[UpDownAround]

@Tucson - I will get less paranoid with a bigger cushion, which is likely to happen in the next few days. It's now after 3 and I have over 1000 left without adding in exercise and I have over 14700 steps. Tomorrow I will get a low number of steps; I am going fishing with a friend on his boat 2 hours away, so for most of the day I will be riding in a truck or a boat.

But tonight I don't have to get a tiny piece of the decadent cake. I will weigh it and log it. A 4.4 oz piece is 410 calories.

[Tucson]

I have taken 9428 steps with my over four mile walk. During my walk, my heart rate reached 153 bpm. Unfortunately, due to an apparent bug, this time I cannot tell how long I have maintained that heart bpm. However, my average heart rate from walking was 132 bmp. So there was some cardio exersize going on here.

Between 133 and 146 is my target heart bpm range for a good cardio workout. I used the formulas provided by the following article from the Mayo Clinic. It does state this range is to be used as a guide only which I am sure is conservative. This article also gives a safe maximum heart rate for me of 160 bpm, which I have reached once in the past.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-l...-20046887?pg=2

I have burned 392 calories. This added to my 2150 target makes for 2542 calories as my target for today. By the end of the day, I will have consumed about 2500 calories, which is detailed in my calorie chart below. Unfortunately this does not provide me any room for goodies. Maybe I will sneak in a half of an almond joy candy bar.

[UpDownAround]

15258 steps. 1903 calories; maybe more because I had a pretty good sized piece of cake. Even though I went a little crazy with sweets today, I got an amazing amount of protein. Basically no veggies though. My watch/app thinks I burned over 600 calories walking even though my HR max measured was 119. I walk enough that I don't get out of breath walking briskly up a hill. My legs start to burn and 119 is substantially more than my resting HR of 65, but my cardiovascular system requires serious effort to get into the high range.

[Mountaindewed]

I set an actual goal date of June 11. I want to lose 19 pounds. The scale said 159 yesterday. So I’m glad I’m below 160 again.

[Mountaindewed]

I also put a new battery in the scale. The fluctuations have pretty much stopped.

[Cocosurviving]

MFP calories 1,292 total. Apple Watch steps 5,945. Water intake 50.7oz. Have a nice walk today

[BeyondtheRainbow]

3731 steps. Ate pretty healthily today. Diet resumes Monday.

[downandlonely]

My Fitness Pal app says that I can only have 1200 calories a day. I don't think that's realistic. I am short and overweight though.

[Tucson]

I am still at 175. I will do the same as yesterday regarding how many calories I will consume. I will do a moderate amount of exersize. I will walk perhaps one or two miles as my exersize for today beyond what I will walk during my daily routine. Let’s see what I do to keep the calories high enough due to exersize.

@UpDownAround: You have walked over 15 thousand steps. This is about seven miles, depending on stride length. Just because you were not out of breath just may mean less than you think regarding how many calories you have burned. You monitor, as you suspect, probably is not taking into account your fitness level. IOW it is ignoring parameters like maximum and resting heart rate. It probably is not using current speed and heart rate in these calculations for calories burned. So maybe you have burned less? How much less? I still think that you are still burning a majority of those calories. You are not Superman...yet. JMHO

FWIW There is a calculation that can determine your maximum heart rate. Since there’s is another calculation using this max heart rate to determine the heart rate zone you need to stay within for what is termed as a vigirous workout, there must be one to determine when you are having a cardio workout. I think this is important to know.

[UpDownAround]

I think my steps are inflated -13401. The reason I say that is because I looked at a point where I expected to be somewhere between 6k and 7k and it was over 9500. I was on a boat earlier and we were trolling in light chop; I think the motion fooled it into giving me a couple of thousand extra steps. Being very selective about what I ate today, especially tonight since I am on restrictions to get ready for "the probe" on Monday. Tomorrow is clear liquid only and Monday is nothing until late afternoon after the doc gets the pictures. Anyway - 1538 calories today. I think I will weigh in the morning to get a read on how much I lose from Sunday and Monday, though I suspect Tuesday will be a low bounce it won't stay at. Still, it would be kind of cool to see it register below 160. We'll see.

