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May challenge complete! Join us in June and we'll keep it going. Lots of people succeeding with myfitnesspal and itrackbites. Join us! (1 Viewer)

I love those days. I am not having one right now. Just had 210 calories of soft pretzels. Nearly had something resembling a nutrient. Still have 200 and change left.  

 
Ok. 50 minutes on the treadmill.  Mixture of some walking, jogging, my kid walking in and asking if he could get on the treadmill, me realizing that I'm in my 40s and nothing good comes from running, stopping, and starting again, and then me doing a hilly walk at 3.5 mph/8% incline.  

I wanted to run a lot longer than that.  But that's ok.  I'll pivot and have another chicken cutlet and some organic chicken dumplings from wegman's, with a couple glasses of port. 

5 calories left at the end of the day. Perfect. 

Not the best day - I had a ton of protein between the germ yogurt and chicken, but i didn't have nearly enough fruits and vegetables or fiber so i will need to focus on that tomorrow.  But I stayed under my calorie goal, and even though that port is calling my name saying fred you can cheat they won't know, I would know.  And I am going to do this thing right and deliberately experience different things that I went through as i first learned how to lose or maintain my weight because maybe it helps the next guy.  

 
Also for those of you who don't track calories or aren't used to dieting in our middle age... this is why people like skipping breakfast or keeping it small. It's a lot easier to start with a small breakfast and have plenty left over for lunch and dinner than to start behind the 8 ball and play catch up all day.  

 
Day 2: 23/23 points

Breakfast: Banana 0 points

Lunch: 2 eggs 0 points, 1/4 cup fat free cheese 0 points, 4 slices turkey pepperoni 0 points, 1 slice 40 calorie bread 1 point

Dinner: 2 slices of pizza 15 points, 1 buffalo wing 4 points

Snacks: Smores Built Bar 3 points

About to jump on for a minimum 30 min Peloton ride. 

 
Well, today didn’t work out all that well.   It was an off day from the gym and my 45 minute walk didn’t burn up many calories.   The tacos and Coronas were not the best choice for dinner.   I don’t drink much because those calories add up quickly..  206 over for the day.   It was a good cinco de mayo though and better days are ahead.   

 
fred_1_15301 said:
How exactly are points determined?  
Click to expand...
Are you referring to my posts?

if yes, I do weight watchers. Points are determined by calories, amount of fat and dietary fiber. 
 

HOWEVER, there are 3 plans for weight watchers (blue, green and purple). Each plan has pluses and minuses. The one I do, has hundreds of foods that are zero points (including all fruits and vegetables, as well as chicken breast)

so I typically can go the entire day until dinner with 3 or less points by eating a bunch of zero point foods. 
 

if you weren’t talking about that, sorry I wasted your time

 
AcerFC said:
Are you referring to my posts?

if yes, I do weight watchers. Points are determined by calories, amount of fat and dietary fiber. 
 

HOWEVER, there are 3 plans for weight watchers (blue, green and purple). Each plan has pluses and minuses. The one I do, has hundreds of foods that are zero points (including all fruits and vegetables, as well as chicken breast)

so I typically can go the entire day until dinner with 3 or less points by eating a bunch of zero point foods. 
 

if you weren’t talking about that, sorry I wasted your time
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I’ve just heard “points” referenced a number of times and had no clue how they were determined.   Thanks.

 
Nice work by a lot of people so far.  Still time to start if you haven't already.  For those of you who started Monday, you may start to notice something like this

Day 1 - this is easy i don't even need 500 calories!   

Day 2 - i have so many calories left over at the end of the day that I'm going to fill them 

Day 3 - I've already lost 5 lbs in two days.  I can do this forever

Day 4 - i would murder an innocent human for 100 extra calories

This is mostly for the dieters who switched from over eating most days to under eating by 500 or 1000 calories per day.

You're basically emptying your reserves. You'll drop a lot of water weight and poop out any extra poops you hadn't pooped. You'll burn through most of your stored energy so you don't feel the pain yet. And then you run out. 

Now all of a sudden things hit you different.  That beer binge at night has your tummy feeling rumbly the next morning.  If you eat a bunch of sugar or other carbs,  you might feel extra hungry a little while later.  You might not have noticed your insulin response as much before or felt really hungry that often and now it's going to start to become normal.  If you get light headed, or feel concerned about anything at all, this is a good time to realize that it's ok to go over your calories for the day if you need to. We're doing this to improve our health, not endanger it.

