Weight Loss and exercise

I’ve been struggling on the days I’ve had to work early. My meds make me hungry if I don’t go back to sleep after taking them. I get dizzy if I take them and then go back to bed on the days I work. So I don’t do that. So I’ve been hungry.

I haven’t weighed myself. I am off work today and tomorrow. I work in the afternoon on Tuesday. And I’m off Wednesday. So that means 4 days of being able to take my meds and go back to sleep. I did that today and I’ve been fine with my hunger. My total for today is 1,220 calories.

I weighed tonight after a long SUP paddle this afternoon/early evening. I was 156.2. Messed around with weighing a few times holding something and then not; that seems pretty accurate. But later I ate a lot of watermelon and a little trail mix and an orange. Bouncing all around on the scale lately.

Paddled about 7.7 miles, a big stretch of it in to a stiff breeze in decent sized waves so it was a serious workout. Strava gave me about 1300 for it; seems like a big number but I don't think it is far off; it was an intense exercise paddle.

I ate 2877 calories which seems like a huge number, but I burned a lot. Just have to see how it shakes out the next few days.

I made 3,719 steps. I walked 1.39 miles to burn 161 calories. Using 2,340 as a base, this gives me a target of 2,501 calories. I have consumed 2,362 calories. So I am 139 calories short. So I will eat a half of a peanut btter sandwich to make up for this difference. 158 calories for the sandwich gives me a new total of 2,520 calories which is close enough.

I will see if my leg is good enough to walk a distance. The best I can tell, I ran about 0.15 of a mile. Next time I will note the distance I ran from my watch. This caused my leg to hurt again. So next time I will allow the leg to recover more so I can run some more.

@Tucson - do you have access to a pool?

Yes, I do. It is a part if my townhome complex.

My weight is 175 today. My leg is still hurting a bit, so no exersize for me. I find it interesting that when I have not exercised for over one week, I notice that I am much more out of shape. My walking at a moderate pace only moved my heart rate up some, lets say 125. But now my heart rate goes up significantly when exercising the same way. It even made it into the 140s. It is though I am walking as fast as I can for a mile, which I have not done for over a week.

I was pretty sure today I would be about 160. I was 159 on Friday. Saturday I must have had about 4 thousand calories from Outback. We got the bloomin onion and then I had the 4 course meal. I stayed at my 1,200 calories yesterday though.

But today when I weighed myself I was 157.2 I don’t think it’s diabetes or anything. My mom says don’t expect this to happen once I hit 30. I’m only in my 20’s now.

Anyways total for today is 1,200 give or take for the spaghetti I had. I divided the box into 8 even servings, and cooked one batch. The box said a serving was 2oz when I measured it cooked it was 4oz.

Do you measure pasta before cooking it?

Box label is for dry.

I have made 4,828 steps today. I walked slowly around my complex for 1.03 miles. I have burned 133 calories. This added to 2,340 calories yields a target of 2,473 calories. I have consumed 2,485 calories. This looks good to me.

My exercise was light. My leg is hurting a bit more, but not too bad at all. I suspect tomorrow it will be better. I am having a hard time focusing. So I have already made my menus for tomorrow.

@UpDownAround: Good idea. I will get some swim trunks and a t-shirt tomorrow. I have to see if my key still works at the gate to the pool. Also, I looked at the food you ate tday. I see allot of healthy stuff listed as snacks. Mine is mostly desserts. LOL I wonder if an inflatabe SUP would fit in the pool?

@Bozdickens: Yes, measure pasta when it is dry before cooking it in water. This is how calories are accessed by services like MFP. FWIW I usually measure out 4 oz for my spaghetti meal before boiling it in water.

@Tucson - you should try swimming for a while. Great exercise, easier to do in the heat and would let your leg heal.

Walked 7 miles at dusk. Totally soaked my clothes with sweat.

2379 calories, but I don't think it is quite right. As long as the list of snacks is (mostly fruit) there is something else that I was trying to remember to enter.

I weigh 175, almost 176 today. My leg hurts a little bit, but is OK. Later today, I will walk around the complex a couple times at a slow to moderate pace. That will be about one mile. Am I gaining weight? If I am, I can for example go back to the 2,090 calories base plus now 130% of calories burned, since my watch underestimates the calories burned through exercise. So for a four mile walk, my watch would say about lets say 440 calories burned. So this would come out to an adjustment of 132 calories burned, making the total calories burned in this example to be 572 calories. Then I will keep adjusting this in the future until my weight stabilizes. All of this assumes the watch is consistent with its calculation of calories burned. I will know by tomorrow what I am going to do.

