| Calories question. |
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Past Member
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Posted: 31 May 2005 06:26 am |
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Hello all,
I am new here, and hoping I can get some help. I have tried to use the calculator to figure out how many calories a day I can eat and still lose weight, but I just don't have the time needed to figure out every single individual thing I do on a daily basis. I have five kids, and one of them is disabled, so my computer time is extremely limited. Anyway, I weigh about 350 (ouch, it hurt to admit that), and I work out on a treadmill 5 days a week at a speed of anywhere from 2mph to 2.5 mph in three increments of 20 minutes each. I wanted to get in that one hour a day of walking, even though I can't handle doing it all at once. Can anyone tell me how many calories a day I can eat and still lose about 1-3 pounds per week? I don't want to eat so little that I am losing muscle either.
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Peter
Founder of this forum
| Joined: | 24 May 2005 |
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| Posts: | 4180 |
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Posted: 31 May 2005 03:15 pm |
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Hello Shakari,
Thanks for your post. Hopefully others will answer your questions more directly, but I would like to make a few comments on counting calories.
I have received e-mails from users that have counted all the calories they ate and burned over many months while losing dozens of pounds. They said the calculators were right on the button, and this has amazed me. It was obviously great coincidence. The calculators give only rough estimates, and considering how much we vary as individuals it's surprising that they could ever be so accurate.
However, as I explain on my website, the greater value of using the calculators is NOT calculating calories on a daily basis to figure out what to do activity-wise and what to eat. The greater value of the calculators is to help you learn to make wise choices in the activities you perform and the foods you eat.
Calculate the activities you perform in a typical day, and see how many calories you burn. Eat 500 less than that and, in theory, you will lose a pound a week. (A very good goal in my opinion.) Finding out just how much YOU can eat and lose weight will take some time. Be patient! Hopefully you are working to improve your life for the long-term... not getting ready for a summer at the beach.
I started my website with a calories burned calculator, and over the years it has grown to include 12,000 food items -- and I gathered and entered every bit of the data myself! 
As I say, hopefully my website helps people learn to make good choices about foods and activities. But I like to think that the calculators are just an attraction now... to hook people in so I can tell them (in my website text) what really matters... learning to eat healthy foods. I eat all I want, and I have a trim, hard body and great health.
There is no one route to weight loss and health that is right for everybody, but I encourage you to concentrate your attention on eating highly nutritious, low calorie foods. You will be amazed at the results!
The text of my website is a good place to start learning. If you don't have much time, start each day reading a different FAQ and using what you learn to start make better food choices.
Best wishes,
Peter
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Past Member
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Posted: 31 May 2005 03:58 pm |
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Hi Peter,
thanks for answering my post. I will keep your advice in mind. I have given up red meat and soda recently, which has been a big step for me. I have another question that you might be able to help me with. I just bought a treadmill, and the manual says that the part of the control panel that tells me how many calories I have burned during the workout is based on a 150 pound person. Since I weigh more than twice that amount right now, does that mean that I am burning at least twice the amount of calories that the console says??? I just want to keep track of these things as accurately as I can. I also wanted to know if it's true that doing several short workouts throughout the day is as effective as doing one long workout. I just don't have the time all at once or the energy yet to do a lengthy workout. I seem to be able to handle my 3 times a day of 20 minutes each on the treadmill ok though. I saw on a health tv show that an obese person burns more calories doing the same exercise as a thin person for the same amount of time, because the heavier person's body has to work harder to do the same thing.
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Peter
Founder of this forum
| Joined: | 24 May 2005 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 4180 |
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Posted: 31 May 2005 04:17 pm |
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Keeping in mind that it's all rough estimates... yes, if you weigh 300 lb you will burn twice what you'd burn at 150. Just try my calculator for walking for an hour at 100 vs. 200 lb and you'll see it double.
About breaking the hour up into three 20 minute segments... there might be some difference, and doing the full hour would be better for developing your respiratory (breathing) and circulatory (blood) systems. But generally speaking burning calories is caused by expending energy. So it shouldn't make that much difference if you break it up.
You can get into specifics of at what point you start burning fat vs. using up your blood sugar and all that mumble-jumble. It's valid, scientific stuff... but I just don't think it all makes enough of a difference to fuss about. (Just my uneducated opinion.)
Shakira, don't get lost in the details! Get a program going, then you can fine tune it with all these concerns later. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU CAN DO IS FIND HEALTHY ACTIVITIES AND FOODS THAT YOU CAN ENJOY AND CONTINUE PUTTING INTO YOUR LIFE. So if breaking the hour up into 20 minute segments works for you, GO FOR IT!
Peter
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Lisa
New Member
| Joined: | 24 Jun 2005 |
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| Posts: | 5 |
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Posted: 24 Jun 2005 05:35 pm |
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i was also told if you have to cut back 500 cals a day, you can break that up...like eat 250 less and exercise off another 250 every day.
good luck with everything, you can do it!!!!! :)
oh and i never have time to exercise, so i do about 10 mins here and there. i also dance around the house, well before i broke a toe yesterday hee hee. Last edited on 24 Jun 2005 05:37 pm by Lisa
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