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.

My Behavior – my Effort – is my responsibility

A fundamental question is:
“What Behavior do I need to be Responsible for
to achieve weight-loss?”

 My Answer is, all General Behavior and all Specific Behavior.

General Behavior is controlling the food that one puts into one's mouth,
and the movement of one's body, i.e. Eat Less, Move More.

Specific Behavior depends on one's individual food plan.
meaning any personal behavior that causes less food to go into one's mouth.
One must make certain the food one eats contains less energy than one's body uses.

My eating behavior is always my responsibility.
I don't get a pass when my life becomes unusually busy or stressful.
I always choose my behavior....either consciously or unconsciously.

I Like that saying:

"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail".

because it is true that choosing NOT to choose, is in itself a choice.
We always CHOOSE what we do.  Overeating is a choice.
That behavior is optional...even for those of us who have binge eating tendencies. 

I've had to establish many Habits of Behavior that help me meet my goals,
and how I commonly deal with Leftover Food is a GIANT behavior issue.
Here's a recent video I made about this subject.

One of my Themes here at DietHobby is that  
we are each individuals and one eating plan doesn’t work for everyone.
There are many different ways-of-eating, food-plans, and diets,
to choose from that we can adapt and fit into our lives.

Some of these diets seem to work better than others,
but all of them work for someone.

Successful dieters vary greatly in their eating styles.
Some eat large meals, others eat small meals.
Some eat three meals, no snacks. Some eat six mini-meals.
Some eat only lunch and dinner. Some eat only dinner.
Some skip dinner. Some eat only snacks.

 Meal timing, meal frequency,
and the amounts and types of food eaten
are all variable factors within the many dieting choices.

When deciding how to Categorize my Recipe Sections,
I took this into consideration, and chose not to break them
into categories like Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Side dishes, Desserts.

For the present, I’ve decided to break them up into the following categories:

• Mini-Meals -  very simple or snack type recipes
  
• Mealtime  –  main dish or side dish recipes
  
• Sweet Tastes -  dessert type recipes

Here is my new cooking video, which belongs in the Mealtime category.

Have you ever had one of those days where you wake up feeling good,
but then someone steps on your plans and dreams for the day?

As I watched this recent video
which was created, produced and filmed by my son-the-web-genius,

I realized…for most of us.....

Some days are just like this.

                                    
Due to the information contained in Gary Taubes’
'Why We Get Fat And What To Do About It',
in January I began a low-carb eating experiment-of one.

I followed that plan through January, then went back to normal eating during a vacation week early in February.  Immediately after that vacation, I began low-carb eating again.On 3/20/11, Sunday,  I completed another 6 consecutive weeks.I'm calling my Plan VLC-2011 (for very-low-carb, year 2011).

My plan is to do my best to maintain the same eating Habits that I've previously established, including tracking all my food in my DietPower food journal, while working toward keeping my net carbs at, or less than, 30 per day, and my daily calorie average similar to my past year's amount.

This is not a plan I can recommend to anyone.  I don't even know how it will work in my own body.
I'd like to do this experiment for a 6 month period, but if my weight climbs...or there are other unforeseen side-effects, I will terminate it early.

Years ago, my DietPower journal became an enjoyable Habit for me, and it easily tracks my carbs, fats, proteins and calories etc. I also log in my daily scale weight and DietPower graphs it for me, which enables me see whether my weight is trending up or down over time.

So....
Thus far, I am still enjoying the novelty of eating this low-carb way. I'm not following a specific low-carb plan. like Atkins or Protein Power etc., I'm just working to restrict my carbohydrate intake, and trying to keep my protein and fat intake around the same number of grams.This results in my fat Ratio percentage being about twice my protein Ratio percentage, because protein is 4 calories a gram and fat is 9 calories a gram.

Allegedly, my minimum protein requirement is between 20 grams (WHO) and 36 grams (US RDA).  I usually take in between 50 and 100 grams.

I am aware of the Atkins "carb ladder", which puts foods in about 10 categories, but I am choosing not to follow it, rung by rung etc. The current Theory is that each of our bodies is different in the way it tolerates carbs, and that some people need more restrictions than others. I found it Interesting that Sugar and Refined Grains are NOT on the ladder at all... meaning they are off-limits to everyone, always.
Makes sense to me.

I have been avoiding sugar and refined starch, and I have also been mostly successful at avoiding complex carbs
including whole grains, dry cooked beans, and starchy veggies like corn, potatoes etc,  because these have a really high carb count....  AND I've found that eating a small amount of them causes me to crave much more of them, plus it seems to start up a craving in me for foods with sugar and refined starch as well.

I found that after the first week, my cravings for sugar and starchy foods were greatly reduced. Although they still exist, they are not as severe. Right now, they are sort of an occasional thought..."um, that would taste good"...
instead of an incessant yammer..."GET ME THAT". I still want the carby substance, but mostly I don't feel like I HAVE to have it. which is a change.

 My morning weight is mostly staying inside the 115 - 116 lb range. This is good.
It is also somewhat different, because on a "normal-balanced" diet, my morning weight bounces around a great deal from day to day, and my norm is to easily bounce within a 5 to 8 lb range during any one month.

I have many different measures of Success in this Low-Carb Experiment.  However, Failure would be an upward weight-trend,
and/or Hunger and Cravings greater than I experience while eating a "normal-balanced" diet.

So....in that I am not currently experiencing Failure...thus far, it is a Success.
My quote for today is:

"A person who never made a mistake
never tried anything new."
.........................              Albert Einstein