I have made 7,253 steps. I have walked 2.14 miles at a leisurely pace. If I walk too slowly, the calories burned will be inaccurate. So I will use 110 calories per mile. So this comes to about 235 calories burned. This gives me target of 2,575 calories. I have consumed 2,451 calories. So I have a bit over one hundred calories to go. This may make room for one more fun sized almond joy. I have walked a bit too much. My leg is sore, however, it should be better my tomorrow.

I was walking up and down the road allot to calibrate my step counter. Then I will be able to turn GPS off for the treadmill and still get an accurate distance, within 50 feet. I will be able to get better accuracy if I used a measured distance, like a track at a high school.

I weighed 159 this morning! Not all that surprised. For some reason, I just couldn't stop eating yesterday and rolled lots of calories forward to today (logged foods I ate yesterday as today's snacks). I will post both days tonight. About to go paddling (the big eraser)...

I weigh 175. I am going to walk around my townhome complex for a couple of miles. I find that running on concrete is not good for my knees. I need to find dirt paths for this. There is a park nearby. They have dirt paths that go for miles, also no car traffic to contend with. This can be expensive for each daily permit, but I will look into an annual permit.

I paddled my SUP 10.3 miles today! I was awarded ~1500 calories. I didn't edit, but I didn't use then all. Left a little over 200.

My total for today is 2997 calories, but close to 1000 of them were actually eaten yesterday. I don't know why I was so fruit and sweet hungry yesterday.

I am posting both yesterday and today's' food. The two day total with the exercise is about even. I made it look like the days were each even but they really weren't. I was way over yesterday and under today.

I will weigh again in the morning. Spooky - I could see 160+. Whether I do or not, it is time to get back into losing mode for a while.

I made 5,715 steps. I exercised by walking about two miles, one out of the four times at a slow pace. The other times I walked at a brisk pace. I did this on a track at a school. I was calabrating my watch. So I burned 230 calories. On one walk I had to reduce the calories burned to 110 calories. I was walking slow that time which yields an overinflated result. This provides a target of 2,570 calories. I have consumed 2,552 calories. I have met my target. I will see where this weight gain goes. If I increase by one more pound, I will go back to the 2090 calorie base, and just mark up by 20% my total calories burned.
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@UpDownAround:

I looked into those charts that you referenced in a previous post. It assumes a level grade. There is also the heart bpm that is not considered, which I think is the important element here, besides the grade. Either the calories were pretty close to the chart, or sometimes there was a difference up to at least 20 calories per mile. Some were more, but I am suspicious of them. My watch also underestimates calories burned. I think the heart bpm as a proxy to health caused some of this difference. I discovered the pace effects the result too.

Update:

After further study, I found that both heart rate and pace needs to be high enough to be accurate on my watch with respect to calories burned. Pace effects this more than heart rate. Physical health can have a noticeable difference too. I need to walk at least 3.5 mph with a heart rate at least in the latter 130s for the calorie calculation to be accurate.This is in the range of a good cardio work out which is where I want to be anyways. Looking at the charts now, my calories burned is from what is on the chart to within maybe 10 calories per mile. However, keep in mind that my watch underestimates calories burned.

158 this morning. Going to set my goal back a little to trend lower. Probably little or no exercise today. Maybe a walk tonight.

About calories burned - I think it is all over the map depending on where you walk and current shape you are in, but "all over the map" isn't a huge range.

I wonder about my paddling calories. It's such a huge number. It is strenuous for hours and definitely has improved my physique. But I think I need to get better about more continuous high effort. On the speed chart by time, you can see where I took breaks, often fishing, and where the intense paddling occurred and for how long. The short low spikes are drinking water.

I weigh 174 today. I will exercise today, but not all out. I am going to a school track to walk. It is 400 meters per time around. So I will go at least four times around. Nice since there are no stop lights, and danger walking on the side of a busy road. I wonder why my weight is going abnormally up and down?

