Am I burning close to what I'm eating?

araic88

I'm in my 20's, 5'7 and just under 11 stone. (and female :P )
I've never been into takeaways, fried food etc. and drink very little alcohol but was a chocoholic and didn't do much exercise.

Well in the last two months, I've given up chocolate (and don't even miss it anymore!) am trying to cut down on what I eat and have joined an athletics club
Twice a week with the club I run 4 miles (well I'm actually only up to running about 2/3 of that and walk the rest.) and try to do it at least once more a week myself.
I've tried to cut out snacking which was my biggest vice.

To be honest though, I'm a bit disheartened with how little difference I've noticed in my weight. I thought after two months I'd notice my clothes being a little looser! I don't want to tell myself I'll do loads of exercise every day or count calories because I think I'd just give up completely after a fortnight whereas I'm actually quite enjoying what I'm doing now so feel it could be a longterm thing.

Here is an outline of what I ate yesterday and it's a typical day lately.
Breakfast: Porridge made with water, tea, orange juice
Snack: coffee
Lunch: 2 or 3 rice cakes, hazelnut yogurt, pear, tea
Dinner: Grilled salmon and cous cous with veg
Snack: a handful or so of pistachio nuts and about a pint of milk through the day
I don't know much about calories so I don't really know what that amounts to

Have you any advice on where I'm going wrong or do I just have to be more patient?

cmyk

How has your weight changed in the last 2 months? Counting calories is usually a good idea to do for a couple of days to give you an idea of what you're really taking in. Sites like fitday.com are free and will help make that easier.

Blatter

Drop the pint if milk and orange juice and replace them with water.

They are unnecessary and pack a fair few calories.

araic88

Thanks, I actually didn't realise orange juice packed many calories. Should I not ask about smoothies so?! I definitely need to eat more veg but had been thinking i should up my fruit intake a bit too

It's low fat or slimline milk (I used only be able to drink full fat whereas now that tastes almost like cream! ) but yeah I could cut out quite a bit of it without complaint

cmyk I've lost 3-4 pounds and haven't noticed any difference in jeans etc. I know it's better to have slow/steady weightloss but I thought at least at the beginning it'd be a little more drastic! Have to go to GP soon anyway, might ask if she can do a body fat check and at least in a few months' time that might be lower too

Off to have a look at fitday.com

cmyk

araic88 wrote: »

I'm in my 20's, 5'7 and just under 11 stone. (and female :P )

Ok I was running out the door last night, so i'll help a bit more. Those figures would roughly put your maintenance cal intake at 2150 or thereabouts. (This is the figure at which you'll roughly hold your current weight steady) So to lose weight you'll need to shoot lower than this. I'd roughly aim between 1650-1750. How you achieve this is up to you and what suits you, either through diet alone or diet and exercise. Be aware though, running for an hour doesn't actually burn as much energy as people would like to think either.

araic88 wrote: »

Well in the last two months, I've given up chocolate (and don't even miss it anymore!) am trying to cut down on what I eat and have joined an athletics club
Twice a week with the club I run 4 miles (well I'm actually only up to running about 2/3 of that and walk the rest.) and try to do it at least once more a week myself.
I've tried to cut out snacking which was my biggest vice.

Shouldn't be a need to cut out chocolate altogether, deny yourself anything and it'll send you mad.

araic88 wrote: »

I don't want to tell myself I'll do loads of exercise every day or count calories because I think I'd just give up completely after a fortnight

This differs from person to person, but as I said in the first post, some sitting down with a piece of paper and calculator is what will ultimately educate you to just how much you're eating and drinking. That's not to say it can't be done by guesswork alone, you'll get plenty of advice from people here simply saying....if you're not losing weight, eat/drink less, adjust accordingly, which is fine, but I find the above helps people more aware of just what they're taking in.

araic88 wrote: »

whereas I'm actually quite enjoying what I'm doing now so feel it could be a longterm thing.

Possibly the most important thing.

araic88 wrote: »

Here is an outline of what I ate yesterday and it's a typical day lately.
Breakfast: Porridge made with water, tea, orange juice
Snack: coffee
Lunch: 2 or 3 rice cakes, hazelnut yogurt, pear, tea
Dinner: Grilled salmon and cous cous with veg
Snack: a handful or so of pistachio nuts and about a pint of milk through the day.

As soccer4life stated, there are some calorie dense foods in there, not necessarily a bad thing, but fitday will educate you on this. Noone can guess any of this for you as we don't know your portion size.

Red Cortina

cmyk wrote: »

Ok I was running out the door last night, so i'll help a bit more. Those figures would roughly put your maintenance cal intake at 2150 or thereabouts. (This is the figure at which you'll roughly hold your current weight steady) So to lose weight you'll need to shoot lower than this. I'd roughly aim between 1650-1750. How you achieve this is up to you and what suits you, either through diet alone or diet and exercise. Be aware though, running for an hour doesn't actually burn as much energy as people would like to think either.

