8 lbs Later

Since my doctor's appointment on July 14, I have started tracking daily food intake. The food diary has actually helped me learn to portion out my food, and count everything.

The results: I am down 8lbs so far. And I haven't even added the exercise portion of our routine back in.

Best part is that A is getting into this now, and I am making sure that things we cook are accounted for by portion. He is being good about watching his intake, not to the level I am, and he is feeling better too.

I did want to share something from one of the books. Years ago I picked up this cookbook and flipped through it a couple of times. Then this last Saturday, I actually stopped to look at it. And the next thing you know I was flagging recipes, and A took his turn and flagged a few he wanted to try.

Including a meatless lasagna!! With a white sauce and artichokes!

After shopping and deciding on meals, I actually READ the cookbook.

You all should know that I am a numbers person. If I can see the numbers and logic behind things, then it makes more sense to me. And up until Saturday I was guessing on what my goal should be for daily calorie intake.

Then I saw how to do the math...

First get your base metabolism by taking your weight and multiplying by 10. Add to this 10% of the total to cover the calories need to actually eat and digest your food. Next add 10% of that total if your daily activity level is low, 20% if it is moderate, or 30% if it is high.

The total is an estimate of your base calorie needs if you want to maintain your current weight. According to this book. I am not a dietitian, but the numbers seem logical, and so I did the math and was gawking at the number. Seriously, it was outrageous.

Now, it continues on to explain that to lose 1lb a week you would need to eat 3500 less calories a week. The idea is to reduce your calorie intake by 500 each day to maintain an even loss. You can do the math to see what it would take to get to the number you want to lose per week, and at the same time can see that as your weight goes down the scale slides down as well. At some point you have to get to a goal weight and learn to eat to maintain it. Also, if you exercise more, the calories your burn can be entered each day to subtract from actual intake.

Does this make sense?

Let's take my weight from the visit.

I was 297lbs, so my base metabolism would 2970. Add 10% for digestion and I get 3267. Without any real exercise other than basic day-to-day movement, I will add another 10% to the total and base calorie needs are 3594.

See, told you it was obscene!

According to the food diary, I am averaging half that each day. I am not going hungry, I eat 3 meals and 2 snacks a day, and can also add a scoop of ice cream at night. I am not left wanting.

And I have now lost 8lbs. And of course have done a new calculation to see where I should be for the next week.

The book does warn about taking you calories too low, as your body thinks it's starving and slows down your metabolism. I am snacking to make sure to keep myself happy throughout the day, with the difference being that I am snacking smarter.

It's all about portions.

I don't mean to bore anyone about the dieting thing. I just know that I need to get that under control in order to get the diabetes under control so that I can have a healthy baby.

In the end, it's always going to come back to having a healthy baby. And that will mean watching my intake to make sure there is enough for both of us to survive on without hurting one another.

And that is what I am learning....