2nd Week Weight-loss Progress

Last week, I only lost 1 pound compared to 12 the first week.  But, my waste-line and hips continued to shrink so I'm not going to let it get me down.

Counting calories while on the road has not been as bad as I had thought.  But, it does require doing a little bit of homework.  Most restaurants have their nutrition facts posted on their web pages.  My calorie counter phone app has some chains.  But, for most restaurants, I'm just printing the calorie charts before leaving the office.  I'm on the road again this week.

The hardest part of last week was going with co-workers to Mellow Mushroom, my favorite pizza restaurant.  I could afford only 1 piece of pizza or a huge salad and baked stuffed portebela mushroom.  I opted for the salad and mushroom.  While they were good and filling, I felt like I was drooling over my favorite pizza.  I think I still made the right choice as one piece of their amazing pizza would only have left me craving more.

1st Week Diet Results

Tomorrow morning will be one week on the diet.  I have lost 12 pounds and measured 1/2 inch smaller around the waist and about an inch smaller around the hips.  This has not been nearly as difficult as I had expected.

I am amazed at how easy it is to pick the right satisfying foods and to keep track of the calories when cooking at home!  While mostly selecting foods with a low caloric density, I am finding that it is actually difficult to keep my calories high enough to reach my daily target caloric intake of 1995 calories.  Most days I've fallen short by 300 to 500 calories.  Part of me thinks I should eat something extra so that I am closer to my plan.  Another part of me can't see eating when I am not hungry.  I'm worried that if my calories drop any lower that my metabolism will slow and my body will try to conserve energy.

This coming week will be the real challenge.  I will be on the road, living in a hotel.  As such, all meals will be from restaurants.  I can manage with sit-down dinners in the evenings but am a bit concerned about what I will find to eat for lunch.  I don't want to bring groceries and eat at the office.  I am expected to go out with everybody else.  Often the team does fast food, Mexican, sandwich shops, Thai, and Chinese buffets.  Do any of you have advise as to what and where to eat without being hungry?

Diet Apps for Smartphones and Blackberries

Do any of you use an app on your cell phone to look up and track calories?  I downloaded the blackberry app"Calorie Counter" by FatSecret.com.  It is real easy to look up foods and even has many restaurant menus with calorie counts.  But, the journal stinks because you can't easily add meals add-hoc.  For example, if you made a meal yourself you'd have to enter each ingredient and portion size rather than the total count for the meal.  There must be something better out there.  Rather than downloading hundreds of apps and trying them all out, I was hoping that perhaps some readers might be able to direct me to something better.  Please note that I have a blackberry so many iphone apps are not available to me.  PLEASE post comments... I'd like some help here.

Comments Added April 12, 2013:  
My wife found the app MyFitnessPal on her iPhone and thought it looked pretty good.  I added it to my blackberry.  It is awesome!  I no longer need to carry around a paper journal and calorie counter book!  With the app you can look up foods and even many restaurant menu items.  These can be easily added to a food journal which does all of your math for you.  And, if you want you can do a "quick add" to just add calories to your log.  Her iPhone app has one nice feature that the blackberry version doesn't.  With her iPhone, she can take a picture of a UPC code on a package and it will automatically look up the nutrition facts and/or add to her journal.  It's a fantastic FREE app!  It also has a means to track calories burned from exercise, however, I haven't explored this yet. And, you can record your weight, waist, hip, and neck measurements over time.  This is going to be my primary means of tracking calories and progress.  

Reduced Calorie - Journal Day 2

Yesterday went a little better.  Just before dinner, I had half of my daily calories available.  My family went to a nice sandwich shop called "Pot Bellies" where the menu displays calorie counts.  Upon ordering "The Wreck" sandwich, I was asked, "You want Mayo, Lettuce, Tomato, and peppers on that?" I quickly, without thinking said, "Yes."  Well, this of course is not included in the calorie count on the menu so I actually went about 40 calories over my limit for the day.  But still, what difference can 40 little calories make?

I'm only weighing in once a week as the daily ups and downs make doing so any more frequently pointless.  I can hardly wait until Monday to see how well the diet is working.

