Rethinking calorie-counting
“Lose five pounds or more in a week. Never count calories again. Eat these foods and drop pounds without dieting. Eliminate these foods from your diet and drop pounds. Get rid of inches with these exercises and don’t worry about the pounds.”
We have all heard the spills from ads for diet program memberships, supplements and exercise programs, all promising great results, while sparing us from the dreaded and detested calorie-counting.
I bought the memberships for weight-loss programs, fitness center membership and for a while worked out with a personal trainer in a group setting. For all the money and effort, the most I ever lost was 12 pounds, and the longest I ever kept those pounds off was about six months. Within a few weeks, I would reach a plateau, get discouraged and quit.
Counting calories was the last thing I wanted to do, but it was also my last hope in reaching any kind of substantial weight loss and maintaining it. I wanted something slow and sure. I didn't want to do this for a few months and return to old habits. I wanted to establish new habits.
Once I made the decision to not only record my daily calories but also track certain nutrients, my thinking began to change about the whole process. Instead of considering it a dreaded daily task, I began thinking of my daily allowance of calories as a type of currency—just like time and money. And in the same way, I would budget this daily allowance of calories just as I did my money and time. Just as I watched my bank account and kept track of withdrawals, so I would keep track and budget my calorie allowance. My bank account doesn't have unlimited funds, and neither should I expect my body to process unlimited and unneeded calories, without storing them in fat reserves.
Accepting the numbers involved, just as so much of life involves numbers, changed my thinking about counting calories.Instead of feeling constricted by tracking daily calories, I actually began to feel freer. I could plan for indulgences and enjoy them without any guilt. I didn't set an end date for counting calories, because there is also the maintenance factor.
And since I like a good return on my money and time, it made sense to also get a good return on my daily calorie allowance by investing those calories in essential nutrients. It was an eye-opener for me to learn just how many calories are needed to supply the daily requirements for essential nutrients. From my doctor, I got the numbers for these requirements for my age and gender, and to my surprise, I could see that in the past, much of the time I had taken in as much as twice the number.
And just as I used my money to pay bills first, so I would prioritize my daily allowance of calories first for essential daily nutrients. Starting with breakfast, I aimed for 40 percent of my daily calcium needs and a third of the daily protein requirements. I have had no problem allocating 500-600 calories for breakfast. It means I’m on my way to getting all the nutrient requirements for the day. At the end of the day, I can see where I’m at and where I need to be as far as nutrients. And when I use some of my daily allotment for treats, I don’t worry about it.
One of the surprises of this journey is learning that I don’t have to use all my daily calorie-allowance to reach my daily essential nutrient requirements. There are usually calories left over for a snack and treat. But that’s not my goal -- trying to eat as much as I possibly can or to try and satisfy an insatiable gut. I want to eat smaller portions and give my body an opportunity to do something besides digest food for me. I want my body to have a break from constantly digesting food, so it can make repairs where they are needed.
As I continued with the daily logging and tracking of nutrients and recording the weekly one-pound losses , I came to another realization: I was finally taking responsibility for my own health and weight-loss. In the past, I had given over this responsibility to whomever I was paying to lead me through an eating and/or exercise program. They were the ones who kept the “books.” They recorded the numbers. Maybe they knew where I was going and how to get there, but I sure didn't. And the thing is I never got there with any of those programs.
After spending months in several different weight-loss programs and losing 8-12 pounds, I would come to a place where I couldn't lose any more, even though I was still following the program. All I was ever told was the number from the scales that week. And of course I was told I didn't have to count calories. Just pretend calories are something else or just eat certain foods.
I had the same dismal results working with a personal trainer. He had the numbers and told me not to think about the number on the scales. Just keep doing the exercises and the inches will whittle away. I did lose some inches and went down two sizes, while losing a whopping eight pounds. But my lab reports didn't change—not one number in the direction of improvement. I had no idea where I was going in the program or how long it would take to get there. He kept all the numbers, and he, alone knew what they meant.
But now, I could see where I was going. One week at a time. One pound a week. Now I knew what to expect or to adjust. And finally, I had results. And I was the one keeping the books and recording the numbers. I didn't dread the scales anymore.
