Weight Loss Discussion Thread

[simonp]

Just to be awkward I'll use a space-saving slimmed-down chart. 

If you’re being awkward then I’ll have to put in a work-around to the graphing programme to make sure it still works for everyone else who isn’t being awkward. Thanks. 

I think a penny has just dropped: are you telling me that the purpose of that visually ... er ... idiosyncratic weight loss template is so that it can be automatically read by some sort of graphing tool? I'll use it if it helps in any way.

Yep, you made him write a bunch more code 

Not done it yet so it’s fine. I decided my tax return took priority.

I don’t find the idiosyncratic layout at all helpful in the code, actually (I didn’t come up with it), but now that I’ve spent the effort to make it work I’d rather not have to write any extra further code which I have to maintain in parallel in order to support another layout (or indeed further variants). I already had to do work to make boab’s x+10 or whatever from last year work, but now she’s putting the numbers in she should get a working graph for this year.

BTW, there should be no problem with adding additional whitespace in the correct places to make the layout work better - also some (all?) browsers allow the user to drag the editing window to be wider, which is helpful when entering weights as it avoids confusing wrapping. The programme ‘knows’ the calendar layout though, so any changes from that format will cause it to get things wrong.

[Pedaldog.]

MAJOR SATURDAY FAIL

I've spent the Friday night and most of Saturday doing much more than the prescribed dose of Opiate pain killers with the nasty head pain and in a spirit of "Oh, Sod it!" have had an evening of Pizza and Pringles!

Try again.

[L CC]

The tough thing 'dog, is not to let the day's failure make you give up.

It doesn't negate your previous efforts, you have to see it as 'a blip' and get back on, the next day.
Every day you resist is a victory.

[This is what I'm telling myself after my 'efforts' yesterday, anyway.]

[Feline]

I was so overjoyed at arriving at the pub today that I 'forgot' I had given up alcohol and ordered a pint. It was DoomBar ale though, hard to resist. In my defence I probably burned off it's calories and the roast dinner on the ride home.

[citoyen]

The Fitbit looks interesting, but I'm wondering whether the wireless tracker would know that you are cycling and be able to work out how many calories you are using given it won't give the same motion as walking. Is there a way to manually add cycled miles to the app if not?

Yes, you can manually add exercises. The main purpose of the tracker seems to be to monitor your general activity level rather than specific exercises.

d.

[Gandalf]

MAJOR SATURDAY FAIL

I've spent the Friday night and most of Saturday doing much more than the prescribed dose of Opiate pain killers with the nasty head pain and in a spirit of "Oh, Sod it!" have had an evening of Pizza and Pringles!

Try again.

I wouldn't panic, I usually take liberties at the weekend  but get back on the straight and narrow during the week.

[Auntie Helen]

Many years ago (11, to be precise) I did a bit of a mega diet with the WeightWatchers points thingie and lost 8st 2lb in 10-and-a-bit months (and kept it off for five years or so!)  Four stone have crept back on so I am currently beating them into submission.

I'm not using WW but myfitnesspal this time - same concept (keeping a track of your daily calorie intake and exercise output). Being a cyclist this time round it's easy to burn quite a few calories, which is top.

The thing is, WW always said you should eat up your extra calories that you generate through exercise, but this time round I don't seem to need to do that. I end up with 500-800 cals free at the end of the day (I'm eating about 1900-2000, with 1700 as my target, but averaging 800 extra per day with all the cycling I'm doing). Does anyone know if this does matter? Or is the calorie deficit through exercise (bearing in mind I'm eating three square meals and a couple of snacks a day) fine and helpful?

[Feline]

Many years ago (11, to be precise) I did a bit of a mega diet with the WeightWatchers points thingie and lost 8st 2lb in 10-and-a-bit months (and kept it off for five years or so!)  Four stone have crept back on so I am currently beating them into submission.

I'm not using WW but myfitnesspal this time - same concept (keeping a track of your daily calorie intake and exercise output). Being a cyclist this time round it's easy to burn quite a few calories, which is top.

The thing is, WW always said you should eat up your extra calories that you generate through exercise, but this time round I don't seem to need to do that. I end up with 500-800 cals free at the end of the day (I'm eating about 1900-2000, with 1700 as my target, but averaging 800 extra per day with all the cycling I'm doing). Does anyone know if this does matter? Or is the calorie deficit through exercise (bearing in mind I'm eating three square meals and a couple of snacks a day) fine and helpful?