Just to add to what you've said here, this study(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21178922) showed that people overestimate exercise energy expenditure

araic88

cmyk wrote: »

Those figures would roughly put your maintenance cal intake at 2150 or thereabouts..so to lose weight you'll need to shoot lower than this. I'd roughly aim between 1650-1750.

Shouldn't be a need to cut out chocolate altogether, deny yourself anything and it'll send you mad.

Thanks for the reply
I have to say the chocolate thing is a big personal achievement though haha I seriously think i was addicted, whereas now I don't crave or even want it. But no I couldn't completely cut out all treats or I would go mad as you said!
Fitday seems like a really good tool. I guess it takes a while at the beginning to get used to it and to build up a 'bank' of saved foods (whereas right now I'm trawling through lists of bizarre American options )
I tried to be as accurate as possible with activities/calories for Friday (which I put in yday as weekdays are more typical for me) and it said I'd burned 2080 calories and eaten 1300 calories. Hm. I suppose I shouldn't put too much weight on just one day's info though.

GenericName

Just saying the same thing as the soccer4life and cmyk really, but to add.. I used to drink lots of coffees, milk and two sugars, every day. Lots of calories that I would never even think to add on to one of those calculator things. I still drink lots of coffee, but black. I'm pretty sure that I can attribute 3 kilos of weight loss in 2 weeks to that alone. Without any exercise.

I do a lot of cardio these days, but this is for fitness, not for weight loss. In my experience cardio keeps weight even, but to lose it you have to consume less calories - which means at least having an idea of how many you're consuming.

Blatter

GenericName wrote: »

I used to drink lots of coffees, milk and two sugars, every day. Lots of calories that I would never even think to add on to one of those calculator things. I still drink lots of coffee, but black. I'm pretty sure that I can attribute 3 kilos of weight loss in 2 weeks to that alone. Without any exercise.

3 Kg = 6.6 pounds.

1 pound = 3500 calories

6.6 pounds = 23,100 calories


I'm pretty sure that you can't attribute that weight loss in two weeks to the milk and sugar in your coffee alone.:D

GenericName wrote: »

I do a lot of cardio these days, but this is for fitness, not for weight loss. In my experience cardio keeps weight even, but to lose it you have to consume less calories - which means at least having an idea of how many you're consuming.

Consume less calories than your maintenance calorie requirement = lose weight

Consume more calories than your maintenance calorie requirement = gain weight


Let's not make it any more complicated than that;)

GenericName

Well I should clarify, I used to drink a lot of these 'coffees'. Not any more!

http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/nutrition-calories/food/starbucks/mint-chocolate-chip-frappuccinoAE-blended26nbsp3B26nbsp3Bcreme-no-whipped-cream/

chuck101

is it just me or is there a considerable lack of protein here?

GenericName

GenericName wrote: »

Well I should clarify, I used to drink a lot of these 'coffees'. Not any more!

http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/nutrition-calories/food/starbucks/mint-chocolate-chip-frappuccinoAE-blended26nbsp3B26nbsp3Bcreme-no-whipped-cream/

Thats a bit different to a normal cuppa with a bit of milk!

Blatter

chuck101 wrote: »

is it just me or is there a considerable lack of protein here?

Salmon fillet, nuts and a pint of milk. What's that around 65-75g protein?

There is room for improvement there alright, maybe swap porridge for eggs and/or the yogurt,pear and rice cakes for a homemade flap jack with whey protein or a chicken breast with salad. Especially if the milk is being dropped from the diet.

Blatter

GenericName wrote: »

Well I should clarify, I used to drink a lot of these 'coffees'. Not any more!

http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/nutrition-calories/food/starbucks/mint-chocolate-chip-frappuccinoAE-blended26nbsp3B26nbsp3Bcreme-no-whipped-cream/

ya, a bit different to normal coffee and milk....

But still, you would need to have being drinking 23 of these a week for the weight loss you had to be attributed to these. You were still way overrating their impact, unless you drink anywhere close to 23 a week!

chuck101

OP. Pardon my shortness there. As far as i can see some things you might need to have a look at are as follows..

1) Upping your protein intake( not to mad levels mind) and keep it varied
2) Add in some bodyweight exercises most days of the week aswell as your athletics with maybe 3 days a week that you do a small 5-15 minute circuit of basic stuff like push ups, squats, step ups, planks & lunges to begin with.

3) Just curious where you want your weight to get down to?

araic88

chuck101 wrote: »

OP. Pardon my shortness there. As far as i can see some things you might need to have a look at are as follows..

1) Upping your protein intake( not to mad levels mind) and keep it varied
2) Add in some bodyweight exercises most days of the week aswell as your athletics with maybe 3 days a week that you do a small 5-15 minute circuit of basic stuff like push ups, squats, step ups, planks & lunges to begin with.

3) Just curious where you want your weight to get down to?

Thanks for that, I usually eat eggs quite a few times a week but could do with being more consistent and varied (oxymoron?!) with protein as you said.
Right now I'm about 10 st 10 / 150 pounds. Ideally I'd have liked to get to 9st but don't really see that happening, except maybe as a short term thing which isn't worth the effort I don't think.
So if I could get to and stay anywhere below 10 stone I'd be happy!

