What are your diet/exercise plans?
 

I'm always interested to hear what other people are doing for their diets and exercise plans, mainly because I need variety to survive this whole lifestyle change and I'm interested to learning about new foods/recipes and exercises.

Currently I'm eating between 1400-1600 calories a day. It really needs to be around 1300 but I'm having trouble not stuffing my face!!!

I work out 4-5 days a week, cardio for 4-5 days and circuit training for 3 days. Most of my cardio is elliptical and stationary bike. Occassionally I get in an extra walk with DH since the weather is getting warmer in the evenings. I just got a few exercise DVDs - Denise Austin, The Firm, and Pilates. But I feel like such a dork every time I try because I'm so uncoordinated!

Anyway, enough about me. What about you? :D

I try to eat according to my hunger, so some days I eat more and some less, but I've averaged 2400 calories in and 3200 calories burned over the last two weeks. I use a gizmo called a bodybugg which measures my real-time calorie burn and log my food to get these numbers - some days I eat more or less, some days I burn more or less, but it all evens out over time. It's a slow weight loss (about a pound a week), but slow works for me and keeps me energized.

My typical day consists of a lot of small snacks/meals through the day, trying to maximize vegetables since that's where I tend to fall short. Yesterday's eating - two hardboiled eggs at 7:30 am, a banana at 9, a cup of brown rice and avocado at 11:30, a pita and hummus around 2, a granola bar at 4:30, and some chicken masala and brown rice at 7:30. A little heavy on the grains, but I ate what I was hungry for. Today started with oatmeal and peanut butter, which filled me up for the morning and I didn't get hungry until 1:30 when I had a piece of salmon and some steamed veggies.

Basically, I don't have a "typical" day - I eat when I'm hungry, which means sometimes I eat nonstop, and sometimes I barely eat anything. It often reflects my workout levels - I had a long run and a quick bike workout, followed by a heavy weight workout on Sunday, which made me quite hungry on Monday. I'm training for a couple sprint triathlons this summer, so I typically run or swim every morning and do 3-4 longish bike workouts a week, along with a brick on Sundays (run-bike in sequence). I also lift 3-4 nights a week, either a basic quick full-body workout or a Cathe Freidrich lifting video (which is usually full-body training, but with a lot more reps than on my own).

I'm curious to see what other folks do, too!

I typically try to eat around 1500 calories. Remember the more active you are the more calories you need - even for weight loss. The important part is to burn more calories than you consume. My doctor told me that my body needs about 1300 calories to "live" (breathe, sit, stand, etc...) and if you're active you need more than that, it varies depending on your activity level.

As far as my workout...I work out 6 times a week. I do 3 days of weight training and I do cardio all 6 days. I run 4 of those days and do the elliptical the other 2 days.

Dang, really? I had this wacky formula worked out that if I cut back on 300 calories a day, and burned 300 calories a day, I would "burn" 4200 calories a week - just over a pound per week. Should I be eating more?

I count calories and exercise. Though honestly I've been bad about exercising the past couple weeks, but that's ok, I'll get back to it after my ankle feels better. I eat 5 small meals a day, which a meal to me could be a yogurt and granola bar. When I'm in my normal routine I exercise about 4 times a week, which days depend on my school schedule for that week.

The answer to your question really lies in what you eat and don't lose. If you were eating 1600 calories a day on average and maintaining your current weight, then you'd need to burn more or eat less to lose. I'd be willing to bet that you eat more than that on average when not trying to lose weight, so aiming for 1500-1600 calories on average while losing weight will probably give you a productive weight loss. You can get there in a number of ways - eat 1600 calories per day, straight through - eat 1200 calories some days and a more generous 2000 calories on some days (weekends, anyone?), basically planning for a "splurge" and keeping your body guessing. There are probably a few other options, but I'd say sticking with a pretty solid 1500/day average would do better for you in the long run than constantly fighting to keep it down, if you struggle to eat less than this.

Without a direct measure of exertion, the average 200-pound person is going to burn around 1800-2000 calories on a daily basis, with a normal basic level of activity (dressing, cooking, walking around the office, etc). Obviously, this is a huge GUESS, but it's a good jumping-off point. If you eat 1250 calories a day, that should be a 750 calorie/day deficit, while 1500 and burning 250 extra will give you the same effect, and 1.5 pound/week loss on average.


This is why I really love the bodybugg - it gives me a pretty reliable measure of what I ACTUALLY burn, instead of all the estimating that we do to try to guess what goes on. When I sit at a desk all day and don't get a chance to move around a whole lot, I barely burn 2000 calories in a day (and that's including walking or biking to work); when I swim in the morning, move around all day at work, bike for an hour in the evening AND lift for an hour, I can burn up to 4000 or more. That's a LOT of difference - if I were trying to eat 1500 calories or less on a normal workout day, I'd be starving!

I try to eat around 1500 calories a day but its usually more like 1600 (and the past week its been more :o )

3 days a week I do weights (I have this really lame video I use), and then at least 5 days a week I do cardio - either at the gym or I go running. I want to start riding my bike more though!

Thats its for me :)

I really haven't been counting calories. My roomate is a bit of a health nut though so I've just started sharing groceries with her and letting her make out the shopping lists. I've lost 10 pounds so far so I guess it's working. Mainly I'm avoiding proccessed foods. So no bread, very little sugar, no pasta, lots of veggies and lean meat and tofu. Lots of fruit too, I like fruit.