Ive tried the fitbit and myfitnesspal apps for the past 2 days and found the myfitnesspals one much easier to log food on so I'm going with that. I was wondering the same thing as you, I ran a 1500 calorie deficit yesterday and a 500 calorie one today. I'm not sure if this is good or bad, but I've lost 1kg in 3 days 

[clarion]

Had a bad day.  Also still have a chocolate bar in my saddlebag.  Which is still there, I'm pleased to say.

[L CC]

Many years ago (11, to be precise) I did a bit of a mega diet with the WeightWatchers points thingie and lost 8st 2lb in 10-and-a-bit months (and kept it off for five years or so!)  Four stone have crept back on so I am currently beating them into submission.

I'm not using WW but myfitnesspal this time - same concept (keeping a track of your daily calorie intake and exercise output). Being a cyclist this time round it's easy to burn quite a few calories, which is top.

The thing is, WW always said you should eat up your extra calories that you generate through exercise, but this time round I don't seem to need to do that. I end up with 500-800 cals free at the end of the day (I'm eating about 1900-2000, with 1700 as my target, but averaging 800 extra per day with all the cycling I'm doing). Does anyone know if this does matter? Or is the calorie deficit through exercise (bearing in mind I'm eating three square meals and a couple of snacks a day) fine and helpful?

Are you hungry? If not, I'd say you're OK running at quite a high deficit.
I'd also check you're not overestimating your calorie consumption for cycling. What sort of level are you using? Most calorie counting things assume that cyclists are sporting cyclists rather than recreational cyclists, IYSWIM. I don't generally push very hard when I'm riding (I can almost always maintain a conversation/sing) and I'd be very surprised if I was using even as much as 500kcal/hr.
WW advise you to use your generated exercise points because if you're hungry you get demoralised and lose enthusiasm so are less likely to stick with it.

(Like you I lost 7 stone and 3.5 of it has returned. Begone, extra weight, I evicted you once, and you can gtf again).

[Auntie Helen]

Today's the first day (evening) that I have been hungry so I did eat into more of my spare calories, I only had 400 over at the end of the day; yesterday I had 800.

I'm using my HRM to help estimate calorie consumption. Had a chat with Chris S about this and it may be overestimating but I note that now ai've got over the cold I had at the beginning of thenhear it's awarding me fewer calories. My HRM gives far fewer calories burned than the standard app 10mph average. Today I got 700ish for 2 hours' riding (21 miles).

I think you're right, hunger must be some sort of guide, although I often feel hungry when I really shouldn't. Like now, after the full roast I cooked followed by banana, ice cream and flake!

[citoyen]

I'd also check you're not overestimating your calorie consumption for cycling. What sort of level are you using? Most calorie counting things assume that cyclists are sporting cyclists rather than recreational cyclists, IYSWIM. I don't generally push very hard when I'm riding (I can almost always maintain a conversation/sing) and I'd be very surprised if I was using even as much as 500kcal/hr.

According to myfitnesspal, my four-hour ride on Sunday burned 3,000 calories, which I suspect is at least double what I actually burned. Out of interest, I entered the same ride data into livestrong and it reckoned I'd burned over 4,000 calories. 

d.

[L CC]

700 seems about right for 21 miles. Whether you take less than 1 hr or more than 2.

[Wendy]

700 seems about right for 21 miles. Whether you take less than 1 hr or more than 2.

Hmm, are you sure about that? Of course there's a fixed component to the calories you burn, but aerodynamics is a huge hit. At 20mph something like 80% of your work on a normal upright is pushing air out of the way. Go a bit slower and you'll be doing considerably less work.

[Feline]

myfitnesspal works out cycling calories by minutes but you have to rate the speed you rode at into categories depending on your speed and effort.

[Chris S]

Well - it's always going to be a guesstimate - because each ride is different, and our bodies adapt as we ride more (we hope!).

I spent some weeks last year trying to get a more accurate figure for me by simply recording all my food intake, and only doing cycling as exercise. I picked a nominal 600 kcals per hour for cycling and tried damn sure to balance calories with expenditure. I put on a little weight in the first week, so adjusted the cycling burn figure down to 500 and repeated for another week. I eventually got to a figure of 400 kcals per hour - which is about 75% of the figure used by myfitnesspal for "moderate" cycling, and is exactly half what my HRM estimated.