GenericName

SOCCER4LIFE wrote: »

ya, a bit different to normal coffee and milk....

But still, you would need to have being drinking 23 of these a week for the weight loss you had to be attributed to these. You were still way overrating their impact, unless you drink anywhere close to 23 a week!

Not far off actually. I used to work in Asia, for about a year where we were without an office. So Starbucks became our unofficial office. I'd go through 2-3 most days.

Anyway, point taken, I wanted to lose weight and I'm probably attributing more to a single change in diet than is correct. Sorry to the OP for distracting from your question!

chuck101

That all sounds pretty reasonable araic. The obvious part here is how much do you want to get down below 10 st and are you willing to do what you need do to get there?
Now i'm not going to go all life coach on you here but is it weight loss or athletic improvement that you'll find easier to keep on track with?

araic88

chuck101 wrote: »

That all sounds pretty reasonable araic. The obvious part here is how much do you want to get down below 10 st and are you willing to do what you need do to get there?
Now i'm not going to go all life coach on you here but is it weight loss or athletic improvement that you'll find easier to keep on track with?

I'm not sure I understand - do you mean will I find dieting or exercising easier to keep up?
I'm not sure tbh, I think I could more easily fall out of the habit of exercise because while I enjoy it now, if I have to miss something once it seems almost daunting the next time! The lovely long evenings will help in the next few months though. Also I'm sure I can't completely avoid chocolate forever so i hope i don't fall off that wagon.
I do really want to get below 10st and had thought I roughly knew what it'd take, I guess I'm just disheartened that things don't seem to be going better.

Thanks for all the input guys, I appreciate it

Wicklowrider

www.fitday.com

To measure is to know!

chuck101

Yeah sorry for being a little cryptic there OP. My bad.
1)
Don't avoid chocolate... its proof that god loves us!
2)
What i meant was, is the weight loss the primary concern or the getting healthier and seeing some weight loss as a nice side effect the primary concern?
3)
How are you feeling since you started being healthier ( running, better food , etc. ) ? Has your sleeping improved ? have you more energy?
4)
This is possibly the most important imo.. do you train with anyone else regularly eg someone that can keep you accountable and kinda check in on you like a friend who's into fitness as well... because sometimes that type of extra motivation is very very helpful..

also... your legs might be getting stronger if your doing lots of running! not a bad thing !!!

araic88

Hm it's more weightloss with the added benefit of improved health!

lol at the risk of sounding like a Dr.Phil guest... I'd say I'm feeling better *about* myself with healthier food, more exercise and also just more fresh air (I'm finally making use of my close proximity to beaches-so peaceful ) but tbh I haven't noticed it in terms of energy or sleeping better.

Although I've a few friends who are into running and who I can chat to about it (and a brother in law who seems to hope I run marathons with him eventually ) I don't really have anyone I can actually train with- except of course the club I joined. I think that has been a really positive thing though as I've tried running by myself a few times in the past and it always tailed off quickly, whereas having others set the pace, set the distance and suggesting goals has been really motivating. And it's way cheaper than a gym

chuck101

cool!!! all that sounds like its going in the right direction...
The only thing is the speed at which your looking to slim down is gonna be determined by how aggressively you go for your target weight, distance/time etc. and if i were you i'd look into some resistance training to compliment your running and this sounds dodgy i know but maybe lessen the focus on weight loss and emphasise your focus on kicking ass and taking names when it comes to your running!!
The main reason i say that is because anyone i have worked with regarding weight loss has found this approach to work pretty well!
Like i said just my opinion and i hope it goes great for you anyways.. good luck!

araic88

Thanks for all the help!!

I have to say Fitday is better than I thought, someone gave me a weight watchers point book before and I didn't like figuring out all the points etc. but this is a lot easier/quicker and better!!

One silly question though: does the %RDA/AI graph near the bottom give 100% as the target for each thing? Because my carbs/fat/protein breakdown seem pretty okay overall (roughly 50%/30%/20% on average) whereas that graph is all over the place!

One more personal achievement: the discovery of skipping I wasn't able to go running one evening but found a skipping rope someone else had left around and my heart thanked/hated me for trying it out

cmyk

araic88 wrote: »

One silly question though: does the %RDA/AI graph near the bottom give 100% as the target for each thing? Because my carbs/fat/protein breakdown seem pretty okay overall (roughly 50%/30%/20% on average) whereas that graph is all over the place!

Not quite sure what you mean, I wouldn't worry too much about it though, overall calories and the macro breakdowns are the important. Again as others have said, maybe increase the protein, and reduce carbs slightly.

araic88 wrote: »

One more personal achievement: the discovery of skipping I wasn't able to go running one evening but found a skipping rope someone else had left around and my heart thanked/hated me for trying it out

Good work, ironically we're putting together an article on skipping at the moment, surprisingly big area of interest!