[BeyondtheRainbow]

UpDown-Have you tried swimming? Easier on the joints and great exercise. My city chose to do away with the YMCA pool so not an option here but in my dreams that's what I'd do (I've had ankle reconstruction surgery and 2 knee surgeries so have to be careful and swimming would be perfect for me).

[UpDownAround]

Originally Posted by BeyondtheRainbow

UpDown-Have you tried swimming? Easier on the joints and great exercise. My city chose to do away with the YMCA pool so not an option here but in my dreams that's what I'd do (I've had ankle reconstruction surgery and 2 knee surgeries so have to be careful and swimming would be perfect for me).

I have, but the year around options nearby cost more money than it's worth to me and it wouldn't help with building upper body muscle. Besides, I sometimes exercise when I have a spare 30 minutes total. I have had knee and shoulder surgery. I am at peace with not running anymore; 3 mph walking doesn't burn and tone as quickly as running but it works as a general exercise to stay in decent shape. I would like to work arms, shoulders and chest a bit.

[Cocosurviving]

MFP calories 1,129 total. Apple Watch steps 3,295. Water intake 67.6oz. Well no walking because the rain continues.

[UpDownAround]

7532 steps. 2072 calories. That seems like too much. I definitely had too much sodium, so I would probably see a false rise if I weighed tomorrow. I will weigh on Wednesday. If it is too much, it would likely be several days before I would know it; if I was over the right maintenance amount by 200, it would take over 2 weeks to gain a pound. I only logged about 2/3 of my walking time.

[Tucson]

2786 steps today. I was going to walk four miles today, but a job interview got in the way. I will have to do this tomorrow. Skipped a meal, however, I made up for it later in the day. My ex made dinner at her place. I have never ate anything like she made today. So I do not have a clue as to the amount of calories it costed me over dinner. I usually can pick out something on MFP that comes close to being equivalent, but not this time.

According to my activity tracking app, I have 505 calories to consume yet. That dinner that I had was definitely over this amount but perhaps not by a large amount. Well, I will have to push this surplus in calories over to tomorrow. I will choose this to be at least 300 calories, which makes that dinner to be about 800 calories. In no way was it more than this.

A good walk should help allot. I do not want to gain any additional weight. I purchased a pair of pants that now stay on me beltless without falling to the floor. I am very happy about this. They actually are my size. This was not possible for me to do in the larger sizes that I used to wear.

[Wander]

IP and my diet and exercise has gone out the window. I am sure I have put on weight. Guess I will have to get back on the wagon when I get discharged. on the plus side I am not drinking so that = lead calories but the cookies and iced coffee make up for that.

[Cocosurviving]

MFP calories 928 total. Apple Watch steps 4,260. Water intake 67.6oz. It’s still pouring down raining in my area. I did manage to take my dog on a short walk.

[UpDownAround]

7906 steps. 2173 calories. That seems like too much; maintenance is scary. I do not want to put any weight back on, but I need to figure out what works so I am trying what mfp computes. I will weigh in the morning.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

I am starting my diet again April 2 and today I walked a bit over .75 miles which is the first time I've been able to do that since I got sick in November. I also got 571 steps on my new-to-me Fitbit but I didn't get it until the time of day I start settling down. Tomorrow will be more on the Fitbit assuming I'm not too sore to walk and the weather cooperates.

[UpDownAround]

This morning I weigh 163.4. So, technically still at goal since that is below 164, but up 1.4 pounds from last weight and most I have weighed in over a week. I am going to knock calories back down to 1700 and not add exercise for a while and get a bigger cushion before I try to stabilize it. I had planned to wait until I was in the 150s to stabilize and then changed my mind. Now I am changing it back...

[UpDownAround]

14624 steps. 1749 calories. I didn't log any of the exercise, but I went over 1700 calories. I may have a cookie in a bit and roll it forward into tomorrow. Starting Friday I will be on a special diet in preparation for an unfun diagnostic procedure on Monday. The only good news about that is that by Tuesday morning I could easily be below 160...

[Tucson]

I consumed about 2100 calories. I walked 10186 steps for my exersize today burning up 419 calories. This calculates to 24 steps per calorie. Highest heart rate was 134. I did not push myself that hard this time. Still a cardio workout for good parts of my walk. So this leaves me a deficit of 469 calories to my goal of 2150 a day, determined by my activity tracker. I will weigh myself tomorrow morning.

