Young Calorie Counters

For those in college, or those quickly approaching it, beware!!! The Freshman Fifteen - the bane of college calorie counters everywhere - is ready to take a new group of victims on campuses nationwide this fall!

For those who have felt the pain of the 15lbs of cafeteria food, hanging out in the dorm, not having your highschool extracurriculars, and just being too darned lazy to get out and about, join me in losing that weight! :) As an upcoming junior in college, i'm still waging war against the last 10lbs - who's with me?!?

*EDIT*

August 4th, 2008

To anyone just seeing this topic, please know that you're still welcome to join us! There are voluntary weigh-ins each Wednesday if you're interested. Whether you're headed to college, in it, or leaving it we're happy to have you! :D

Doe, I go to Northwestern, which is also in Illinois :).  Evanston, actually - just outside of Chicago.  It's freeeezing in the winter, so be prepared!!  Actually, we're right on the lake (literally - they filled in some of the lake when they wanted to expand, back in the 60's I think), so it might be a little better where you are.

Well, I'm at 155.2 today, up from 154.4 a week ago.  And I was really good all week.  I was losing weight pretty fast last week though, like a pound in two days, so maybe that was just some weird fluctuation and this is my "real" weight loss :).

Lea, it sounds like it worked out okay in the end.  Gotta love dancing!  Have fun again tonight :)!!

Definitely not the best weigh in for me :/ But considering that I'm only up half a pound after that visit to my grandmother's isn't that bad =) I thought I'd be up more than that for sure... I've just got to get back on the horse and fight my way back down! With all of the medical stuff and the trip, I've been bad about my exercise, other than one day and a few hours of frisbee, I've had none this week... anyway, on to the numbers!

WEIGH IN:

130.0lbs

Weight Goal for next week: 128.5lbs or better :)

Work-Out Goal for next week: at least 3x doing 30-30-30

Up .5lbs from 129.5lbs last Wednesday :( Boo.

Work-Outs since last Wednesday: 1x for about 30-30-30 

Ok, so I am considering buying a new scale. I've been using my parents' and i know its off by some (too low), but IDK how much... maybe a .5-1.5lbs... it's horribly old and inconsistant. That scale, however, is the one that I've been using since mid-May when I re-began the diet.

So.. I've seen some nice digital WW ones for like $30 at Walmart. I'm thinking of going with that. Do you guys think its a bad idea to change scales? I'd just like to know, legitimately, what I am.

(Also, congrats to all of you who lost weight!! I hope to be among you next week, hehe)

Ok my goal is to work out less - I think I was overtraining my muscles and not giving them enough time to recover, which kind of negates any progress I'd made. The day where I finally broke my pleateau was the day where I did no excersize and ate nutritiously with a 500 cal defecit. I'm going to do cardio to keep my defecit up, but I'm not just going to do it excessively to make up for eating sweets and drinking alcohol. I'm going to make it a point to train my muscles every other day and eat more nutritiously. I think that'll help me with my goal!

Switching scales isn't a bad idea. It doesn't have any impact on what you really weigh, but does help that curious voice inside of your head. Constantly switching scales would skewer your understanding of how much your weight is actually fluctuating, but making an actual change to rely on this new scale is certainly worthwhile!

Lea- that sounds like a really good idea, and kinda what I've experienced. Keep the rest days up, and eat at maintenance on occasion. Just don't overdo the sweets or alcohol, and you'll be in the clear!

Oh freezing winters. I love waking up for an 8:30am class, and walking the 25 minutes to campus in -30 degree weather (not sure what the fahrenheit equivalent is, but that's FRICKIN COLD in celcius!) Whenever it dips below -40, classes have to be cancelled because it's too dangerous. That doesn't happen every winter, but the temperature does hover around -35C for most of February... blah

Oh a happier note, +25C here today! =D

-30C???

Holy crap, it rarely gets to freezing where I am! (Tennessee) which would be... well... 0C, I guess.

It likes to stick around 20F to 40F, give or take some in the winter, and we're usually 85F-105F in the summer. But here, it's the humidity that makes it so suffocating...

I think you're right - I think I'll try to new scale. I just hate getting on, having it say 131.5, waiting 5 minutes, getting back on and seeing 130.0. I usually take whatever is 2 out of 3.

Okay, I need some reassurance/advice.  I was talking to my mom this evening, and I told her I was eating 1550 calories per day.  My activity level is light, so I burn about 2100 per day.  So my mom (who's probably considered obese) says, "You probably won't lose weight eating that much, when my doctor put me on a diet she told me to eat 1200 calories per day."  Now, I know my mom is much older than me (she's 49) and less active than me, but I just haven't been able to brush that comment off.  What do you guys think?  Do I need to eat less, or should I just tell her she's full of crap??  Lol.

