(no subject)

[k_crow]

After finding out about this from solcita's lj, I took a look at a website called The Daily Plate. For most of my life I have *actively* avoided counting calories and the like. The obsessive and unhealthy patterns I'd see in people who were dieting and "counting calories" made me very much shy away from this practice.

Exploring this website, I decided that I'm in a good enough place with myself to do just some basic tracking of what I eat and what impact that has on me. It's been eye-opening so far. I've been able to guesstimate the meals that I put together for myself pretty well, and discovering which things I eat are higher in calories, and how much higher... Whoah.

Based on a 2,000 calorie diet for maintaining my present weight, I'm usually eating about 40 calories over that. Given that it lists eating 40 calories under that to lose a pound a week... *minor flinch* Oh, no wonder my weight hasn't been decreasing.

Other eye-opening thing from today. I entered in guesstimates about my workout at the gym yesterday, as far as activities and time spent doing each activity. WOW. Suddenly my net calories dropped by about 500.

I think using this thing for general diet and exercise tracking might turn out to be very useful, so long as I can keep up with it and stay honest.

Comments

[hollyqueen.livejournal.com]

I don't understand. It says that 280 extra calories a week will cause you to gain a pound? I have always heard it was 3500 to gain a pound. 280seems a crazy small amount.

[k-crow.livejournal.com]

Hmm, so to gain a pound one would have to eat essentially an extra day and 3/4 worth of calories in a week? Sounds like I need to do some more research in order to use this website effectively. It may be off as far as what's amount needs to be cut down to lose weight, but so far it's been right on as far as calorie counts. Thanks for the info. :) I'll try to edit this post when I find out what amount of calories should be cut down in a week to lose a pound.

[hollyqueen.livejournal.com]

I checked a few places that all said 3500.

Wikipedia - Human fat tissue contains about 87% lipids, so that 1 kg of body-fat tissue has roughly the caloric energy of 870 g of pure fat, or 7800 kcal. In principle one has to create a 7800 kcal deficit or surplus between energy intake and use to lose or gain 1 kg of body-fat. (or 3500 kcal per pound). [1] However, if one eats 7800 kcal more than the body needs, one won't necessarily gain 1 kg of fat, since muscle and other tissues may be built. The same way, if one eats 7800 kcal less than their maintenance level, they may not lose 1 kg of fat, since muscle and sugars may be metabolized to generate energy.