How Many Calories Can I Eat?

- POSTED ON: Mar 25, 2011

                                 

I am able to determine my personal current calorie burn
because of my personal data that is now stored
in my computer software food journal, DietPower.

Every day, for the past  six and half  years
I've entered all my food-intake into that food journal.
I've also entered my morning weight each day.

The DietPower program has functions which allows me to see my diet history.
I can see this as a list; or I can see a day-to-day detailed accounting
of my food and nutrition; or I can easily access a summarized accounting,
for... the past week, the past month, the past quarter, or the past year.

Today, the program tells me that
my past year's average calorie intake was 1115 calories.
I can see the amount of my stabilized weight for one year ago,
....which is my Starting weight. for that one year time period....,
by looking at the list of my average weights during the week of one year ago;

I can see the amount of my current stabilized weight (stabilized meaning average)
...which is my Ending weight, for that one year time period....,
by looking at the list of my weights during this past week or so.
By subtracting my ending weight from my starting weight,
I can see exactly how much weight I lost or gained during that one year period.

So...since now I am the same weight that I was one year ago,
I know that the amount of calories that I ate this past year
is the number of calories it takes to keep my weight the same...
Therefore, I can see that my current calorie burn is approximately 1100 daily...
(as of this EXACT date, 1105 calories...but the next week or month...
this total could be a bit higher or a bit lower, so I rounded it to 1100.)

 Along the same line, another function that I find interesting about DietPower,
is that I can also access the program's calendar, and go back in time to a specific date...
and see exactly what I weighed and what I ate on that particular day.  

From that date, I can also access a summarized accounting for the week,
the month, the year prior to that exact date.
For example.....should I wish to do so.....I could revisit Christmas Day, 12/25/2008
and see exactly What and How Much food I ate on that day;
exactly what I weighed on that date; and access a summary of my calories
and nutritional data for the month or year prior to that specific date.

This personal data is valuable and motivating to me,
both my ongoing present data, as well as my past data,
and as I continue in my weight-loss/maintenance journey,
I continually find new things to do with it.
This helps me implement various behavior changes,
and has become an enjoyable hobby for me.

Since I've been doing this so long, and this Habit is so well-established for me,
my daily food and weight input into DietPower takes only a few minutes of my day.
The only lengthy periods of time are when I "play" with my past data
to accomplish some personal agenda.

Here's a recent video about my Weight-Loss History.


Comments:
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Existing Comments:

On Mar 25, 2011 wrote:
Sounds great. I do Power 90 every day and will walk outside when it warms which means I can eat more. :) I can eat around 1500. I'm 5'3" and 118 pounds. Susie


On Mar 25, 2011 Dr. Collins wrote:
             Hi Susie, Looks like you are in a good weight-range and doing a good job of maintaining. Way to Go!!!


On Mar 25, 2011 Dr. Collins wrote:
Thanks! Actually I think this is the first winter I have came out of it at goal weight. I normally stop walking for the winter and don't have a regular exercise program. I normally gain 8 to 12 pounds every winter and take it off in the Spring when I get out and about. Seems good. Susie


On Mar 25, 2011 Dr. Collins wrote:
             Susie, Congratulations on your success.


On Mar 26, 2011 Karen925 wrote:
Diet Power's ability to give you this information is marvelous. I do not have this type of analysis available to me on my apps which is sad. I console myself with the fact that I have my iTouch always with me, so I cannot conveniently forget to record something in my food journals. I use 2 apps Loseit & MyFitnessPal. quick and easy with backup online. I do wonder how my counts will drift downwards overtime. I also wonder if eating more carbs, then less, then more will hasten the downward track more quickly via insulin resistance. A stabilized weight is one indicator but not the only one.


On Mar 29, 2011 Dr. Collins wrote:
             Hi Karen. I also have checked out those two apps on my Ipod. They seem to work well and are far better than paper and pencil. Of course, my favorite is DietPower. I recently bought a MacBook air laptop that is so very light and only 1/2 inch thick, (to help me with making videos) and loaded it with a program called Parallell that allowed me to load and use DietPower on the Mac--although DietPower is a windows based program. It seems to be working quite well. If there is a place I must go without my laptop, I jot that food down in a notepad I keep in my purse, and enter it into my computer as soon as I am around it.


On Mar 29, 2011 Dr. Collins wrote:
Dr Collins that is one of the questions I worry about the most. I am afraid I will eat too much and not lose weight and I am afraid I will eat too little and go into starvation mode and not lose any weight.


On Mar 29, 2011 Dr. Collins wrote:
             Patty, you aren't alone in that struggle. I agree with those experts who say that Starvation mode...as it is traditionally defined...is a dieting myth. I'll be writing more about that sometime in the future. Personally, I think the safest choice is to eat what I might think is too little. Remember, all calorie counts are estimates and labels frequently underestimate the calories in food. I'll also be writing a great deal about that in the future as well.


On Mar 30, 2011 Dr. Collins wrote:
I don't want to devote a lot of time to a diet. I just want an easy to lose weight and get in shape.


On Mar 30, 2011 Dr. Collins wrote:
             Josh, it's okay to WANT that. I can WANT to be a millionaire. I can WANT to be 6 ft or 20 years old. Some things just are NOT possible. For me, and most other people, it takes a lot of time and work to lose weight. Getting into shape takes even an extra amount of effort. To MAINTAIN a weight-loss or STAY in shape, takes a lifetime of effort. It's not easy, and it's not quick. Those who promise that to you are lying.

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