On top of that I'm trying to exercise more as well. I've been swimming 2-3 times a week and going to a yoga class at least 1x/week. Next month I start a ballet class which I'm pretty excited about.

Hopefully I'll manage to retrain my eating habits before my roomate leaves in May. How will I lose weight without her????

I calorie-count; my target range is 1400-1700 calories/day, and I've been pretty good about that so far (since recommitting to it on Saturday). Exercise-wise, I'm doing C25K three days a week, 30 minutes of intervals on the elliptical two days a week, and a three-day split lower body/abs/upper body six days a week. On weekends I'm going to try going for a long, semi-leisurely walk along West Cliff Drive, which is this 1-mile stretch of walking path right along the cliffs over the beach. Well, two miles, since I'm going to be going all the way down and all the way back. So my weeks look like this:

M: C25K, lower-body strength training
T: Elliptical, abs
W: C25K, upper-body
Th: Elliptical, lower-body
F: C25K, abs
S: W. Cliff walk, upper-body
S: W. Cliff walk

I don't really count calories, I just watch what I eat and try to eat whole grains and smaller portions. Also, if I have a sweet tooth, I have a cup of light silk chocolate soy milk or a small piece of dark chocolate.

Today I did achieve one victory though, I woke up and went to my spin class at 6am! I had to wake up at 5:30 and this is no easy feat as I am a night owl!

Honestly, what has been working lately just joining a great gym with lots of great classes to keep variety. Also, trying to walk whenever I get the chance. The important part is to keep at it and keep yourself from getting board, go the gym, take classes, go hiking, etc etc.

Best of luck to everyone!

I sort of kinda count calories...I used to be a whole lot stricter with it but I found I have a slightly obsessive personality and it wasn't good for my head!

I try and stick to roughly between 1500-1800 calories a day.

I run 5-7 days a week for between 40-50 minutes, go to spin classes at least 3 times a week, 1-2 boxing classes, soccer training once a week, the actual game and will be starting netball as well.

Liv

I sort of count calories as well, but not all the time -- when it's written on the package, I count, when it's not, I try to approximate. Approximate, not fool myself. ;) I also run about 20 (soon to up to 25, then 30, then more) minutes three or four times a day, walk instead of taking the bus to go to friends or to work, etc. It's not as much as I used to do or could probably do. However, summer's coming back, the weather is perfect for running, and I really didn't want to "wait until my finals are over (on May 12!) to "start again". I just did it, period, but I also know that if I try NOW to do everything at once in a perfect way, it'll clash with my revisions schedule, and I may end up giving up. Baby steps, they say.

So I take it somewhat easy, watch my portions, do the math quickly in my head when it comes to calories, and will do better than that in three weeks (not that I'll stop after summer is over; it's just because of the time I need to get into a routine, once I'm in, it'll work all by itself, exams or no exams).

So far, at least, it seems to work.

I follow the South Beach Diet-- 3 weeks in Phase 1, 3 in Phase 2, and then back to Phase 1-- I try to stay between 1200-1400 calories which I log in fitday (so I stay accountable). I drink A LOT of water-- (I hardly drink anything else-- the occasional cup of coffee or diet coke.. ). I take a multivitamin and a big old fiber supplement everyday.

As far as working out-- I don't-- I honestly can't afford a gym membership! I do love to run when it's warm out-- (which it's not !) but when it is, I do a 3 mile jog/run maybe 2x-3x a week. I try to lead an active life, though-- I work with kids-- so I try to make myself run around on the playground with them (not always easy!). I do a lot of cleaning at work that keeps me active. I also play catch/batting practice 3x a week with my boyfriend for about an hour and I do Yoga daily.. sometimes 20 min, sometimes an hour-- depending on my mood. Often I just do it on my own, the poses I feel I need to work on, when I'm watching TV at night-- I also have a few yoga dvds that have Rodney Yee who is just goofy looking, but really easy to follow-

Well this week is really wonky as I have a big show for my a cappella group coming up, so I'm eating lots more (yesterday too much) just because I'm up dancing around for at least 2 and a half hours a day.

Normal weeks I try to stay between 1500-1800 and bellydance at least 3 times a week for about an hour each time. That tends to be about enough for me to lose about a pound a week because I don't own a car (although my boyfriend does) so I end up having to walk a lot just to get where I need to be.

Although I'm excited to be taking a weight traning for women course next semester. :D So in the fall that'll become a twice a week thing for me.

My plan is pretty straightforward. I try and eat when I'm hungry and make good decisions. Since I've started dieting I've eliminated a lot of "bad" foods like fried things, white bread and pasta, red meat, and most sugar. I've been less successful at drinking less alcohol, but it's a work in progress. By tracking my calories and nutrition in FitDay, I've noticed that if I eat when I'm hungry I naturally do sort of a big day/small day pattern when it comes to calories. For example, one day I won't have much of an appetite and only eat around 1000 calories. The next day I'll be more hungry and come in at about 1700. I'm not sure if this is a terrible idea or not (no one has told me one way or the other, and it feels okay, and it's working, so...).

And now for exercise. Four days a week at the gym, 30-45 minutes of cardio all four days and some light weight training three out of the four. I've got a seriously jacked up lower back and it's the weights that aggravate it, so it's nice to have one day of just cardio.

Again, I don't know if any of this is "good" advice or even a good idea, but it seems to be working, so I'll be sticking with it until I'm told otherwise.