UpDownAround: We will figure out an accurate enough steps per calorie. If it was to be very accurate, we would have to consider the effort placed into different parts of the walk. This is not practical. My monitor does attempt to do this by breaking up in minutes different activity levels during the walk. However, I do not think I can calculate the steps per calorie at each activity level using this information. I do not know if it uses pace, or heart beat rate, or a combination of the two to calculate calories burned. I think it is the latter, but not sure.

Edit: I just realized that the calculation of effort may require an accurate BMI. However, I specified 90 pounds as my weight in order to get the steps per calorie to 24.

Oh yes, I will have drank at least 39 oz of water by the end of the day. I need to keep this value up, particularly when I exersize. I do live in a desert.

[UpDownAround]

I think mine just uses a formula that doesn't vary. Max HR today was 129. I will start logging exercise again next week. I am just doing a couple of semi-low days and then taking advantage of the procedure prep to drop a couple quickly and get a bigger cushion.

[Cocosurviving]

MFP calories 923 total. Apple Watch steps 1,691 I did not put my watch on first thing in the morning. I was home with my sick daughter. Water intake 50.7oz.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

2, 166 steps. A big achievement since I didn't really feel like walking. 2 days of exercise in a row hasn't happened since November. Not sure what other metrics are on this thing yet; it's a hand-me-down and I don't have the book so need to look it up online.

[Tucson]

Originally Posted by BeyondtheRainbow

I am starting my diet again April 2 and today I walked a bit over .75 miles which is the first time I've been able to do that since I got sick in November. I also got 571 steps on my new-to-me Fitbit but I didn't get it until the time of day I start settling down. Tomorrow will be more on the Fitbit assuming I'm not too sore to walk and the weather cooperates.

Great work! Good going. I am happy that all of us here are taking care of ourselves. I enjoy how we help each other here. Which FitBit did you get? The Charge 2? Alta? I had a Charge 2 that I sent back. The only problem is by me spending most of my time sitting in front of the TV, I would end up with up to 1500 steps to start the day with. However, I find many others like that too, even my Garmin that I have now. I think out of the box, the FitBit had a more accurate calories burned than my Garmin. However, there are some nice features with the one I have now. I like the accurate heart rate for instance. The phone app is very impressive. The results of activities taken during the day automatically updates MFP. I think the Charge 2 also does this.

My work around to the 1500 step problem is nw not to count any normal day walking activity. Then when you go to exersize, set it up as an activity. In this way you can get accurate stats specifically on your walking exercise. Then in calculating your target of calories consumed for the day, use only the amount of calories burned during that exercise. I hardly ever take my monitor off.

FWIW

[UpDownAround]

I decided to weigh again this morning and it's back down to 162, so yesterday morning was just a spike.

[UpDownAround]

Walked over 5,000 steps at lunch and gained a pound! That's because the grocery store I walked to had strawberries on sale for $1.25 a pound and I finished the whole carton on the walk back. They are only 9 calories to the ounce, so I logged it as part of my lunch.

EDIT - on account of my weight returning to 162, and the upcoming "old guy medical diagnostic procedure", I decided to raise the limit back to 1900 today. The prep for the procedure will mean about 3 days of little to no real food; a legit drop of about a pound and a half. Prep starts tomorrow; procedure Monday.

[UpDownAround]

11512 steps. 1948 calories. Over kind of; I didn't enter the exercise which really should more than offset it. Looking at diet restrictions the next few days, on Friday and Saturday, I do eat semi-normal; just no whole grains or fruits/veggies with small seeds. No oatmeal or strawberries. It's Sunday and Monday with practically zero food. I saw the news that our accounts may have been hacked at mfp. As long as your email and that password won't get them anywhere important, it's not a big deal. They might not even break the passwords; they got them in scrambled form.

[Cocosurviving]

MFP calories 1045 total. Apple Watch steps 4532. Water intake 50.7 oz. I was able to get some walking even though it’s still wet outside.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

Originally Posted by Tucson

Which FitBit did you get? FWIW

I got my mom's old one so it's a Charge, not a charge 2. It seems to work great although it pops open a few times per day which is worrisome. Between surgery co-pays, a dental crown plus 8 tfillings, a car repair, an oil change, new brakes for my car and probably something else money is too tight to buy a new one. oh, and i need new orthotics for $300-$600. Yikes.