I agree that “all over the map” is not that large of a range. The only time calories burned changes for me in a significant way is when something changes in even a more significant way. This does not happen much. So my calories burned usually goes from a bit lower than 100 to 110, which is not that much different than those charts. By the way, that watch of mine tells me I am in “poor” health. Compared to what? An athlete? Anyways, even though not entirely accurate for me right now, those charts are still usable in place of a sophisticated watch. I really do not need any more accuracy for my purposes. I am not training for a marathon. So much for needing my watch. It is a luxury item now.

I also want to mention that you seem to be doing well with those web services that allow you track your efforts in different ways without an expensive watch. Probably even more accurate at lower speeds than my watch. You can even graph your performance. All what one really needs is a phone that can count steps. Paddling more consistently at a high rate is a good idea. I find that I need to do this for my walking. It can sometimes go up and down for me.

The apps are the main reason I am hesitant about replacing the fitness watch.

No exercise today. The weather was threatening this evening; nearby thunder. Turns out it would have been fantastic; cooled off and had a nice breeze. But it was too dicey; there were severe storms nearby.

1750 calories.

Hopefully I will walk tomorrow, probably not logging it. Very long paddle planned Sunday. Kind of up in the air as to whether I paddle kayak or SUP.

Weigh on Saturday.

I think a heart rate is all you are mssing. I am not talking about a measure of exertion in a particular activity. This can have a small effect on calories burned. I am talking about as a proxy for ones physical condition. Now this can make a difference. When I first started, my calories expended was high, because of my physical shape. Now I burn much less calories on the same exercise. Also, it is nice to keep your heart rate up for a good cardio exercise.

By the way, what is the difference between Strava and MapMyFitness? Strava supports segements, and interfaces well with my watch. However, for MapMyFitness, I think all you need is a phone and a step counter, and your step counter can also be your phone. It looks like it even interfaces with the sensors themselves without the watch. Interesting. This is another instance of not needing a watch. They both also support routes.

I have made 4,823 steps. I walked more than a mile at a casual pace. However, I went to a track and walked/ran for a 3/4 of a mile. So I burned 76 calories not including those slow walks. This makes for a target of 2,416 calories. By the end of the day, I will have consumed 2,432 calories. On one circuit of the track, I averaged a speed of 4.8 mph with an average hearbeat of 151 bpm. Now my leg is sore again. So I am going to skip exercise for tomorrow. I just cannot help keeping myself from walking. I think I am addicted. Better than illicit drugs.

I was using MMF to start with and had troubles with it, which is strange because MMW works fine on my phone and there is very little difference. MMF kept going into pause/continue loops for no reason. Someone on a SUP forum suggested Strava. It works pretty well and it has a social component. I have a couple of friends using it so we see each other's activities.

I weigh 174. I am not going to exercise today, not even for a casual walk around the complex. I will keep my daily activity for today low too.

I have taken 428 steps so far. Not an active day at all. I have been staying off of my feet the entire day. Since I have not exercised today, my target is 2090 calories. By the end of the day I will have consumed 2,126 calories. So good enough for me. I will see tomorrow if I start walking, otherwise, I will go swimming. Probably good therapy for my leg anyways. By the way, I treated myself to a whole bag of PF Changs Kung Pao chicken. They do have great sauces! Do you know one mango is 200 calories? About double the calories of an apple or banana.

I exercised by walking about 4 miles. I didn't track it but entered it as 60 minutes of 3 mph.

I went over goal but since I under reported the walking, I am not sure where it really stands. Anyway, 2113 calories, heavy on treats. I planned to swim this afternoon after walking but we had some thunderstorms move in.

I will weigh in the morning. I might swim tomorrow afternoon.

Sunday I am kayaking pretty much all day and will erase any evils from today and tomorrow...

I weigh 172 again. My leg feels better now. I have not been logging some walks due to a relatively slow pace. I will log them now. Also, I have not been at ny current baseline of 2,340 calories that kong. Every so often, I come in at 100 calories short. Finally, there is the “after burn” that happens after exercise, where the body keeps burning calories for a period of time. This can become of some significance. So my watch not only underreports calories, but there is also this effect of burning calories after an exercise.

I will first see what happens when any and every kind of walking exercise is logged. I will give myself a few more days at my new baseline of 2,340 calories. Then allowing for some wiggle of lets say at most a couple pounds, I will see what my weight is early next week. I will still weigh myself every day. I think doing all of this will work better for me. I want to stay around 175 pounds which will allow some room for weight gain. I then will bring back my weight back to 175.