In order to lose weight (and I certainly have belly fat to be losing), you have to operate at a caloric debt. there’s a lot of science going on that I don’t understand, and a lot of pseudoscience that I’m not qualified to debunk, but at the root, the rule is Lose Weight: Caloric Debt. Build Strength: Exercise. You can basically never exercise away eating too much, so I’ve just got to stop eating too much. Especially since I don’t exercise much. I haven’t changed my 12,000 step “goal” on Fitbit, but I also almost never get anywhere close to it (last Monday-Friday: M:4647, T:6107, W:1504, T:13780 F:18.518). Keep in mind on Thursday I played 3 hours of volleyball and on Friday I hiked and was generally active with a couple friends, hiking, hill climbing and wandering around much of the day. Today I’ve done just north of 3100 steps and it’s not looking like I’ll do many more. I’m the laziest, is the moral of the story.
It looks like my total caloric intake for today (assuming I don’t get a last-minute invite to go out drinking…) is going to be around 2468 calories. That’s barely under the 2515 that Fitbit claims I should be eating to get to a goal weight of 175 lbs. Here’s the list.
- Breakfast: 468 calories
- 3-egg sausage omlette (jumbo eggs: 96 cals each, sausage link, 180 cals)
- tea, with 0
- Lunch: 320 calories
- 2x SuperPretzel soft pretzels (160 cals each)
- Dinner: 1680 Calories
- Mac Cheese (1200 cals/box) & Hot Dogs (160 cals each)
I didn’t intend to eat a 3-egg omlette this morning, but damn, it was good. and you really need at least 3 eggs to make the meat from 1 sausage work, so there’s that. It would be a good breakfast for 2, actually, 4 eggs, one sausage and the veggies I used but didn’t include in my calculations. And I really don’t need to eat an ENTIRE box of Mac & Cheese, but try to stop me. It’s unlikely to work. Especially since I’m going to sautée a jalapeño to go in there. Whatever.
Also, my goal weight isn’t actually 175, but if I never work out, I think that’s about what I should weigh with no muscles. I don’t have a goal weight, honestly, because it’s a sliding scale. If I’m benching 250 and curling a bill and look good doing it, then fuck it – I can weigh 300 pounds. It’s all about the mirror and the numbers on the plates (vanity ftw!). And the volleyball performance. And maybe my skiing prowess.
The thing about my weight is that it’s all tough, slog-it-out pounds, basically. I don’t have any terrible habits to break; I don’t eat pizza every day, I cook semi-healthy, I don’t drink soda or an appreciable amount of beer. I’m somewhat active and I don’t have any health issues to speak of. I think about people that have “real” weight to lose and imagine after they identify (and hopefully break) their big-deal habits and the “easy” 10, 15, or whatever pounds go away, it must be a real challenge to stick it out as the weight loss slows and the challenge of eating only 2000 calories every day for weeks and months makes its own type of weight felt. I know 2500’s impossible for me to do just casually – I’m going to make a dozen cookies tomorrow and eat them all. I might have a half a large pepperoni pizza in a couple nights. And then I’m going to Vegas to pig out with my family for 7 days. It’s going to wreak havoc on my diet (diet as in the food I eat rather than the weight loss plan I don’t have). I’m totally bringing my scale to Vegas, btw.
Something about the way I’m eating today and my own challenges made me think about doing this post. I don’t feel like I’ve eaten that much, but dinner will be way more than 1/3 of my daily intake if I actually eat all that (which I totally will). It throws into sharp relief how easy it is to “over” eat, even with a generous 2500 calorie allowance and with a healthy breakfast, a snack for lunch and no junk food. God forbid I go for drinks tonight. A bottle of California Cab costs 788 calories (stat from the AMAZING WineFolly.com), and 3 vodka rocks go for probably 485 calories (figuring on some generous pours), and either would put me way over my “limit” for the day.
I should probably write something about working out, too, but this is enough for one day. If you read all the way here, I’m sorry. It’s just interesting to me to think about the way we eat and the myriad of little changes that need to happen to make weight loss possible.
Happy Monday!