[Cocosurviving]

MFP calories 1,090. Apple Watch steps 5,597. Water intake 33.8 oz. I walked about forty-five minutes today

[BeyondtheRainbow]

Crappy amount of exercise but I had my first fatty meal since my surgery and digested it so feel confident I'm ready to go back to my diet. Although I'm very disappointed that after waiting months for an apple to sound good again now I had a tooth crowned and for some reason it will be a month before I get the thing finished which means no apples. Or popcorn which is a go-to diet snack. oh well....

[Tucson]

I walked 5436 steps today. I ate about 2200 calories. My monitor app tells me I have at least 300 calories to go in order to offset what I burned when I walked. However, this is inaccurate. Earlier I reset it. This brought up a mode that adjusts calories based on walking for five minutes. Now it is much worse than it was before. I will contact Garmin to see what I can do about this. My guess is that I burned up maybe 225 calories, based on past experience. So this leaves me 175 calories left to go. I may just end my day on this note.

[UpDownAround]

I ended up having some more apple juice last night after I posted and brought my total calories up to a more respectable 1675 (within 15% of goal).

I had to charge my fitness watch last night; having the HR monitor on has a noticeable effect. I changed it back to manual. It's almost always the same every day anyway.

I weighed this morning - 160.8, a new low. The first time I stepped on it, it said 158.6, so I stepped off, let it go dark and weighed again, then did that a third time to confirm. The last two were 160.8. It does occasionally get a low reading like that. So I got to see it below 160, but it wasn't real...

Today is "clear liquids only". I wish I had thought to ask if white grape juice would be okay to at least get a few calories. I can Google, I guess.

[UpDownAround]

So, yes, I can have apple juice, white grape juice, even coffee and tea are okay. What isn't okay is dye or anything even the tiniest bit fibrous; they just say no solids to make it simple. I am going to obey my doctor's orders, but reading up, some doctors now allow vanilla yogurt, completely processed white bread and a few other foods that completely liquify early in digestion (I never knew that about white bread). Not going to tempt fate, though. Just my fruit juice and I'll have some chicken broth while everyone else has Easter dinner.

Drinking all the fruit juice means I am not going to have that unhealthy big drop of over a pound in 2 days, which I guess is actually a good thing. I will probably still have a drop because I will likely not get full calories either day.

Earlier today, I walked the same long route that I did yesterday when i was suspicious that my fitness watch gave me extra steps for riding on a boat. It did; about 2700. The long walk was over 10000; yesterday it probably registered close to 13000 (not positive because I didn't look at it before walking but it should have had maybe a few hundred). So that is one reason to be careful about accepting all the steps as calories to add to the daily allotment.

[UpDownAround]

Running monologue continues...

11576 steps. 1454 calories - nearly all sugar; fructose from apple juice and white grape juice. Late tomorrow afternoon I get real food again.

[Tucson]

I walked 11,692 steps during my walking exersize. This burned up approximately 500 calories. I reset my wrist band again and made it work better in this regard. Still will call up Garmin to find out why I have to specify my weight as 90 pounds to get reasonable amounts of calories burned. My average heart rate was 115. I do not think this cassifies my walk as a cardio workout. I did not push myself this time. I had about 2500 calories today which places me short about 150 calories of my daily goal of 2150. I think this is good enough.

[UpDownAround]

I keep circling around to time and pace to estimate calories. According to mfp, if I walk 3 miles in an hour, I burn 241 calories; if I walk 3.5, I burn 277. When I drill down into my daily activity, most of it is in one or two long walks somewhere in that speed range and generally somewhere in the range of an hour to hour and a half and only rarely do I get a full 6 miles. At about 2200 steps per mile and every 3 miles burning close to 250, I get about 26 steps per calorie and if I work the other way, it comes to almost 40 calories per 1000 steps. I think I am going to try using that ballpark figure and see what happens. I really need to get a regular regimen, though. Since I am not really sure what my true maintenance is without exercise, I am adding two estimates together.

The reality for both of us is you just have to go with the numbers you have and see what happens at the scale. The problem is knowing which number needs adjustment if you are having trouble stabilizing the weight. Losing weight is not easier, but you could have bad numbers and still be successful; just taking it off at a different rate than planned.

I am watching the clock tick by this morning; maybe 3 or so I will be back home and able to eat again. There is some Entenmann's chocolate fudge cake in the fridge...

