eat 2150 and workout days 2400 (until recently 2700 on some) and I’m still managing to lose weight. So, really, who knows.

soclose says 6th June @ 22:15

I’ve not ever counted calories and don’t intend to start. Of course I have the general idea that foods with 60 fat grams and 800 cals are no-nos. Eat healthy, watch amts,, exercise and that’s about it.

patty says 6th June @ 22:27

I’m starting to think that’s the best way to go, soclose, but I feel like I need to keep track of them for a while to see what I’m actually consuming. Of course, the good old doc wants me to be on 1,200 per day when I ask him.

Ann, you’re right about it being complicated. I’ll probably try to up the calories for a while and see what happens. It’s just really difficult for me to accept that 2.5 pounds per week is supposed to be a difficult goal. I really need to lose 50 pounds so I figured I’d be feeling pretty good by Christmas. Maybe that’s still a reasonable goal. I don’t know.

I’m just going to hang in there. I put this weight on by sitting on my butt for six years. I guess it’s optimistic to expect to take it off in six months.

soclose says 6th June @ 23:37

Thanks for the tip about H. for H. as a plant source. We do have one of their thrift stores somewhere in the city; I’ll check it out! Of course, at this point, I have no idea where I’d PUT anything else!

findingjoy says 7th June @ 7:23

LAUGHING
this is way too much work (math) to do for weight loss. I have enoough problems keeping up with my points.
I say as long as it works keep doing what you are doing.
If you hit a point where you stop losing change up your diet (more protien or low fat whatever) ad change your exersize till you move past your standstill. A trainer told me it works. I have not lost enough weight yet to hit that point so we shall see. (smile)
take care
Joy

soclose says 7th June @ 11:18

Ya know, I went to bed last night with this post on my mind. I’ve heard that idea several times also that your body will enter “starvation mode” and refuse to lose if you take in too few cals. Never reallly bought it; but never really thought about it either. Hmmmmmm…..so, if it’s true how do they explain the thin bodies of anas, or concentration camp victims, or the people who follow those very lo cal “long life” diets?????? HUH?????

jennabelle says 8th June @ 11:44

My trainer told me your suppose to eat a between no less than .1200 calories and no more than 1800


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