I found a link to The Daily Plate over at Wandering Coyote’s yesterday and then spent most of the morning setting it up and getting all obsessive about it (I love setting up new pages, blogs, websites,etc).
The Daily Plate is an online destination focused on all things food. Our mission is to help you eat smarter by allowing you to get quick and easy access to comprehensive nutritional information on the food that you eat. You can search for food items, view healthy alternatives and track what you eat on a daily basis.
Although I have avoided the “C-word” for years I’m beginning to realise and accept that, as I am now a woman of a certain age, in order to lose weight in a healthy way it isn’t going to be a spontaneous thing that just happens without a lot of work on my part. And so I am reacquainting myself with “Cals” and seeing what options are available to me.
The only thing I don’t understand is the amount of Cals burned per activity listed on the site – it seems very high to me. I thought the same thing about a similar online tool that daisyfae is using. Unless it is added to whatever one would be burning anyhow just from being alive. And for some reason one hour of pilates uses more Cals than an hour of yoga, which I don’t think is actually the case. But what the hell – it’s a fun guideline thingy that will help give me a better idea of what I eat and how that works with the amount of activity I do every day.
It even looks like it’s going to be fun! 🙂
casa azahar 
there are many online tools that can be used to calculate basal (or resting) metabolic rate – that’s how much you burn just keeping the body functioning. most places also allow you to add in your general ‘activity level’ for going about your daily business… and that’s where the guessing starts! and when you start adding “activity specific” calories burned? some of them are goofy…
for example, in the fitday program i use, it only provides 1cal/minute for sexual activity. walking at a reasonable pace is 3 cal/min. Screw that! i don’t know how those folks at fitday do their mating, but i sure as hell burn more than that! so, i use “hatha yoga”, which is listed at 3 cal/min, to account for sexual activity.
by doing this, i can also account for (ahem) how much ‘yoga’ i’m getting in my weekly schedule 😉
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“Guideline” is the key word. I don’ think TDP is 100% accurate at all, either. I do my best, but it’s hard at times to get the exercise thing right. I’ve just started paying attention to the numbers on the treadmill so I can be as accurate as I can.
I know from Weight Watchers that you could eat more if you were heavier; I think that if you’re heavier like me, you’re going to burn more calories with less exercise. When I put my weight in and it spit out my calorie allowance for the day, taking into consideration that I want to lose 2 lbs/week, it gave me what I thought was a ridiculously high number. But after pondering it for a while, it made sense to me.
At least I’m not on something so restrictive I can only eat 12 calories a day. That would kill me.
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Uh…I meant 1200 calories/day…
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I have lost about 10 pounds over the past 10 weeks simply by cutting out snacks and dessert. No more chocolate, no more ice cream, and when I get hungry, I suck it up ’til the next meal rolls around. It’s working, and I figure by the end summer the additional 10 I’m going for will be gone as well. All that without counting calories consumed or burned.
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Well, aren’t you annoying, ian? 😉
It used to be a lot easier for me to lose weight just by making a few changes like that. Usually it was a case of eating a bit less and doing a lot more. But I’m already going to the gym five days a week. And I don’t eat dessert (or sweets) at all.
I blame hormonal flux.
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Hormonal flux sucks. Bigtime.
And so do oral steroids.
I’m heavier now than I was at 42 weeks pregnant. It seems I just have to glance sideways at food for it to become stuck to my ever-increasing girth.
Having never been on a diet in my life, next week I’m starting an up day/down day eating plan which may have the added benefit of reducing some of my inflammatory problems.
For the first fortnight, on one day I’ll have about 20% of my normal calorie intake and on the next, I’ll eat as usual.
Increasing exercise is also in the plan – and the down day calories will be increased after the initial two weeks.
14lbs of me has gotta go!
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Guess I made it sound easy. It isn’t… but it’s worked, anyway.
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Well, you know what they say, ian – the last 10 pounds are usually the hardest to lose. I don’t know why this is, unless it’s because we tend to want to weigh less than our bodies want us to.
Teuchter, I dream of only having 14 pounds to lose. With any luck I’ll be in your predicament a year from now.
I just saw there are two types of yoga listed on TDP, daisy. The Hatha yoga burns about 250 Cals an hour, and what they just call Yoga burns about 550 (which seems more in keeping with the kind of ‘yoga’ that you’re referring to) *nudge nudge wink wink*.
Well, I’m back on the Bike and Elliptical next week, so that oughtta help. I’m very pleased with myself that I made it to yoga and pilates classes Mon-Fri last week – even though I was recovering from pneumonia. I think I’m better now, just a bit of ‘crackling’ in my chest. But I will get a chest x-ray done soon to make sure things are okay. Dr A also wants me to have blood tests and an ECG done as the ‘crackling’ might be something to do with my heart.
It’s always something!
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Losing 14 lbs would take me back to where I was last November – but I’d be happier to lose another 10 on top of that to reach my ‘fighting weight’ again.
You’ve done well to carry on with the exercise despite feeling so unwell. I’m afraid I just give up and mooch about at home.
No ‘yoga’ for me for the next few months either. J ‘s off to China for the near foreseeable.
Hope the medics get to the root of your crackle – and that you feel much better very soon :hug:
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Will power, or the lack thereof – it all comes down to that, doesn’t it? Which is a great pity, because I have almost none and as I get older I’m going to need it more and more in order to stay anywhere near the weight I’d like to attain/remain.
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the daily plate is very responsible with setting the calorie guidlines. most people think they need to do a 1200 calorie a day diet to lose weight- but this depending on your weight, and the exercise you are doing is not actually the best idea! if you are doing vigorous exercise on 1200 a day- this can be dangerous as you will burn lean muscle. 1200 a day is better for lethargic people. daily plate takes in to account physical activity and weight before giving a caloric daily rate to lose weight. i think that its listening to hollywood celebrities like mariah carey that eat 1000-1200 a day that makes us think its normal! if you eat 1700 calories, and then run for 45 minutes youve only ate 1200. if you are exercising you have to eat a little bit more!
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Hi abby and welcome to casa az.
I kind of let the Plate slide last week while I was out debauching with ‘the ladies’ for four days running (didn’t seem much point).
Back on it this week, though it’s mostly been stuff like ham sandwiches and plain rice with eggs. 🙂
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