madocaro's Forum Posts

I am slightly baffled by my Daily Nutrition Goals. I am a 32 year old female, 5’5" and 183 lbs, aiming for 140 lbs (I’ll see about going lower once I get that far).

The daily nutrition goals that concern me are:

Calorie intake of 2291 to 2541
Protein intake of 193 to 274

One, how can I possibly lose any weight eating that many calories? I’ve had 1581 today. It’s 20:30 and I am not the least bit hungry, there is no way I’m going to eat another 700 calories before bed. In fact i feel like I’ve actually eaten too much today.

Two, how on earth am I going to get 193g of protein? That seems like an insane amount. I’ve had 79.7g today, having eaten some with each meal. Even with a protein shake I wouldn’t hit my minimum. From varying sources I’ve found online I’ve gathered I need at least 50 and at most 90. Nowhere, anywhere has suggested I would need more than 100g.

I excercise for at least an hour daily, with a light walk (also an hour) on my rest day, burning anywhere from 300-1000 calories depending on that days activities. But even so, this amount of food seems like too much. it might be fine for weight maintenance, but weight loss?

Am I missing something? Did something get miscalulated somewhere? When I first set up my profile (yesterday) things seemed to make sense but I’ve been playing around with the diet goals and the like, and I’m wondering if I messed something up.

Topic: Diet and Nutrition / Confused about my Daily Nutrition Goals

This topic was created for the “Lose 40 pounds”:http://dailyburn.com/challenges/lose_40_pounds… challenge.

Topic: Fitness Challenges / Lose 40 pounds by caramado

Thanks! I added in my body fat and turned off advanced diet goals so that it would stop increasing my daily limits when I record my excercise. The numbers make way more sense now.

Topic: Diet and Nutrition / Confused about my Daily Nutrition Goals

From what what I’ve read on the forums the calculator in my nutrition log is supposed to display only added sugar, but after adding it all up myself I see mine is showing all sugar.

Also…Is the sugar in milk considered natural? Because those three glasses a day seem to be what’s killing my numbers. When I add up all the sugars excluding milk and fruit, I only get 28.2g, but my total is 84.3…

Topic: Diet and Nutrition / How Daily Burn calculates sugars

Thanks! Well at least I know my added sugar is low enough then.

Topic: Diet and Nutrition / How Daily Burn calculates sugars

I started out with my advanced goals on but got frustrated with the constant adjustments to my upper and lower intake limits. I set my goals back to regular so now everyday it wants me to consume the same quantities.

I am trying to lose weight, so the regular goals make more sense to me. On days when I get more excercise I just think of the extra calorie burn as bonus progress (and if I get a bit hungrier I eat something extra and don’t feel bad about going slightly over my limits).

When I had it on advanced there was one day where I had gotten a lot of exercise and it wanted me to eat 700 more calories, which seemed counterproductive to the weight loss mission, and I was nowhere near hungry enough to eat that much.

That said, I’m just starting out so it remains to be seen if regular or advanced is the better choice…but so far I find the regular easier to use and follow.

Topic: Diet and Nutrition / Advanced diet goals

I’ve been prone to serious bouts of depression for most of my life, but I’ve gotten pretty good at managing them myself without drugs or therapy, and they have been getting shorter and further apart as the years go by.

I find it incredibly hard to exercise when I’m depressed, but I have taken to walking when I feel too bad to do anything else. I’ve found it really helps because it’s easy and requires minimal exertion, but I still get the benefit of some good exercise and fresh air. And it kills an hour that I might otherwise spend brooding in front of the TV or a pile of food. It’s an easy way to reduce the physical toll that depression takes on the body.

There is something about wandering (aimlessly or not) that really clears my head. I just let my mind go in whatever direction it wants to while I ‘detach’ by focusing on something else – the act of walking, the scenery, whatever. It gives me the mental space to process while giving me a little distance from myself.

Of course, I might cloud right up again when I get home, but that hour has its effect and it adds up. It might be hard to quantify the positive effect this has at the time, but when I look back I can see how it helps make a depressive phase shorter and less serious. I think of these walks as putting up a wall between me and my depressive tendencies that says “this far and no further.”

A safety note though – depressed people are prone to spacing out while walking – staring at the ground, getting tunnel vision, and otherwise becoming under-aware of their surroundings – which can make you vulnerable, so make sure that your route is familiar and in a safe, populated area, and bring a cell phone and some ID. Wander safely.

Topic: Motivation and Support / Depression and Weight Loss

I jogged with my last dog, she was a black/lab husky mix. She loved it, but she was not terribly well behaved, so I had to resign myself to a lot of “sniff breaks.” I basically considered any run with her, as her run, for her fitness, and if I didn’t get enough myself I would just have to go again without her.

As far as leashing goes I always preferred a chest harness with her because it’s a lot easier on their bodies than a traditional round the neck collar if you have to make a sudden stop (for traffic, other dogs, etc). I prefer holding the leash in my hand. Its a bit annoying to have to hold on to it but I feel it gives more control should anything unexpected happen. If your dog is very well behaved you can attach the leash to your waist but I was never comfortable doing that with mine, she was too prone to running off in random directions which could tangle me up!