You may notice that the quality of your calories makes a bigger difference now.  Protein good, sugar bad.  Fiber good, high sodium bad. Potatoes good, processed foods bad.  A can of tuna and an apple... not bad i guess but not enough food for the day. 

You might also notice that when you eat will matter more. Having a couple hundred calories in the morning might matter more to you than it did when you had plenty of gas in the tank at the end of the day.  You might find yourself day dreaming about lunch at 10am. That's normal and it passes quickly.  These next few days are usually the most difficult. 

So now the game is slightly changed - you're not just looking at total calories, but kind of planning your day around staying full and happy.  

A couple good ideas - plan to skip the alcohol for a couple days.  Do a little exercise if you feel up to it and plan to use those calories to eat a little extra. Don't save all of your calories for the end of the day, make sure you have a little breakfast, a little lunch, a small snack mid day, and save enough for a dinner you'd actually enjoy. If you find yourself tempted to graze, go to myfitnesspal and type in the calories of the food you plan to have later and any exercise and see if you have any calories left for a small snack now.  

Reminder that I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice. Consult your doctor before starting any diet or exercise plan. 

 
Greek yogurt loaded with raspberries, strawberries and blueberries 233. 

Coffee light and sweet 200

Going to be more balanced today.  Not giving up my sugar coffee though.  

 
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Chicken and waffle fries for lunch with my kid. I had planned on a salad. Good news is I kept the portion small. 450 calories. 

 
fred_1_15301 said:
How exactly are points determined?  
Click to expand...
the Points formula is pretty complex and takes several items into account (fat, calories, sugar, fiber, etc). The idea is similar to what BF said earlier - all calories are not created equal. The points system steers you toward “better” choices.
 

If you download itrackbites (similar to MyFitnessPal) there are several plans to choose from. One of those plans uses points. Type in the food just like in MFP and it will show you the points. 

 
Day 3: 9/23 points

Breakfast: Bananna 0 pts

Lunch: 2 eggs 0 points, 1/4 cup fat free cheese 0 points, 4 slices turkey pepperoni 0 points, 1 slice 40 calorie bread 1 point

Dinner: Salmon 0 points, Buffalo Tater Tots 6 points

Snacks: Fiber one mint brownie 2 pts 

60 minute Peloton Powerzone endurance ride, approx 15 points earned. 

So Im way under. My wife bought me some peanut m&ms. The whole bag is 11 points. I have 14 left. Ill probably have it. 

 
bostonfred said:
Chicken and waffle fries for lunch with my kid. I had planned on a salad. Good news is I kept the portion small. 450 calories. 
Click to expand...
Had my salad as a snack.  

Did 3.1 miles running and 20 min walking. Burned about 700. 

A prepared general tso chicken from wegman's for dinner left me with just enough for two glasses of port in which I shall now indulge.  

Today i had berries for breakfast and salad for snack, never felt hungry, had a lot of protein, got some exercise and treated myself. 

After 3 days- i had a huge breakfast yesterday and booze to end the day. I've had a couple glasses of wine each day, I've had pizza, waffle fries and buffalo chicken,  

No part of this felt like I'm "dieting" even though I'm eating about 1500 net calories per day.  I've done some running, but only 4 miles over 3 days.  I've done some walking, but nothing that should seem intimidating. 

I'll exercise more this week because I've worked my tail off to get to the point i can run 5 or 6 miles nonstop.  The reward for running is that i get to eat more and still lose weight,  and i intend to indulge in that.  But I've been keeping the exercise fairly low to show people who are new to this that this doesn't have to suck. 

If you're reading this and not actually doing it yet - dude, i have been there and I'm here to tell you that you can do this.  Let's do it together. 

 
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1618 calories consumed.  332 calories under my allotment.  

472 calories burned with 60 minutes of exercise.

804 calories to the good for the day.

 
cheeseypoof said:
1618 calories consumed.  332 calories under my allotment.  

472 calories burned with 60 minutes of exercise.