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Determined Decision
When I awoke on the morning of Oct. 17, 2012, the first thing I was aware of was the pain in both my legs. It wasn’t a pain that kept me from sleeping, but for the past three weeks, it was the first thing I had noticed upon waking and walking. On this morning, the pain was much more intense. Not only did the pain have my attention, but now I was concerned.
What was causing this pain?
After hobbling into the kitchen and taking a blood pressure pill, I remembered that the night before I had taken my last cholesterol capsule. I reached for the empty bottle and started toward the kitchen phone to call in the refill. It was then that a “light” came on. It was three weeks ago that I had gone back on my three weeks on and two weeks off schedule of taking the cholesterol medicine.
I knew that this was a modified dosage schedule used sometimes for patients who had side effects from the medication, but I used it because of the cost of the medication which wasn’t covered by my insurance. It had worked fine in keeping my cholesterol down, while saving money. I also knew that leg pain was a side effect of the medication, but for some reason, I had just now made the connection.
What was I going to do? Obviously, the modified dosing schedule wasn’t an option. Before going on the medication, I had tried a low-fat diet. All that accomplished was lowering the good cholesterol: the bad cholesterol never budged. I had tried exercise. I had gone to fitness classes for years and had even spent a few months working out under a trainer. Under the trainer’s guidance, I could do 100 jumping jacks, 50 push-ups, 200 crunches, and many other fitness feats, but the lab numbers for cholesterol never improved. In addition to the low-fat diet and exercise, I had tried other weight-loss programs with modest and temporal results. The most weight I had lost was 12 pounds and the longest length of time of keeping it off was about six months. Losing eight pounds wasn’t that hard, but losing more than that was hard and keeping it off even harder.
I had to do something. I thought back to the days when my cholesterol levels were normal. If I could just get back to or even close to what I weighed then, surely the numbers would change. I remembered that in those days, most of my exercise came from walking. Walking four miles a day several days a week. Over the past 15 years or so, I had put on about 40 pounds. I wondered how much I needed to lose to affect the cholesterol numbers. Obviously, I needed to lose at least half of that.
Although I didn’t like the idea of counting calories, and indeed all the diet plans I had followed up until then promised I wouldn’t need to, I KNEW that was the only way I could effectively achieve the weight loss I needed to lower my cholesterol without medication. It was a scary but determined decision. I would return to walking four miles a day several times a week and keep a daily food journal to track and stay within a calorie range to lose a pound per week. I hoped that the weight-loss didn’t stop at eight, 10 or 12 pounds as it had in the past. Hopefully, this time, I could reach my 20-pound goal.
Online I found the guidelines for losing a pound a week, based on the number of calories needed to maintain a certain weight. I had kept a food journal sporadically in the past, using a program included in software on my computer. Setting a goal of losing one pound per week would help in establishing daily habits, while gradually reducing the amount of calories consumed. This program also provided for tracking daily nutrients, allowing me to see how my daily food choices fell within daily guidelines for sugar and sodium, as well as other nutrients.
For the first eight weeks, I eliminated all added sugar from my daily diet. Well, at least what I thought included added sugar. Not only did I hope this would help with lowering triglycerides and cholesterol, but it also helped with easing into a daily calorie budget. For those first few weeks, my daily calorie budget was just under 1800 calories, which included calories burned from walking. (I made two mathematical blunders in calculating daily calories those first weeks, but the second blunder compensated for the first.) That’s not exactly starving yourself, especially if you eat most meals at home. In fact, I never went to bed hungry.
During those early months, I would pour myself a half cup of organic Purely O cereal and munch on that. At the time, this cereal was also fortified with calcium (Currently, it no longer has added calcium.) and not only satisfied late night hunger, but also supplied nutrients. Other times, I would measure out a serving or half serving of nuts. Instead of chips, I bought nuts and began keeping them in the pantry for snacks. I liked cashews, so that’s what I bought. After figuring out that I used to eat nearly a half bag of potato chips at one sitting, a can of nuts was a bargain and much healthier -- considering, too , that nuts are also more filling and satisfying.
