Originally Posted by JayEll:
I also wanted to say that it's not possible to precisely track calories burned with most devices, even a Body Bugg. Did I really burn 160 calories walking on a treadmill for 30 minutes? Maybe, maybe not. that's why I generally didn't count calories burned--I just set my target intake level and went with that.

And the calorie values given in most food databases are averages. A plus-or-minus is always going to be involved. I don't know that the chicken breast I just cooked really contains 30 calories per ounce. Close? Probably. But that's all I can say.

Don't get me wrong--tracking can be a great tool--I also tracked calories during my weight loss, and it taught me a LOT about foods that I never knew. Which is why, for example, I almost never eat pizza. It is just not worth it. Plus I now know it has those layered sugar-fat-salt triggers ("The End of Overeating" explains this).

Jay

I've been a person whose entire plan is based on tracking calorie deficit rather than jumping on the scales. So you'd think I'd be one to really want my diet and exercise calories to be "right". But I really don't sweat it. When a food isn't listed in the database, I pick a similar one by composition for example using raisin values for dried cherries. I guesstimate portion sizes when I eat away from home. I don't special order in restaurants.

The only exercise I enter are my intentional cardio sessions. I don't count lifestyle activity (walk to the farmer's market), weight work, or yoga.

When I started out it was fairly easy to have a theoretical deficit of 1100 cals per day (you need a pretty big number to maintain 265 lbs). As my weight drops, so has my average daily deficit and current average is less than 800 per day. But is it really? It doesn't matter. As long as I'm keeping the average on the deficit side, the weight is coming off. I've proven it to myself.

So when I've shown friends how I'm accomplishing this weight loss, I realize my careful logging and graphing might appear pretty extreme but I actually feel pretty laid back about it.

Originally Posted by caryesings:
I realize my careful logging and graphing might appear pretty extreme but I actually feel pretty laid back about it.

I think this really is the key here. Do you feel like you're on a track that integrates into your life. Is it "no big deal" to you, just the way you've chosen to live your life, that's a pretty big clue that you're not on a path that's too extreme for you.

However, if your weight loss tactics are manufacturing stress rather than relieving it, that's a big clue that you may be on an extreme path.

It doesn't even mean that it's not a path you'll eventually be on - it might just be one you're not ready for.

When I started trying to include exercise, I had a really hard time finding an amount/frequency of exercise that was right for me. I would do too much and then be in bed for three days because of the pain and fatigue.

What was "too much" for me then, isn't too much for me now. My abilities have improved.

If you feel like you're being challenged, but successful most of the time that's a good sign that you're probably at a good place. If you feel that you're never successful, and that your results are never good enough, maybe you're pushing yourself too far. And if you feel that you're always successful and that what you're doing is "easy" maybe there's room to put in a little more effort (unless you're happy with the results you're seeing and don't want to put in any more effort).

We admire perfectionisms in our culture. On some level, we believe that it's virtuous to never feel "good enough." But there's a fine line between wanting to do better, and feeling like crap even when you're succeeding, because you're not succeeding ENOUGH.

Challenges are a source of stress. We need stress in our lives (it's called motivation), but there's a fine line between good stress and bad stress, and positive stress and negative stress.

Only you can determine whether you have the right amount of stress in you life, and if it's the right kind. Push yourself, but not to the point that you feel like you're failing even when you're actually succeeding.

Thank you so much!
 

Originally Posted by PaulaM:
I hope I don't offend anybody by my thoughts, but here they are: I feel so sad when I read many of the posts in this forum. Yes, everybody wants to be in top physical shape and good health, of course. Maybe it's because I'm older than many here (55), but it really hurts my heart when younger women make dieting the complete focus of their life. They obsess about each morsel, work themselves to death exercising. So many are so very very unhappy if they feel they don't look perfect. Yes, I'm fat now and working on it, but it doesn't consume my every waking moment. I was slim throughout my 20's and 30's, the weight started coming on in my 40's, mostly because I couldn't work out like I used to but felt I could eat the same way. Now I'm cutting down and working out 4 days a week for 2 hours at a time.

Every now and then, please stop and smell the roses, that's all I'm saying. Life is so short, you're only young once, try and enjoy each day and not worry constantly. Do your best every day but don't beat yourself up. I lost several dear friends to breast cancer at a young age, they would give anything to enjoy another day on earth. Try and be happy!

Paula I think you are fabulous! :broc:

Thank you for reminding me why I'm bothering to try to be healthier in the first place; to live a longer, happier, healthier life. Sometimes I get so caught up in trying to lose weight that I forget to enjoy life.

It's funny you bring this up because I quit counting calories and pushing so hard to exercise and when I stopped pushing so hard is when the weight started coming off. I think everyone could take your advice and just go out and enjoy life!

:cheers::sunny::beach:

Thank you for passing along your wisdom. :hug: It was very much appreciated!

I'm glad to see you're back Kelly! Unfortunately, pregnancy really triggered my binge-eating. So now I am back on the road to trying to find a healthy balance between binge-eating and restricting.

Originally Posted by jillianfan:
The bold is the reason why I was offended. It says that eating so few calories and trying to determine calories burned so precisely is a sign of having a borderline eating disorder. I eat that little and determine calories burned precisely, ergo, I have a borderline eating disorder.

Maybe it wasn't meant that way, but I took it that way.

Jillianfan- I was just writing about my own experiences. I think that being aware of these kinds of signs is important at a site like this, because we're all at risk of falling into (mentally) unhealthy eating patterns. I don't know the details of your life, so I would never presume to suggest that there is anything wrong with what you're doing. However, I believe the experts I saw about this, and trust that this is good information. There are all kinds of eating disorders, all levels, and they don't have to carry the same stigma that they used to. Discussing it is one way to help prevent others from suffering.

wormwooddoll- congratulations on the wedding and the baby! I have no doubt that pregnancy can do that to the best of us.

Originally Posted by kelly315:
wormwooddoll- congratulations on the wedding and the baby! I have no doubt that pregnancy can do that to the best of us.

Thanks! I found out the day before my wedding I was pregnant. :o I gained almost 40lbs during my pregnancy and have been yo-yoing with losing the baby weight. So frustrating. I binge. I restrict. I'll do great for a couple days. Binge again. It's a rough cycle.

I've been in that cycle enough myself. Boy or girl? Name?

Originally Posted by kelly315:
I've been in that cycle enough myself. Boy or girl? Name?

Boy. :) He's name is Griffin Michael.

I don't normally count calories but I recently picked up a diet analysis program and I entered my food log for the past couple of months. According to it, whenever I duck below 1300-1400/day that's when the hunger problems start. I haven't done this in a long time but I read somewhere that a sedentary woman should consume around 10 calories per pound of weight/day to maintain. If I did that I would have to consume 2,640 calories/day. I could very easily consume this amount, but I would definitely gain weight. When I consume about 1400 cal/day I feel pretty good so I'm going with that - at least for now. :snail: