Hopeful Loser

Just for a little while anyway, I need to start counting the calories. Yesterday when I ate what I thought was a good amount turned out to be much too little. I was at under 1100 calories just before I went swimming last night. And when I logged it into SparkPeople I was rounding up.

Today on the other hand, I’m already at nearly 800 calories (just after breakfast). I had some granola cereal for breakfast and decided not to leave such a small amount straggling in the bag. When I measured what I had, it came out to one and a half cups. It was a little more than I would have put in there had the box been fuller but didn’t look unreasonable. It’s kind of sitting like a ton of brick in my stomach now so maybe that’s why a serving is only a half a cup (!). I had three servings!

I’m doing dinner with my parents tonight so I have to manage the calorie budget closely. I was planning on ordering Italian food, dang it. They can all enjoy it while I steam myself some veggies or something.

With my workout schedule I’m allotting myself between 1500 and 1800 calories a day. I’ll aim low on the days that I don’t workout. I think that during the beginning of all my training I was under eating which slowed down my metabolism and then I went in the other direction.

Hopefully monitoring what I’m doing for a little while will help me get off of this plateau and put portion sizes back into perspective.

Comments

Sparkpeople helped with my portion distortion. I also found that on some days I wasn't eating enough...weird thing this whole diet and nutrition. Hope it helps you!

Posted by: Diana the Scale Junkie at May 20, 2008 1:19 PM

The calorie counting thing is so vital, isn't it? I mean, you really do have to know everything that you are putting into your mouth has a # and a value. I find myself being a little too low most days as well, but I'm getting better at it.

I've been following a book called "Where Did All The Fat Go" done by the doctor from the Biggest Loser. So far it's been great. I'm actually at 1350 calories a day and he states that is okay based on the calculation of my body fat %. I've lost 14 pounds in the past 4 weeks and am feeling great. I'm sure doing 2 workouts a day for the past month has something to do with that as well.

Doing what you are doing by "saving up" calories for dinner, etc. I think is great. I've never been good at that concept, but things have changed. I know that if I'm going to be going out to eat I'll work out an extra 1/2 hour or have really light in-between meal snacks so that I can save up. It's kind of mind-consuming, but it is working and I notice that I'm totally aware now of what I'm eating and if it's "worth it" or not.

Good luck tonight at dinner!

Posted by: Molly at May 20, 2008 2:24 PM

May 20, 2008

Calorie counting again

Comments