I have become a bit disillusioned in the last few days because I've been hovering for what feels like a long time. I thought it was over three weeks. I went to fitday.com this morning and checked out some reports. Truth be known, I've lost over 4 lbs in the last month (be careful to set your day to yesterday, today has nothing in it yet and will give you a false low).

I must have finally figured out the calories burned thing because I have an average deficit of about 500 cals per day, which figured over the month equals about a 4 1/2 lb loss.

I have been brutally honest. Every chip, french fry and chocolate is in there. I've never deluded myself into thinking I'm using extreme effort in my exercise. I don't call it a half hour if it was only 22 minutes.

I've been shocked to find ...
1. that my around 1200 calories diet has somehow managed to average out at 1741!!
2. that my activities are still a very small part of my calories usage.

The lesson I should be learning from this is that simple tweaks can easily turn that 4 lbs into 6 or 8. Eat a little better and exercise a bit more vigorously and I'm there. Unfortunately that lands me in that depressing area of personal responsibilty!

Fitday is an awesome tool. Worth far more than it's merits as a calorie accumulater.

Susan, I just looked at your fitday and noticed that on your Feb. 1st entry you ate around 800 calories less than on other days? Was that one purpose or were you just not hungry?

Well, Lauren. That's because that's the only really good day I've had this week.

Ya know, Susan. I have mornings that when I wake up the first thing on my mind is..."Carrie, if you're going to loose this weight it's totally up to you, not the food."

I just got fitdayPC and am still learning how to use it to it's fullest potential so once I do, I'm sure it will prove to be my best investment in this journey (especially compared to that expensive eliptical coat rack in the sunroom - I prefer any exercise but that one)

Another thing, you said you don't calculate 22 minutes as 30 minutes and I can totally relate with that also. When I calculate my exercise I enter 19 minutes of aerobic...7 minutes stretching...4 minutes of MILD stretching.

I find personal responsibility very fulfilling and satisfying. Just think, in the end you will be responsible for doing something great, not jenny and not nutrisystem.

Carrie ... the first time I tried an elliptical I huffed and puffed and sweated, stopped to check my time. 3 minutes!

I know how you feel Susan. I had been doing weekly averages by hand from Fitday when I realized they have that report feature (and yes, learned the hard way you have to go to a day before ). I know over the two weeks or so I didn't do so well during the holidays, I was up to about a 1700 or 1800 average. It's taken me over 3 weeks of clean eating to get that "monthly" average down, and even then, due to my usually eating 1200 (and very few days that much below) but having the occasional 1600 or 1800 day, it's easy to bring that average up again! Last time I checked I had finally gotten my 1 or 2 week average back down to about 1300 which is a bit more reasonable. I have to say, knowing that I'll have to face that average keeps me more in check.

Working out is another matter! Even with working out 5 days a week (90% WATP, 10% weights) for 30 min or more a day for the last 3 weeks, I still haven't lost any weight. I suppose I should post my Fitday, but Susan even on your bad days you eat very well! And sometimes I find when I'm ashamed at my high averages, that it kind of cheers me up to know that if in that period I didn't lose/gain anything, at least I know at what level I can still continue to maintain. And I do love Fitday, I used to journal by hand and had a lot of "estimated" days. I think that's how the weight crept back on, but this time even if I have a horrible day, it's enlightening for me to journal that DQ Medium Oreo Blizzard. At least I fessed up to it and it is there. Next step is making my Fitday public. We'll see though, one step at a time

I can get sort of 'good food' nutty but I have a terrible family history for cardiovascular disease! preventative medicine I guess.
But that apparently isn't enough to stop some of my bad habits.
BTW ... a skor bar blizzard is much better!

Post that fitday! I love to pick away at them (evil chuckle)

There's a new post in either support or support groups about a bunch of us that don't have much more to lose. You might be able to pick up some tweaking tips there.

You've encouraged me, I've added it to my signature. I'm not 100% proud of it, but I dunno if I ever will be! And maybe a little public scrutiny will help me to fix where I am lacking (i.e., fruit, veggies...)

Ahh...personal responsibility...it's a depressing thing for me, too.

I feel for you Susan. I'm looking on the bright side of your month and you did lose 4 lbs which is better than staying the same or, in the worst case, gaining. But, I know what you mean about putting in the extra effort and being sure to see some solid results in the way of a bigger loss.

In the few weeks I've been here you have been a huge inspiration to me as a newbie calorie counter. Thanks so much for posting this since you've once again inspired me to take a closer look at things and see where I could do better.

I hope you have better days to come...actually...I'm certain you WILL!

-Bella

I put my vitamins in as a custom food, FeistyRoo. Just keep working away with fitday. It can be a pain but it's worth it once you get the wrinkles worked out.

Miles? did I ever pick apart your food? I got lost in the shuffle this weekend.

Ya say that like it's a bad thing....

Ah Gina! It's good to see you around.
Some folks do act like it's a bad thing. Dunno ...

You know, I never even thought about this before! With two toddler boys running around, I usually end up stopping 2 or 3 times during my workouts, for a few seconds to a couple minutes at a time and so have never gotten a true start/stop time estimate for my exercise. And since I do workout videos, I always just enter the time on the box as "aerobics". I never thought about how much of that time was really spent on warm-ups or cool-downs. But, even though I enter my exercise into Fitday, I never look at the calories burned or deduct it from my calories eaten anyway. I only use it as a log of the days I manage to get my butt moving. But, maybe I'll start taking the time to break my exercise down into the appropriate categories. Because...

...personal responsibility and a feeling of "look what I did!" is the reason why I'm sticking to counting calories and not going with a marketed program.

Every day I learn something new on here, I swear. You ladies (and gents) rock!