Hi all! As I start my first day in the wonderful world of calorie counting, I was wondering if I could ask a few questions. I have decided that I will start at 1500 calories per day. So, here it is...
1. How should I break down how many calories I eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner?
2. How important is exercise? (I work at a desk all day and I am building a house that I am currently living in, so any time after work is used solely on building)
Hi. In my opinion, 1500 is too low for your weight. You aren't giving yourself anywhere to go when you plateau. I would start at 1900. I would make sure I ate 5-6 meals a day each containing some protein, carbs and healthy fat. Make sure you get at least 30 grams a fiber a day and drink at least 64 ounces of water. If you haven't been exercising at all, start with 30 minutes of walking...or even marching in place...and try to do some full body strength training at least twice a week. Good luck.
Thank you for the information. Isn't 1900 a lot? I have no idea how many calories I eat now, but 1900 seems really high. As I don't know much about this, I'm probably wrong. I'll count what I eat today and I'll see how many calories I consume.
I started at 1700, Im currently trying to stick around 1600ish. I tend to have about 300 cals for breakfast, around 500 for lunch around 600 for dinner, and 200 for snacks. Exercise is important, but buil;ding your house is important too, why dont you try walking around your office more, get a pedometer to count your steps and aim for a certain amount of steps. I find when I start getting all my water in, those toilet breaks add some more steps to your day!
10,000 steps a day is what is recommended on an average day, so maybe try and work up to that, and once youve achieved that move onto to some formal exercise?!
I think the number of calories depends on height as well as weight. But 1500 is a perfectly reasonable place to start--not everyone can lose on 1900 and your current weight isn't all that high (particularly depending on where you want to wind up). You also might never plateau--I never have. If you find yourself losing more than 2lb a week on 1500, you can inch up a little bit.
Calorie counting takes some experimenting to figure out a distribution that works for you. There's no set way that will work for everyone. You could start with something simple and straightforward like B-300, L-400, D-500 plus some 100 cal snacks throughout the day and see how that works for you. More important, in my opinion, is how you use your calories. Try to get most of your cals from nice veggies with tons of volume, and lean proteins that will help you to stay full. Starches should be kept at a minimum and when you do eat something like bread or rice, opt for the high-fiber alternative, because they help you to stay full for longer.
Exercise is SUPER important! The idea with calorie counting is that you want to create a nice big calorie deficit to lose weight. The general principle is that if you create a 500 calorie deficit each day, you should lose 1lb a week, if you create a 1000 cal deficit, you should lose 2lb a week (on the basis that 1lb = 3500 cals). But it's quite difficult (and not always wise) to cut back on 1000 calories of food each day, so you can make a bigger deficit through exercise. It speeds up the weight loss AND will make you feel better in the long run. Depending on your level of fitness, you can start with simple walks, or you can join a gym and start using an elliptical or something like that. But try to do at least 30 mins of exercise 5 days a week, depending on what is appropriate for your current fitness levels.
Exercise is important - at least 1 hour a day for health, 90 minutes to lose weight. If you don't exercise, you lose muscle as well as fat - your heart is a muscle (get the picture). You can weigh 120 pounds and be unhealthy if you have too much fat and not enough muscle.
Hi All,
I'm back after too long away, myself. Today is my first day of adding my data to fit day and trying to stay on plan, after a several months of being plateaued and getting frustrated - perhaps I've figured out my maintenance plan before I finished my weight loss - not good!!! I have a mantra that I tell myself daily - "I know I have a strong urge to eat, but I don't need to pay attention to it. It's uncomfortable, but it's not an emergency. If I eat, I'll have a few moments of pleasure, but then I'll feel terrible. I'd rather be thinner and healthier, look better, be less self-concious, have more self confidence, and treat those around me better. " If you keep these ideas in mind and keep saying them over and over to yourself, I really think you can suppress that huge urge to dive into the left-over Halloween candy bowl.
Even trying to keep this philosophy in mind, I'm stalled and getting frustrated. And this is where I always lose it and start gaining again. Don't want that to happen and think that calorie counting - the basic idea of numbers in vs. numbers out - is my best bet. I've done many other plans, and always seem to stall at 30 lbs or so. Any suggestions for making it over this hump???
I wanted to give a little input here on the exercise-it isn't necessary to start out doing 60-90 minutes a day of exercise. Some people simply cannot put that much time in.
Also, if you go from doing no exercise at all to 90 minutes a day, then you are most likely going to burn yourself out really quickly. Start slow-even 10-20 minutes a day of something simple like walking. Do something that YOU like to do. Over time, increase intensity, etc. and try new things.
ANY exercise that you do is beneficial to your health. Walking 10 minutes a day, while not a huge calorie burn, is better than nothing. It adds up to over an hour per week that you would not have been doing before.
My exercise varies depending on the day-some days of the week I teach dance for 3 hours...other days I have a 20 or 30 minute cardio or strength session. It's ALL good.
Exercise is important for your health outside of weight loss I think a lot of people forget that (nobody here of course!) so it's very important. I'd start out by walking 30 minutes per day I'd had 10 or 15 minutes light weight training 3 times per week. Light meaning 5,10,15 pound free weights.
New Day in Calorie Counting