I'd call it crap, but well-meant crap! Just think about everything you've learned, testimonials people have written, and just how much sense it makes to actually eat. If 1200 is lower than your BMR, than hecks no! That would be unreasonable. It really depends on the person, and that generic is the absolute minimum for a woman to survive... probably the tiniest woman too. Look at Lea! She has a petite body and weighs 115ish, so 1200 makes more sense for her, and she can get away with eating more too since she's so active.

It sounds more like the obsolete diet advice that causes the 90% failure rate. If you deprive your body, you're sabotaging your future maintenance goals. It's probably more effective to eat more and exercise more instead of eating less, you know? I was reading a forum about Jenny Craig, and a former employee (who is now on CC) was explaining how it worked. You're put on a 1200 calorie diet and pay a ridiculous amount of money for food and support. Then you either reach your goal or run out of money, so you leave and start eating on your own again. Guess what? You can't! People go back feeling like pigs and failures because they can't lose weight on their own, when really they were just butchering their metabolisms. Life is real, and weightloss needs to be realistic.

Do you know your BMR? It's not the same as what CC has on your burn meter. Just never go below that number, and don't be afraid to go above it. Not in excess, obviously, but you're far more active than being bed-ridden all day and will definitely lose if you hover around the BMR! Mine's approx. 1450, so I aaallllways try my best to eat that much. If I have a day at around 1100 or 1200, I make sure to eat 1600 the following day with lots of nutrient-dense foods.

My mom is full of sage advice too which is kinda silly. I remember my dad once talking about how he used to just eat salad every day, back when he was boxing and weight training. He looked like a skinny gnat, not a bodybuilder, but he didn't understand why. That was his diet advice for me, eat only salad and then like, just twice a day. Mom thinks I eat way too much to be considered dieting, especially since I have chocolate or peanuts and seem to be constantly eating. But the weight is coming off, my clothes are hanging, and sometimes it's likely that our parents are wrong. Hahaha I KNEW it!!

Don't take that to heart, Carrie - for obese dieters, doctors often advise very low calorie intake to start. That just has to do with the amount of weight to be lost versus the activity level and that's something only her doctor could tell her.

You are, clearly, not obese at all. Your intake of 1550cal will help you maintain your metabolism (hers is probably much slower as she is older, heavier, and less active than you are) and will allow you to lose weight, allbeit at a slower rate than your mother, but that's simply because she had more to lose. You're doing a great job and you should be fine on 1550cal :) 

Ok, so I went and bought a nice new scale yesterday :) Tells me my weight, body fat %age and water%age...

So I figured I'd do a weigh in with my accurate scale and reassess my goals for next week. I was right about the other scale being off... by a pound and a half! So I'm actually 131.5lbs! Ouch! I think I'll shoot for 130.0lbs for next week in light of that fact... >_< But that doesn't mean I've lost any less, really, since I've been using it all along. Just that I'm not quite to my goal yet! :) But its ok, I'm working on it!

But I did get one really great piece of news... I'd been using this really old body fat %age analyzer in the gym. I knew it was old because its been there since I was at least 12, but still, I figured it was better than nothing... it'd been telling me that I was 28-29% body fat.

The new scale? 20.5%!! Heck yes :D Those workout have been helping ^_^

Anyway, so there we go. I guess I'll be killing my graph with another big upward slant... but I'll just make a not that I changed scales and use this one from now on! :)

*Edit*

Oh, and my water content was 53.0%... is that anywhere near normal? I'm off the soft drinks now...

Oh parents.  You guys are right; I'm sure she meant well, but really she had no idea what she was talking about.  I won't worry about it anymore :).

So my BMR is supposedly 1548, but that seems high to me.  Like really, I'm never supposed to eat less than 1548 calories??  I read somewhere that RMR is the more useful number, and my RMR is 1495.  I don't know though.  Do you guys think if I eat less than 1548 calories for more than a few days, I could damage my metabolism?  Or would I be okay if I averaged a little more than 1500?  Lately I've been between 1500 and 1550 most days.

Heather, yay for the new scale :)!  I wish my scale told me all that...I bought a cheap one though, so all it tells me is my weight, lol.  And I have no idea about the water content :/.  That's cool that you stopped drinking soft drinks, though.  I pretty much have too, not on purpose but just because I hate drinking my calories.  I pretty much only drink water and skim milk anymore.

You RMR is lower than BMR?

