thor79's Forum Posts

@Slackmaster there already is a DailyBurn app (as well as a food scanner app)…click on the Apps tab at the top of the webpage.

Topic: General Discussion / Daily Calorie Breakdown on iPhone/iPad

@wedzir just ignore him.

What wedzir posted is completely right. You don’t need anything more than your own body if you just want to get in shape.

I have been sticking with primarily body weight exercises myself (have a few where I use some light dumbells) because right now I’ve been working out in my living room. It’s nice as I can watch TV while I work out (and there’s no fighting over what to watch).

We all had to start somewhere…so don’t get scared off by someone like rigglemg…most people on this site are nice and helpful.

Topic: Fitness and Exercise / New to the whole 'Healthy' scene but, um..

Ah ok…yeah an iPad friendly version of the site would be good for more than just iPads. I frequently use my netbook (Asus EeePc 1000HE) to record workouts in my living room, and the site would run a bit better for me on that without the flash.

Topic: General Discussion / Daily Calorie Breakdown on iPhone/iPad

@JDanielle: I have been using the “Weight Loss Training Plan” since I started here. It combines bodyweight exercises with some dumbbell work and is working quite well for me. I augment it by doing some additional running on my off days (I try to workout 6 days a week in some form or another). I like the training plan so far, the only exercises I don’t like doing in the training plan are the 8 count body builders, as they absolutely kill me. Once I get a bit more fit I’ll start doing them again but until then I’m skipping them.

Pamela is right…using weights will not cause you to be a muscle-bound scary man…that only happens if you really work at it (going above and far beyond what most fit people do). Weights will help give your muscles a workout and that will help you burn calories for longer after your workout. Cardio is good for the heart and good for burning calories but weights will do the most to get your body in shape. This is why my weight loss plan includes weight training.

On TV: I gotta have something to keep me entertained…whether it’s a TV show, a podcast, or just some music…I need something to keep my mind occupied…as that helps keep me focused on my task…getting fit.

On the subject of video games (from your post on my journal): I still game regularly and I don’t see any issue with continuing to game…after all…if I were to cut out every sedentary activity in my life, I wouldn’t have much of a life (I am a programmer). You just have to keep in check what you snack on while you game. For snacks while gaming I use stuff like grapes or an apple. Sometimes beef jerky since it’s high in protein (not so much anymore as I’m trying to cut down on sodium). For what to drink, I just keep my water bottle handy. You can still snack…you just have to keep yourself accountable.

I’m rather new to all this myself and I’m still learning as well. I’ve learned a ton since I first got to this site. One thing you should already have if you’re counting calories is a good food scale. Measure everything. I start my day by measuring out my Cheerios and Milk. Every meal I have is measured…and that is the best way to keep track of what you eat. No guessimating as you will either overestimate or underestimate. The only way to be sure is measuring. The hardest part with measuring everything is when you go to family gatherings or business lunches, you’re not in control of how the food is prepared, so you don’t know all the ingredients. You might be able to get a recipe or something but chances are, unless you carry your scale with you everywhere (I don’t), you won’t know how much your food weighed.

Measuring is important because when you record what you eat, it is like looking at yourself in a mirror, you come to the realization about certain things you should and shouldn’t be eating. For instance, I’ve almost entirely given up beef because I realized it was hurting my weight loss goal (I plateaued for a couple of weeks). That doesn’t mean you can’t have the occasional treat…but you have to budget for it like you budget for your bills every month if you want to continue to progress towards your goals.

Topic: Fitness and Exercise / New to the whole 'Healthy' scene but, um..

I could easily see my next goal putting me beyond the 100 pound level…but for now I’m only looking to get down to 180…which is 92.6 pounds from where I started. (75.2 pounds away)

The most important thing is to get your mindset right. Make it a lifestyle change rather than a diet. “Going on a diet” implies it being only a temporary change IMO…when what you want is a permanent change and a healthier life.

Next most important is to get any workouts or anything you have to do to keep healthy into your routine. When you get it into your routine then it makes it easy to keep on track.

Good luck!

Topic: Motivation and Support / Howdy from Texas!!!

@jamie76 that’s what I’ve heard too..

Before I started this both my dad and I used to love salt. He still does, but I’ve dropped it as much as possible. Neither of us ever had issues with sodium-caused high blood pressure. My dad has high blood pressure and takes medication for it, but was never told to restrict his salt intake (when he went on the medication he did bring it up). My blood pressure has always been close to normal even when I was using a lot of salt.

For a person not watching their weight the hypertension thing is the only thing really to worry about. For a person trying to get fit though it helps to cut down on sodium…it will help you shed water-weight as the water won’t be held in the body by sodium as much.

Topic: Diet and Nutrition / Is salt really a big deal?

Yeah as much as I hate Apple for not putting flash on the iPhone…I respect them for making a stand and forcing people to go to open standards instead of caving to Adobe.

Topic: General Discussion / Daily Calorie Breakdown on iPhone/iPad

I gave up soda when I started this. Only have one Diet Pepsi recorded in my log. That’s all I used to drink though, Diet Pepsi…so better than sugary sodas, but I gave it up anyway and switched to water or water with flavoring added (I get at least half my daily water as straight water).