At the end of the first week, I weighed and had lost one pound. That one pound had taken me out of the 180-range and I was now at 179. The following week, I weighed again and had dropped another pound. For eight weeks straight, I weighed and had the same result—another pound lost. At this time, I had lab work done to check my cholesterol and triglycerides. I had been off the medication for eight weeks and wanted to know if this eight-pound weight loss and walking were helping. They were!!! The results were not great, but they had improved to the point where meds were not recommended. Around the same time, I had to lower my dosage for blood pressure medicine. All the walking and eating a lower sodium diet had lessened my need for the medicine, and my dosage was cut in half. My doctor told me I could start weaning off the medicine, but at this point, I was concerned about staying with my new habits and wanted to be more established in them before I went off the blood pressure medicine completely.
By now, it was Christmas time, so I did add back some treats to my daily calorie allowance. I found that being off sweets for eight weeks had lessened my need or craving for them. It didn’t take much now to satisfy a sweet tooth. I started tracking added sugar just like I was already tracking sodium and tried to stay within the recommended guidelines. If I went over a day or two a week, I didn’t worry about it. It was still much, much better than what I was doing before. But most days, I did stay within the guidelines, and it was freeing to be able to have a treat without guilt. To my surprise, I found that my favorite recipes for treats fell within these guidelines -- if I limited my servings. That is key to treats. Make them at home. You can also adjust the sugar in most recipes and get the same results. After examining the ingredients more thoroughly on commercial treats, I decided to make my own or do without. During that first Christmas, I still baked but cut back to about two or three baked goodies for the entire season.
It was during this time that I also discovered an app for my new phone that would track my daily calories and nutrients, as well as my walking and exercises and make the adjustments each week as I dropped another pound. It would also compute my recipes into calories and nutrients. I could even scan my food purchases into my phone for calorie and nutrient info. I loved this app! Not only did it do all the a fore mentioned tasks, but it also archived all my daily entries and showed me dates of when I could expect to reach goals. Now, everything I had been doing on my computer for the past eight weeks could be done in seconds on my phone. I could even record my weekly weight and see how my daily calories and calories earned through walking and exercise were adjusted. For each pound lost, my daily calories were adjusted down six calories daily one week and seven calories down the following week and then returned to six again the following week. I don’t understand the math in this, but I do know it worked for me. I continued to lose a pound per week.
When the first week of January came around, I had reached a 10-pound weight-loss. And that was after going through Thanksgiving and Christmas. Some people were noticing the weight-loss now, including my husband. My husband decided to join me, and I set up the app for him on his phone. It was also around this time that I started getting a little anxious. This was where in the past I had reached a plateau and the weight-loss stopped. Not this time!. Each week, the predicted one pound fell off. When I reached the 15-pound loss, I started feeling more confident in the plan. In March, I returned to my doctor to discuss the plan and get new lab tests. I reported to him that I now had lost 21 pounds. He was so proud of my efforts and results. My lab results had improved even more. I did not need the medication for cholesterol at this point. My doctor told me I could come off the blood pressure medicine also, but again I wanted to wait until I had stayed with these new habits for at least a year. But the dosage of blood pressure medicine was furthered reduced again to just one-fourth a dose per day.
After losing 20 pounds, I reset my goal to losing 25 pounds. At my doctor’s visit, I discussed this new goal with him and reset it to 30 pounds. After I reached 30 pounds, I planned to reset to losing another 10 pounds at one-half pound per week. I didn’t want to go on maintenance with 500 calories suddenly added back to my daily allowance. Adding back 250 calories a day to my daily allowance would take off the remaining 10 at an even slower pace and further entrench these new habits.
At the end of May, I was in near disbelief as the scales confirmed that I had exceeded my original goal of losing 20 pounds. I had now lost 30 pounds. Now I wondered how the one-half pound per week loss would work out, as I added back 250 calories per day to my daily allowance. It worked. When I returned to my doctor in early November, I had lost a total of 38 pounds. When I saw my lab results at this visit, I felt like crying. My triglycerides number was GREAT—around what it had been 30 years before – and a good number for my cholesterol. My doctor told me that my blood pressure medicine could not be reduced any lower, so I began the weaning off process and then went off it completely.
When I first returned to walking as my primary exercise, I tried walking five miles a day about five times a week. Right away, I noticed that the fifth mile was rough on my knees, so I stopped at four, and found my knees could take that. When I discussed the walking and calorie tracking with my doctor, he said four miles was plenty. For the first two months or so, my walking speed was 18 minutes for each mile. After three months or so, I was walking a mile in 16 minutes. After six months of walking four miles a day for four or five times a week, I was completing all four miles in 15-minute miles. Then after about a year and half, I was walking four miles in 14 minutes each. At this point, it just seemed natural to add a slight jog to part of each mile. So with my doctor’s approval, I started doing this.