I haven't figured out the calorie (I think) thing; it keeps saying 1437 or something ridiculous. I need to read online.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

2824 steps today and that was without being able to get out and walk because I spent 4 hours at the dentist (plus it poured rain). I did go to Walmart for a little while which probably helped.

Back to diet April 2......

[Tucson]

I weigh 176 pounds. I think my weight is wobbling a bit. I had 2200 calories of food. There have been 3708 total steps, a no exersize day. Tomorrow, I will walk either 2 or 4 miles. This depends on what I am up to doing. By end of day, I will have 32 oz of water. However, if I include coffee, it will be at least 56 oz. I want to drink at least 32 oz a day of water, and more is better. I am going to start working on the amount of protein in my daily diet. I think this is particularly important when exersizing allot. But I am not sure about this.

@UpDownAround: IMVHO I think it would be a good idea to soon start entering the calories burned since you exersize allot, pretty much every day, more frequently beyond approx 4 miles a day. Otherwise, you can see how it works for me since we are both with monitors calibrated to 24 steps a calorie. Since you are being very very conservative with your weight management, perhaps waiting for how this works out for me may be a better idea. Just some thoughts.

[UpDownAround]

@Tucson, One of the reasons I think about doing some more aggressive losing is just to get a bigger cushion so I won't be so conservative. It's purely a mental thing if my weight bounces above 164 and comes right back to it or under but it would bug me enough that I really don't want it to happen. I have not seen a weight above 164 in close to 2 weeks so I feel like I can say I have made goal without any reservation or qualification now. So I want to get a little bigger cushion so that I can give the maintenance level more of a legitimate test. Going up to 1900 without adding exercise calories is still substantially more than I was eating while slowly losing the last few pounds; that was at 1500, then 1600 for a while, then 1700 for a few days, never adding exercise calories.

I might hold off weighing again until Tuesday morning, after the procedure.

Today will probably end up closer to goal than I thought. I ate a couple of things late last night that aren't allowed during prep and rolled them into today. It's my wife's birthday, and tonight we will have crab legs, baked potatoes, fresh bread and a decadent chocolate cake. Assuming the cake isn't whole grain, it is allowed and so is the other stuff. I don't butter dip crab, so that's actually low cal, I won't eat the bread just in case the flour is course enough to be a problem, maybe half a potato with salt and pepper, but I will have some of that chocolate cake. My weekday candy treats are in my desk at work and I am not allowed my other common snacks, so I probably will not snack much today. I could end up having 1000 left for dinner, so maybe it won't get all that close. Not sure and with the upcoming near starvation days, I am not too worried.

EDIT - Yes, coffee counts. The diuretic effect is often overstated. You might count it at 80%. I know someone who never drinks water; coffee all morning and Coke the rest of the day/evening. Not the healthiest person I know; all the sugar (plus eating habits) has an effect on weight. But he stays hydrated enough with caffeine in every single thing he drinks.

EDIT again - now it's after lunch, I have about 7000 steps in, about to go for another walk that will put me well over 10k and have over 1100 calories left for tonight without adding in any exercise calories. I probably won't snack between now and dinner, but I might eat or drink something under 100 calories.

[Tucson]

@UpDownAround: I understand your position. I my weight pops up unexpectantly, I would be nervous too, actually rather paranoid. This is true for either direction, weight gain, or weight loss. But I am more concerned about losing weight. BTW You do have more discipline than I do.

Well, I have something to be a bit paranoid about. I have started losing weight again. I am down to 175. I normally would not believe this but two of my scales concur, and one scale showing only a pound more. I have gone over some of the history of my daily food diary. Every now and again, there can be a couple days in a row that I undershoot my calorie goal. When this happens, it is when I eat about 1800 calories. However, a great majority of time, I at least meet the goal of 2100 to 2300 calories. There are still a number of days that I score over 2300 calories.

It appears that my body responds well to exersize, perhaps actually too well. I am going to have to more carefully monitor my calories. Right now I will consistently eat above 2150 every day, with nothing below this number. What is interesting is this weight loss has happened even when I added on calories burned during exersize. This is what has caused some of the days to be over 2300 calories. I will continue to add in these expended calories, making sure I eat enough calories to offset most of the calories that I have burned for the day. Then I will re-evaluate a week from now. I think consistency is the key here.