Hello fellow calorie counters!

You probably don't remember me, cause I think I only hung around this side of the forum for a week or so before moving on to try other weight loss lifestyles.

And try them I have, South Beach, the Zone and most recently a diet of my own creation. It involves eating whatever I feel like, whenever I want and not exercising. Suprisingly, that experiment has not turned out so well.

So here I am. Back to good old calories in vs calories out. From what I've been able to see, it makes perfect sense and seems like it will be something I can stick with for the long haul.

I shall not wait for New Year's Day, my resolution starts now!!

1) I will eat cleanly and journal my food.
2) I will not be a lazy bum. I will exercise!! (and do my laundry on a regular basis. I hate doing laundry, so I thought I'd throw that in there)
3) I will post regularly. I want to get to know you wonderful ladies and develop a support system that can help me get through the tough times.

I would love any suggestions you may have. Especially about planning. I see a lot of people saying the key to their success is planning.

I'm a procrastinator. So... I don't like to plan things. Because I just put of doing things I plan. (I plan on working on that). But I'm not sure where to start

When do you plan?
What do you plan? Do you make menu's for the whole week?
Do you plan when and how much you'll exercise?
Do you do this online? Or do you have a note book?


All advice is welcome Thanks so very much!

Well it's good to have you here! You made me laugh what with your latest creation of a "diet" not working out so well. Now I think that's one plan we've all tried. And not found much success with .

I find calorie counting very flexible. I basically stick to low proteins and veggies and low carb. But it does allow me the occasional treat, so that I don't feel deprived. Nothing is forbidden. People ask me all the time now do I eat bread and pizza, etc. , and I say "for the most part no, but if I'm dieing for a piece every now and then I will. For me it just makes the most sense.

But yes, I know for me the key is planning, planning and then more planning. I usually do the bulk of my food shopping on a Thursday and I decide what I will be making for the weekend and the beginning of the week. I fill in on produce during the week. So I basically figure out a weeks worth of menus at a time. And I pretty much stick to the same breakfast, one of a few different lunches and one of several dinners. I already know their calorie counts and it helps me to stay on plan. I also keep no junk food in the house. So I am not tempted to "cheat". My house is filled with non fat yougurt, 60 calories pudding, canned tuna, and tons of veggies. I ususally fill up my freezer every 3 - 4 weeks. I buy a lot of chicken cutlets at a time, clean them and wrap them individually, so that when I need them they defrost quickly and are already cleaned and ready to cook qucikly. It's a pain in the neck when I'm standing there cleaning all those cutlets, but it's so worth it in the long run. If at the end of the day I didn't know what I was going to eat for dinner for me it could lead to a breakdown. I'd just start grabbing things and overeating. If I know at the end of the day I have a decent meal planned it makes it much easier to stay on plan. You'll get the hang of it. I don't write it down, it all stays in my head. But if you find it easier to write it down, then by all means do so. Play around with it and see what works for you.

As far as the exercise, I don't go to a gym, but exercise at home. I start off in the morning before I shower with some stretching, leg lifts and sit ups. I work from my home, but try to keep to a set routine, again it keeps me on track. I then do some exercising during the day and then again in the evening.

Good luck to you. Glad to have you on board and look forward to hearing from you.

I've kept my plan in my head as well, but I'm realizing that things will work better for me if I work even harder at planning. Today I entered everything I plan to eat into fitday, so let's see if I can stick with my plan rather than entering as I'm eating things. Some people on here post a plan every morning (Jillybean for one) and I think I need to try this morning planning approach. A few other things I'm going to do differently, based on some advice received here: eat some snacks in the afternoon so I am not starving by dinner, at which point I keep eating after dinner. Hopefully this curb my nighttime appetite (a combination of real hunger and cravings). Today I'm planning some high fiber/high protein oatmeal in the afternoon and a low fat yoplait yogurt. I've also planned a more stepped up exercise routine in my head which hopefully I will find the time to stick with. I guess like you it boils down to the fact that I really need to plan things better for better success. My weightloss is progressing too slowly to keep going the way I have been (which has been pretty good) and some tweaking and even more discipline is obviously necessary.

hehe, I think we've all tried that diet

As for planning, I do it every day. I can't plan for the whole week in advance--that's just too overwhelming for me, and then if something happens in life or my schedule changes or whatever, I've got to refigure the whole week's worth of planning--not happening
I plan out what I will eat first thing in the morning (or the night before, if I have time). I take a few minutes to look through my kitchen and gather up all the food I will eat at work (since I typically eat at least 3-4 times while at work). I'll also figure out at this time what I'll make for dinner that evening, so if I need to take meat out of the freezer to thaw, or if I need to stop and pick something up at the store on my way home, I can do so.

