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Old 06-28-2007, 10:08 PM   #1  
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Default Carbs & Fat, Under- & Over-Estimating, and... Weights?!

Hey folks! I'm new to the community and to my resolution to lose weight and get fit (as my tickers indicate!), and I'm hoping you ladies and gents won't mind me using you as a valuable resource while I plan my attack. I've done a lot of forum searches, but there are so many hits each time that I haven't managed to find the answers to these burning questions yet:

1. If I eat small portions of rather unhealthy food (high carbs/fat/sodium), but stay at my chosen daily calorie intake (~1500 calories at 212lbs, 5'6" height) and exercise 5 - 7 days a week, will I lose? Or is it also necessary to cut the carbs/fat/sodium? Since I'm eating small portions, I'm not exceeding the maximums for any of those values per day for an average 1500 calorie/day diet, but I don't know if a low fat/carb diet is required for me to shed the pounds. For the most part I'm not hungry even though I imagine I'm not eating much volume per day.

2. When calorie counting, is it a better idea to guesstimate high or low when figuring out your calories for the day (like when you go out to eat or eat a meal prepared by someone else, etc)? I'd rather be safe than sorry, but with the knowledge that too few calories is almost worse than too many, I'm just not sure which direction is safe!

3. This probably isn't the best forum to place this question in, but I don't want to make too many new posts, so I hope you'll forgive me for asking here: Are there reliable ways to build muscle at home without props? Do crunches, scissor kicks, push-ups, and the like count as "weight training" if there are no machines or weights involved? I don't have much muscle at all, currently (mostly just those that carry my extra weight around!), so I get sore very quickly doing these at-home exercises; once I build some muscle, lose some weight, and get up into the higher repetitions, will they still build muscle or only tone what I've already got?

I'm really lovin' the vibe here and I know that this community will be that extra little push I've always needed to lose weight and keep it off. Any and all advice is always welcome, even if it's not the happy kind!
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Old 06-28-2007, 10:35 PM   #2  
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Hello and welcome!

1. You might still lose but you're going to feel horrible and hungry. Some people report losing more quickly when they eat a high fiber, high protein and low fat diet. Whether or not that's universally true, eating ice cream and snickers and french fries for every meal will leave you feeling hungry and lethargic and generally miserable. If you plan your meals properly, and get in plenty of veggies and lean proteins, you should feel strong and energetic and healthy, as well as satiated. I don't know why you would choose a high fat, high carb diet, really. Your body needs nutrients! Be kind to yourself!

Also, sustained weight-loss and sustained maintenance really require that you take a health-first approach to your body. If you start thinking about your body as a living organism that requires nutrients and exercise, instead of a repository for fat and empty carbs, you'll be making an important first step towards losing weight AND keeping it off. Your body needs love!

2. Guesstimate high. If you're striving for 1500 calories a day, I'd say that the chances are MUCH higher that you'll exceed your 1500 than they are that you'll spend 12 straight days eating 1000 calories.

3. I'm not sure. For now though, body-weight exercises are great. Do some squats and some push-ups and crunches and see how you go. You can worry about it not being enough when it is no longer enough You might want to post specifically to the weight training forum about that. The gals there have TONS of knowledge and experience.

Good luck!
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Old 06-28-2007, 11:14 PM   #3  
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1 and 2 - what baffled said.

3 - for now, if they are getting you sore the next day, you're building muscle. As you progress, you'll stop building muscle up with the same exercises. However, home equipment can be cheap! A resistance band costs less than 10 dollars and will provide resistance for a wide variety of exercises, and since you can adjust where you hold your hands on the band, you can make it harder as you progress. Doing the same thing over and over eventually stops the strength gains.
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Old 06-29-2007, 12:29 AM   #4  
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1. You should still lose, but not as fast, and you will be still hungry. If you are still hungry you are more likely to go off plan . Its also not nearly as healthy . When you eat healthy unprocessed foods, you get fiber, filler and nutrition from it..a high satiety factor, and other things as well. ie Fiber cannot be digested = free calories/more leeway whether its calculated or not by you, the net cals are still lower. Processed stuff is pretty low in fiber..LOL Also the thermic effect of food, protein is hardest for your body to convert to energy, so you can lose about 30% of the calories of that item. Contrast that with a fatty item , where fat is so easily converted you only lose 4% of the calories..