The funny thing is…Just a week or so before I started all this…I installed a can crusher on the wall in my kitchen…and now I have no use for it.

Now I only drink water, water with flavoring, or OJ (1 glass a day with my breakfast), oh and the milk from my cereal bowl (skim).

Really haven’t missed sodas at all.

Topic: Diet and Nutrition / Have you stopped drinking soda since you joined DailyBurn?

@dianebl TOO TRUE…I didn’t really start losing weight until I really worked on my nutrition. I got started slow and then I plateaued. In my efforts to try to eat more protein I started eating more ground beef. This was a mistake as it was the cause of my plateau. I dropped the beef and replaced it with ground turkey instead, and I have been losing consistently ever since.

I came in thinking that I could just adjust my portions and make my recipes more healthy, thinking that just getting exercise (wasn’t exercising at all before this) would be enough to drop the weight quick. It really takes an effort in the kitchen to get your body going in the direction you want to go.

The nutrition tab also helps keep me in check. When I record everything it becomes more real when I see those numbers add up.

You can workout all you want, but if it’s not matched with a proper diet you’re just shooting yourself in the foot.

Topic: Diet and Nutrition / Is the Daily Burn estimates full of crap?

We have no special days where people bring stuff in, but our boss (owner of the company, it’s a small company) sometimes brings in Panera bread (one of their higher calorie bread with powdered sugar on top). I think I’ve gotten him trained now though not to bring it in, as if he does it will go to waste since I refuse to eat it anymore. He also frequently brings in Donuts. but again, he does this much less often since I’m being more strict about my nutrition than even he is. Before I started this he was known as the “health nut” of the office. I’m happy to say I took over that title. :)

Never had a day like “dirty Friday” at any other job either. For my dad though, they are “required” (term used loosely) to bring in treats for their own birthdays. Seems kind of strange to me that the birthday person has to buy the food, but whatever. What usually gets brought in is donuts.

Topic: Diet and Nutrition / Dirty Friday

I have the opposite problem, my calorie intake usually drops significantly during the weekends, mostly because I get busy for hours at a time and I end up missing meals here and there. My nutrition during the week is much more stable since I have predefined times in my routine that I eat. I have no such routine during the weekend.

I’m a gamer so I end up spending a lot of the time on the weekends gaming (I’m a social person, just not in-person social). I keep water handy but I don’t keep food handy. The hours just melt away.

@rachelbishop: You’re completely correct…you have to stay on top of it no matter what you do, over or way under…doesn’t matter, gotta track it all. Half the time what I end up doing is not entering my weekend meals until late Sunday or Monday morning. The problem with that is I sometimes have trouble remembering what I ate (going all the way back to Friday night, when my gaming starts).

Topic: Diet and Nutrition / Reducing Weekend Calorie Intake

I’m sure a few of you heard about the study published recently:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/18/healt…

It seems to distance unprocessed red meat from the unhealthy list, while putting processed red meat squarely on it.

This was obvious to me…but I would say don’t go chowing down on unprocessed red meat if you’re trying to lose weight. Just an anecdote, but shortly after starting here I started eating more lean ground beef to get more protein. After that I plateaued for a couple of weeks before I decided to drop the Ground Beef and replace it with ground Turkey. Ever since then I have been on a downward slope. I think dropping the red meat from my diet has helped my weight loss a great deal.

That doesn’t mean I have given it up completely though. It is on my occasional treats list. I’ll enjoy a juicy steak on special occasions, I just don’t make it a regular occurrence.

I’d like to hear others thoughts and/or stories on this. Do you think dropping red meat from your diet can help you lose weight?

For the record in addition to the turkey I also eat chicken and pork.

Topic: Diet and Nutrition / Red Meat...

3-4 pounds a day is easy for me especially if I have been drinking my water like I should.

I weigh myself once a week on Sunday. I stopped doing the daily weigh-ins because I was beating myself up on the days I didn’t make progress.

So I started weighing in on Saturday morning but I found that it seemed to be too close to my Friday workout, as a couple of times I would weigh-in with no change in the morning, then weigh in that night after all my meals only to find I had actually lost weight despite the food I ate and the water I drank. So I moved it to Sunday morning (right after I get up) to distance it from my Friday workout. Saturday is my off day so I have no workouts that day. Gives my body some time to normalize itself after the Friday workout. Definitely seemed to do the trick.

Topic: Diet and Nutrition / weight fluctuation

If you’re trying to lose a lot of weight (10%+ of your body weight, like me) then I’d say the easiest thing to do is just pick up a home scale. The important factor in the scale is consistency. So long as the scale is consistent with itslef, then you can get a measure on how your fat loss is going. Knowing exactly how much isn’t really that important. It’s more important to know how much you have lost relative to a previous measurement on the same scale.

I use a body fat scale and get both my weight and body fat % every week on Sunday. It also shows water %, but I’m not tracking that. The good thing is that it’s a very consistent scale.

For the more physically fit I’d say it would be better to go for the more accurate measures for obvious reasons.

Topic: General Health / Where can I get my body fat measured?

About 2.5 months in…22 pounds gone…3% of my body fat….and I will be breaking through the 25k calorie barrier early this week! Loving it!

Congrats Lilamarie!

Topic: Motivation and Support / What have you done since joining that makes you PROUD?