thistlechaser | Well that's quite the surprise... (weight)

On my last post,

elfy had the good suggestion to record my eating -- to use an app to count calories and track my intake. I knew I should be doing that (everyone underestimates the calories they eat), but I didn't want to... But I buckled down and decided to download an app (MyFitnessPal) and count my calories.

The app suggested 1,500 would be a better amount of calories per day than 1,200. I'm undecided on that, but the point was moot... My first day tracking, at the end of the day, I came in at barely 800 calories. o.O

I gleefully ate an extra protein bar (Quest Bars, SO GOOD!) and pondered things.

Eating too few calories can slow your weight loss down, so maybe that's been my issue these last couple months...

All in all, this is about the best "problem" one could have diet-wise.

Oddly, I find that I like tracking all the food I eat, it's interesting to see the exact numbers per meal, per day, etc.

It's also odd how different my head is now. When I realized I had 335 calories for breakfast (Quest bar, half an apple, sugarfree hot chocolate), I almost fainted thinking that was so many calories.

I hope this post doesn't come off as a humblebrag. I'm more surprised at this than anything else.

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Sounds like a good exercise for you. Mine would probably tell me I eat 5,000 calories per day.

5,000 calories a day would be a fun challenge! You could live on steaks and butter. :)

Good you were not overestimating like I did! That makes things easier :D
And don't worry about staying under the 1500, as long as you get your protein and all the nutritens you need, all should be fine. I am often at around 1200-1400 myself (and the lady who wrote this book I mentioned lost the most weight on half a year of 500 calories daily (under a doctors supervision!)).

Which app are you using now? - Ok, just saw I missed this in your post :)

Edited 2015-12-02 09:35 (UTC)

Yeah, after surgery I slowly went up from 300 calories a day to 1,200 over a year -- I spent more than half of that time under 500! It boggles me that people can live like that, but, well, here I am. :P (Doctor supervision too.)

I need to start counting protein as well -- I was just estimating that, and clearly I estimate poorly!

Thanks for suggesting this!

That's a great discovery! I sort of enjoy tracking things like that too...

Agreed. It's oddly satisfying to track it so closely.

I do like MyFitnessPal because it also gives nutrient info. Even if you are not trying to hit specific macro numbers, it is interesting to see the average macros at the end of the week, and take note of how you feel and how well your plan is working.

I do agree that not eating enough calories can cause weight loss to stall. I had a similar issue from restricting calories too low for too long.

If you increase calories, you will probably increase total carbs. This may cause your weight to go up a couple pounds of just water weight. Not a huge deal, just be aware of it. I have found that 200 calories of just carbs will cause my weight to go up 1 pound. If you are just adding fats and protein and keeping carb grams the same you probably won't get water weight gain.
Good luck.

Thanks for the thoughts! When I'm having a low calorie day, I've been eating an extra protein bar. 20 grams of protein, under 200 calories, and 4 carbs. While it's not "real food", it seems like the best option (plus they taste so good, I never mind eating one).

FUCK YEAH QUEST BARS. My favorites are the chocolate peanut butter and the chocolate brownie. The seasonal pumpkin one is also amaaaazing.

I had wondered about the calories and if a year of too many was slowing your metabolism down, but I know bariatric is whole different thing from standard metabolism, so I figure you would know better than me!

Seriously Quest bars. THE AWESOMEST.

I really, really want to try the chocolate peanut butter one! (Though the chocolate peanut butter cup one doesn't work for me... plus it's higher in calories than the others by a good bit.)

Have you tried making quest bar cookies yet? I'm afraid to, I love the bars as-is, I do not need a way to love them even more. WOMAN CANNOT LIVE ON QUEST BARS ALONE! Though it sure would be fun trying.

Lately I have to buy a case of single flavor ones instead of the mixed packages (Amazon = mixed, GNC = single flavor, I no longer have Amazon Prime and GNC's prices are better.) This last shipment I got cookie dough (my favorite chocolate flavor) and apple pie.

HOW IN THE WORLD CAN THESE TASTE SO GOOD AND NOT BE AWFUL FOR YOU?

I get cases of my favorites at netrition.com, they also have a mixed case where I think you get one of each flavor, I think. LOVE.

I haven't tried making the cookies because like you, I love them so much as they are. I don't like the higher cal ones either, same reason. I LOVE the white chocolate raspberry, but it is one of the highest calories ones, so I don't eat it often. Sometimes I get one if I completely miss a meal, because then the calories don't matter.

I do like to sometimes zap the cinnamon bun one in the microwave though, and the Smore one is the only one I don't like cold and I MUST microwave, because who likes cold smores? I don't get that one a lot either.

Quest's protein powder is pretty good too, maybe you could actually eat it without the allergic reaction since you can do the bars? I remember at first you could only have plain.

I didn't realize that white chocolate raspberry was one of the higher calorie ones! Eeek. I don't like that one much anyway (both because of the flavor and the raspberry seeds in it), but I always seem to get one or more in my mix box.

Next time I have a cinnamon bun, I'll try warming it up! Smore, too. I know I get both of those in my mix boxes, but I've thus far always eaten them cold.

Thanks for the reminder that they make protein powder! I haven't had a shake in forever, but if I go back to them, I'll check it out for sure. I really should look into it though, the calories aren't bad and I can always use more protein.

Holy cow, the cinnamon bun one is INSANE when you heat it up! I swear to god, it's like eating big mouthfuls of nothing but sugar. (Also, apparently they have walnuts in them, I never noticed that when I ate them cold).

The small downside to warming it up is that I eat it a whole lot faster... and that it stuck to the plate, so I lost a little.

But overall SO AMAZINGLY YUMMY

Well that's quite the surprise... (weight)

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