804 calories to the good for the day.
Click to expand...
I think it's awesome that you're excited about being 800 calories under your goal but if you're not cheating, that is probably not sustainable or safe.  I'll spare you the lecture tonight because I expect that tomorrow or Friday at the latest you will feel differently. 

 
On day 5, I can see that I'm going to be following a pretty typical pattern on weekdays.  Run most mornings, light breakfast (nearly always a protein bar), moderate lunch, some walking in the afternoon to clear my head, a heavy supper, and some alcohol.  I've been right around 1400 net calories the last few days and it doesn't really feel like I'm dieting because I'm never really hungry much before supper time.  This is the same basic eating pattern than I've been following for years, except that too often lunch ends up being Chick-fil-A or Chinese or something calorie-rich, and I eat too many empty calories as snacks.  For example, I'll often grab a handful of Ritz crackers for something to much on a couple of times a day.  That's easily 250-300 calories of mindless, unintentional eating.  Just being mindful and cutting that stuff out makes a pretty significant difference.

I imagine weekends will be a little different, mainly because I'll drink more.  I'm sure I'll probably go over my calorie allowance on Saturday for example, but that allowance has a 500 calorie deficit baked in.  As long as I don't go nuts, it's just the equivalent of taking a day off, not really a setback.  

 
Coffee 200

Smoothie with a scoop of chocolate pure protein, some raspberries strawberries and blueberries and raw leaf spinach - 225

Two pieces of chicken 400

Up to 825 through lunch. Still have enough for a decent sized dinner even if I don't do any exercise but I will probably exercise and have a small dinner so I can have a drink and a snack later too. 

 
Juxtatarot said:
How many calories?

Basil beef from a Thai restaurant.  It's a small place so there are no calories on menu.  Beef, basil, peppers, green beans.
Click to expand...
If you're not sure then just look it up and choose something similar.  

A quick Google search shows about 300 calories for a serving but could be more.  Does this seem like a lower calorie version of it than normal? Or heavier?  Does it seem like a big portion?  I would guess a restaurant usually gives a double portion.  Hard to tell without seeing the depth of the bowl but that looks fairly big, 

Same thing with the rice. It looks like plain white rice.  Hard to tell but probably 200 calories for a little serving and 400 for big.  Rice has a sneaky ton of calories. 

Is that egg drop soup?   I would guess about 60 to 125 calories depending how big. 

My bea5t guess is if you finished your plate you had between 600 and 1100 calories.  800 isn't a bad guess.  Since you tend to burn a lot of extra calories and aren't looking to lose weight just maintain, I would probably just write down 800 but if I was trying to lose weight I'd err on the higher side or not finish that. 

 
bostonfred said:
If you're not sure then just look it up and choose something similar.  

A quick Google search shows about 300 calories for a serving but could be more.  Does this seem like a lower calorie version of it than normal? Or heavier?  Does it seem like a big portion?  I would guess a restaurant usually gives a double portion.  Hard to tell without seeing the depth of the bowl but that looks fairly big, 

Same thing with the rice. It looks like plain white rice.  Hard to tell but probably 200 calories for a little serving and 400 for big.  Rice has a sneaky ton of calories. 

Is that egg drop soup?   I would guess about 60 to 125 calories depending how big. 

My bea5t guess is if you finished your plate you had between 600 and 1100 calories.  800 isn't a bad guess.  Since you tend to burn a lot of extra calories and aren't looking to lose weight just maintain, I would probably just write down 800 but if I was trying to lose weight I'd err on the higher side or not finish that. 
Click to expand...
Bowl is two inches in height.  No egg in the soup.  Some chicken, noodles, bean sprouts and shaved carrots.  Yes, white rice.

I logged 900.  Thanks!

 
Day 4: 24/23 points

Breakfast: Banana 0

Lunch: 2 eggs 0 points, 1/4 cup fat free cheese 0 points, 4 slices turkey pepperoni 0 points, 1 slice 40 calorie bread 1 point

Dinner: 7 oz chicken breast 0, French Fries 4 pts, Asparagus 0, crescent roll 2

Snacks: 4 sugar cookies (damn my daughter for cooking them last night) 11 points, 10 vanilla wafers 6 pts

Going to jump on Peloton in a minute for 30-45 minutes  

 
So far I've been playing this game on easy mode since the weather has been nice and I've been getting a ton of exercise.  Today is a different story -- it's a scheduled day off from running, and it's a Friday which means wine.  This might be a "let's not do any damage" day as opposed to a day of actual progress.