Not to mention you want to be healthy and energetic, right? Boxed and conveneince stuff do have their place, but its a good idea to make the majority of your choices unprocesed food.

2. I would overestimate, because restaurant food or food someone else prepares, you are usually unpleasantly surprised with the calorie count, ie it looks lower cal than it is. I would try to get the values though first before having it, if not possible, another tactic could be to go mid-line on the calories and make sure to get a workout in.
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Old 06-29-2007, 01:17 AM   #5  
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Everything has been said. For calories, I would estimate higher as well. Even when you're cooking yourself, it's easy to overlook a couple of little things. For instance, I systematically forget to count the olive oil I put in my pan to prevent the food from sticking to it; it's not much, and I always make sure to not put a lot of it, but because I don't "eat" it, as in a salad dressing and such, it's very easy to overlook it. And there is indeed also the matter of restaurant food, which might have been cooked with more butter or grease than you thought.
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Old 06-29-2007, 03:31 AM   #6  
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Thanks for the great info, everyone. I generally had the impression that you all just confirmed, but I'd rather know for sure than keep wondering.

As for my diet, you can see a sample in my FitDay. I almost never have icecream or such sweets (today I had a few bites of my boyfriend's at the restaurant, darnit), but I do eat cheap pre-processed foods at home. I'm aiming to change that, absolutely, but the "bad" food will be around (the BF loves pasta, pizza, potatoes, and sugar!), and as he eats almost double my portions it will consist of most of what's in the 'fridge/cupboard, so it's definitely important for me to know how it will affect me.

Estimating high works for me! When I go out to eat, I sit my butt down as soon as I have time and look up pretty much every ingredient of everything I ate online and tally up the scores, but I'm definitely aware even that's not going to be accurate. With your advice I will probably tack on some extra calories for cooking oils and such to make sure I'm not over-eating, and take a nice brisk walk if I need to.

Thank you again for the help!
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Old 06-29-2007, 07:38 AM   #7  
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People have given great responses, but I just wanted to add -- when eating out, there are lots of "hidden" calories, often fat calories. Butter on steamed veggies or on grilled meat for example.

So, when I go out, even if the restaurant's foods are not listed on any database, I usually look foods up for similar restaurants. It's really eye opening! When I make chicken fajitas at home, I can keep the fat and calories down and still make it yummy, but a restaurant meal of fajitas can easily be 1200-1500 calories!!


There are a number of databases that list restaurant foods
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Old 06-29-2007, 10:49 AM   #8  
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Ethereal, your diet isn't that bad. Yes, you could use some more vegetables, for sure. But overall, not awful. FitDay will tell you if you are meeting nutritional needs - they have a report for that. Personally, I consider pasta, pizza, and potatoes health foods I make sure to include in my diet (with an emphasis on whole grain versions of the first two. I consider potatoes to be one of the best diet foods, as long as they are not fried.
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Old 06-30-2007, 02:45 AM   #9  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kilketay View Post
Ethereal, your diet isn't that bad. Yes, you could use some more vegetables, for sure. But overall, not awful. FitDay will tell you if you are meeting nutritional needs - they have a report for that. Personally, I consider pasta, pizza, and potatoes health foods I make sure to include in my diet (with an emphasis on whole grain versions of the first two. I consider potatoes to be one of the best diet foods, as long as they are not fried.
Thank you for reminding me! I hadn't checked out that section yet.

And you're right about those three P's (pasta, pizza, potatoes) I listed, Robin - I think I worded that wrong, haha. You eat the healthy grain kind and moderate your portions as part of a diverse diet, while he eats hardly anything BUT those items (veggies? you should see his face curdle!) and easily double my meal portions of them, with whatever sauces and meaty toppings he feels like. Not to mention he has a mouth FULL of sweet teeth. I really worry for him, the way I'd worry about myself if I kept on a similar diet, but he's very resistant to change; not only will I be exposed to those tantilizingly unhealthy foods every day, but I'll have to watch him eating with my newfound knowledge of just HOW bad his eating habits are.