From the beginning of my return to walking as my primary form of exercise, I have included some mat exercises, as well as some for stretching and balancing. In addition, I work out with weights once or twice a week. I have gone to a lot of fitness classes over the years, and the mat, stretching and balancing exercise I do were learned in those classes. Occasionally, I still go to fitness classes when my favorites are offered – kick boxing and some form of aerobic step.
During the first eight weeks of tracking daily calories, I didn’t add my walking and exercises as “earned calories.” First of all, I wasn’t sure of a number to assign to them, and secondly, I didn’t want to get in the habit of rewarding myself with extra food. Thirdly, while I was new at logging daily food entries, I knew it was more than possible I would forget to log something, and the calories earned from walking would hopefully cover that and anything I logged wrong. After I started using the “Lose It” app, I banked the calories earned for walking for planned indulgences and also to cover mistakes in entries logged, and in a few cases, ingredients I forgot to list in computing some of my recipes. These mistakes can and do happen. Thankfully, I’ve had enough overage from my walking to cover them and met my goals. Although I didn’t realize it at the time and didn’t account for it, I was gaining muscle from the consistent mat exercises.
Like many other challenges in life, the hardest part is on the front end. Although I really couldn’t say this has been hard as far as the eating part. I don’t feel starved or go to bed hungry. Not even in the beginning. For me the hardest part was in the beginning when I wondered if it would really work—if I could make it past the plateau point in my past—and if it would bring improvement to my lipid panel.
Sometimes, I’m asked if I lost this weight by sticking to 1,200-1,400 a day. The answer is no. In going back and looking at the entries from the early weeks and months, I see that most days I took in around 1,600 calories. There were a few days when I only took in around 1200-1,400 calories, just due to the fact I was extra busy or just had lower-calorie meals. Even with the lower calorie in-take, I was meeting daily essential nutrient requirements. I stopped eating junk when I started tracking calories, so everything I ate counted toward these requirements. A few times, I checked my daily log-ins and saw that I had only taken in 1,200 or so calories, and I would eat something whether I was hungry or not. I didn’t want to take in lower than my allowance and risk lowering my metabolism.
Going on maintenance at 140 pounds brought my daily calorie allotment back to 1,689 calories before walking or any exercise and more than adequately covers three meals and managed treats. I still weigh several times a week. I don't plan to end the daily logging. It's working and it's become part of my daily life. I do not want to go back.
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An app makes it easy
Seven weeks into my weight-loss journey, I discovered the free Lose It app on the new phone I had just received for my birthday.
Not only did this app make logging food daily much easier, but it also enabled me to track essential nutrients and projected realistic dates for achieving my goals. It took a few weeks to set up all the foods and recipes for my meals, but once this info was in the data base, my daily logging was a breeze.
Daily food entries can also be logged online at Lose It instead of/or in addition to using the phone app.
I briefly downloaded another weight-loss app that supposedly tracked some additional nutrients and had a larger data base of restaurants. This app required more personal information just to sign up, and it was personal information that did not pertain to any fitness goals. After I completed the sign-up and set the app up for use, I saw that it had allotted me over 200 less daily calories than Lose It. At the time, I had already lost 38 pounds, so I promptly deleted the other app. I had planned to use this app along with Lose It, but decided it wasn’t worth the memory use on my phone. Apparently, the default was set to accommodate all metabolism levels.
Lose It has a default set to age 35, but it is changed when you entered your own age. It can be changed again if you find your own age does not accurately respond to your true metabolism. Lose It has a help section, where it explains how activity levels are computed to arrive at daily calorie allocations and how these can be changed to accommodate more or less activity.
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No applause needed
Anticlimax: something that is much less exciting or dramatic than it was expected to be: a dull or disappointing ending or result.
When I was in college, a professor cautioned those of us in his writing class about the possibility of“anticlimax” in talking about our personal writing projects.
