Weight loss Challenge

[jo_nz]

As great as the MyFitnessPal database is, it's a pain when you cook food from scratch and need to try and calculate the points.

This is my biggest problem with it too - I had a great time scanning barcodes when we went on holiday, but most of the time it's a pain having to enter recipes and work out portions. 

[rainbow]

I decided to buy new scales, not a good idea me thinks, but my others were old old and I wanted some that weigh in smaller increments than the old scales. I weighed heaver at first but I can see the weight coming off easier so happy about that, my old scales say 59 my new ones say 60,

[tarasis]

Finally got the Wife talked into letting me buy a Fitbit, and indeed she wants one too. Apparently its going to be our (early) anniversary present to each other (our Anniversary is in October) and we are, apparently, challenging ourselves to lose 5KG by then.

If anyone wants to friend me on Runkeeper/Fitbit/MyFitnessPal, I'm:

duemoko on MyFitnessPal
tarasis on Runkeeper
tarasis on Fitbit, but you need to go here

I've made myself go out 3 times so far for long walks at 9:30ish at night (6.5km, 7.14km (both at roughly 9.2minutes per km average pace) and then 4.something with the missus (something like 10.09 minutes per km))

As great as the MyFitnessPal database is, it's a pain when you cook food from scratch and need to try and calculate the points.

This is my biggest problem with it too - I had a great time scanning barcodes when we went on holiday, but most of the time it's a pain having to enter recipes and work out portions.  

I've gotten used to it a bit now, but we'll see. I've actually avoided eating a couple of things because I didn't want to sit and work out the calories of it (for instance the Chewy Chocolate Overload Cookies I made at the weekend). Could be a useful deterrent

[tarasis]

I'm happy with that, 1KG down from last Wednesday. Probably aided, in part, by three very brisk walks I think.


2013/08/07 -- 85.6kg -- -1kg
2013/07/31 -- 86.6kg -- 0kg
2013/07/24 -- 86.6kg -- -1kg
2013/07/18 -- 87.6kg --  +0.6Kg


Today is the first day using a Fitbit. Let's see how well that works

[Bedlam]

Well done Rob, 1kg a week is perfect weight loss.  How re you going without so much coke?
Keep it up.

[tarasis]

Well done Rob, 1kg a week is perfect weight loss.  How re you going without so much coke?
Keep it up.

Thanks The Coke is going okay though I bought a can yesterday for some reason but I haven't drank it yet. I did have headaches and stuff the first week I cut it out but since then it seems to have settled and I've been sticking to just water, no juices at all. I'm kind of quitting sugar but not, basically severely dropping my intake to the odd but that's in certain foods or dishes.

[Bedlam]

I too would benefit from cutting out sugar.  I am afraid it is my stress go to and I have been  overindulging big time.

[tarasis]

Had a 20ml bottle of coke yesterday which didn't leave me wanting more. It wasn't quite yucky but wasn't great either which is good.

Sugar can be my "go to" to in form of cola, sweets like Kitkats/Twix, and some other bits and pieces but so far I've largely not touched them. I've had a toffee crisp so far (family brought some for me last Tuesday) which is great as I've been know two eat two in a day as I love them that much and I haven't had any Ginger Nuts thus far despite having 4 new packets available. (Can easily munch 4-6 a day)

A bit miffed that I wasn't able to burn enough calories yesterday to compensate for a large meal at a restaurant yesterday. Had a bunch of beer battered onion rings, a chicken & rice burrito (with a little cheese and a small portion sour cream) and a margarita. Ended up walking about 13.5-14.5km (had done roughly 8km throughout the day and them specifically went out for an hour walk at 3.9mph/6.3kph - iPhone (6.3km) & Fitbit (5.34km) disagree about the distance)

[Delightful Den]

Sounds like you are doing well with your new lifestyle Rob.  Keep up the good work. 

[rainbow]

I too would benefit from cutting out sugar.  I am afraid it is my stress go to and I have been  overindulging big time.

I find reading and re reading David Gillespie book Sweet Poison stops me from eating sugar

[Wonder]

Sounds like you are doing fantastically Rob, keep up the good work and don't get disheartened. It sounds like you body is already indicating it doesn't need the sugar anymore.