And I thought starchy white potatoes were something to be sampled in extreme moderation? I may be 100% wrong because I pick up my info from about a billion different strange websites, but it definitely had something to do with carbs! Haha. This is my first time considering a genuinely low-fat diet so I'm used to the mantra, "no carbs, carbs are bad!" - even the good carbs.

wyllen, great idea - thanks! That seems a lot more reliable than trying to figure on my own, even if not as nice as nutrition info from the restaurant I'm at. I asked; apparently BJ's doesn't have document of any nutrition info anywhere! There weren't any particularly healthy-minded options, either. That may have been my first and last trip there.
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Old 06-30-2007, 03:08 AM   #10  
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Sorry for the double-post, but a couple more questions just occured to me and I didn't want to make the last post tooooo long.

I have a very hard time reaching 1500 calories each day. Now it's true there are probably a lot of hidden calories in restaurant food, but everything I eat from home is accounted for. As it is now, night time comes and it's not long 'til bed-time, and I'm still usually 300 or so short. Today I'm almost 700 short, but I'm not hungry! I know I should eat something (and am planning a banana and some milk before bed - 237 yummy calories), but it feels odd to force myself to eat more calories. I've GOT to be doing something wrong, as this has been consistent since I started. Is this normal?

Also, I've been plagued by mild insomnia since starting up my exercise and changing my diet. When I was just exercising (about the same amount, over a month ago, more for fun than health) I didn't have this problem. I'm hoping it's a natural result of diet change and my body will adapt soon? As it is I'm in and out of bed trying to make myself sleepy until 3 or 4am.

Last one for now, I promise! I was wondering if I ought to lower my daily calorie goals from 1500 to ~1400 with calorie innacuracies in mind? I don't eat out a TON, but sometimes it's several times a week. I don't want to destroy my attempts at weight loss because I look up what I ate and record my restaurant meal as having 700 calories, when really it was 1000+, and then I end up forcing myself to eat 300 calories that I don't really need at the end of the day, thinking I'm saving my body from "starvation mode."

Dieting would be so much easier if our bodies didn't adapt so darn well to sudden drops in calories!

I hope I'm not imposing on this sweet community with my incessant questions. The wealth of information and support I've found here is pretty much unequaled anywhere, and I'm desperate to be informed, so I can do this right for once! Plus, I'm really looking forward to the day when I know enough to pass your kindnesses on to newer dieters. So thank you so much!
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Old 06-30-2007, 04:58 AM   #11  
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If you're feeling completely a-OK eating ~1,200 calories/day, that's fine too. There's no need to squeeze in more calories that your body isn't telling you need. Or you can think of it this way: the 300 extra calories per day can be banked for a splurgier day when you'll be eating out, so it levels out and you won't be too over stressed with restaurant meals, etc. (however, make sure you don't take this to an extreme and go into binge/starve cycles, which can ruin your weight-loss).

And for #3, Pilates may be great for you -- no equipment needed and most of the vids/DVDs out there focus on toning female fat areas. And because you're a girl, you are much less likely build bulky muscles, but they will be more defined & toned as you continue strengthening exercises. And I agree with Amanda, home equipment are very cheap -- exercise ball, resistance bands and dumbbells are about $10-15 each - so you can upgrade as you go along.
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Old 06-30-2007, 08:29 AM   #12  
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Ethereal, I just wanted to mention in response to #3 that I'm trying bodyweight only exercises for now (I just can't seem to stand using weight machines right now). I figure if pushups, pull-ups, situps, etc., made those military people look cut, they've got to do something for the average person, too.
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Old 06-30-2007, 08:38 AM   #13  
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Potatoes are a high GI food, so if you have blood sugar issues it makes sense to avoid them. They are all carb, so if you are avoiding carbs they wouldn't be good. Personally, the more (good) carbs the merrier in my opinion! However, they're also pretty low calorie and very tasty baked or boiled. In my opinion, the biggest benefit of potatoes is that they have a VERY high satiety rating. That means they make you feel fuller on fewer calories. Many studies have shown that per calorie potatoes make people feel fuller than almost any other food. I find that personally true as well, so baked potatoes are a regular part of my diet! Along with some lower-GI foods like broccoli and light sour cream.
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Old 06-30-2007, 06:26 PM   #14  
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Good info, thank you again. Anyone else develop sleeping problems when they changed their diets/started exercising?
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