I use Fitday to plan out my food. I usually have my breakfast, a snack, 2-3 lunches, and dinner, with an occasional snack after dinner as well. While calorie-counting is a good basis for a plan, I have additional goals I try to meet to make sure I stay on track:

• at least 30 minutes of exercise at least 5 days per week
• at least 100g protein each day
• eat at least 5 times a day (approximately every 3 hours during the day)
• drink at least 3 liters of plain water each day (I usually get this done no problem while I'm at work and then have a diet soda with dinner)

For exercise, I hate doing it. I'm lazy, and I HATE sweating. But, I know I need to do it, not only for weight loss, but to get a great body shape (who wants to be thin but still all flabby? yuck!) and also for my health. So, I get out of bed at about 4:15 every morning during the week and do a 30-minute Walk Away the Pounds DVD in my living room. Then I immediately take a shower (since I hate the sweaty feeling). I used to try to tell myself that I would exercise after work. After months of saying this and not doing it, I realized I needed a new plan. Do I like getting up early? Ha, not even close. Do I like getting sweaty and icky before I've even fully waken up? Not remotely. But I know it needs to be done, and the more I put it off, the less likely I am to actually DO it.

One thing I do plan food-wise more in advance is that I cook big batches of food on the weekend and sort it out into small Gladware containers to take for lunch during the week. I've done this with boneless, skinless chicken fingers, pasta, stir-fry, soups/chowders, and even sandwiches (I get funny looks from my boyfriend when I make 5 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches all at once on a Sunday afternoon, but it feeds me 5 meals during the week!).

Planning is just like anything else--practice makes perfect. At first, you'll forget to plan for the day, or you'll forget to write down everything (either electronically or in a notebook or whatever works for you), or you'll "forget" that you don't, in fact, have room in your daily calorie budget for that chocolate cupcake But the more you do it, the more habit it becomes. I was going to actually skip logging everything in my Fitday on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but it drove me crazy. I went back and included estimates as best I could. The numbers weren't pretty, and probably not even more than 75% accurate (since you never know what's in a food when someone else cooked it, and you never know just how many cookies you really did sneak one at a time ), but it helps to keep me accountable. I also try to exercise EVERY day, even though my goal is only 5 days a week, simply because I know the more I do it, the more it will sink in that I can't just stop doing it, if that makes sense.

I used to be a procrastinator. BIG time. I once wrote a 40-page paper starting at 11pm when it was due at 7:30 the next morning. I procrastinate sending cards (they ALWAYS arrive after the intended occasion), doing work, doing chores, yadda yadda yadda...but once I started planning my food and exercise, it just became routine, and I haven't looked back since (and this is relatively new--I've been this hard-core about planning for about 2-3 months now).

I don't plan anything when it comes to food and I still stay within the 1200 to 1300 range. I haven't not eaten anything yet. The way I see it, counting calories is like balancing your checkbook. When you run out of money, you stop spending. When you run out of calories, you stop eating. Christmas Day, I ate on credit. ;-)

Exercising has always been fun for me. I have a background in weight training and never did more than 30 minutes for cardio three times a week. Even then, I was at 9% body fat and weighed 123.

I have ordered a Heart Rate Monitor because frankly, the activity calculators online are just whacked! My monitor should be here this week. I haven't stopped weight lifting but I plan to up the cardio to burn 500 calories a day just in cardio. Reducing my calories by 500 a day and increasing my aerobic activity to burn 500 calories a day gives me a deficit of 1000 calories a day, or two pounds of fat loss each week.

If you haven't checked it out, go to caloriesperhour.com and click on the weight loss calculator. (Check out the entire site to solidify your commitment to stick with a calories in vs. calories out regimen.) You'll see there when you can expect to lose what by when.

I registered for my first race this week and plan to run at least 12 in 2007. The ultimate goal is a marathon. (I am battling nicotine addiction so the marathon has more to do smoking than anything else.)

Food I don't plan, working out I will plan because that 500 calories a day requires another hour or so a day from me. But I can run stairs during my lunch hour at work or run around the campus of my job. The HRM will help me determine when I've burned those calories.

Good luck to you, keep us posted, and check out caloriesperhour.com. You'll be glad you did!

Wendy

Thanks for all the great advice!!

Things I've been doing well so far:

I've been drinking twice as much water as before (It still needs to be upped a little bit)
I've logged every thing I've eaten into fitday so I know how many calories I've eaten


Things I need to work on (the abridged version!!) :

EXERCISE. I really should make a plan for that...
Posting here more often. I'm a compulsive lurker. I read what everyone else is up to, but don't post so very often


Nother question. How many calories (roughly) is the right amount?

I heard... body weight times 10 minus 500 to lose a pound a week. That would put me at around 1300 (more if I get off my lazy bum and exercise). I'm 5'10'' and 1300 just seems really low to me. (I've averaged around 1600 or 1700 this week) Maybe I'm just used to eating too much?

How did you determine your daily calorie goal?

Go to CALORIESPERHOUR.com

I cannot emphasize this enough.

Go there! They will show you clearly what your caloric intake should be and a million other things you MUST know in order to succeed!

Go there!