Yesterday was a stellar day, I think. I worked from 10-2, so lunch was a little late in the day (about 3:30).
BREAKFAST
2 eggs over medium (cooked in Pam, natch) 71 cal ea = 142
1 light multi-grain English muffin, toasted 100
1/2 avocado 114
TOTAL BREAKFAST = 356
SNACK
1 Fuji apple 100
2 Laughing Cow wedges 35 cal each = 70
TOTAL SNACK = 170
LUNCH
2 small whole wheat pita pockets 77 cal ea = 154
1/2 avocado, divided between the two pockets 114
1 oz cheese, divided between the two pockets 100
cucumber slices --
pile o' sprouts --
2 t. tahini, each pocket 56 cal for 2 t = 112
TOTAL LUNCH = 480
SUPPER
large bowl of Chicken Soup for a Cold (about 2 c.) 200*
TOTAL FOR DAY = 1206
* I have no idea how many calories are in that soup. Looking up the calories in chicken soup took me through DOZENS of variations of Campbell's soups (yuck), and most of them were under a 100 calories per cup (except the 'cream of,' of course), even the ones with rice or noodles. My soup has no noodles, no potatoes, no rice; only chicken, onions, carrots, ginger and garlic, so I think 100 calories per cup is actually overstating, but I don't want to err in the other direction.
I'm not going to go through the calorie-counting thing every day, but I thought it would be a good exercise to see how everything adds up once in a while. For now, 1200 calories is about as low as I want to go, I think. It makes no sense to starve myself just to speed things up; this is the way I'm going to eat for the rest of my life.
There is a formula, called the Harris-Benedict equation, that calculates the number of calories a person needs to consume to maintain their current weight. It uses gender, age, height, weight, and activity level to make the determination. In order to lose one pound per week, one should consume 3500 calories less than that amount, per week. Doing the math, if I consume 1200 calories a day, I would lose almost 3 pounds per week, which seems like a lot. To maintain my weight - or what it was when I started this - I need to consume 2641 calories per day. Yesterday's total of 1206 leaves me with a calorie deficit of 1435 for the day. Multiplying that by 7, that's 10,045 fewer calories for the week than I need to sustain my weight. Dividing that number by 3500 (for a pound), that is 2.87 pounds per week.
SO. That's good information, I think.
Oh crap... time to go get ready for work!
I hate that you can't format the way the text is going to look on this thing!! The calorie counts were supposed to be all lined up nicely... I've messed with it three times to try and fix it, but I really need to get ready for work, so it's going to have to do! :(
ReplyDeleteyeah blogger isn't perfect! but it's alright, I think we get what you were trying to do.
ReplyDeletedefinitely a good exercise every once in a while, to see the actual calorie count on food. not something that I can sustain for more than a day or two, it's so tedious, but just tracking a day once in a while really helps you get a feel for calorie content in general so you can just wing it.
your calorie count for yesterday may have been a little low, but I like how your highest calorie meal was lunch. breakfast and lunch should be your largest amounts of food, with the lightest meal being dinner - which is just totally opposite from the way most people are raised to do things, so it's hard to adjust. but really it doesn't make sense to have a huge heavy meal 3 hours before you go to bed. I'm not entirely certain of the correct ratio, but if your breakfast and lunch were somewhere between 400 - 450, and your snacks were somewhere around 150 - 200, and your dinner were somewhere around 300 - 350.. that should put you around 1500 - 1600 calories, give or take, and that seems like the minimum you should be eating. 1200 seems like starvation.
but yeah awesome day! if you're still eating soup for dinner tonight, you could probably eat a piece of bread or something with it and be ok.
ps we made that soup (sorta) last night! I didn't start with a whole bird, didn't make the true stock, but I used a vegetable bouillon and cooked the chicken breasts we had in the broth and Sorta followed the directions, except we were making probably half that amount.. anyway you should add an ACHTUNG!! to the part about using the hot peppers... I need to wear gloves next time. My fingers (and my nose..) were on FIRE all evening. Literally it felt like I had grabbed a hot pan with the tips of my first three fingers and thumb on my left hand.. took all evening for the burn to go away.
anyway, soup turned out well! I'm going to give it credit for making Zach feel better today than yesterday.
Oh excellent!! Not about the burning of the fingers (sorry), but that you made the soup. You're absolutely right, I should have added an ACHTUNG! :) I actually use latex gloves now, when I cut up hot peppers, for that very reason. Even washing your hands right afterwards isn't enough to kill the burn... or prevent massive stinging in the eyeballs if you inadvertently touch your eyes! OW!!
ReplyDeleteEven if it's not responsible (entirely) for making Zach feel better, it's good for you, so bon appetit!
ok, Mom, did you forget about the reason I sent you to Spark people? It was mainly to use their cool recipe nutrition calculator feature in which you can enter each ingredient and quantity and # of servings and it will spit out all the nutrition info for you, including fat, fiber, vitamins, etc. and they have almost everything you could think of in terms of ingredients in their database, and you can save the recipe so next time you make it you know exactly what's in it. Just wanted to mention that. Also, I think it's cool that you're learning about the science of calories and weight gain/loss, that was one of the most helpful things to me in managing my weight/eating habits. I hadn't heard of the Harris-Benedict formula though, so I'll definitely check that out...
ReplyDeleteHaha, Marnie, why yes... yes, I did forget about the recipe/calorie thingy on SparkPeople! Oops! What a goof ball. Sorry. I will go figure out how many calories in the chicken soup and enter it here; I'm curious to see how close I came.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is very helpful to understand the mathematics of weight control. That's one reason I was bummed out about that gadget that Joe sent me that won't work with my computer; it does all that math for you, including calories expended during your various activities throughout the day. Oh well, I guess I'm kickin' it old school here. :)
Thank you for reminding me about the calorie thing! See, this is why you guys are so important to my success in this endeavor! LOL.