 
Today I had Frosted Mini Weat, Vanilla Yogurt, and some Prunes for breakfast.  And a 25 oz coffee with vanilla creamer.

Had a Tuna with lettuce on toasted wheat bread for second breakfast. Might have been a tomato snuck on board there.

Had a chocolate chip brownie for lunch.  That was good. A couple more prunes.  

Had leftover beef stew, a glass of Metamucil, and a sweet Italian sausage for dinner.  Also had an ice cream sandy (and a handy of bluebereies) I forgot to mention somewhere in the mid day. 

Will probably have a snack at some point tonight.  Might be some cool ranch, might be an enchilada.  Who knows!

I may also have a shot of Tequila during the Bisco stream fwiw.  

 
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Per MFP:

1950 calories allowed.

1635 Calories consumed.  315 calories under goal before exercise.  I'll probably have a sensible snack though.

45 minutes exercise for 317 calories burned.  372 minutes for the month.

 
Yesterday ended up being just fine -- 1526 net calories, 74 under target.  That's the closest I've come to going over my allowance since I started doing this, but it still goes into the books as a W.  I'm heading out for an 8 miler in a little while, and I'll probably do a little walking later in the afternoon if the weather permits, so I don't expect any issues today.

 
So here's something that I tried recently and I love it.  

I know i want to snack at night.  I want to have a couple drinks and some pizza and pick at something like chips or popcorn while I drink and relax. It isn't actually hunger, it's just that habit of picking at something and having a lot of little pieces that I miss. But having a lot of pieces of crappy food - I'm looking at you, rice cake fans - doesn't remotely scratch the itch for me.  I want to mindlessly eat something tasty without blowing my diet. 

Here's what solved that for me.  I'll make a pizza for the family - not too saucy or cheesy - and save a slice or two for myself. Like 400-600 calories worth, enough for a small dinner of its own. Then I'll have a salad or big bowl of broccoli or something as my "dinner" while they eat the rest of the pizza. Total of maybe 600 to 1000 calories, depending what I have left for the day and also if i plan to have a drink. 

My pizza, though, i don't eat right away. Instead, I cut it into half inch wide strips and cut those into inch or two sections.  Just dozens of pizza bits. And save those aside as my snack in a bowl. It sounds weird, but it made a big big difference for me. 

I found that I couldn't skip dinner without feeling deprived, but I could have a small dinner as long as I knew I was still going to get something else later.  That was a big psychological factor for me - I wanted a reward at the end of the day, not a tiny dinner. I was also struggling with not having snacks that I could pick at.  But as much as I like pizza, it's easy to destroy a slice in seconds.  Maybe you fold it in half, or you've taken two big bites and barely even noticed it.  That's how you end up reaching for that second or third slice without even realizing it. It just happens so fast. Cutting it into poppable bites like that made it harder to overeat by habit and extends the snack time. I can sit there and slowly pick for fifteen or twenty minutes, and I know when I'm done there's no more - i can't just pour some more chips in a bowl, the pizza is gone. 

Everyone has weird triggers that sabotage them, whether its eating or something else.  Finding ways to redirect those into something that works for you is a big help. 

 
36/23 points

Minor hiccup today. My wife came home from the store and needed room in the freezer. That meant I had to eat an additional 8 points in ice cream that was not factored in. I cant throw away good ice cream. 

I rode a 75 minute Peloton class today so I think it balances out. I have not tapped into my activity points or 35 bonus points until today so all things being equal, Im fine. 

 
2nd rough one in a row. However, that is why you have bonus points. Been doing this a while and I know that I will get back on track tomorrow. Still have 30 bonus points for the week. My goal is to not use one of them. 

 
Per MFP:

1950 calories allowed.

1468 Calories consumed.  482 calories under goal before exercise.  Will probably have a snack in a little bit.

45 minutes exercise for 325 calories burned.  477 exercise minutes for the month.

 
Yesterday was weird: 2113 consumed and 1433 burned for only 680 net calories, my lowest by far since starting.  I was never hungry at all.  Oh well -- I'll take it, but obviously that's not sustainable.