[Tucson]

I weigh 176 right now. I do not know if this means anything since my weight can sometimes move up and down. I may go to Trader Joe’s for my dinner. The scale will provide the definitive answer for both of us. I called Garmin and they said, given my stats including level of health, the well over 200 calories a mile initially given by my monitor sounded reasonable to them. This is when I specify my full weight on the mobile app. So we shall see. Personally, I think your band is more accurate. Besides, I cannot eat all those extra calories stated on my monitor due to my four mile walks. I may have to stay with two mile walks for now just to see what happens.

PS. I am thinking of getting a chest heart monitor band that works with my Garmin. This will be much more accurate which can lead to more accurate calories burned. It will cost me about $20.

[UpDownAround]

Tomorrow's weigh in won't be as interesting as I thought or maybe it will be for a different reason. As soon as I got back from the endoscopy center, I ate a lot of mostly junk. I had the cake, some Easter candy, a banana, a couple of boiled eggs and some chips. An hour later, I am about normal on calories for late afternoon, maybe even slightly ahead. I think my head is clear enough to walk in a bit (propofol fog lifting), so I can get some steps in.

The nice thing about mfp logging is as long as my macros are reasonably in range most days, it's no big deal to have some ridiculous sugar days every now and then as long as you log them to keep track of total calories. I didn't cheat; I just didn't make the healthiest choices today. The prior two days combined for over 600 under and I haven't been eating any extra calories to offset exercise in a few days. I probably won't see the 150s in the morning, but I will be surprised if it is more than 162; could be with all the water I will soak up tonight.

[Tucson]

As I said, I called Garmin. I changed the activity class which in part represents my current health, along with the VO2 max. This time I used my actual weight. After I reset it, I went through a calibration procedure to get more accurate steps per calorie. Now I am getting 130 calories per mile. This amounts to 17 steps per mile. This appears to be more accurate. I also was much more tired on the way back. I did tally more calories burned on that leg of the trip. So who knows? Time will tell. My chest strap heart monitor should improve the accuracy. Now I have to figure out how to consume all those extra calories. I will go grocery shopping and have some fruit to boost calories.

UpDownAround: Based on your average steps per day, and how your exersize is getting easier for you, you are in much better shape than I am. So you have to take more steps to burn up one calorie. This makes sense to me. Therefore, my goal in fitness will be 26 steps per calorie, which appears to be around where you are at now.

[UpDownAround]

@Tucson, when I ran back in 2014 I think I burned more calories running 3 miles weighing 220 than running 6 at 175 because of the reduced weight and better condition I was in.

10862 steps. Logged as 60 min of 3 mph for 240 calories, even though I think it was more like 400. Still a little conservative about upping calories; it just seems wrong to eat so much after so many months of substantially less. 2139 calories. I thought today would be a low day, but I put on the feedbag this afternoon/evening and made up for the starvation of the procedure prep (clean bill of health, BTW; no polyps).

I hope tomorrow's weigh in doesn't have a nasty surprise; I really need some confidence in eating more.

[Tucson]

I have eaten about 2300 calories. I have walked about 6600 steps. I did not go fast enough for a cardio workout. I should of stopped the monitor when I finished walking, but it then added more calories before I finished the activity on the band. When I checked, I was getting 17 steps per calorie. This totals to about 390 calories. This makes for a deficit of about 240 calories today. So I need to go grocery shopping tomorrow to have more to eat. I can have another tuna fish sandwich which should take care of this defecit, but I am full now. I can spend a little more on groceries. Snacks like bananas can help. I can also learn how to make new more calorie ladened meals. I do not want to resort to eating more desserts.

My watch keeps tract of what it calls intensity minutes. It is heart rate dependent. This is when I am performing basically a mild cardio workout or better. My initial goal right now is at least 240 minutes a week. This is yet another goal along with calories burned from a given amount of steps. I also cannot forget my 26 steps a calorie goal. Then there is that VO2 max measurement of overall health. These watches allow a person to get carried away with all the stats they provide. I am feeding into this obsession with my purchase of a chest heart monitor. Where does it all end? LOL

[Cocosurviving]

MFP calories 1240 total. Apple Watch steps 3,858. Water intake 50.7oz. It’s really cold and I now have a cold I’ve been inside as much as possible....aside from walking my dog.

[UpDownAround]

I weighed 162.4 this morning, up 2 pounds in 2 days. It's water and food in the gut but I am still suspicious that I may have the base too high. If I am going to add back in exercise calories, I think I need to lower my base to 1800.