Auntie Helen does her cycling lying down - so I suspect her burn figures will be different anyway; but in truth - these are all very personal things. If you want an accurate figure, you have to work out your own.

[Notsototalnewbie]

What I found was that the calories burned on MFP were only close to accurate (according to HRM) when I first started spinning, but the gap steadily widened as I got fitter and presumably more efficient. I do think my HRM is roughly right, because when I was carefully sticking to the calories I was allowed on MFP using the HRM as a guide for calories burned through exercise (so generally eating most of my exercise calories), I did lose 7kg.

I had six weeks off the spinning & cycling after the wisdom tooth op went a bit wrong (increased heart rate isn’t somewhere you want to go when you have a throbbing dry socket in your mouth) and then it was Xmas. I’m almost back to the calorie estimates of MFP being the same as my HRM again.

I am now at the weight I want to be, I ‘just’ need to maintain it. Myself and Rob are now on a bit of an austerity drive for various reasons, which involves much cooking from scratch and taking lunches into work, which will help a lot. Really I just need to curb my talent for making enormous amounts of chocolate disappear, which has started up again over Xmas and not wanting to go away.

[citoyen]

I suspect you'd need a Powertap + HRM to get a true idea of the figures, but that would be more faff and expense than I can be doing with.

d.

[Butterfly]

I've joined my fitness pal. When I've recorded what I ate previously it has helped - mainly because if you have to weigh the 'handful' of raisins or whatever, you are more likely to be careful about eating them.

[mcshroom]

@citoyen

Probably.

I did a 110 km ride on Saturday at just over 22.5 km/h ave - which my velo8 said was about 1700 kcal, that sounds about right, but I'll assume it's a bit high.

Tesco diets rates the ride at over 2000 kcal (points equivalent) which I think is too high

[Wendy]

I see Fitbit are due to be releasing a WiFi scale in April.  That'll almost certainly push me to get it and the Ultra too.

[jimbhoy]

That's the thing about using MYF, i also think they way over estimate the calories burned through cycling. If you put in some figures such as cycling for 300 mins @14-16mph, it gives a figure as high as 4700, way way OTT in my opinion.

[DrMekon]

Are you hungry? If not, I'd say you're OK running at quite a high deficit.
I'd also check you're not overestimating your calorie consumption for cycling. What sort of level are you using? Most calorie counting things assume that cyclists are sporting cyclists rather than recreational cyclists, IYSWIM. I don't generally push very hard when I'm riding (I can almost always maintain a conversation/sing) and I'd be very surprised if I was using even as much as 500kcal/hr.
WW advise you to use your generated exercise points because if you're hungry you get demoralised and lose enthusiasm so are less likely to stick with it.

(Like you I lost 7 stone and 3.5 of it has returned. Begone, extra weight, I evicted you once, and you can gtf again).

Exactly. I set up a spreadsheet that has my BMR, a Harris-Benedict modifier, and my calorie intake, and I had to multiply MFPs calorie estimate for cycling by .6 to make it fit my weight loss. It's got to be based on an average cyclist on an average bike over average terrain in average traffic. I'm an audaxer on a road bike in Cambridge on rural roads where I never have to stop-start. No wonder it's so far off.

[DrMekon]

According to myfitnesspal, my four-hour ride on Sunday burned 3,000 calories, which I suspect is at least double what I actually burned. Out of interest, I entered the same ride data into livestrong and it reckoned I'd burned over 4,000 calories. 

d.

My calculation is...

Weight loss in KG = (calorie intake - (calorie output from MFP * modifier to fit historic data) + (BMR * Harris-Benedict))/7700

I've used the sedentary level for Harris-Benedict. Start with the MFP modifier at 1, and adjust it until the predicted numbers you get over time start to fit your actual weight.

I've put a blank copy of my spreadsheet here.

[citoyen]

I've put a blank copy of my spreadsheet here.

Thanks for that, I'll have a go with it and see how I get on.

When I was using mynetdiary before Christmas, the figures seemed to match the pattern of my weight lossfluctuations much more closely, but I don't think that's because mynetdiary uses a radically different calculation - I suspect it's because most of my riding was on fixed, ergo every pedal stroke counted (no coasting down hills!). Maybe the formula these sites use assumes you're putting in that level of effort 100% of the time.

I haven't been out on the fixie since before Christmas though.

d.