[tarasis]

I too would benefit from cutting out sugar.  I am afraid it is my stress go to and I have been  overindulging big time.

I find reading and re reading David Gillespie book Sweet Poison stops me from eating sugar

I have it to read, hopefully will manage it soon when my guests have left. I did read Sarah Wilson's "I Quit Sugar" ebook which I found interesting and helpful even if I haven't followed it to the letter. I'm not aiming to quit sugar completely, too many nice desserts out there, but I wanted to minimise my general intake except for the odd treats (cocktail, desert) rather than wasting it on cola, chocolate bars and such.

For instance the Butterscotch Self Saucing Pudding on this forum is 370kcal and 31g of sugar. Thankfully I'd walked about 14km yesterday so I was happy about eating that

I had thought my sugar intake was lower than it was till I discovered today that the Juice Plus Chewable supplements my wife talked me into taking each have 1g sugar in them. So each day I've had 6g more sugar than I thought. *pout* I need to move myself onto the capsules which doesn't have the added sugar except I hate swallowing the things. All tablet capsules get stuck in my mouth.

Sounds like you are doing fantastically Rob, keep up the good work and don't get disheartened. It sounds like you body is already indicating it doesn't need the sugar anymore.

I think it has, reasonably, reset t not needing the sugar and I can certainly taste it more in some things. Though I have a ways to go yet. In January I managed a month without Cola though as it was in part replaced by fruit juice, which didn't help being equally loaded with sugar. So for now I will wait and see.

The disheartened comes, sometimes, from knowing I've done well (eaten less & more exercise) but not really seeing the weight drop. Tomorrow's weigh-in will be around the same as last weeks, after I spiked up and now dropping again. It doesn't help that the food diary over at MyFitnessPal says "if I ate like today I'd be xx.xkg in 5 weeks" (for instance current estimate is 78.5-81 depending on day and exercise) and I'm not seeing the drop to even roughly hit that.

It's just the remembering that real life doesn't match cold hard figures and everybody's body works differently. Plus I'll be putting on some muscle weight in my legs from the walking. Need to get some scales and measure my fat/muscle content

[tarasis]

So visibly not much off since last week but the weight rose up to 86.3 before dropping down again. Due, in part, to a ginormous meal on Saturday (some beer battered onion rings, chicken & rice burrito with some cheese & sour cream and a margarita)


2013/08/14 -- 85.3kg -- -0.3kg
2013/08/07 -- 85.6kg -- -1kg
2013/07/31 -- 86.6kg -- 0kg
2013/07/24 -- 86.6kg -- -1kg
2013/07/18 -- 87.6kg --  +0.6Kg

[tarasis]

Week spent flitting from 85.3, to 85.6 and then down to 85.2 for the last two days. I've actually started eating more again I was quite far down calorie wise, possibly too far, and not eating more to compensate for the additional exercise. Using Fitbit's calorie food plan thing (which in part seems to be based off of http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/680246-tdee-bmr-what-they-are-and-what-to-do-with-them ), but MyFitnessPal for the tracking and such (its food database is great).

Total Lost so far: 2.4kg (started 87.6)

2013/08/21 -- 85.2kg -- -0.1kg
2013/08/14 -- 85.3kg -- -0.3kg


Quite impressed / disturbed by the weekly Fitbit stats: 111,613 steps   131 floors   83.40 km   19,617 calories

Since I've had a Fitbit One (reminds me, must post in that thread) I've only had 1 day under 10000 steps, and theoretically travelled 157.4km. I know thats under as I haven't adjusted my stride, some walks are about 1km under compared to run keeper (pretty consistently 1km too), the number of steps is pretty spot on the few times I've actively counted a bit

Need to be careful with Coke, had a can two days ago (mostly to get it out of the Fridge) and then this morning when the missus and I decided to have breakfast out I got a 500ml bottle of coke and now I find myself wanting more. Not good. (plus it well and truly broke my sugar budget for the day *grumbles at self*)

[tarasis]

Down 0.2kg

Total Lost so far: 2.6kg (started 87.6)


2013/08/28 -- 85.0kg -- -0.2kg
2013/08/21 -- 85.2kg -- -0.1kg


*grumble grumble* lots of flitting from 85.2 to 84.9 and back again. With the theoretical calorie deficit I'm following I should have lost 0.9kg, not 0.2kg