No more week! My food journal is full and tomorrow I turn to a fresh page. Every day is a new day, but every week is a new week also. The formula is well known: if you are in deficit 3500 calories for the week, you will lose a pound of weight. How many people really know what their zero point really is? Do you know how many calories a week your body needs? There is a range and it changes all the time. I used to be able to predict it well: 1850 calories per day, for a week, and I would lose about 2 pounds – maybe a little less. 1850 x 7 = 13,000 calories a week, which means I was in deficit 7000 calories, maybe a little less.
But it’s not so simple, is it? Do we really believe that if I ate 13,000 + 7000 calories per week or 2860 per day, I would not gain any weight? I am not sure I believe that. The other possibility is that my calorie counting is too strict, which I am also not sure I believe. Actually it’s also possible that when I overeat I am not counting accurately – but rather under counting. That one sounds most likely.
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – 10 ounces ziti, sausage, cheese, and tomato bake (390)
- 390 calories
Lunch – 10z Beef and broccoli (315); 1.5oz rice (50)
- 365 calories
Dinner – chicken wrap (90); 7 ounces ziti, sausage, cheese, and tomato bake (280);
- 370 calories
Snacking – tea with half and half (80); banana (50); pretzels (300); 100g ice cream (250);
- 680 calories
Total for the day: 1805 calories (limit 1850)
Not any more?
The last several weeks, though my weight has been going in the right direction, it has been slower than I expected. 1 pound per week. Now, compared to the time I was losing 2 pounds per week, there are some changes. I am not as active with the Corona virus business shutting everything down. I haven’t been to exercise or even out and about as much as usual. My swimming burned about 1200 calories per week, and also people say it raises your metabolism so you are burning more calories at rest. Is that true? Well, it’s true that I haven’t been swimming since March. Or I could be losing less weight due to old age. As they say, he who is not handsome at 30, rich at 40, or wise at 50 will never be handsome, rich, or wise. In a way, I am trying to be handsome well after 30, when I should be going for wisdom instead.
Well, there is no rule against being handsome AND wise. One of my insights was that I should create the kind of life I want to live, and that does involve weight control. Is that wise? Well, it’s what I want. If it is coming more slowly than before, it is still coming. If the restrictions are lifted and I can swim again regularly, it will be a good chance to see if my weight loss jumps back to 2 pounds per week.
Have a good end to your week. Tomorrow is a new one. You can make it a good one.
-The Doctor
Hey doc, just some food for thought. I have kept a pretty good journal for the past 2 years. What I have found… the idea that you burn calories in exercise (like swimming or a run) mathematically does not work out. I burned an extra 500 calories on the bike today, so I earned that piece of cake (offset 500 calories). I think that may be a marketing gimmick. Instead I have found that on average – you can mathematically calculate your TDEE, and based on the weekly level of exercise you have you can apply a multiplier (the levels and multipliers can be found online) that is frighteningly accurate. In other words, I do not add up each exercise activity I did and subtract that from the total calories from the day. That math never matched the bathroom scale. But, unaided my TEE is ~2105 calories/day. I exercise daily an average of 60 minutes – a combination of aerobic and anaerobic exercises and I use a 1.7 multiplier (heavy exercise) which makes my TEE 3,578. With this math I have matched my bathroom scale with great accuracy for the past 2 years. When I first started I was using a multiplier of 1.3 (sedentary) which in fact it takes a lot of exercise to reach sedentary! As exercise became a habit my ability to accomplish, and drive to improve my distance, time, effort, etc. Pushed me to light exercise and finally heavy exercise.