Weight Loss Goals and Tracking
From this spreadsheet I can create limitless graphs and charts of my progress. I play with it constantly. I track my calories using the Calorie King website (it's my favorite and I have tried many others), and I transfer the totals to this sheet. It might seem like a lot of work, but I think it's fun and I love being able to open it up and see my progress in black and white (and blue and yellow).
This time I have been trying to track my calorie deficit. I know that you have to run a calorie deficit of about 3500 calories before you will lose one pound. So, I have added a formula to my spreadsheet to calculate my BMR (basal metabolic rate) using my most recent weight, and then I add my estimated calories burned through exercise to get a rough total of my calorie needs each day. Yes I know I burn other calories besides the exercise calories, but I didn't add them to help account for the fact that my exercise calories may be overestimated (who ever really knows how many calories you burn doing certain activities). My theory is, if I can figure out my calorie deficit and compare it to my weight loss, I might be able to use that to figure out how many calories I should eat to maintain my weight loss? Who knows, but its worth a shot.
This is part of the reason that I get really weird about having to go out to dinner, or to social events where I can't accurately track my intake. Even if I eat mostly healthy foods, if I can't count the calories accurately, it throws off all my tracking. Am I obsessed? Maybe. But isn't it better to be obsessed with healthy eating and tracking than to be obsessed with eating junk food and lying on the couch?
Here is what I ate yesterday (I also rode my bike to the gym, ran 5.3km in 38 minutes, and did one hour of weight training):
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