Reduced Calorie - Journal Day 1

Yesterday was the first day of my attempt to lose weight via reduced calories.  Based on my calculations, to lose 100 pounds in one year, my personal daily caloric intake should be 1995.  I am not in the habit of counting calories.  While I have investigated many aspects of calorie restriction, I didn't even think about what foods I'd need to eat.  I had just came home from vacation, celebrated my son's second birthday with family, and then celebrated Easter. I've not planned any actual meals nor shopped for diet friendly foods.

Partly due to lack of preparation, my choices were awful.  I kept my calories down but probably did not pick foods with lots of micro-nutrients.  For breakfast, I had a Jimmy Dean's "Delight" egg and cheese English muffin.  It has only 220 calories and tasted disgusting.  For lunch, I had a ham and cheese sandwich on low calorie bread along with cheese puffs.  For a snack, a banana.  For dinner baked cauliflower, turkey burger with cheese, and chips.  My total after dinner was only  about 1400 calories.  This is way too low.  I wanted to stay at close to 2000.  So, I had a cookie  which raised me up to nearly 1600.... still too low but I wasn't hungry so didn't want to force myself to eat.

While the food choices were not ideal, I kept my calories down and wasn't at all hungry.  This might not be as hard as I had expected.  I can't wait until enough time has passed to see how much weight I am really losing.

Starting a Reduced Calorie Diet - Baseline & Targets

Today, I start my reduced calorie diet.  This is the traditional and most widely accepted weight loss strategy.  In the past, I have had great success with low carb diets, losing as much as 85 pounds.  I blogged every step of the way and posted low carb recipes.  That blog, Big Daddy D's Low Carb can be found at:  http://lowcarbohydrate.blogspot.com/.  And, now that I am attempting reduced calories, I will be doing the same here.  If the low-calorie diet does not result in 8 pounds lost per month for the first couple of months, I will go back to low-carb as it works well for my body.

In preparation for this reduced calorie diet, I calculated my base metabolic rate (BMR) to be 2460 calories per day.  Then, because I do have a little physical activity, I have adjusted this by a factor of 1.2.  My adjusted BMR is 2952.  This is the number of calories I should be able to consume without gaining or losing any weight.

Then, I calculated that to lose 100 pounds in a year, I need to consume 1994 calories per day.  If I consume more than this, I will try to offset it with exercise.

I do not believe in measuring weight loss success in pounds alone.  Often when weight plateaus, the waistline continues to shrink.  So, I am starting the diet by recording my beginning measurements (in pounds and inches):

Weight:  351 (ouch, hadn't realized I'd gotten so fat).
Waist (sucked in/relaxed/puffed out):  56/59/60.5
Hips: 56.5
Thigh (left/right):  33.5/34
Calf: 20.5/21.5
Forearm:  15/15
Bicept (flexed):  18.5/19.5
Neck: 20
Wrist: 8/8
Height:  5' 10.5"

My wife will also be joining me on this weight loss journey.  Her adjusted BMR is 2643 calories per day to maintain.  Her target caloric intake is 1828 calories per day to achieve her goal in 365 days.

Game rules... If the diet is a lifestyle change then we must accept that on certain occasions our calorie intake will be higher than our target.  It will not always be practical to exercise enough to offset the difference.  Therefore, we are going to earn one day off the diet every week.  These earned days can be used whenever we choose.  They are not intended as "binge days" even though no maximum caloric intake is set. This was not calculated into our target.  If it seems to be hurting our progress, we may change the rule to simply bank calories whenever we are under our target.

I will begin a good journal... meticulously writing down everything I eat and looking up the calories.  This will help me to identify the foods that have caused stalls.

My Weight Loss Strategy

Positive Thinking

 Positive Action

Positive Habits

Positive Results

I have begun by focusing on "Positive Thinking".  I have been utilizing James Allen to get my mind in gear and have been working on a diet strategy in parallel.  The next phase begins April 9th when I begin to reduce my caloric intake.  I'm still contemplating what exercise program might work well for me given my busy travel schedule.  Weight training has it's appeal but with the extensive travel I do at work, it may be hard to keep up with.  I'm going to check with the YMCA about reciprocal memberships in the areas where I travel most.  If unable to have access to a gym, I might resign myself to simply walking.  I'm also going to look into taking Yoga classes.