So I’ve been playing around with the calorie counter at http://www.myfitnesspal.com tonight and I’m getting so frustrated, thinking in circles. I plugged in everything I plan to eat tomorrow – my usual breakfast and snacks, the lunch I already packed for work, the dinner I have planned on my menu.
In WW Points, I would have counted all this at 24 Points, which is 5 below my daily target of 29.
In calories, it’s 1483, or 273 higher than what I would need to keep my intake to in order to lose 2 pounds a week.
In order to keep with the WW directions to eat enough to keep my body fueled I would have to come up with another approximately 250 calories worth of food; in order to come up with what the calorie tracker says I should eat, I would have to eat approximately 250 fewer. That’s a 500 calorie discrepency between the two plans. What the heck??
I came up with my calorie figure by finding a calorie needs calculator online; for my height, weight, age and level of activity it gives me a figure of 2210. That’s what my body needs to sustain itself at this weight. But I don’t want to maintain this weight; in aiming for a steady 2 pound a week loss, I would need to eat 7000 calories fewer each week than my body needs, or an average of 1000 a day. So, 2210 ( 1000) = 1210; this is the amount of calories I would need to take in each day to achieve that loss.
1210 seems so low to me, especially for my size. I worry about hitting the dreaded starvation mode, if my body is getting so few calories that it fears letting go of fat. I also worry about losing nutrition if I cut any of the foods in my meal plan; as it is now I’m getting plenty of fruit, veggies, dairy, protein and fiber; if I start chopping foods out of my plan, I’m sacrificing some of that carefully thought out nutrition. I really don’t want to have to do that, at least not at this point.
But then, exercise needs to be a part of this equation. I have to factor in the calories I burn during exercise into calculating that net calorie count for the day. The problem is, I’ve been SO flaky about exercise lately that I hate to count on it, because I can’t trust myself to follow through. Ideally I should be able to eat around 1500 calories and aim to burn 300 in exercise so I land at my 1200 NET calories for the day, but I’m scared of this. Even if I do get my exercise mojo back, I won’t necessarily burn that many calories every day; I’m really unsure of how to factor for that.
I don’t know what to do. Weight Watchers was working – when I stuck to the plan, which wasn’t often lately – so I know that my body CAN handle more calories and still lose. And the WW Points system took into account the fact that you don’t digest certain calories from fiber and gave a break for that … I’d be willing to bet that between all the veggies and whole grains in my eating plan, I’ve got quite a bit of wiggle room from undigestible fiber that isn’t apparent when you’re just looking at the calories.
I think … ugh! I hate this … I think I will aim for 1400 – 1500 from food and try to get as much exercise in to offset that as possible … and see where I land in a few weeks? If I find I’m not losing I can always tweak the plan. For now … like I said, WW was working so I’m scared to cut almost 500 calories out of my day from what I was eating … I fear hitting a plateau. 1500 calories, without any exercise, would leave me with a 710 calorie deficit, which would be 1.42 pounds a week lost if it were a matter of pure math .. which it isn’t, I know, but still. That’s a bit less than I really am hoping for, but that’s just another reason to get some exercise in, to help close the gap.
So … 1400 – 1500 daily intake with as much exercise as I can get my lazy butt motivated to do to push my net calories down as far as I can go. That’s the plan for now – go!
Leave a comment