More than Just Pounds

I got curious as to how much I hiked this past year and also, how many days and minutes I hiked each month.

⭐ 2022
June - 11 days, 557 minutes
July - 14 days, 649 minutes
August - 14 days, 640 minutes
September - 6 days, 238 minutes
October - 13 days, 817 minutes
November - 10 days, 470 minutes
December - 7 days, 491 minutes

⭐ 2023
January - 11 days, 717 minutes
February - 9 days, 601 minutes
March - 12 days, 910 minutes
April - 15 days, 809 minutes
May - 13 days, 653 minutes
June - 16 days so far, 825 minutes so far


⭐8376 hiked minutes; 140 hours total

⭐151 days hiked

It is good to know your numbers when it comes to weight loss because it really is all about the math!  It takes a deficit of 3500 calories to lose 1 pound.  You get that through a daily deficit of food intake (calories) and you can also burn calories through exercise.  I burn on average about 1,800 calories a week through exercise, so if I want to lose 1 pound a week, I have to cut my food down the other 1700 calories - 243 calories less a day.  

Lately, instead of going by my maintenance calories of around 2250, I decided to go by my Active Metabolic Rate (AMR), which is 1720 without exercise.  It is higher depending on what method you use to calculate it but I decided to go by this particular one.  So, I take 1720 and subtract those 243 calories a day I need to decrease so that I can lose a pound a week.  That gives me 1477 but I am going with 1450 to make it easier.

I just started 1450 calories on Sunday and am excited to see if this will help me finish my weight loss by September hopefully!  I wasn't sure what scale weight I needed to aim for because my goals are losing inches in bust, waist and hips.  I'm guessing that my scale weight will be around 140-145 when I reach my desired inches for those areas.  I wanted to see what will I have to eat to maintain those weights.  It is always nice to know if what you are aiming for is going to be something you can maintain and do you really want to eat that low to keep that small?

Currently, I'm up a pound from weight training my legs (which I had stopped for several months but recently added back in), but I started with 155 to make it easier:

⭐ 155 pounds maintain:

1714 no exercise
1964 with exercise 1-3 days/week
2213 with exercise 3-5 days/week

I decided to make a paper copy of the meals I normally eat for breakfast, lunch and after dinner and the calories for each meal.  It has been very helpful lately now that I'm aiming to eat around 1450 calories to lose about a pound a week and hopefully be done with weight loss by the end of summer.  Dinners are with the family and it varies every day and I usually build my day around dinner.  For instance, if I'm having a 500 calorie dinner, I then know that I will only have 950 calories for the other 3 meals of the day, or roughly 315 calories each.  However, I rather prefer to keep my dinners around 400, to give me a bit more during the day and after dinner.  It really all depends on how I feel each day - some days, I am more hungry than others.

These are my data calendars for June 2022 through June 2023. It includes how many points I ate a day or calories, the exercise I did, weight loss and inches lost. Some days I didn't track, so it will be blank. I also took off part of February-April to maintain. I lost my consistency with food when WW changed plans in mid-November and I also found it hard to to stick with my food after my husband lost his job in January.  I have been off and on again with my food consistency since late April to current day.

• Eat enough food! Whatever you do, don't think that undereating will serve you well. Not only will you slow your metabolism down, risk thyroid dysfunction, losing muscle and then the weight will come on fast when you stop because who can maintain by eating the little you will have to eat without gaining!? WW has calculated your needs and you can eat all your dailies, weeklies and fit points and a good amount of zero foods and still lose. Anything less is more than likely undereating and you can use Chronometer free app to check your calorie intake.
• Eat every 2-4 hours while you are awake up until 2 hours before you sleep. I always eat 4 meals a day and I don't snack. I only eat 12 hours of the day, for instance I eat either from 10-10, 11-11 or 12-12 - it all depends on my sleep or what time I finally eat breakfast. So, say I eat breakfast at 11am, meal 2 would be at 3, meal 3 at 7 and meal 4 at 11pm. This not only helps your metabolism and blood sugar but it will keep you FULL and you won't need to snack in between; if you are eating enough at each meal.
• Balance your meals out! Never eat a banana or an egg or anything else by itself. Always eat a carb, protein and fat in every meal, even snacks. Don't ever eliminate one of these because your body needs all these things to function properly. I eat 50% carbs, 30% fat and 20% protein. I've listed foods I eat almost daily below in a list.
• Stay CONSISTENT! Although you can have a negative week or day every now and then and I have, you can't let it become the norm because you will end up in a cycle that will discourage you. Consistency is really key!