“Many people plan to write a book, but few ever do,” he said. “One of the reasons their books are never written is due to anticlimax. In talking about the book they are planning to write, they experience the climax before it’s ever written. After they have experienced this climax, the actual writing of the book becomes a dull endeavor.”
I never forgot this relevance to writing, and as a consequence, and for that reason, I rarely talk about any personal writing projects that are still in the works.
I believe this analogy can be applied to many goals, and it exhorts me to begin working on goals without fanfare, and then talk about the results. Unfortunately, I don't always do that. Sometimes, I do make announcements at the beginning of my projects and undertakings, and so often have short-term results. Those warm and fuzzy feelings can quickly leave after stepping into the commitment.
How many times have we noted someone announcing on social media their intentions to follow a certain diet or exercise program and then receiving heaping amounts of praise, just for the declaration? Rarely are any results announced, and most of these are immediate results. Some might say that encouragement is needed at this point. Real encouragement is not praise for an accomplishment that is yet to be realized. Receiving praise for “intentions” can lead to climax before any progress has been reached, much less the goal.
Starting a weight-loss journey with a small goal of one pound per week is not very exciting and will garner little if any praise. For me, making an announcement would just be setting myself up for more self-defeat. When I started working on losing a pound per week, only my husband and children knew about it. Three months later, my husband joined me and has had the same results.
Slow and consistent progress leads to rewarding and lasting results. My rewards—and noticed only by me — have been much improved lab reports, dropping daily medications and just feeling better. Dropping clothing sizes —noticed by others — is a bonus.
Real encouragement can take many forms other than unearned praise. When family and friends support the changes needed to stay on track day-to-day, it’s a great help and relief. Social situations and eating out present great challenges in staying on track with calories and nutrients. It’s impossible to assign correct numbers to all the ingredients in someone’s favorite recipe, and not all restaurants supply nutrient information for their menu. Suggestions and help in maneuvering through these situations is appreciated, and so is acknowledgement of visible signs of progress, along the way.
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What do I eat?
For the most part, I still eat the same foods I ate before I started this journey.
For cooking, I still buy and use white flour, as well as whole grain flour; organic white and brown sugar; and organic dairy products, made from whole milk if possible. I still cook only with butter, coconut oil and olive oil.
I don't follow any diet or eating fad or drink any concoctions. I concentrate on whole foods, including mostly fruits and vegetables,whole grains, yogurt and cheese, along with meat a few times a week. I rarely eat meat more than once a day.
Once I began logging all my daily foods, I did ban my worst indulgences -- ice cream and potato chips. A heaping cereal bowl contained a regular serving of ice cream for me. And frequently, I ate two cereal bowls of it. In the same manner, I would keep refilling a bowl with potato chips until I had consumed half a bag. There was no filling up on either of those snacks.
After I had been on this journey for about seven months, I allowed myself a small dish of ice cream. I carefully measure a half cup and did not refill the dish. I still measure ice cream into a dish and stay within a half cup and occasionally have a full cup. But no more. I still have potato chips banished. Early on I replaced chips with nuts, which are much more filling and nutritious.
Although I haven't banned soft drinks, I've gone from drinking them once or twice a week to maybe one every two months. I just don't want that much sugar in my daily consumption. My favorite beverage is black coffee.
I still have a sweet tooth and mostly satisfy it with treats I make at home. Many recipes can be adjusted to lower the sugar content with no noticeable changes in taste or texture. Surprisingly, most of my favorite dessert recipes that I've entered in the Lose It app recipe section are not that high in calories, fat or sugar, within a single serving. Staying within portion limits is key,but tracking sugar as well as calories helps to pull in the reigns. At least, it helps me. I do not use any artificial sweeteners.
The same goes for sodium, as far as daily tracking, and I try to stay within the guidelines for my age. It's much easier when I'm eating meals at home. It's difficult to stay on track with daily sodium intake when eating out. For this reason, I started making pizza from scratch at home. It tastes much better than commercial pizza, and it's a super accomplishment for me.
I do not get up each morning thinking about what I can or cannot eat that day. I have established a habit of starting the day with a good breakfast, packed with essential nutrients. I used to eat skimpy breakfasts and snack until lunch. My breakfasts are now usually around 500 calories, so I don't get hungry an hour or two later.
I have the freedom to eat anything I want as long as I stay within my daily allotment of calories.
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