You won't damage it, especially if you don't make it a habit to eat under too often. It may sound like a lot, but I think that's where the whole "diet" mindset conflicts with a lifestyle change. Isn't it funny that 1500 cals sounds like a lot now? I can put back 3000 cals EASILY in one day, but they're icky cals. When you eat lots of good food, you really need to eat a lot of them. But it means you're getting so much out of the food!

Your BMR will also go down as your weight goes down. If you consistently eat below that, you will affect your metabolism a little. But there's a big difference between 3 days, 3 weeks, and 3 months of eating insufficient calories. Just be careful not to be too low on the cals on a daily basis.

At light activity, you said you burn 2100 calories. So try and keep the deficit between 350 and 650 cals. If you have some days where you eat less, they'll balance out with the days where you eat more. Just don't be afraid to eat more. It's a silly psychological game where you feel like eating those extra 150 calories couldn't possibly help, just like taking a couple rest days seems counter-productive. Haha gotta love it, huh? Just remember that you aren't reinventing the wheel, and there's a reason why people say eating more helps. Not too much more, but enough to keep the body a chuggin'!

Heather, that sounds like a wicked scale! Congrats on the BF%! I have no idea what mine is, but I plan on purchasing a nice flashy scale when I go back to school. So I'll try and be patient. I was reading on a website for this mobile Body Fat testing group in the US that the ideal BF for women 20-29 is 19%. Does that sound a little low to use as an average for all shapes and sizes? I was thinking that I'd like to be around 19% anyways, but 20-24% is very healthy for young women, and up to 30% isn't awful for middle-aged women. Any thoughts?

so i missed weigh -in yesterday

im 164 !! down 2 pounds wahoo!

Carrie - I only drank diet, but the doctor said no more carbination... which also meant no more caffiene... which meant raaaaging headaches >_< But I'm pretty much past that point now :) Rough first few days though...

I think that 1500-1550cal would be fine for you - eating 48 under your BMR isn't going to mess anything up - I figure I probably have a 100cal buffer in my general eating from over/under doing my portions or having a taste of something or that sort of thing. I think you'd be ok there :)

Julie (And Carrie :D) - I know! I'm so excited about the scale! It was at Wal-Mart for $25. Made by Taylor, I think. It was on rollback from like $30, so I figured that that wasn't too bad :)

http://www.taylorusa.com/consumer/scales/prec isiontech.html
(Scale #5571)

I figure I'll need one when I go off to school too...

Man, my grandmother invited us to go to olive garden for lunch today 0_o Turns out, though, you can get nutrition pamphlets from them now for lower cal options :) and you can ask for whole-wheat pasta instead of regular, so that was pretty nifty! I didn't even have ONE breadstick - now how's that for resisting temptation? ^_^

Way to go, Angie!!! :D Keep it up, girl!

Julie, you're right - it doesn't make sense that my RMR is lower than my BMR.  I just tried a few more online calculators, and I got different answers, but all between 1500 and 1550.  I think there are different formulas they can use.

Angie - congratulations on losing 2 pounds!! :)

Heather - congratulations on quitting caffeine!  Sounds like it was tough.  And I don't think I could ever go to Olive Garden and not have even one breadstick - that's impressive!! :)

Good job everyone! It sounds like everyone is doing really really well. I don't know what the difference between bmr and rmr is but I remember reading somewhere that rmr is the number of calories it needs to keep your body functioning. Like your heart needs a certain number of calories to beat and everything. RMR is that number. I don't really know what BMR is....I know you should NEVER eat below RMR but I don't know anything about BMR. I looked it up and my RMR is 1212. That means I should never eat below 1212 calories. That makes sense for me, but usually because I work out I need more. Someone on the fitness forum told me that because I'm at a healthy weight, it's counter productive for me to have more than a 750 calorie defecit, so I find myself having to eat back calories a lot more than I would have thought.

Good luck everyone this week! I'm having my graduation party on Sunday, and my mom ordered TWO cakes! I hope there's not too much left over!!

Lea, BMR is the same concept as RMR, I think.  It stands for Basal Metabolic Rate.  The difference is just in the way it's measured/calculated.

Have fun at your party, and make sure you have some cake :)!!

Have fun at the party, Lea!! :D

I don't know enough about RMR and BMR to tell you >_< I'd say that if you have doubts, try eating 1250. Even at 1200, with the general fluctuation in portion size, you're probably fine :)

On a completely unrelated note... Wall-E is out tonight and I'm so excited! I hope its good :D

I'm off to a graduation party in a little bit, and then hanging out with the girls later and possibly drinking...oh well, you only live once, right? :)

Hope everyone's having a great weekend!!