Oh and…make sure he does his business BEFORE you start, unless you want to be running around with a bag of poop in one hand (or run somewhere with frequent trash bins!).

Topic: Fitness and Exercise / Tips for Jogging with the Dog?

I am following option B in the diet goals (F:35% C:25% P:40%) – low carb for weightloss. I am trying to work out how to get 6oz of grains without totally blowing my carb limit but not having much luck. Between the veggies and the grains I end up around 100g over.

I’ve noticed that if I switch my goal to “balanced” (F:30% C:40% P:30%) I don’t go over the limit, so I am not worried that I am doing damage from too many carbs, but since weightloss is my goal I don’t want to switch to this option.

From my reading I get the impression that I don’t really need to worry about the veggie carbs…so, if I were to subtract them from the total carbs would that be a more realistic picture of where I am as far as my target? Or do I need to count them too for effective weightloss?

Also, does anyone have any advice for good low carb options that fulfill the grain requirement? Right now my 3 main sources are whole wheat bread and pasta, and brown rice.

Topic: Diet and Nutrition / Getting enough grain without blowing carb limits

I usually have a “coffee detox” once a year or so of +/- 2 weeks without it, when I just drink green tea instead. I’ve also noticed I’m a lot less hungry when I’m not drinking the stuff, though I’ve never been sure if its the tea or the lack of coffee that causes that.

Topic: Diet and Nutrition / Just How bad is Caffeine ?

@TriNiSw33tness – at this stage I wouldn’t worry so much about bulking up. Focus on getting your weight down and deal with the fine-tuning later. Muscle is denser than fat, so if you are building muscle it may seem like you aren’t getting anywhere when you look at the scale. But, is your body getting smaller? Clothes getting looser? Sometimes that is a better indicator of your progress in the early stages (in my experience at least).

Back before I got lazy and overweight I taught and practiced karate. My days were anywhere from 2 to 6 hours up and active, so I had to be pretty vigiliant with how and when I fed myself to get through them without burning out. What follows are some of my own observations (by no means professional…just the sum total of my personal experience, observing my students and talking to my peers about what worked for them).

So, as far as how you feel after exercise, you may simply be going into your workouts without being properly fed and hydrated, which is causing you to burn out more than you would otherwise. In this case you need to adjust your pre-workout eating habits/schedule. Try to have a full meal 2 hours beforehand, and 2 glasses of water an hour before. If you can’t time the meal right, a snack an hour before can work, in a pinch, a piece of fruit 1/2 hour before – you’ll have to experiment to see what foods and timing works best for you, keeping in mind that your needs will vary depending on the nature of the workout you have planned. That should alleviate some of the exhaustion you feel afterwards.

Then there is the fact that during your workout you are burning up your reserves. When you’re done working out the first thing you need to do is rehydrate. I like to have a piece of fruit right away as well. Again, what you choose depends on YOUR body, ask around for ideas and experiment until you find what works. Then, try to eat a proper meal within an hour at most (the sooner the better). Personally I am not a fan of supplementing, but if you really can’t get proper food within that hour then I would definately grab a shake or bar of some kind.

All that said, do remember that if you’re working hard you are going to be tired after…if you aren’t, you aren’t working hard enough! But there are different kinds of fatigue – theres the “good fatigue” which leaves you feeling kind of high and satisfied even though you are pooped, then there is the “burned-out” kind, which leaves you feeling drained and uncomfortable. They can be hard to tell apart when you are new to them, so observe yourself closely. Either way, both require refuelling after you work out. But if it is definately the burnt-out fatigue you are feeling, chances are you need to address your pre-workout habits (and probably your whole-life habits).

Topic: Supplements / Best Protein Powders?

Thanks everyone! I shorted myself 2 servings of grain yesterday and and had an extra “meat” instead, and that kept me within my limit for carbs though I ended up a bit high for fats. I’m not quite hitting my ratios yet but every day I am on this plan I tweak it a little…hopefully within a week or so I’ll have a better handle on how to balance everything.

Topic: Diet and Nutrition / Getting enough grain without blowing carb limits

When you’re logging your workout, click on advanced options to enter your heart rate and other extras.

Topic: Fitness and Exercise / how do you track run/hart rate

I am training for a half marathon, so lots of running. It’s still a bit cool where I am so I am running indoors 4 days a week. Should be outside in the next week or two. I am also doing a 3 mile walk on my no-run days, which I do outside, and three days a week of fairly easy bodyweight exercise (the beginner program from daily burn) to keep my muscles toned. Once the race is over I’ll be starting more serious muscle work and changing up my cardio. Also do one day a week of hot yoga to keep stretchy. I’d love to do a second day but I don’t have the time!

Topic: Fitness and Exercise / Seasons are changing... has your workout?

I use the free version iMapMyRun for tracking my runs & walks, and just input the data into daily burn. I find their nutrition logging lacks the detail of dailyburn but I like the accuracy of their mileage and elevation tracking. I haven’t spent much time on their site to so i haven’t checked out all their features yet – I’ll probably spend some time with it this week. Daily burn is definately the best integrated food & fitness app/site I’ve found so far though.

Topic: General Discussion / Evaluating Daily Burn