I learned in Health class back in sophomore year of high school that there are 4,000 calories in one pound of fat. (Thanks, Mr. Williams). Upon research last night, that number it appears to have gone down to 3,500 calories in one pound of fat. Therefore, in order to lose one pound of fat, you must cut out 3,500 calories from your normal caloric intake. This means, in order to lose two pound of fat a week - I need to find a way to cut 7,000 calories from my normal caloric intake. I decide to start with what I ate on Monday, since I hadn't decided to start this diet until I had already had breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Judging from my app, my normal caloric intake is 2100 calories. Therefore, in one week I would have been taking in 14,700 calories. If I want to lose two pounds a week, I need to cut my weekly caloric intake in half.
I am doing okay with that. I made up for how much I was over in calories on Tuesday and Wednesday by saving 320 calories each of those days and I saved 99 calories today. This week I have taken in a total of 5,694 calories before exercises, but after exercise I have only netted 4,784 calories. :) Unfortunately, I have three days left in this week, so I wont be cutting my caloric intake in half.
Wednesday was a good day with this new diet I'm on. I managed to only eat 880 calories without exercising that day. My sodium level was really low as well (which is what I'm really trying to keep track of).
Today's count has been pretty good too. I'm still under my calories by 99, but that's only because I've done a lot of exercising today. While Meredith was in a meeting after we had newspaper club I did some stair running for about 21 minutes and burned off 394 calories. After dinner, Meredith and I walked to the Publix and back and burned off another 228 calories. Unfortunately, I've been eating under my calories for the last couple of days and my body has decided that I'm "starving" myself. I would have been under by another 300+ calories, but my body fought back and I had to add to my meals today. I am over my sodium level by about 125 mg today, but I think I'll be okay for the week. I've been under by a lot the last couple of days.
I will warn you guys of the issues that I am having. With this new plan, I'm trying to remember to take my multivitamin and my iron supplement (I've always had a really low iron count), which is also causing my metabolic rate to increase. This of course means that my metabolism is working much faster than it did prior to starting this new program. Even though I am keeping track of my calories, I have no idea how quickly my metabolism is burning off the food I am taking in. If it is working anything like it did when I was in college, it's burning fat faster than I can eat it (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). What you need to be careful of though, is making sure you are taking in the minimum 1200 calories. Today, I should have met the 1200 calories or gone slightly over it because I had caught up to the number of calories I was over on Monday yesterday. Today I am feeling a bit dizzy and underfed because I am lacking in calories.
Definitely a learning experience for me. My goal is to lose two pound a week, but I need to make sure I am doing it the right way. Make sure you are reading the labels on your foods and pick one or two things to work toward. It is going to be impossible to make sure you are not going over on everything. My main goal is watch the foods I am eating, make sure I'm meeting or only going slightly over 1200 calories a day and keeping my sodium level low. If you're going to take this on, I suggest you pick a couple of things to work toward and don't overdue it.
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