 
Day 1- 767

Day 2- 1,030

Day 3- 1,545

Day 4- 509

Day 5- 958

Day 6- 1,579

Day 7- 870

As I enter Week 2, I ran up roughly a 7,000-8,000 calorie deficit last week. According to my math that would be about 2 lbs of fat I lost this past week.

-I drank an avg of about 1-2 beers a day. 

-I ate pizza and ice cream but in limited amounts and I've found some lower calorie options to fill the cravings or needs. 

-Eating more fruits and veggies than I ever have. 

-I look at breakfast as the one meal of the day that is mostly pure fuel/energy more so than other sweet options. Example is oatmeal vs bacon/sausage and french toast although I had that too last month but it was one time not everyday. 

-Try to drink a lot of water, I just had Mountain Valley Spring start delivering to my house, wonderful addition to what I am already doing. Water breaks down fat and moves it quicker out of your body so load up on Zero Calorie H2O.

Cheers Everyone 

 
26/23 points

Indulged and ate the second half of my wrap from dinner last night for lunch today. 

Did 60 minutes of peloton 

OK with that. Another day where I reached for something and this thread held me accountable. I hate having to still lose 4-5lbs but Ill get there. 

 
This is also Day 41 of about 60+ minutes of cardio style exercise mostly walking and cycling. 

In April I managed to rack up 3400 minutes but you will learn fast you cannot exercise it all off. You only burn about 250 calories on an avg 60 minute walk, that's like 2 cookies so the idea you're gonna burn off a lot of weight by exercising isn't always true. 

That said, I am over 1,300 minutes and we are 11 days into the month. 

You burn about double the calories on the cycle/bike in the same time frame vs walking. 

Had to stop Tennis temporarily during this historical event but have made a lot more progress combining the daily cardio and counting calories. 

No Sports on TV has also been a big contributor along with restaurants here in South Florida closed except take out. 

 
Did well all week until yesterday evening.  After 90 minutes on the treadmill (45 running and 45 walking) I had a ton of extra calories and yikes did I use them.  As usual, alcohol was not helpful in that regard.  So I got a ton of exercise, ate great most of the day, and chalk it up as a cheat day.  

The hardest part for me after I started counting seriously was taking a cheat day and then coming back the next day and being good again. It was just so easy to say forget this diet thing and go back to bad eating. It really derailed me badly and it took me days to get right that first time. 

The problem was that I still saw "eating bad" as "normal" and what I was doing was "dieting".  I looked forward to succeeding at my diet so I could go back to eating badly.  That was a difficult realization - that my habits were going to have to change permanently and that I could never go back to the old way.  

Things have changed a lot for me since then. I have gotten used to 1500 to 2000 calories.  I exercise a lot more and have a lot more days where I can eat 2000 plus and still lose a little.  I no longer see this as a temporary change. I can easily overeat, especially with booze, but I don't find myself wanting to do it again the next day.  

But the biggest thing for me is that I learned how to bounce back from a cheat day. I just start tracking my calories again. Even if I go over, I give an honest update in myfitnesspal and stay under maintenance calories. I don't penalize myself on Monday for overeating on Sunday- i just get back to it. 

If I'm trying to lose two pounds per week that's 7000 calories of deficit per week, 100 per day. If i go over my goal by a ridiculous amount like 2000 calories, I'm still just 1000 over maintenance for the day. I can still go  way over again another day and lose a pound for the week.  So I don't stress out over it - or go extra hard the next day - I just get back to counting, and trust the process.  

Today I didnt want to exercise after running hard yesterday.  No reason to risk injury just to get my diet back on track. So I had a quiet eating day. No booze.  Lunch and dinner were both some chicken that I grilled today, with salad and black beans/guacamole on a tortilla respectively.  I went over my 2lb per week goal, but was still comfortably under maintenance calories and if I had gone for a run I would be at my goal with room to spare.  

I can't hit all of my goals in one day. It's a process that i need to follow for the rest of my life.  So I focus on the process, and get used to this as normal eating, and cheating as a rare indulgence.  It's taken time but that was a critical epiphany for me. 

 
I had 60 calories to spare yesterday and 102 to spare today.   I was really active yesterday with an hour walk on top of a workout involving the bike and weights.    I would love to stay around 50-100 calories under my limit each day for the month. 

 
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